Citizens Foundation is a social innovator non-profit foundation in Iceland lead by Robert Bjarnason a veteran of Internet entrepreneurship having started the first web companies in Iceland in 1993, centrum.is and in Denmark in 1995, centrum.dk. Those companies were the first to offer citizens access to the web from their homes and they produced many of Europe’s first wave of commercial websites.
Citizens Foundation develops cutting-edge open source technology and platforms and manages electronic democracy user communities including Better Reykjavik, Better Iceland, Okkar Kópavogur, Okkar Mosó, Better Hafnarfjordur, Better Fljótdalshérað and Better Hafnarfjarðarsveit in Iceland alongside projects in over over 20 countries.
Citizens Foundation has the experience and competence in important areas needed for PaCE to succeed: Social entrepreneurship, AI software development, big data management, and electronic democracy, both in a technical and societal sense.
Key personnel
Róbert Viðar Bjarnason is an experienced entrepreneur with extensive experience ranging from video games to financial services. Robert started his first business (a software company) at the age of 12. He went on to introduce the Web to Iceland and Denmark and created the first ISPs and web production houses in Iceland and Denmark, later selling the Icelandic ISP to the Icelandic national telecom company. He went on innovating in the Internet games space. Creating technology used in award winning mobile games by leading industry players such as Nokia, EA, Square Enix, Eidos and Activision. Robert cofounded the non profit Citizens Foundation that specializes in eParticipation and eDemocracy.
Summary of qualifications: Entrepreneurial Business Vision – Technology Vision – Leadership – Product Design and Marketing – Project Management – Web Business Models – Business Modelling – Process Design and Implementation
For more information about the Citizen’s Foundation, please visit their website.