Smári McCarthy (; born 7 February 1984) is an Icelandic-Irish politician, innovator and information activist known for his work relating to direct democracy, transparency and privacy.

Early life

McCarthy was born in

Reykjavík Reykjavík ( ; ) is the capital and largest city of Iceland. It is located in southwestern Iceland, on the southern shore of Faxaflói bay. Its latitude is 64°08' N, making it the world's northernmost capital of a sovereign state. With a po ...

Iceland Iceland ( is, Ísland; ) is a Nordic island country in the North Atlantic Ocean and in the Arctic Ocean. Iceland is the most sparsely populated country in Europe. Iceland's capital and largest city is Reykjavík, which (along with its s ...

, the son of Kolbrún Óskarsdóttir and Eugene McCarthy. His mother is Icelandic while his father is Irish. At age one, his family moved to England. At age 9, they returned to Iceland, settling in

Vestmannaeyjar Vestmannaeyjar (, sometimes anglicized as Westman Islands) is a municipality and archipelago off the south coast of Iceland. The largest island, Heimaey, has a population of 4,414, most of whom live in the archipelago's main town, Vestmannaeyj ...

, a town and

archipelago An archipelago ( ), sometimes called an island group or island chain, is a chain, cluster, or collection of islands, or sometimes a sea containing a small number of scattered islands. Examples of archipelagos include: the Indonesian Arc ...

off the south coast. He studied mathematics at the University of Iceland, but left to get involved with the digital fabrication movement.

Career

McCarthy got involved in the digital fabrication movement in 2007 and was involved in the creation of the first Icelandic

fab lab A fab lab (''fabrication laboratory'') is a small-scale workshop offering (personal) digital fabrication. A fab lab is typically equipped with an array of flexible computer-controlled tools that cover several different length scales and vari ...

. He has worked with Fab Labs elsewhere, including

Jalalabad Jalalabad (; Dari/ ps, جلال‌آباد, ) is the fifth-largest city of Afghanistan. It has a population of about 356,274, and serves as the capital of Nangarhar Province in the eastern part of the country, about from the capital Kabul. Jala ...

Afghanistan Afghanistan, officially the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan,; prs, امارت اسلامی افغانستان is a landlocked country located at the crossroads of Central Asia and South Asia. Referred to as the Heart of Asia, it is bordere ...

. The same year, McCarthy proposed the Shadow Parliament Project, a project intending to "

crowdsource Crowdsourcing involves a large group of dispersed participants contributing or producing goods or services—including ideas, votes, micro-tasks, and finances—for payment or as volunteers. Contemporary crowdsourcing often involves digita ...

democracy". In an essay outlining the project, he described what is now known as Liquid Democracy. The project launched Skuggaþing (Icelandic for "shadow parliament") in early 2010. In 2012, he started the wasa2il software project in order to address shortcomings with existing implementations of Liquid Democracy. In 2008, he co-founded of the Icelandic Digital Freedom Society (FSFÍ), a free software, privacy and digital rights organization in Iceland. In 2009, he organized the Icelandic Modern Media Initiative along with various other media freedom and free speech activists, including Birgitta Jónsdóttir, Julian Assange and Rop Gonggrijp. In 2011 the International Modern Media Institute (IMMI) was formed around the initiative, with McCarthy serving as executive director. In 2013, McCarthy he left that role, but he still serves as a board member of IMMI. In 2012, he co-founded the Icelandic Pirate Party, along with Birgitta Jónsdóttir,

Helgi Hrafn Gunnarsson Helgi Hrafn Gunnarsson (born 22 October 1980) is an Icelandic former member of parliament In modern politics, and history, a parliament is a legislative body of government. Generally, a modern parliament has three functions: represent ...

, and various others. He stood as their lead candidate in Iceland's

South Constituency South ( is, Suður) is one of the six multi-member constituencies of the Althing, the national legislature of Iceland. The constituency was established as Southern ( is, Suðurland) in 1959 following the nationwide extension of proportional repr ...

in the 2013 parliamentary elections, but he did not win a seat. In the summer of 2013, McCarthy co-founded the

free software Free software or libre software is computer software distributed under terms that allow users to run the software for any purpose as well as to study, change, and distribute it and any adapted versions. Free software is a matter of liberty, no ...

project

Mailpile Mailpile is a free and open-source email client with the main focus of privacy and usability. It is a webmail client, albeit one run from the user's computer, as a downloaded program launched as a local website. Features In the default setup o ...

along with Bjarni Rúnar Einarsson and Brennan Novak. The team successfully

crowdfunded Crowdfunding is the practice of funding a project or venture by raising money from a large number of people, typically via the internet. Crowdfunding is a form of crowdsourcing and alternative finance. In 2015, over was raised worldwide by crow ...

