Committee on Education, Science and Youth + my badge

In my volunteer capacity, I have participated in many law-making processes in Poland. This includes participation in public consultation, acting as an outside expert during parliamentary proceedings, and participating in working groups/task forces at the Ministries.

The below page is a summary of my Public Policy and Advocacy[1] activities in the interest of the Wikimedia Movement and the Sum of Human Knowledge.

Specialised group membership

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GRAI

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Since early 2024 I have been a member of the Working Group on Artificial Intelligence, Internet of Things, and Disruptive Technologies (GRAI) at the Polish Ministry of Digital Affairs.

  • AI, Human Rights and Democracy sub-group – member
  • Awareness, competency and digital hygiene – member
  • Data for AI sub-group – substitute member

Meetings

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  1. 26 February 2024 – "Policy for the development of artificial intelligence in Poland" document review
  2. 29 March 2024 – Meeting with the Chairperson of the Digitization Council
  3. 23 April 2024 – General meeting of GRAI experts
  4. 24 May 2024AI, Human Rights and Democracy
  5. 14 June 2024 – Meeting with the Chairperson of the Digitization Council
  6. 20 June 2024AI, Human Rights and Democracy
  7. 18 July 2024AI, Human Rights and Democracy
  8. 22 July 2024Data for AI
  9. 31 July 2024Awareness, competency and digital hygiene

Activity in consultations

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Ministry and parliamentary committees' meetings

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Meetings (not counting the GRAI group meetings)
# When? What? What type? Who? Link Comments
1 25 April 2023 Public hearing on students' rights and the education of the future Public hearing Senate of Poland (Parliamentary Group for Youth Affairs) link
2 August–September 2023 Government draft law on protecting minors from accessing inappropriate content on the Internet Written feedback / meeting Council of Ministers

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Sejm of Poland (Committee on Digitization, Innovation and Emerging Technologies)

link The project created a risk for commons.wikimedia.org to be blocked in Poland due to the vague definition of "pornographic material" in the proposed law, which could cover educational content as well

Update: The bill was eventually recalled by the government when the opposition MPs were able to call another meeting of the Committee

3 19 December 2023 Conference with the participation of candidates for the post of President of the Office of Personal Data Protection of Poland Public hearing Sejm of Poland link The hearing featured candidates running for the position of Chairman of the Data Protection Authority, whose candidacies received initial support from political forces in parliament or groups of deputies.
4 23 December 2023 Priorities in the area of digitization and jointly start working on a strategy for the digital development of Poland Ministry meeting Ministry of Digital Affairs link
5 29 March 2024[2] Meeting with the Chairperson of the Digitization Council Digitization Council meeting Ministry of Digital Affairs (Digitization Council) ''The perspective of the Wikimedia Movement on the recent Polish digitalization efforts'' (with Szymon Grabarczuk)
6 16 April 2024 Summary of the public consultation on the implementation of DSA in Poland [DSA 3] Ministry meeting Ministry of Digital Affairs link Implementation of EU law in Poland (DSA) in cooperation with Szymon Grabarczuk
7 26 April 2024 Summary of the public consultation on the implementation of DSA in Poland [DSA 4] link
8 7 May 2024 Problem of copyright infringement on the internet Parliamentary committee meeting Sejm of Poland (Committee on Culture and Means of Transmission) link
9 8 May 2024 Analysis of activities in inclusive education and their impact on educational outcomes Sejm of Poland (Committee on Education, Science and Youth) link
- 23 May 2024[2] Standing subcommittee on cooperation with NGOs, local governments and trade unions Parliamentary committee meeting Sejm of Poland (Committee on Education, Science and Youth)
10 30 May 2024[3] Risk Management Approach in the AI Act: Must know fundamentals for regulatory compliance Online meeting European Commission (European AI Office) link
  • AI Act's regulatory logic
  • Essential elements for developing risk assessments
  • Regulatory compliance with the AI Act
11 11 June 2024 First reading of the government's bill to amend the Law on Copyright and Related Rights and some other laws Parliamentary committee meeting Council of Ministers

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Sejm of Poland (Committee on Culture and Means of Transmission)

