Wikimedia Conference 2017/Program/23

23: Global public policy round table

How to move forward

• 

What was this session about?

The session served as a roundtable discussion of the ongoing public policy work of Wikimedia organizations.

What are the next steps to be taken?

Many of the participants from this roundtable met again at Wikimania 2017 in Montreal, where they provided update on the progress of their work.

Photos

see the Commons category

Slides

There were no slides in this roundtable discussion

Audience

Anyone working on public policy for Wikimedia

Session Format

Round table discussion

Length

60 min

Room setting

U-shape

Description

Wikimedians are advocating for copyright reforms (like Freedom of Panorama) and other important public policy changes around the world. It's helpful to share the issues that we are working on, including work from chapters, user groups, the Wikimedia Foundation, and others. Let's discuss accomplishments from 2016, plans for the upcoming year, and opportunities for us to work together more.

Desired Outcome

Notes around our goals and opportunities for partnerships and collaboration

Next Steps and Milestones

We have hosted a meetup like this at the Wikimedia Conference in previous years. We will will also meet up again at Wikimania for further discussion.

Speakers

Stephen LaPorte (WMF), Dimitar Dimitrov (FKAGEU)

Documentation

There was discussion of significant issues in the countries represented at the meeting:

• In poland:
  • Organizing a coalition for open education.
• Among the EU chapters:
  • Primary goal is putting free knowledge on the policy agenda with the EU. This is being done through cooperation with local and national groups.
  • Hottest topics include EU Copyright Reform, the E-Privacy Regulation, the Digital Contracts Directive, Audio/Visual Digital Services Directive.
    • There is more attention on Open Educational Resources and Horizon 2020.
    • Generally supporting transparency advocacy
  • On copyright reform, there is a problematic proposal from the EC, but there is a better understanding of the issue in the European Parliament, including the committees.
    • Some of our greatest advantages are that people know/trust Wikimedia, Wikimedia has concrete problems, and concrete solutions.
    • Even on safeguarding the public domain, people are listening. Wikimedia should continue to talk about a topic for a few years to help people grasp it.
• In France:
  • • There is more attention on copyright, international relations, and compulsory contracts.
• In Germany:
  • Major issues include the access to history.
  • Issues in Germany have an international impact.
• In Ukraine:
  • Major issues include Freedom of Panorama and encouraging government adoption of CC licenses.
• In the Czech Republic:
  • Major issues include a copyright proposal to make government works in the public domain.
• In Hungary
  • Major issues include problems of database rights
• In Estonia:
  • There is continuing work on Freedom of Panorama
  • Wikimedians are promoting Open Access, open data, and more cooperation with institutions
• In Australia:
  • There is a campaign to get fair use in Australia.
• In South Africa:
  • There is a campaign to get Freedom of Panorama.

General discussion:

• There is growing interest in more of a network among African Wikimedians.
• Wikimedians presented at RightsCon, which was a useful opportunity to hear from a range of free culture advocates about their experiences.
  • There is a need for a better understanding that strong copyright is not always good for content creators.
  • Some policymakers need more education around the idea that users are also creators.
  • Some people dismiss online content creators as "fast food culture", which shouldn't influence intellectual property policy.
  • There is an increasing traction when people explain concretely how proposals are good for both users and content creators. We may want to pick exceptions that we can credibly prove to benefit both.
  • There was also a focus on fake news and internet shutdowns.
• WMDE published a position statement on a proposal for consumer ownership of data.