Boston

In 2008 a group of people from industry, government, academia, and the community sectors came together to create the first Brave Conversations (then called the Meta conference) to create a forum for people to discuss and debate the emerging issues related to humans and their use of digital technologies.

At about the same time a group of luminaries from the Web world were creating Web Science in order to focus interdisciplinary research on precisely the same thing.

Since that time the world has changed and conferences such as WebSci19 enable us to sit back and as ourselves

• How often do we find the time to step back, to engage in robust and challenging dialogue and debate with others from diverse backgrounds about what sort of future we want to create?

• How often do we feel that our opinions are respected, that we have the space to imagine real possibilities, and that we can take some proactive control of the world that is emerging?

The goal of Brave Conversations is to challenge everyone who participates - regardless of what background they come from, or what their skillset and expertise are - to more fully explore and understand the interplay between humans, the societies we live in, and the technologies we have created.

By bringing together academic researchers, practitioners from government, business and the third sector, we want to explore how each and every one of us is a part of the Social Machine and the interconnecting systems which comprise it.

The best way to learn is through experience and the act of playing with ideas.

We have deliberately chosen to integrate Brave Conversations in to the 2019 Web Science Conference at Boston in order to enable teams of diverse participants to critically examine our current societies through the lens of systems, communications, governance and technology.

Brave Conversations will complement the formal programme of and present the diversity and potential of Web Science to addressing the challenges and opportunities which face contemporary society.