How Decentralization Prevents Digital Disasters | Arikia Millikan | TEDxBerlin
After traversing earthquake wreckage and tent cities to lead a collective documentation effort of Haiti’s recovery, journalist Arikia Millikan watched arbitrary corporate decisions destroy years of that vital work. This devastating loss sparked a revolutionary mission: to build a blockchain-based digital publishing system to earthquake-proof digital knowledge forever. Millikan exposes the shocking fragility of centralized publishing platforms, where 6% of all web pages vanish annually due to business and political decisions, then reveals her bold solution for unbreakable digital infrastructure: “internet rebar.” This powerful story follows one journalist’s journey from documenting human resilience in Haiti’s rubble to building technology that could fortify the future of journalism itself.
Arikia Millikan is a journalist, technologist, and founder of CTRL+X, a blockchain-based publishing system designed to empower authors to preserve, distribute, and monetize their digital assets. Her career spans information architecture, editorial strategy and tech journalism; she was an editor at WIRED, where she managed Haiti Rewired, a platform documenting earthquake recovery efforts that served thousands of citizen journalists before being lost to platform failure. This experience sparked her mission to build resilient digital infrastructure using blockchain technology. Millikan has spoken at conferences including DEFCON and re:publica about digital memory preservation and the future of decentralized media. She studied engineering and psychology before transitioning to journalism, giving her a unique perspective on both the technical and editorial challenges facing modern publishing. This talk was given at a TEDx event using the TED conference format but independently organized by a local community. Learn more at https://www.ted.com/tedx
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