ABOUT US

TEAM

Brigitte Alfter / Research network coordinator

Brigitte Alfter is an award-winning Danish-German journalist specialising in European affairs. After a career in local and national Danish media, including a position a Brussels correspondent, she turned to cross-border collaborative journalism with ad hoc teams as well as with existing networks such as the ICIJ. She is the co-founder of several cross-border journalism projects and structures such as the Farmsubsidy.org project, the Scoop-project, Journalismfund.eu, the European Investigative Journalism Conference & Dataharvest, the Investigate Europe team and the European Journalism ARENA. Brigitte has published a book about cross-border collaborative journalism in Danish and German. An English version will be published in 2019.

Beate Autering / Layout

Beate Autering is a freelance graphic designer. She graduated in design and runs the beworx studio with Tiger Stangl. Together they create designs, graphics and illustrations and also provide image editing and post-production services. Their clients include iRights, mdsCreative, Agentur Sehstern, UNESCO World Heritage Germany and visitBerlin.

Sarah Fischer / Team Bertelsmann Stiftung

Sarah Fischer works on the “Ethics of Algorithms” project at the Bertelsmann Stiftung. The project deals with the social consequences of algorithmic decision-making and aims to contribute to the design of algorithmic systems that lead to more participation for all. Previously, she was a postdoctoral fellow in the postgraduate program “Trust and Communication in a Digitalized World” at the University of Münster. There she worked on transparency and trust in search engine algorithms. On the same programme, she earned her doctorate in communication science on the subject of trust in health information on the Internet.

Graham Holliday / Copy editing

Graham is a freelance editor, media trainer and author. He has worked in a number of roles for the BBC over the past fifteen years and he was a correspondent for Reuters in Rwanda. He works as an editor of non-fiction books, reports, documents and promotional literature for a variety of companies, NGOs and authors. He also works as an editor for CNN’s Parts Unknown and for Roads & Kingdoms—the international journal of foreign correspondence. The late Anthony Bourdain published Graham’s first two books which were reviewed in the New York Times, Los Angeles Times, Wall Street Journal, Publisher’s Weekly, Library Journal and on NPR among other outlets.

Nicolas Kayser-Bril / Additional editing

Nicolas Kayser-Bril, 32, is a Berlin-based, French-German data-driven journalist. He created the data journalism team at OWNI, a French news startup, in 2010, then co-founded and led the data journalism agency Journalism++ from 2011 to 2017. He now splits his time between teaching programming at HMKW (Berlin), helping fellow journalists in their data-driven investigations, consulting for various organizations and writing history books.

Ralph Müller-Eiselt / Team Bertelsmann Stiftung

Ralph Müller-Eiselt is a Director at the Bertelsmann Stiftung. He holds a B.A. in International Relations from Dresden University and graduated with an M.P.P. from the Berlin-based Hertie School of Governance in 2010. Before joining the Bertelsmann Stiftung, he was involved in several large-scale change projects in the public sector. For several years, he has been heading both projects in the field of digital education and the foundation‘s taskforce on policy challenges and opportunities in a digitalised world. His latest project “Ethics of Algorithms“ takes a close look at the consequences of algorithmic decision-making and Artificial Intelligence in today’s society.

Kristina Penner / Additional editing

Kristina Penner is the Executive Advisor at AlgorithmWatch. Her research interests include ADM in social welfare systems, social scoring and the societal impacts of ADM as well as the development of participatory and empowering concepts. Her analysis of the EU border management system builds on her previous experience in research and counselling on the implementation of European and German asylum law. Further experience includes projects on the use of media in civil society and conflict sensitive journalism as well as stakeholder involvement in peace processes in the Philippines. She holds a master’s degree in International Studies / Peace and Conflict Research from Goethe University in Frankfurt.

Matthias Spielkamp / Editor

Matthias Spielkamp is co-founder and executive director of AlgorithmWatch. He is co-founder and publisher of the online magazine iRights.info (Grimme Online Award 2006). He has testified before several committees of the German Bundestag, i.e. on AI and robotics. Matthias serves on the governing board of the German section of Reporters Without Borders and the advisory councils of Stiftung Warentest and the Whistleblower Network and is a member of the steering committee of the German Internet Governance Forum (IGF-D). He has been a fellow of ZEIT Stiftung, Stiftung Mercator and the American Council on Germany. Matthias has written and edited books on digital journalism and Internet governance and was named one of 15 architects building the data-driven future by Silicon Republic in 2017. He holds master’s degrees in Journalism from the University of Colorado in Boulder and in Philosophy from the Free University of Berlin.

Marc Thümmler / Publication coordinator

Marc Thümmler is in charge of public relations, outreach and fundraising at AlgorithmWatch. He has an M.A. in Media Studies, worked as a producer and editor for the production company Filmgestalten, and managed projects for the Deutsche Kinemathek and the civil society organisation Gesicht Zeigen. In addition to his core tasks at AlgorithmWatch, Marc has been involved in the crowdfunding and crowdsourcing campaign OpenSCHUFA.

ORGANISATIONS

AlgorithmWatch

AlgorithmWatch is a non-profit research and advocacy organisation, funded by private
foundations and donations by individuals. Our mission is to evaluate and shed light on
algorithmic decision-making processes that have a relevant impact on individuals and
society, meaning they are used either to predict or prescribe human action or to make
decisions automatically. We analyse the effects of algorithmic decision-making processes
on human behaviour, point out ethical conflicts and explain the characteristics and effects
of complex algorithmic decision-making processes to a general public. AlgorithmWatch
serves as a platform linking experts from different cultures and disciplines focused on the
study of algorithmic decision-making processes and their social impact; and in order to
maximise the benefits of algorithmic decision-making processes for society, we assist in
developing ideas and strategies to achieve intelligibility of these processes – with a mix of
technologies, regulation, and suitable oversight institutions.
https://algorithmwatch.org/en/

Bertelsmann Stiftung

The Bertelsmann Stiftung works to promote social inclusion for everyone. It is committed
to advancing this goal through programmes aimed at improving education, shaping
democracy, advancing society, promoting health, vitalizing culture and strengthening
economies. Through its activities, the Stiftung aims to encourage citizens to contribute to
the common good. Founded in 1977 by Reinhard Mohn, the non-profit foundation holds
the majority of shares in the Bertelsmann SE & Co. KGaA. The Bertelsmann Stiftung is a
non-partisan, private operating foundation. With its “Ethics of Algorithms“ project, the
Bertelsmann Stiftung is taking a close look at the consequences of algorithmic decisionmaking
in society with the goal of ensuring that these systems are used to serve society.
The aim is to help inform and advance algorithmic systems that facilitate greater social
inclusion. This involves committing to what is best for a society rather than what’s
technically possible – so that machine-informed decisions can best serve humankind.
https://www.bertelsmann-stiftung.de/en/