$163,192. McCarthy's role in the company is privacy and security. In 2014, McCarthy joined the editorial board of Scottish pro-independence newspaper ''

Bella Caledonia ''Bella Caledonia'' is an online magazine publishing social, political and cultural commentary. It was launched in 2007 and came to particular prominence during the campaign period of the Scottish independence referendum that was held in 2014. T ...

''. McCarthy left Mailpile to become the chief technologist of the

Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project The Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP) is a global network of investigative journalists with staff on six continents. It was founded in 2006 and specializes in organized crime and corruption. It publishes its stories through ...

, where he has helped design and code the Investigative Dashboard project. In 2016, McCarthy was elected as a Pirate Party member of the

Althing The Alþingi (''general meeting'' in Icelandic, , anglicised as ' or ') is the supreme national parliament of Iceland. It is one of the oldest surviving parliaments in the world. The Althing was founded in 930 at (" thing fields" or "assemb ...

Public speaking and activism

McCarthy has spoken at numerous conferences such as Oekonux, FSCONS, Internet at Liberty and SHARE as well as having lectured at various universities and summer schools. Common themes include direct or electronic democracy, press freedoms, a critique of industrialization as a centralizing force and the culture of the Internet. More recently he has spoken about privacy in the context of state surveillance.Where States Go To Die
C4ss.org (12 October 2013). Retrieved on 2016-02-04. In 2012,

WikiLeaks WikiLeaks () is an international non-profit organisation that published news leaks and classified media provided by anonymous sources. Julian Assange, an Australian Internet activist, is generally described as its founder and director and ...

has alleged that McCarthy was approached by agents of the

FBI The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is the domestic intelligence and security service of the United States and its principal federal law enforcement agency. Operating under the jurisdiction of the United States Department of Justice, t ...

Washington, D.C. ) , image_skyline = , image_caption = Clockwise from top left: the Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial on the National Mall, United States Capitol, Logan Circle, Jefferson Memorial, White House, Adams Morgan, ...

In 2013, it was reported that in October 2011 Google was served with a search warrant for the content of McCarthy's emails over his work with WikiLeaks. McCarthy has made appearances in '' We Steal Secrets: The Story of WikiLeaks'', SVT's documentary ''Wikirebels'' and VPRO's ''de Wikileaks Code'' as well as numerous television interviews. McCarthy is a supporter of the Campaign for the Establishment of a United Nations Parliamentary Assembly, an organisation which campaigns for democratic reformation of the United Nations and the creation of a more accountable international political system. He is also a signatory of the

Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament The Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament (CND) is an organisation that advocates unilateral nuclear disarmament by the United Kingdom, international nuclear disarmament and tighter international arms regulation through agreements such as the Nuc ...

's Parliamentary Pledge.

Selected writing

* ''Passing over Eisenhower'' * ''Where States Go To Die: Military Artifacts, International Espionage And The End Of Liberal Democracy'' * ''Cloud Computing: Centralization and Data Sovereignty'', with Primavera De Filippi * ''Mediating Democracy'' in ''Redvolution: El poder del ciudadano conectado'' * ''Bergeron's Children'' in Despatches from the Invisible Revolution, edited by

Keith Kahn-Harris Keith Kahn-Harris is a sociologist and music critic. He is an honorary research fellow and senior lecturer at Birkbeck College and an associate fellow of the Institute for Jewish Policy Research and a lecturer at Leo Baeck College. He has publ ...

and

Dougald Hine Dougald Hine (born 1977 in Cambridge, England) is a British author, editor and social entrepreneur. He co-founded School of Everything and The Dark Mountain Project, of which he is Director at Large. In 2011, he was named one of Britain's 50 top ...

* ''Cloud Computing: Legal Issues in Centralized Architectures'' with Primavera de Filippi in ''Net Neutrality and Other Challenges for the Future of the Internet'' * ''The Future of Information Freedom'' in '' The Future we Deserve'', edited by Vinay Gupta * ''The End of (artificial) Scarcity'' in ''Free Beer'', edited by Stian Rødven Eide * ''Islands of Resilience'', with Eleanor SaittaIslands of resilience
/ref>

References

External links

*
Fellowship of Free Software Foundation of Europe interview
{{DEFAULTSORT:McCarthy, Smari 1984 births Living people Smári McCarthy Smári McCarthy Smári McCarthy Smári McCarthy Smári McCarthy Smári McCarthy People associated with WikiLeaks