DE policy
Die Stimme des Freien Wissens im Politikbetrieb
WMDE-Blogposts for our Politics Works
Actual Blogposts for works in politics exist in the associations in the rubric "Politic and Society" in [$Wikimedia-Blog].
Self Comprehension
We are committed to keeping knowledge free.
Wikimedia Germany - Society for Free Knowledge Demand e. V. self understanding with representation of interest about the Free Knowledges and the Project, in which it is created. First and foremost, these are the Wikimedia projects, but so initiatives and groups beyond. And since the existence of freedom rights on the Net is also an important framework condition for the emergence and dissemination of free knowledge, we also see ourselves as advocates for the free network as a whole.
We understand the freedom to access and share knowledge as a human right. People cannot freely participate in the totality of knowledge if there are no guidelines, laws and regulations exist that protect their right to do so. We are conscious of this, that Wikipedia Part of a much broader ecosystem of knowledge use, -production and distribution and depends on it. For this reason, we support volunteers and allied organizations, in which advocate for the Law and Guidelines, in wich a strong, enable a diverse knowledge ecosystem, that protects and respects human rights and supports the global free flow of information.
An overview of our political activities can be found in the "Position". For us they didn`t are just a relevant Proposed legislation, as well the international rules from Museen, archives and various other institutions and actors. They also have an influence on it that should not be underestimated, if or how Fre knowledge can arise. In our view, all of this taken together forms the legal and political framework, which must be designed in accordance with the Association's goals.
What we specifically work on in each case is determined via impact-oriented planning, which is glided into annual goals and annual success criteria.
Thema we are currently working on among others a.o.:
- Reform the §5 II Copyright Law: Public Financial, regulatory information is still not considered to be fundamentally #OpenData provided. A reason is § 5 of the copyright law, which determines the handling of "other official works". More on this in the article "Really official - How §5 of the Copyright Act Needs to Be Revised Now" and in the Monsters of Law roundtable on 2/21/2023.
- Accompanying the legal claim to Open Data planned in the 2021 coalition agreement, see blog post Legal claim to Open Data: Now it must finally get started and "Data as public infrastructure. Impetus for the Legal Entitlement to Open Data.
- For developments around the Digital Services Act and its implications for Free Knowledge, see Policy Brief "Digital Services Act: Empowering Public Benefit Platforms!" and blog post Why the Digital Services Act Needs to Enable Different Models of Content Moderation.
- Alliance F5 With F5, AlgorithmWatch, the Society for Civil Liberties, the Open Knowledge Foundation, Reporters Without Borders and Wikimedia Deutschland advocate for a democratic, open, inclusive and transparent digital policy.
- Our core demand Public Money - Public Good in the area of public service broadcasters, see for example article "It's time for free licenses at public service broadcasters" at netzpolitik.org
- Strengthening digital volunteering in the German government's engagement strategy, see policy brief "Strengthen digital volunteering! Demands for a contemporary promotion of engagement"
- Accompaniment of the project of a National Education Platform, steered by the BMBF. See for example press release "Wikimedia Deutschland publishes study on national education platform - criticism of lack of openness and narrow understanding of education".
FAQ
Questions about our work in Germany
What does the Policy and Public Sector team do?
We see ourselves as the political advocacy group for free knowledge. The future of Wikipedia, Wikidata and other Wikimedia projects depends primarily on the number of volunteers. However, it also depends on how open actors from politics and administration are to the idea of free knowledge. After all, they define the political, legal and administrative framework for the production, use and reproduction of knowledge.
With our work, we want to work towards ensuring that these framework conditions in Germany and Europe are designed in such a way that they favor the proliferation of free knowledge. We do this by exchanging ideas with relevant actors from politics and administration. We share with them the expertise and positions from the policy and public sector team on various topics such as open data, copyright, data policy, digital volunteering and digital citizenship. We also write guest articles in media outlets, providing the free knowledge perspective on current policy issues. We participate in consultations and write statements and policy letters with which we address demands to politicians.
We also systematically network with other organizations that have similar interests to ours. We also organize our own series of events and develop high-profile campaigns. For example, the [Public Money - Public Good] campaign, which over 10,000 association members have supported.
