"What's wrong with politics and what should technology do about it? How technology can help heal a broken political system, and how to make the system work for everyone?"

Mitchell Kapor is the founder and Chair of the Open Source Applications Foundation (OSAF), a non-profit organization working to create and gain wide adoption for software applications of uncompromising quality using open-source methods. OSAF is designing a new application called "Chandler" to manage email, appointments, contacts, and tasks, and easily allow information to be shared with friends, family, and colleagues. Chandler will be free of charge and will run on the Windows, Macintosh and Linux platforms.

Kapor has worn many hats over the past 25 years: software designer, entrepreneur, and social activist, among them. He founded Lotus Development Corporation in 1982 and designed Lotus 1-2-3, the "killer app," which made the PC ubiquitous in business. He is the co-founder and former Chair of the Electronic Frontier Foundation, an organization working in the public interest to protect privacy and free expression on the Internet.

This is a presentation delivered at the Web 2.0 Conference held in San Francisco, CA, October 5-7, 2004. Our thanks go to MediaLive International and O'Reilly Media, the producers of Web 2.0, for permission to bring you this session, one of many from Web 2.0 here on IT Conversations.