What Was Personal Democracy Forum?

A brief history of PdF.

A Brief History of PdF

Personal Democracy Forum was an annual conference on the intersection of technology and politics that ran from 2004 to 2019 in New York City. Founded and curated by Andrew Rasiej and Micah L. Sifry, it was a premier event for political leaders, activists and operatives; technologists, journalists and futurists and anyone else looking for strategic understanding and market opportunities in the evolving world of technology-driven politics. It featured an energizing cross-section of keynote speakers, brief high-impact presentations, single-topic workshops and issue-driven panels. Sponsors included Microsoft, Google, Facebook, The Economist, Harvard's Shorenstein Center.

PdF, as it came to be known, injected many seminal ideas into the public conversation, including the concepts of "open source politics," "net neutrality," the "filter bubble," "new power vs old power," and "civic tech." Attendees came not just from the United States but all over the world, spawning spin-off PDF conferences with local partners in Poland, France, Spain and Chile. By 2015, the PDF community had grown so big it fostered the creation of Civic Hall--New York City's home for civic tech--as a place for the PDF conversation to happen year-round.

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