Why does Wikimedia Deutschland consider its own political representation of interests necessary?
We envision "a world in which every single person can freely share in the sum of all knowledge." This is a lofty goal, the realization of which requires certain legal and political conditions. For this reason, Wikimedia Deutschland e. V. is involved in advocacy. We advocate for policies that support and protect the human right to free access and exchange of knowledge, and we oppose policies that could harm this vision.
Political decisions and administrative actions define how much knowledge is openly accessible. German and European laws regulate the conditions under which data and knowledge may be used, reproduced and disseminated. This is clearly illustrated by the example of individual laws. Take the right to open data. We are working to ensure that it is formulated comprehensively and contains as few exceptions as possible.
Works, data sets and knowledge bases created with public funds should automatically become accessible to all of us in machine-readable form. The more data is released by the legislator, the more knowledge is freely available - and the more knowledge can be used by Wikipedians. The topic of platform regulation also concerns us as a Wikipedia supporters' association, because it affects the community. The same applies to copyright law, which in our opinion could do with a reform towards more openness. You can read more about this on our Positions page.
Another reason why Wikimedia Deutschland does political work is the fact that economic interest groups often get more of a hearing than (digital) civil society. This imbalance harbors the danger that digital policy and legal policy decisions are too much oriented toward economic interests, which are not always identical with the interests of the Wikipedia community and civil society. We want to counteract this, for more free knowledge and more common good in digital policy.
What criteria does Wikimedia Deutschland use to decide which topics the team is committed to?
The most important impulses for our choice of topics arise from two questions:
- What framework conditions do community members need in order to be able to perform their digital voluntary work well?
- What laws and regulations must be in place to enable as many people as possible to freely access, use and disseminate information, data and knowledge?
With these questions at the center, we look at the political and legal status quo and develop impact-oriented annual plans. In these, we define what we want to change. Based on this, we develop measures in the team to work towards these changes. You can find out more about our programs and measures on the Wikimedia Deutschland Planning page.
We align our programs primarily with Wikimedia's vision. But of course we also look beyond our own horizons. So that we can contribute our expertise and the perspective of free knowledge as effectively as possible, it is important, for example, to look at which current legislative projects are pending in the federal and state governments - or which are missing or lying fallow. Of course, we also look at what goals a state or federal government defines in a coalition agreement and try to influence them or remind people of goals if they are implemented too slowly or not at all.
Another point of reference for the choice of our topics is the Movement Strategy, which was developed together with volunteers worldwide.
Who works for the Policy and Public Sector team and from where do team members work?
Who works in the team is listed under Team contact. We have different professional and academic backgrounds and combine expertise from consulting and education, from administration and IT, from volunteering and NGOs and from journalism and parliamentary work. For the most part, we work in and around Berlin, but members of our team also work in Brussels, Ulm and Frankfurt am Main.
Where and how can I find out what the team is working on or has worked on?
We keep this meta page as up-to-date as possible. Here we show what we are working on. Quarterly Transparency reports are also published here, in which we give information about who we met and when on which topic. If you want to stay up to date, you can follow us on Mastodon.
Here press releases from Wikimedia Deutschland can be found, which also depict current positions or projects of the Politics and Public Sector team. In addition, we recommend the Newsletter from Wikimedia - which generally keeps you up to date on the work of Wikimedia Deutschland and thus also on current projects of our team. If you want to inquire directly, you can reach us at politik@wikimedia.de.
Does Wikimedia Deutschland collaborate with other organizations in the political arena?
Yes. We collaborate with other organizations on common causes through open letters, events or year-long programs. The prerequisite is that the other organization shares our values and that we are convinced that we can work better together toward a goal than alone. In the F5 alliance, we are currently doing this at the German level. Our alliance partners AlgorithmWatch, the Society for Civil Liberties, the Open Knowledge Foundation and Reporters Without Borders work on various digital policy issues.
But what we have in common is that we believe a change of perspective is necessary in digital policy. To ensure that everyone benefits equally from digitization, the common good and social participation must be at the center of digital policy debates. Civil society voices must be heard more and involved in political processes.
