Daniel MacKisack

WORK HISTORY

EDUCATION

SKILLS

ABOUT DANIEL MACKISACK

Based in Berlin, I spend my time building, supporting and generally bringing people together around collaborative, innovative, international initiatives and institutions that address complex global challenges, at the intersection of democracy and technology, by empowering citizens.I believe sharing is the foundation of a peaceful and sustainable world. Information, culture, opinions, resources, infrastructure, physical space, power and decision-making - every inch of progress and every epochal change in history, from the formation of the first social groups to story telling, democracy and the internet, has ultimately consisted of improvements in our capacity to share. Our future depends on improving it further - freely, equitably and transparently.I also believe in working backwards towards better as a strategic methodology. That means having big, beautiful and often absurd goals for the future, and asking \"What would that require?\" What institutions, laws, norms, practices, technologies and so forth? These new goals don\'t need to be immediately achievable. They just need to be a practical, reasonable step backwards. Do the same enough times and eventually you will arrive at the present. Then you have what you need to do first as well as a roadmap to the sometimes seemingly impossible - whether it\'s reversing climate change, addressing disinformation, ending a conflict, creating an equitable economy, innovating new forms of democratic governance or exploring the stars. My goal has always been to identify those steps and to help in whatever way I can towards advancing them. However, something I realised very early on was that in virtually every case, solutions begin with citizens and empowering ordinary people everywhere to get involved. A huge chunk of that is about social, economic and political practice. But technology can be a big help.