New America Foundation Launches Open Technology Institute

New America Foundation Launches Open Technology Institute Access and Liberty Crucial to Future of the Internet, our New Public Square
Washington D.C. – The New America Foundation today announced the launch of its Open Technology Institute [OTI], whose mission is to convene the nation’s best thinking about Internet freedom and open technology.

Building on New America’s work in this field, OTI will serve as a hub of impartial research, open discourse, innovative fieldwork, and new tech development.

OTI is lead by Sascha Meinrath, who will become a New America vice president. Meinrath – described as a “longtime champion of the free Internet” by Le Monde – is a well-known expert on community wireless networks, municipal broadband, and telecommunications policy.

“OTI believes that everyone has the right to receive and impart information and ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers,” Meinrath said. “In the 21st Century, this universal human right must extend to the Internet and include access to open technologies and platforms.”

The need to think across borders and disciplines to defend the free and open public square has never been greater. Much like economics, OTI will inform and advance work throughout the public policy sphere, including national security, education, diplomacy, and economic competiveness.

Steve Coll, president of the New America Foundation, said OTI represents New America’s goal as an organization to invest in creative, independent thinkers and policy analysts addressing the world’s most pressing issues.

“The Internet is the world’s public square, where we must continue to defend liberty and access,” Coll said. “As we’ve seen in the Arab Spring, we have compelling reasons to understand and advance the essential role the Internet plays in politics and society throughout the world.”

To learn more about OTI, click here.