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WMUK Public Policy Working Group

Giving Free Knowledge a Voice

The Wikimedia UK Public Policy Working Group had its inaugural meeting on 15 February 2016. 7 Wikimedians (staff, board members and volunteers) mapped out the main policy issues in the UK and the EU, prioritised them from a WMUK perspective and categorised as either proactive or reactive.

Brainstorming Potential Issues

Data Protection
Open Government License
Open Access Definition
Public Domain Definition
Privacy
Database Rights
Freedom of Panorama
Surveillance
E-lending
Fair Contracts
Orphan works
Text and Data Mining
Age Verification
Geoblocking
Network Neutrality

Mapping

After discussing each issues and arranging them on the gird, the ones in the top-right corner were deemed important and a least partly feasible:

Text and Data Mining
Orphan Works
Definitions of Open Access and Public Domain
Age Verification
Open Government License
Freedom of Panorama
Database Rights

Categorisation of Preselected Issues

Proactive

Orphan Works: No major barriers in terms of opposition, but relatively little incentive for government to make much change. Minor amendments to IPO OW licensing procedures have been made with activism before, so there may be some flexibility and openness to sensible suggestions.
Text & Data Mining: We need this to be open in order to support projects such as Wikidata "The right to read is the right to mine."
OA & PD Definitions: Important to ensure that Open Access means what it says.

Reactive

Age Verification: Important as the risk is overreach could affect Wikimedia projects, timely and something we can/should make our voice heard on.
Database Rights: Reactive to any EU changes, we would like an improvement on current status quo.
Freedom of Panorama: Depending on EU situation. Goal is to guard the UK status quo.
Open Government License: This is currently less of a policy issue for WMUK. Will be handled as cooperations/partnerships.

Next Steps

Create issue briefs
Work on a strategy for issues that are finally selected as "proactive"