Andrei's profile picture

About Me

I like to position myself both as an innovation expert and a thought leader, with an area of expertise that revolves around anything related to privacy and decentralization -- ranging from identity and authentication, to access control and data ownership.

During my career I have acquired extensive technical experience working together at MIT with Sir Tim Berners-Lee, where I lead the Solid project. During this time I have also been a data and privacy expert within GovLab, an interdisciplinary think tank that aims to strengthen the ability of institutions – including but not limited to governments – and people to work more openly, collaboratively, effectively and legitimately to make better decisions and solve public problems.

Last but not least, I am a former W3C team member. There I participated in Web standards work together with experts from numerous companies such as IBM, Apple, Fujitsu, and BBC, as well as from governments. You will find more details in the Activity section below.

Below you can find a list of things I can help you with. Keep in mind that I am a No bullshit™ person that likes to get things done properly and I take pride in what I do.

Web Architecture Web Services GDPR Privacy Open Data Linked Data Information Security Applied Cryptography Blockchain Web Standards Open Governance

Education

Sorbonne University (France)

Ph.D. in Computer Science • Oct 2013

My Ph.D involved research into decentralized identity, authentication, and access control. My manuscript is publicly available at archives-ouvertes.fr.

TELECOM SudParis (France)

M.Sc. in Computer and Communication Networks • June 2010

This Masters programme covered subjects on general communication networks, computer security and applied cryptography.

Transilvania University of Brasov (Romania)

B.Sc. in Electrical Engineering and Computers • Sept 2006

My studies covered a variety of topics ranging from theoretical electrical engineering subjects to networking and computer science.

Work

Stratagema

https://stratagema.co • 2018 - present

CEO and co-founder. Consulting services in topics related to privacy and decentralization.

Qwant

https://qwant.com • 2017 - present

Technical Lead. Managing projects related to privacy and data ownership that are GDPR compliant by design.

Databook

https://www.databook.one/ • 2018 - present

Technical Advisor. Helping to define overall strategy and architecture for a product that uses blockchain technology to give you the ability to control and monetize your data.

Catch

http://catch.co/ • 2018 - present

Technical Advisor. Helped define the overall architecture and the technical stack, as well as recruiting talent during the initial stage of the company.

MIT

https://solid.mit.edu • 2014 - 2017

I lead a team of developers, researchers and students for Solid, an exciting project led by Sir Tim Berners-Lee, inventor of the World Wide Web. I also oversaw the collaboration with international partners like MasterCard and the Qatar Computing Research Institute, as well as participated in the Solid advisory board.

GovLab

http://www.thegovlab.org • 2016 - 2017

Data & privacy expert. I have represented MIT by participating in different events and meetings where I provided information and advice on privacy related topics to projects that required it. The GovLab network includes NYU, MIT, Harvard Business School, Arizona State University Center for Policy Informatics, George Washington University and Columbia Business School.

World Wide Web Consortium (W3C)

https://www.w3.org • 2014 - 2017

As a staff member, I participated in the Linked Data Platform Working Group which provides an architecture for read-write Linked Data on the Web. This standard, which is used not just in Solid but by other industry technologies, progressed at a quick pace and involved cross-industry collaboration, testing and multiple implementations. I am also the author of the Linked Data Patch Format, which defines a language for expressing a sequence of operations for patching Linked Data resources.

Public speaking

CleanData Virtual Conference

Speaker • 2018

Build decentralized services that offer privacy and real data ownership: case study and architecture

South By Southwest (SXSW)

Panel member • 2018

Starting the Internet All Over Again panel at South by Southwest© 2018 [audio / video]

Data Transparency Lab

Panel member • 2017

Disruptive approaches in transparency: Implementing Transparency panel at Data Transparency Lab 2017
Watch recording on Youtube

Web.br

Keynote speaker • 2015

3rd edition of the Web.br Conference
Watch recording on Youtube

Web Standards

LDP 1.0 - Linked Data Platform

W3C Recommendation 26 February 2015
W3C Spec

Linked Data Patch Format

W3C Working Group Note 28 July 2015
W3C Spec

WebID - Web Identity and Discovery

W3C Editor's Draft 05 March 2014
W3C Spec

WebID-TLS - Web Authentication over TLS

W3C Editor's Draft 05 March 2014
W3C Spec

Workshop chair

DeSemWeb2017

Chairs: Ruben Verborgh, Andrei Sambra, Tobias Kuhn• 2017

The 16th International Semantic Web Conference (ISWC 2017)
Workshop homepage

WWW Developers Day

Chairs: Oshani Seneviratne, Andrei Sambra, Lalana Kagal• 2016

25th International Conference Companion on World Wide Web (WWW 2016)
Workshop homepage

Publications

Open Governance as a Service

Andrei Sambra and Lalana Kagal• 2017

Proceedings of the 2017 ACM on Web Science Conference
BibTeX file

Building decentralized applications for the social Web

Andrei Sambra, Amy Guy, Sarven Capadisli, Nicola Greco• 2016

25th International Conference Companion on World Wide Web (WWW 2016)
BibTeX file

A demonstration of the solid platform for social web applications

Essam Mansour, Andrei Vlad Sambra, Sandro Hawke, et al.• 2016

25th International Conference Companion on World Wide Web (WWW 2016)
BibTeX file

CIMBA: client-integrated microblogging architecture

Andrei Sambra, Sandro Hawke, Timothy Berners-Lee, et al.• 2014

International Semantic Web Conference (ISWC 2014)
BibTeX file

The Web Browser Personalization with the Client Side Triplestore

Hitoshi Uchida, Ralph Swick, Andrei Sambra• 2014

International Semantic Web Conference (ISWC 2014)
BibTeX file

Extending the WebID protocol with access delegation

Sebastian Tramp, Henry Story, Andrei Sambra, et al.• 2012

International Semantic Web Conference (ISWC 2012)
BibTeX file

Context-aware decentralized approach for web services

Andrei Vlad Sambra, Maryline Laurent• 2012

IEEE Eighth World Congress on Services (SERVICES)
BibTeX file

A Trustful Authentication and Key Exchange Scheme (TAKES) for ad hoc networks

Tony Cheneau, Andrei Vlad Sambra, Maryline Laurent• 2011

5th International Conference on Network and System Security (NSS)
BibTeX file

MyProfile-Decentralized User Profile and Identity on the Web

Andrei Vlad Sambra, Maryline Laurent• 2011

W3C's Federated Social Web Workshop (FSW2011)
BibTeX file

Friending On The Social Web

Andrei Vlad Sambra, Henry Story, Sebastian Tramp• 2011

W3C's Federated Social Web Workshop (FSW2011)
BibTeX file

MyProfile-Privacy Aware Decentralized Identity on the Web

Andrei Vlad Sambra, Maryline Laurent• 2011

1st International Conference on Secure networking and Applications (ICSNA)
BibTeX file

Contact

Contact Details

Andrei Vlad Sambra
Qwant Research
7 rue Spontini
Paris 75016, France
a.sambra [at] qwant.com