About Us

2020 Impact

Building on the Aspen Institute’s legacy programs in cybersecurity, tech policy, and media, we have expanded our work to innovate for greater outcomes. During a time of crisis, in 2020, Aspen Digital rose to the moment, launching new initiatives that focus on current and real needs, including:

• COVID-19 Challenge Grant – Funding tech solutions to help mitigate the effects of the coronavirus pandemic
• Anti-racism Pledge Tracker – Monitoring commitments to diversity, equity, and inclusion from US tech and media companies
• The Day After – Preparing every major US newsroom and tech platform for a potential contested election
• Fail Forward – Fostering innovation in local government by helping officials embrace their mistakes
• Axios Codebook – Leading the national conversation on cybersecurity and our future

We drive timely conversations to help the public make sense of this fast-changing world, and in 2020, we hosted more than 30 virtual programs since March. Over 6,000 joined us live, with 21,000+ YouTube views after the fact.

• A Post-Election Check-in on Our Information Ecosystems
• How News Media Covers Race in America
• COVID-19 and the Digital Divide
• Half-Truths, Lies, and Critical Information in a Pandemic
• Intimacy in Isolation: Tech and Human Connection
• Free Speech and the Internet
• …and many more

Our secret sauce, we convene decision-makers to drive change. Last year alone, we held more than 40 off-the-record virtual roundtables with over 1,700 expert participants.

• Government officials (Members of Congress, Secretaries of State)
• Law enforcement – Department of Justice, FBI, Secret Service
• Major newsroom executives from Associated Press, CNN, New York Times
• The big social media platforms: Facebook, Google, Twitter
• Industry leaders from Apple, IBM, Verizon

Influencing the public sector, we spur policy-making and change systems. A few 2020 examples include:

• Aspen Cybersecurity Group members Sen. Mark Warner and Rep. Will Hurd jointly introduce legislation to transform cybersecurity for Internet of Things (IoT) devices that the government purchases. Resulting from conversations among this public-private cybersecurity forum, the IoT Cybersecurity Improvement Act was passed into law by Congress in November.
• The Aspen Tech Policy Hub’s guidance led DHS, in January, to change the process used for tracking online scams. The West Coast incubator partnered with the Cybercrime Support Network to help execute the work.
• A written memo from Aspen Digital, and consultations with the Cybersecurity Group, led the National Commission on Military, National, and Public Service to include in its final report (published March 2020) a major recommendation to create a civilian cybersecurity reserve.

Want to learn more about how we made waves in 2020? Download our Impact Deck.