February 18, 2015 3.41 pm This story is over 108 months old

Wikileaks founder Julian Assange set to speak at Lincoln conference

Assange video conference: Controversial Wikileaks founder Julian Assange will speak via video link at a University of Lincoln conference.

Controversial Wikileaks founder Julian Assange has been invited to speak by the organisers of this year’s British Human Computer Interaction Conference, held in Lincoln.

The previous editor-in-chief of the website Wikileaks, which Assange co-founded in 2006 after an earlier career in hacking and programming, will appear by video link on July 17.

The British Human Computer Interaction Conference will take place from July 13-17 on the University of Lincoln’s Brayford Campus.

The event has been organised by the University of Lincoln’s Social Computing research centre in conjunction with the BCS Interaction Specialist Group.

Professor Shaun Lawson, Director of Lincoln’s Social Computing research centre, said: “The conference has invited Julian Assange to speak to delegates as he has a range of views, experiences and knowledge relevant to the conference themes of digital civics, online democracy and citizens’ relationships with authority and government.

“This conference will set the agenda in the UK and internationally around the design of future interactive digital systems.”

The conference will focus on our evolving digital society and is inspired by the 800th anniversary of the sealing of the Magna Carta in 1215.

Professor Lawson added: “The overarching conference theme reflects the increasing public consciousness of how interactive technologies fundamentally affect our privacy, rights, and relationships with authority, government and commerce.”

The university organisers say that at this stage it has not been decided whether tickets will be made available for members of the general public. This will be decided nearer the time.

Researchers wanting to be involved or submit papers can find more information on the conference website.