Sometimes we also form ad hoc coalitions that relate to a time-limited project that can help liberate more knowledge. That was the case, for example, with the transparency bill, which was supported by civil society. The bill was drafted by Mehr Demokratie, the Open Knowledge Foundation with its transparency platform FragDenStaat, Netzwerk Recherche, Transparency International Deutschland and the German Society for Freedom of Information. In addition to Wikimedia Deutschland, Abgeordnetenwatch, Lobbycontrol and the German Journalists' Association also supported the draft.
Questions about the work of Wikimedia Deutschland beyond federal politics
Why does Wikimedia Deutschland do some political work outside Germany?
This is rooted in the values of the Wikimedia Movement, which sees itself as a global movement that wants to make the world's knowledge freely accessible to all. Accordingly, we also work across national borders to create favorable conditions for this.
However, political engagement outside of Germany is especially necessary because access to knowledge and data and the ability to disseminate them digitally is not only influenced by the political actions of German actors. Laws and directives passed by the EU Parliament as well as international trade agreements also have an impact. Trade agreements have a strong influence on intellectual property rights and thus on their free reuse on the Internet - and increasingly also on other network-related regulation. So far, civil society organizations have often been left out of the process of shaping such agreements. Together with other organizations, we are working to change this.
What political issues are Wikimedia Deutschland concerned with at the European level?
Two recent examples are the Data Act (DA) and the Digital Services Act (DSA or GdD). Both are initiatives that originated with the European Commission. The Data Act regulates who may use data generated in the EU economic area and under what conditions. The DSA should also be accompanied by a revision of the Database Directive.
We have campaigned in Brussels for reform of the database producer law and its areas of application. In its current form, it stands in the way of sharing open data because its areas of application are usually unclear to those affected. This has consequences, for example for Wikidata. Wikimedia Deutschland has called for the database producer right to be transformed into a register right, or for an "opt-in solution" to be introduced, as already exists for text and data mining. This would allow producers to continue to enjoy protection if they wish, but would make subsequent use much easier in the majority of cases.
The DSA forms the basic legal framework for platforms in the EU and also regulates, among other things, how digital services and platforms must moderate content. Wikimedia Deutschland has worked to ensure that the interests of non-commercial, public interest platforms, which usually moderate themselves, are not lost. You can find more detailed information about the DSA and our demands in our policy brief.
Does the Policy and Public Sector team work with groups and organizations in Europe or on a global level?
Yes, for the same reasons and according to the same basic rules that define our collaborations in Germany: Does the organization share our values and can we better achieve goals together by pooling expertise, for example.
Communia and EDRi are examples of collaboration at the European level. Communia is a network of activists, researchers, and practitioners from Europe and the United States. It unites action for policies that work to expand the public domain to improve access to and reuse of culture and knowledge. EDRi is a large European network that protects rights and freedoms on the Internet. Members work to prevent abuses of power by private and state actors. To do this, they advocate for: Fundamental rights to privacy, data protection, freedom of expression and assembly, equality, non-discrimination.
Wikimedia Deutschland is also part of the global Access to Knowledge Coalition (A2K). As the name suggests, this is a coalition of organizations that advocate for free access to knowledge. Why they do it: International copyright law has not yet been adapted to technological changes. This includes the fact that knowledge and information are now produced and used digitally, i.e. across borders. The members include a very diverse community of teachers, researchers, students, libraries, archives, museums and creative people.
What role do human rights play in Wikimedia Deutschland's political work in Europe and at the global level?
We understand the freedom to access and share knowledge as a human right. We recognize that Wikipedia is part of a broader ecosystem of knowledge production, use, and dissemination. For this reason, we support volunteers and allied organizations around the world that advocate for laws and policies that enable a strong, diverse knowledge ecosystem that protects and respects human rights and supports the global free flow of information.
In doing so, we want to help ensure that the many volunteers in Wikimedia projects can freely exercise their commitment to free knowledge sharing and access. And that all people - regardless of origin, status, religion, gender or where they live - can benefit from it.