Team
Presentation of the team
Board
Thomas Gramstad
Founding member of EFN (1995), president for many rounds/years, currently board member (2024). Works at the Science Library, University of Oslo. Is also a freelance writer, translator and amateur musician, and part time secretary for NUUG. He was one of the founders and board member of FriBit (2008-2015) and was a member of the working group for Creative Commons in Norway from 2003-04 to 2013.
He is active in and has been a board member in several NGOs, such as FSCONS, NUUG, ISOC Norway, the Pirate Party (President from 2017-2019). Plays a bit of chess and tafl, didgeridoo and drums.
The growth of the Internet and its potential for freedom, sharing and spreading of knowledge and culture, and cooperation independent of time and place awoke his interest in digital rights. As established forces increasingly utilizes the Internet to limit and restrict freedoms and rights, digital rights are more important than ever. He is also engaged with exponential technologies, core growth areas of knowledge and technology, and areas where the freedom values are strong by being new and radical.
Contact information
Phone: +47 481 76 875
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Vice president and press contact - Bjørn Remseth
Bjørn Remseth is employed developing software for a large international company. He is educated as Cand. Scient. in Informatics at the University of Oslo. Is married, has four children, plays percussion instruments as well as (just a littlle) piano and guitar: He loves outdoor pursuits. Has been in the EFN since the start and has been a board member most of this time.
The Internet and delegation of large and small tasks to computers represent a major change in the basis on which societiety is built. It also means that many of the ideas and values we take for granted are challenged and interpreted into this new reality. Some such questions are: What is freedom of speech? What rights does an author necessarily have to give up for others to get involved in their production? What is humanity? Where are its boundaries? What fundamental rights should humans have? How will the balance between individual and community interests be both preserved and developed? Where are the limits of the inviolability of individuals? How far does the right to keep secret about oneself extend? Who "owns" information about individuals, and what does such "ownership" mean in different contexts? To what extent should individuals be entitled to information about themselves and their surroundings? What is ownership more generally? etc.
These questions are constantly showing up, but sometimes we may, and must, generalize to find principles that are applicable for some extended period of time What should these principles be? Who decides them?
My motivation for joining the EFN is to be able to participate in debate about these questions, and hopefully, both contribute as an individual and help others to contribute to ensure that we find good answers.
Contact information
Phone/Signal/Telegram: +47 479 00 184
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PGP: 6DA7 7B55 D7DA FF3F 48A9 8BF0 6636 12C0 B4C2 065F
Executive director and board member - Tom Fredrik Blenning
Tom Fredrik Blenning is primarily an investor and consultant, but also works as the managing director of EFN. He is educated as M. Sc. in Mathematics from the University of Oslo. In his spare time, in addition to heading EFN, he does cycling, swimming and floor ball.
Tom Fredrik has always been interested in technology, but his interest for digital rights first really awoke when Jon Johansen was put on trial for developing DeCSS. He has been a member of EFN since the early 2000’s, and a board member since 2005. He is particularly concerned with the deterioration of human rights in the digital domain, seeing it as his mission to explain why digital rights is not a new thing, only human rights applied to a new domain.
Contact information
Phone/Signal/Telegram: +47 996 24 544
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PGP: 50F8 7B20 75C4 6D9E 7765 8ADE 0D5A EF1A 769B 5F11
Board member and Chief Privacy Officer - Øyvind Hanssen
Øyvind Hanssen works as an associate professor in computer science at UiT - The Arctic University of Norway, located in Mo Rana. He has earlier been at Agder University College, University of Oslo, Simula Research Lab, Nesna University College and the business school of Nord University. Teaching subjects include software engineering, cyber-security and (not least) digital ethics and society issues (with a human rights perspective). He has also worked some years as a subject librarian in science and technology at the University Library. He has a Ph.D. in computer science.
He has a strong interest in political issues, human rights (like privacy), digital rights, digital ethics, open systems and free software. He is concerned about how digitalisation affects our freedom. He has been a faithful Linux user since the Debian project was founded. He was a co-founder of Agder Linux Unix group, DISCO Open Source Foundation and lately: Rana Makerspace.
He is a HAM-radio operator and a board member of NRRL (Norwegian Radio Relay League). In the context of amateur radio and voluntary search an rescue he is involved in development of hardware and GIS software for position tracking, some of this have been used in search and rescue operations in Norway.
Contact information
Phone/Signal/Viber: +47 951 17 457
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Callsign: LA7ECA
PGP: 3E61 003E 2463 2585 EB3D FE3D 89E7 229C FFD5 9B2F
Board member - Michael Puntschuh
Michael is a social scientists working for strong human rights in the digital age. As a freelancer, he writes studies, holds talks and workshops on technology governance with a focus on AI (AI Act), digital and AI ethics, public innovation and algorithmic discrimination.
Michael has been a member and board member of EFN since 2022. Besides that, he is a member of the Norwegian Council on Digital Ethics (NORDE) and the AI Ethics Impact Group. In 2022 he also co-founded the Beyond AI Collective, a non-profit committed to reducing discriminatory effects of AI systems. Michael studied International Relations in Dresden and World Society and Global Governance in Lucerne.
Contact information
Signal, Threema, Telegram: +49 170 3239 599
Phone: +47 925 64 909
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Further presentations pending…
Staff
Public hearing and information editor - Arve Kirkevik
Arve Kirkevik is chairman of the board of the organization
Informasjonssenteret Hieronimus. Since 1997, he has written lots of
letters to the editor and feature articles. Freedom of speech is a
matter close to his heart, and this was the reason why he joined EFN.
Among other things, he has written a feature article in the newspaper
Bergens Tidende about the penal code, where he argued against the
proposal that will make it easier to close web pages with illegal
content.
In his opinion, freedom of speech is more important than proprietary
rights, so in accordance with that, he thinks that providers of
digital infrastructure, such as Facebook and Twitter, should not be
allowed to throw out users who make controversial remarks.
Contact information
Phone: +47 56 39 54 17