We are delighted to announce that Jeni Tennison will give the Significance Lecture during RSS 2022 Conference taking place in Aberdeen this September.
Jeni is the founder and executive director of Connected by data, an initiative that aims to put community at the heart of data narratives, practices and policies. Through that initiative, she challenges the language of data ownership and questions the role of individual consent, arguing that when data is processed in aggregate, it should be governed collectively. She undertakes this work as a Shuttleworth Foundation Fellow and an associated researcher at the Bennett Institute for Public Policy, examining the practice and public policy behind data governance.
Jeni is also the co-chair of the Data Governance Working Group at the Global Partnership on AI, which is carrying out applied research to explore data trusts, data justice and technologies that enhance privacy, justice or rights.
Jeni was CEO at the Open Data Institute, where she held leadership roles for nine years and worked with companies and governments to build an open, trustworthy data ecosystem. Before joining ODI, Jeni worked as an independent consultant, specialising in open data publishing and consumption. She was the technical architect and lead developer behind legislation.gov.uk and worked on the initial development of data.gov.uk.
She sits on the Boards of Creative Commons, the Global Partnership for Sustainable Development Data and the Information Law and Policy Centre. She has a PhD in AI and an OBE for services to technology and open data. She loves Lego and board games and is the proud co-creator of the open data board game, Datopolis.