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  • Implementation of EU law in Poland (DSM)
12 12 June 2024 Ethical aspects of developing, implementing and using artificial intelligence systems Sejm of Poland (Committee on Digitization, Innovation and Emerging Technologies) link
13 Discussion on supporting Polish and Polish-born artists and creators abroad Sejm of Poland (Committee on Liaison with Poles Abroad ) link
14 14 June 2024 The perspective of the Wikimedia Movement on the recent Polish digitalization efforts' Digitization Council meeting Ministry of Digital Affairs (Digitization Council) 1:1 meeting with the Chairperson of the Digitization Council (with Szymon Grabarczuk)
15 20 June 2024 Digitization Strategy of Poland Ministry meeting Ministry of Digital Affairs link Open consultations on the work on the National Digitization Strategy by the Ministry of Digital Affairs and the office of the Deputy Prime Minister
16 26 June 2024 European Union digital policy: from digital security to information sovereignty Parliamentary committee meeting Sejm of Poland (Committee on the European Union Affairs ) link
17 9 July 2024[2] Reading of the government's bill to amend the Law on Copyright and Related Rights and some other laws Senate of Poland (Committee on Culture and Means of Transmission) link
  • Implementation of EU law in Poland (DSM)

Written feedback on public consultations

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Written feedback on public consultations
# When? What? What type? Who? Link Comments
1 August–September 2023 Government draft law on protecting minors from accessing inappropriate content on the Internet Written feedback / meeting Council of Ministers

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Sejm of Poland (Committee on Digitization, Innovation and Emerging Technologies)

link The project created a risk for commons.wikimedia.org to be blocked in Poland due to the vague definition of "pornographic material" in the proposed law, which could cover educational content as well

Update: The bill was eventually recalled by the government when the opposition MPs were able to call another meeting of the Committee

2 19 January 2024 Consultation on the implementation of the Digital Services Act [DSA 1] Written feedback Ministry of Digital Affairs link Implementation of EU law in Poland (DSA) in cooperation with Szymon Grabarczuk
3 10 March 2024 AI Policy of Poland – The Road to the Digital Decade – A Coordinated Plan for Artificial Intelligence link
4 14 April 2024 Public consultations on the implementation of DSA in Poland – Draft law [DSA 2] link Implementation of EU law in Poland (DSA) in cooperation with Szymon Grabarczuk
5 23 May 2024 Consultation of the Program of Cooperation of the Minister of Digitization with NGOs
6 12 June 2024 Digital Agenda of the Polish Presidency and the bodies of the European Union of the new term

Public inquiries

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Public inquiries
# When? What? What type? Who? Link Comments
1 13 May 2024 Harmful change in the default CC license on Polish government websites Request for access to public information Chancellery of the Prime Minister of Poland (Centrum Informacyjne Rządu) link Until August 2022, government pages in the gov.pl domain were made available under the CC BY 3.0 PL license. Since then, the pages have been made available under the much more restrictive CC BY-NC-ND 3.0 PL license. This change significantly limits the ability to continue using public content available in the gov.pl domain and makes it incompatible with Wikimedia projects.

Cooperation with: Tar Lócesilion and Teukros

29 May follow-up: Information received that the answer will be provided in 2 months, the maximum time allowed by the Act on Access to Public Information.

26 June follow-up: The Chancellery rejected the request stating that they were not the appropriate receiver of the inquiry, without mentioning the appropriate body to contact next.

2 15 July 2024 Ministry of Digital Affairs A request sent to the Ministry of Digital Affairs with updated set of questions.

Acknowledgements

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Committee on Culture and Means of Transmission hearing

Big kudos go to Szymon Grabarczuk, who was a big help with the Digital Services Act implementation in Poland. Szymon has been active in Wikimedia policy work between 2013 and 2019. He has been an active supporter of the now defunct Free Knowledge Advocacy Group EU and WMPL representative to it. You can check out his work on his Wordpress blog.

In some instances I have built on the work of the Wikimedia Europe team and Wikimedia Foundation staff members and have asked for their help and expertise.

See also

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Notes

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  1. Advocacy is an activity by an individual or group that aims to influence decisions within political, economic, and social institutions – from "Advocacy" on English Wikipedia
  2. a b c Rescheduled for later
  3. Rescheduled from earlier