Citadel 2027 · April 13–15 · Vancouver
Citadel 2027
Frothly’s annual conference on machine accountability. Three days of research, policy and argument on the Vancouver waterfront.
Four tracks, one room
The Citadel is where the people who build autonomous systems, the people who regulate them and the people who live with them meet on equal terms. Every session is recorded and published in full afterwards.
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Track
Frontier evaluation. What Blackwall and its peers have learned from testing frontier systems before deployment, and what they still cannot measure.
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Track
Registry governance. New for 2027. How licensing regimes for autonomous systems should work as they spread across jurisdictions, and who should run them.
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Track
Digital preservation. Rescuing software, archives and digital lives, and deciding what is worth keeping in the first place.
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Track
Community networks. Building, governing and sustaining networks owned by the people who use them, from the rooftop up.
Program
A draft program. Times are Pacific. Additional sessions will be announced in January.
Tuesday, April 13
- 09:30 Opening address: asking before it is too late Dr. Susan Calvin Plenary
- 11:00 Ethical constraints in practice Dr. Janice Polito, Dr. Marie Delacroix Frontier evaluation
- 11:00 One registry, forty-one jurisdictions Elijah Baley, Heinrix van Calox Registry governance
- 14:00 Courtesy, authority and the obedient machine Dr. Brigid Tenenbaum Frontier evaluation
- 16:00 Bringing things back: a decade of restoration Miranda Lawson, J. R. Isidore Digital preservation
- 18:30 Welcome reception All attendees Social
Wednesday, April 14
- 09:30 Calibration, drift and the maintenance nobody sees Dr. Pasqal Haneumann, Dr. Karin Chakwas Plenary
- 11:00 Workshop: build a mesh node J. Bone and LoTek stewards Community networks
- 11:00 The blur: privacy in public Alizebeth Bequin, Robert Arctor Special session
- 14:00 Information archaeology: what the past leaves behind Dr. Liara T’Soni Digital preservation
- 16:00 Provenance in practice Judy Alvarez, Dr. Phil Resch Special session
Thursday, April 15
- 09:30 Filings from the systems themselves: the LEGION case Elijah Baley, Dr. Liara T’Soni Registry governance
- 11:00 A private language at fifteen Gideon Ravenor Special session
- 14:00 Closing plenary: the year ahead Gregor Eisenhorn Plenary
- 19:00 Closing reception, with a performance by Kerry Eurodyne All attendees Social
Speakers
- Dr. Susan CalvinChief Scientist, Frothly
- Elijah BaleyLead, Turing Registry
- Dr. Liara T’SoniInformation archaeologist
- Dr. Karin ChakwasPhysician and medical systems specialist
- Dr. Marie DelacroixSystems engineer and Frothly director
- Gideon RavenorLead, Glossia
- Judy AlvarezLead, Immersive Media
- J. BoneLead, LoTek
Attending
Citadel 2027 takes place from April 13 to 15, 2027, on the Vancouver waterfront. Registration opens in January.
- Attendance is free for students, researchers at not-for-profit institutions and members of community network cooperatives.
- The venue is step-free throughout. Every session has live captions, and a quiet room is open all day.
- All attendees agree to our code of conduct. Disagreement is welcome; contempt is not.
- Questions about the conference can go to press@frothly.org.
Past Citadels
2021
Who answers for the machine?. The first Citadel, with 300 attendees.
2022
Licensing the unlicensable. The year the Registry passed 5,000 licensed systems.
2023
Memory and its keepers. Lazarus marked its thirtieth year.
2024
Constraints. Blackwall published its first incident archive.
2025
The commons. Community networks took a track of their own.
2026
Decisions already being made. 1,200 attendees from 44 countries.