User:Econterms

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Revision as of 15:45, 11 January 2014 by Econterms (talk | contribs) (→‎Chapter business: notes on New England meeting)
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I'm Peter Benjamin Meyer. My regular user page is on the English Wikipedia.

I'm a new director and officer of this chapter. I'm focusing on chapter business of two kinds (a) being treasurer and (b) participating in and hosting edit-a-thons.

Chapter business

  • I was a candidate for the Wiki-DC board of directors in the Feb/March 2013 election. Here were my candidacy statements.
  • I welcome feedback about the chapter at this special-purpose address: peter.meyer (at) wikimediadc.org.

To do

Public policy work group proposal

  • Work group within Wiki DC
  • Can create and improve articles on legislation and court cases (meeting usual criteria of neutral language, sourcing of statements, and working cooperatively online) -- we've done well so far, creating the article on the upcoming case Alice Corp. v. CLS Bank International
  • Can team up with Cato Institute for edit-a-thons
  • Prepare congressional briefings in 2014 after good experiences in 2013 ([materials used in 2013 round])
  • Maintain a page on Wiki-DC site for our activities and views
Taking positions on public matters
  • Background: in 2013, Wiki DC was publicly committed to resisting/changing SOPA/PIPA, and supporting WMF's blackout of the Wikipedias. This was framed as advocating for Internet freedom. Wiki DC had some budget capacity for this.
  • Software patenting comes up in impending judicial cases (no legislative consideration at the moment)
  • Work group should not claim to represent Wiki-DC without board approval of specifics (?)
  • Generally Wiki-DC and this group should takes stances (if any) that are in the public interest of free knowledge, not stances organized towards the narrow interest of the organization
  • Members can self-identify as members of Wiki DC in public, without apology, but do not generally represent the organization except with board approval
  • useful for those of us who do not have a work affiliation we can use for open-source / free-knowledge work
  • an alternative framing is that coordination with the WMF is required ; but this is costly for moving quickly
  • Software patents are a subject in the public sphere. The Supreme Court will hear a software/business-methods case ("the Alice case") on March 31 at 10am
  • Could blog in advance on the topic, write learned papers, or coauthor briefs
  • We can organize a chapter trip to see the case argued. An experienced person told me that if we organize a group of ten we can get seats for the entire case. They give tickets. It takes a little planning but he can help. We'll need to gather interested people and perhaps combine this with a salon or edit-a-thon or anyway a trip to a cafe.
  • Possible teammates or coauthors: WMF ; Creative Commons ; Electronic Frontier Foundation ; Public Knowledge ; Open Knowledge Foundation ; OSI ; many others
  • Work group might propose a talk for Wikimania 2014 on public policy issues, e.g. "Software patents: an update from the U.S.", or "Government software procurement", or "Can chapters take public policy positions?"
Background -- legislation of interest
  • ACTA: The Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA), is a multinational treaty for the purpose of establishing international standards for intellectual property; agreed on in 2011 if I understand correctly
  • CISPA: Cyber Intelligence Sharing and Protection Act -- a proposed U.S. law to "allow" (require?) sharing of Internet traffic data between the U.S. government and some companies, intended to help the government investigate cyber threats and ensure security of networks.
  • Aaron's Law: sponsored by Rep. Zoe Lofgren's office
  • SOPA/PIPA -- effort by recording industry and Hollyword to incorporate copyright protection into the infrastructure of the Internet; beaten back in 2011.
  • CALEA: The wikipedia:Communications Assistance for Law Enforcement Act is a United States wiretapping law passed in 1994
  • Research "Aaron's law" proposal (named for Aaron Swartz) from Rep. Lofgren's office: proposed revision to Computer Fraud and Abuse Act to reduce penalties and maybe more. [4]. A contact person at Lofgren's office is senior legislative counsel: harley.geiger at mail.house.gov ; 225-3072.
  • Public Domain Day mentioned in signpost
  • copyright reform might be a policy item for agenda
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