Alek Tarkowski is the co-founder and director of Centrum Cyfrowe Projekt Polska, a think-and-do-tank that builds tools and methodologies for using digital technologies to increase openness and civic engagement. He’s also the Public Lead of Creative Commons Poland, and a member of both the Council of Information, that advises the Polish Ministry of Administration and Digital affairs, and the Administrative Council of Communia, an international association supporting the digital public domain.

From 2007-2011, he was on the Board of Strategic Advisors to the Prime Minister of Poland, responsible for matters related to the development of digital society. He co-authored the strategic report “Poland 2030″; the “Digital Poland” chapter of the Polish Long Term Strategy for Growth; the “Roadmap for Open Government in Poland”, published by Centrum Cyfrowe in 2011; and the study “Circulations of Culture”, a survey of informal media practices in Poland. He’s co-creator of the “Culture 2.0″ project, that maps cultural changes caused by digital technologies.

Alek has a PhD in Sociology from the Polish Academy of Science and an MA in Sociology from the University of Warsaw. For over a decade he has been involved in studying and building a digital society in Poland – initially as a scholar, and now as an activist as well. His interests concern social and cultural aspects of the ongoing digital transition, with a particular focus on issues related to intellectual property and open models for production and distribution of knowledge.