Philippe Aigrain

trustee

Main affiliation: La Quadrature du Net (France)

Member of the Nexa Board of Trustees (2009-2021)

Dr. Philippe Aigrain was trained as a mathematician and theoretical computer scientist and holds a Doctorate and a "Habilitation à Diriger les Recherches" qualification from University Paris 7. From 1972 to 1981, he worked in software engineering research labs of software companies. He was a research fellow at U.C. Berkeley in 1982. Since then, and before joining the European Commission in 1996, he headed research teams in the field of computer processing, indexing, retrieval and user interface for audiovisual media (video, music, still images). He is the author of more than 50 research and technology assessment papers. He is one of the founders of La Quadrature du Net, a non-profit association that defends fundamental rights in the digital sphere in France and in Europe. He is active as an analyst of the stakes of the information revolution and engaged in actions for the reform of intellectual rights regimes. He has authored books on this subject among which: “Cause commune: l'information entre bien commun et propriété”, Fayard 2005 (translated in Italian and Arabic), and “Sharing: Culture and the Economy in the Internet Age”, Amsterdam Univ. Press, 2012 (translated in Polish). His books and numerous papers on the information commons, access to knowledge and intellectual rights are accessible under CC licenses on his blog paigrain.debatpublic.net. Philippe Aigrain also writes poetry and short fiction pieces that are published on his literary blog atelierdebricolage.net. He is President of Créateurs et associés, the editorial firm of publie.net, a reference publisher for French-speaking literary works whose forms originate or thrive in literature written and shared on the Web.


Dr. Philippe Aigrain passed away in July 11th, 2021.