Denis Simonet a.k.a. "SciFi" (b. Biel/Bienne, May 21, 1985) from

Ipsach Ipsach is a municipality in the Biel/Bienne administrative district in the canton of Bern in Switzerland. History Ipsach is first mentioned around 1265-66 as ''Ipzacho''. The area around Ipsach was often settled during the neolithic, Bronze Ag ...

is a

Swiss Swiss may refer to: * the adjectival form of Switzerland * Swiss people Places * Swiss, Missouri * Swiss, North Carolina *Swiss, West Virginia * Swiss, Wisconsin Other uses *Swiss-system tournament, in various games and sports *Swiss Internation ...

politician, and was the first president of the

Pirate Party Switzerland The Pirate Party Switzerland (german: Piratenpartei Schweiz, french: Parti Pirate Suisse, it, Partito Pirata Svizzera, rm, Partida da Pirats Svizra) is a political party in Switzerland, based on the model of the Swedish Pirate Party. The party w ...

(PPS). In April 2012 he was elected as a board member of

Pirate Parties International Pirate Parties International (PPI) is an Political international, international non-profit and non-governmental organization with headquarters in Brussels, Belgium. Formed in 2010, it serves as a worldwide organization for Pirate Party, Pir ...

. He also is the chairman of the court of arbitration of PPS and the spokesman of his party.

Functions at the pirates

At the foundation of Pirate Party Switzerland in Zurich, Simonet was elected the first chairman. In March 2012 at the Assembly in Visperterminen he didn't run for this function again. Instead he became the chairman of the new court of arbitration. The board also elected him spokesman. From 15 April 2012 till 13 April 2014 he also was a member of the board of the

Biography

Simonet, a founding member of his party, studied Computer Science at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Zurich and switched to the

Bern University of Applied Sciences The Bern University of Applied Sciences (BUAS, German: ''Berner Fachhochschule BFH'', French: ''Haute école spécialisée bernoise HESB'') is a public vocational university with a strong national and international profile. It comprises six depa ...

. He is also a founding member of the Swiss Privacy Foundation. One of his hobbies is playing the piano. He released his two compositions on last.fm and composed the jingle for the independent podcast parrot.fm. His composition «Move on» was rearranged and produced by MG Rizzello, the song is available for free on

Bandcamp Bandcamp is an American online audio distribution platform founded in 2007 by Oddpost co-founder Ethan Diamond and programmers Shawn Grunberger, Joe Holt and Neal Tucker, with headquarters in Oakland, California, US. On March 2, 2022, Bandcamp ...

. He also acts as a reporter for parrot.fm and he is a member of the Swiss association of specialized journalists.

Politics

Simonet participated in the cantonal elections of

Bern german: Berner(in)french: Bernois(e) it, bernese , neighboring_municipalities = Bremgarten bei Bern, Frauenkappelen, Ittigen, Kirchlindach, Köniz, Mühleberg, Muri bei Bern, Neuenegg, Ostermundigen, Wohlen bei Bern, Zollikofen , website ...

2010 on first position on the list "PIRATEN" in district Biel-Seeland and got 726 votes, which wasn't enough to gain a seat. At those elections Pirate Party Switzerland got 0.7% of all votes. At the national elections 2011 he was on list place 3 and got 4904 votes. Again Pirate Party Switzerland got 0.7% of all votes in the canton of Bern. Simonet owns a lobbyist passport for the federal parliament building which he got from Lukas Reimann, a national council of the political party "SVP". From December 13, 2010 to December 24, 2010 Simonet wrote about digital policy for the well known newspaper ''

Neue Zürcher Zeitung The ''Neue Zürcher Zeitung'' (''NZZ''; "New Journal of Zürich") is a Swiss, German-language daily newspaper, published by NZZ Mediengruppe in Zürich. The paper was founded in 1780. It was described as having a reputation as a high-quality ne ...

'' and for the IT Magazine ''Netzwoche'' he was interviewed as an expert on surveillance and privacy. In his own blog he often writes about digital policy, some posts were already overtaken by the students portal students.ch and the newspaper ''

Tages-Anzeiger ''Tages-Anzeiger'' (), also abbreviated ''Tagi'' or ''TA'', is a Swiss German-language national daily newspaper published in Zurich, Switzerland. History and profile The paper was first published under the name ''Tages-Anzeiger für Stadt und K ...

''. He is a member of the committee for more transparency in politics and fought against the reintroduction of fixed book prizes as a member of the committee against expensive books. Because of his nearness to music Simonet advocates a liberal copyright law which allows the free exchange of culture. Therefore, the Swiss rapper Gimma attacked him in an open letter. Simonet answered in a blog post with the title «Das Internet ist kein Nazi-Regime» (the internet is not a nazi regime).

Others

Simonet is the contact person of the domain name wikileaks.ch on which the wikileaks website has been transferred on December 3, 2010. The domain and redirection have been set up by Pirate Party Switzerland due to a board decision on June 8, 2010. At the founding assembly of Pirate Parties International he represented PPS as a delegate, together with Pascal Gloor.Minutes
Board decision to send delegates to the conference.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Simonet, Denis 1985 births Living people People from Biel/Bienne Pirate Party Switzerland politicians