2026-06-14 –, Hauptbühne (Saal 1)
This panel brings together strategists and builders working on decentralized governance from different angles.
Caroline Paulick-Thiel, of Politics for Tomorrow, designs participatory processes that help public institutions navigate complex transformation, bringing a governance design lens to decentralization.
Rose Regina Lawrence, of OpenArchive, trains frontline human rights defenders, bringing real-world experience on decentralization's role in securely archiving and verifying evidence for accountability.
Sebastian Vogelsang, cofounder of Eurosky and creator of the Flashes app, builds decentralized social infrastructure on the AT Protocol, arguing Europe can reduce its dependence on Big Tech platforms through open protocols and distributed identity.
Barış Paksoy brings an investigative journalism perspective from Correctiv, grounding the conversation in accountability and what decentralized systems mean for transparency in practice.
Moderated by Will Scott of Protocol Labs, who brings a builder's perspective on decentralized infrastructure at scale, the panel will discuss what decentralized governance actually requires: not just new protocols, but new institutions, security practices, and accountability mechanisms that can hold up under real political and legal pressure.
Panelists: Sebastian Vogelsang, Caroline Paulick-Thiel, Rose Regina Lawrence, Bariş Paksoy
Moderator: Will Scott
With over 18 years in IT and a focus on open protocols, he helps organizations navigate decentralization and digital transformation. His current work centers on the AT Protocol (ATProto), building user-centric social apps and infrastructure around the shared Bluesky graph.
He leads Flashes, the photo and video app often called "the Instagram for the open social web," and co-develops Eurosky Social, a European initiative advancing digital sovereignty and public-interest infrastructure for ATProto.
Over the past 15+ years, he has contributed to more than 50 published apps, including award-winning titles featured by Apple and downloaded by millions.
As a full-stack engineer, he designs and builds native iOS and backend systems, with recent products like Flashes and Skeets for Bluesky showing how open protocols can power next-generation social experiences.
Accessibility is integral to his work — he develops inclusive, human-centered apps that work for everyone, combining strong technical execution with thoughtful UX and accessibility standards.
Caroline Paulick-Thiel is a strategic designer with experience in developing and leading participatory processes to address public challenges. Since 2015, she has been the director of politicsfortomorrow.eu , a non-partisan initiative that promotes public change and collaborates with political and administrative institutions from the local to the highest federal level in Germany.
Since July 2025, Barış has been working in technical support for the CORRECTIV.Exile section and leads the Karakutu project. He studied Mathematics and Philosophy before continuing his education at the Ostkreuzschule für Fotografie.
For several years he worked as a freelance photographer, documenting social and political events such as the refugee crisis on Lesbos and the Catalan independence referendum. He later joined Brazil Carbon, where he contributed to the development of a blockchain-based protocol for carbon credit offsetting.
Karakutu, which he has been developing since 2024, is a censorship-resistant platform for preserving and providing access to censored news in Turkey.
Rose Regina is the Digital Security Manager at OpenArchive.
For over a decade, she has trained lawyers, open source developers, journalists and human rights defenders in best practices and skill-building to protect their work and the digital tools they depend on. She has a dedicated history with secure FOSS, having worked for the Software Freedom Law Center, Mozilla, and Tactical Tech.
Based in Berlin, she consults on security, threat modeling and strategic analysis.
I'm focused on making the web better - by building technical systems to make progress on the interwoven access, privacy, cultural, and security problems that exist today.
I've worked as a software engineer at Google on Gmail, Google+, and google ideas. I completed grad school at the University of Washington in 2016, with projects measuring and addressing online censorship. I've worked and studied in China, and have taught computer science in North Korea.