[Campaigns-l] Doctorow/ global campaign for free software, free knowledge, free culture?

Fri Nov 3 23:19:40 UTC 2006

Hello the amazing Ingmar =)

On 11/4/06, VirtualOffice at gmx.net <VirtualOffice at gmx.net> wrote:
> We should do anything we can, to free the development of the individual with his endless humane opportunities.

It is a good time for these ideas I think.

> But for this, we must break down the old borders and bring all people and organisations together, which are interested to realize such a great goal. Names, Organisations, Egoisms are our greatest challenge on the way. And we must speak about this. We need a global synergy, one table.

I have been sending links through to different things out there hoping
to link us together. I think it is a nice idea to make 1 unified
project but people do things for many reasons. SELF may be a good
project to partner with, I do not know much about it but it might have
resources that EU folks could use. Same for campaign wiki and
wikiversity, these are all good projects and people will care about
contributing to those. The nice thing about FOSS and free culture is
that if we make something for this group it can be used by other
groups, so we can do work for one of these and benefit the other
groups if they can use the same work.

> Let us start such a campaign together with Jimmy on Campaigns Wikia. We can work online. All what we need is a mailinglist, a forum and a wiki. This is all to change the world. We need no money.

I think campaignswiki is an interesting project and that it needs our support
to make another one would be another spreading of the efforts?
eg. I showed Cory Doctorow the section of Campaignswiki which focuses on the
digital rights topic he is teaching. The campaigns wiki can be a tool
for teaching we dont necessarily need an education wiki as such. As
this is an academic project for Doctorow he will probably be looking
at how to use it in ways which best suit his course/students.

> We would gather the basic aims for such a world campaign. A central document which we make step by step perfect. Version by version, week by week.
> We would gather the contact informations from all organisations around the globe, which are interested in this issues.

Would a survey of free culture organisations around the world could be
a groovy thing we have to think about where that fits. It could be
good here or perhaps the free culture people might be maintaining
something like this? And we could build on that and link to it from
here?

> We would online create covering letters for the organisations and we would maintain the complete correspondence over campaigns wikia, so that everyone can work online on the greatest universal movement for free software, free knowledge and free culture.

I am currently writing fact sheets about local projects and speech
info for local politicians and yes it would be nice to have somewhere
to show drafts to people who understand the goals and can tell me how
to improve them or use them for themselves. Currently I am writing the
files in inkscape so I can lay them out nicely but I could look at
doing it in a wiki if others are interested. I am currently sharing
the text with a friend in googledocs.

There is another group with this focus for internet.
IGF Internet governance forum and access to knowledge.
This group is working at the UN. These people are important because
they are already engaged with international law processes.
I have posted the message they sent at the bottom of this message.
http://www.ipjustice.org/wiki/index.php/A2K_IGF_Workshop

> We need only 20 very interested people to start a universal global campaign I wrote above.

> So we would have offhand minimum 20 - 30 committed persons. This would be more than a enough for the start of such a public world campaign over a wiki.
>
> So, dont think why not, think why "yes"! :) Its the only way to bring Campaign Wikia forward: We must go beyond old thoughts. Its up to you! :)

OK one way to promote campaigns wikia is to have some posters for
software freedom day and events such as those. These can be files
which people can print out themselves. Campaigns wikia has a wide
range of people doing quite different things, so perhaps the fact
sheet approach might be good to show specific communities things which
would be of use to them.

I think we are all doing things and hooked into wider communities and
so making useful learning resources or materials and sharing those
will build groups around the things we make. Sharing them will make a
global impact while still being fine to have a lot of different
groups?

Thanks for your great energy Ingmar you are inspiring.

Janet

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
IP Justice Media Release
31 October 2006

Media Contacts:

Robin Gross, IP Justice Executive Director
Greek telephone: (+30) 697 9851074
Email: robin at ipjustice.org

James Love, CPTech Director
Greek telephone: (+30) 697 9605013
Email: james.love at cptech.org

Internet Coalition to Promote Access to Knowledge and Online Free Speech
Press Conference on Wednesday 1 November at 11:00 am to Announce Project

(Athens) A broad range of companies, civil society organizations, and
governments have joined together to form a "dynamic coalition" to
promote online freedom of expression and access to knowledge at the
inaugural meeting of the United Nations Internet Governance Forum IGF)
in Athens.

One of the main "deliverables" of the IGF meeting is the creation of
dynamic coalitions, or multi-stakeholder groups working together over a
multi-year process to provide recommendations for "best practices" on
particular issues that deal with online activity.

On Wednesday, November 1st at 11:00 am (in Athens), a number of the
organizers of the IGF workshop on freedom of expression and access to
knowledge will hold a press conference to announce the creation of a
dynamic coalition. The coalition will work towards promoting the
Internet as a tool of development, education and freedom, and will focus
on the proper balance for intellectual property rights in a digital world.

Among others, founding members of the IGF dynamic coalition include IP
Justice, Google, Council of Europe, CPTech, Sun Microsystems, Yale Law
School Information Society Project, Free Software Foundation Europe,
Franklin Pierce Law School, Electronic Frontier Foundation, and the IP
Academy of Singapore. The coalition will report back at the 2007 IGF in
Rio de Janeiro on its progress.

The press conference will be held in the IGF Media Room at 11:00 am on
Wednesday, and the related workshop will take place on Thursday at
1:30pm at IGF in the Aphrodite Room. Details on the workshop and press
conference speakers are below.

IGF Workshop on Free Expression and A2k:
"Harnessing the Power of the Internet to Provide Access to Knowledge &
Free Flow of Information": A workshop to explore significant
opportunities and barriers to harnessing the power of the Internet to
provide access to knowledge and encourage freedom of expression and the
free flow of information. In particular, the workshop will focus on the
appropriate balance for intellectual property rights on the Internet and
their impact on free speech and access to knowledge.

Workshop Speakers:
* Susan Struble from IT Standardization and Strategy at Sun Microsystems
will address challenges to technical interoperability and the free flow
of information on the Internet from software patents.

* Dr. Magdy Nagi from Egypt's Library of Alexandria (Bibliotheca
Alexandrina) will discuss the needs of online libraries to provide
access to information and encourage development.

* Dirk Voorhoof from the Council of Europe will discuss international
human rights conventions and their relationship to intellectual property
law, access to knowledge, and freedom of expression.

* Mary Wong, a Professor of Law at Franklin Pierce Law Center and the IP
Academy of Singapore will address special online challenges to freedom
of expression and access to knowledge from "digital locks".

* Cristiano Berbert from the government of Brazil will discuss efforts
in the developing countries to provide access to knowledge and promote
free expression.

* Andrew McLaughlin, Head of Global Public Policy at Google will address
the barriers Google faces in providing access to knowledge from
unbalanced copyright law.

* Robin Gross, Executive Director of IP Justice will Chair the session.

Webpage for workshop:
http://ipjustice.org/wp/campaigns/internet-governance/igf/382/

Workshop Sponsors:
Association for Progressive Computing (APC)
Egypt's Library of Alexandria (Bibliotheca Alexandrina)
Computer Professionals for Social Responsibility - Peru Consumer Project
on Technology (CPTech)
Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF)
Electronic Information for Libraries (eIFL)
Free Software Foundation Europe (FSFE)
Google
International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions (IFLA)
IP Justice (IPJ)
South Centre Innovation, Access to Knowledge and Intellectual Property
Programme (IAIPP)
Sun Microsystems
Third World Network (TWN)