[Lowdown] MF/PL's USSF workshop - Declaration of Internet Rights

[Alfredo Lopez]

Hi everybody,

Back for the USSF and we're preparing a report to the members about what
we did as an organization. In the meantime, though, we wanted to send
out this report on our workshop. We'd like all members to participate in
the work around the Declaration of Internet Rights and so we're
including the report below.

Abrazos,

Alfredo

-- 
Alfredo Lopez, Co-Director
May First/People Link
Growing Networks to Build a Just World!
http://www.mayfirst.org
718-303-3204 -- (ext. 106)
Members Local 1180, Communications Workers of America, AFL-CIO

--------

At a workshop sponsored by May First/People Link about 40 activists got
together for an exercise in what we called "collaborative democracy".
Here's a description of the process written by Co-Director Jamie
McClelland and myself.

The workshop centered around a collaborative and democratic process of
writing a Declaration of Rights for Internet participants.

We broke into seven groups, with each group speaking with one voice via
a "scribe" who was tasked with entering the thoughts and ideas of the
group into the web-based system. Like the philosophy of free software on
the Internet, there was no ownership of ideas. Once a group submitted an
idea, any other group could edit that idea. All revisions were kept,
however, only the most recent edit is presented.

Each group also had the option of endorsing the idea as it stood. Once
an idea was edited, all endorsements disappeared (except for the group
submitting the edit). Then each group had to re-endorse the new version.
The rights with the most endorsers floated to the top, while the rights
with the least endorses sunk to the bottom of the list.

And finally, the catch: the system only allowed 10 rights to be created.
Once we reached 10, each group had to modify an existing right, thereby
engaging the other groups in a dialogue.

The workshop used software we created (and with is Free and Open Source)
and, while the software "forced" certain "rules" (like the "10 maximum"
rule and the endorsement system), we offered no other guidelines or
rules to the workshop. People had to make up their own rules as they
went along.

The process was truly exciting. Groups, forced to edit a right, began
seeking out the group that had done the current edit to discuss
phrasing, intent and perspective.

It was also exciting because it produced the following "document" which
was presented, by MF/PL Co-Director Josue Guillen to the People's
Assembly (the USSF's last participatory event). It received overwhelming
support.

We want people to circulate, discuss, change, work with and organize
around This Declaration of Internet Rights and that's why we're posting
it. This version has the number of endorsing groups attached with one
caveat. Right #10, which was being endorsed by virtually every group,
was amended right before the workshop ended and lost its endorsements.
We think it probably would have been re-endorsed by most groups had we
not run out of time.

Here it is:


1. The public has the right to deploy, maintain, and own its own
communications networks utilizing any and all technologies. Endorsers: 7
of 7 groups

2. All users should have the right to see and modify the source code of
all software that they use. Endorsers: 5 of 7 groups

3. Users have the right to filter or block unwanted communications to
themselves. Endorsers: 5 of 7 groups

4. Internet users should be free to access content without censorship
and discrimination from the government, internet providers or other 3rd
parties. Endorsers: 4 of 7 groups

5. All people should have free high-speed access to the internet and the
tools to access it in their own language with adequate technical
support. Endorsers: 4 of 7 groups

6. Government processes and information should be transparent and easy
to access on the Internet. Endorsers: 4 of 7 groups

7. All content and data should be equally accessible without
discrimination. Endorsers: 3 of 7 groups

8. Webmasters have the right to monitor traffic on their own site.
Endorsers: 2 of 7 groups

9. All internet users have the right to view, host, and publish content
anonymously, without fear of persecution, and to secure private data.
Endorsers: 2 of 7 groups

10. All internet users have the right to know what information is
collected about them and by who; and to protect their privacy and
personal data, and to share and transport their own information.
Endorsers: 1 of 7 groups