Receive posts by Email
Entries (RSS)
German Activists Collaborating on Writing Draft Bill Online
Written by Simon Columbus on November 7, 2008 – 12:05 am -
Description: Germany’s “Telemediengesetz” is seen as inadequate by many critics. The law is meant to regulate so called information and communication services, mostly affecting the internet. Hence its name: “Telemedien” is a neologism which was made up combining the former descriptions “Teledienste” (meaning one-to-one communication services) and “Mediendienste” (meaning one-to-many communication services). Though it only became effective in March 2007 it has since been criticized by experts as inadequate. As the Bundestag discussed amendments brought in by the three oppositional parties, German bloggers have started an online project to lobby for significant and useful changes on the bill.
Tools Being Used: Blogs, Wiki, Listserv
What Are They Doing: Some bloggers proposed to write a draft for the new bill together. The draft is thought to include all the proposals which can be heard from experts since years but have always been ignored by the government. The project is open for participation.
The bloggers set up a provisional wiki where the draft will be developed jointly much in the way of a Wikipedia article. They then announced it on netzpolitik.org, an important blog which is known for having criticized the Telemediengesetz before, in order to find more people interested in participating in the project.
In their first step, the bloggers started discussing the foundations for their project, including the question whether a wiki is the best solution for their intention. They subsequently set up a mailing list as a means to discuss the project.
The next step after finishing the foundations of the project will be to work out a draft which can be proposed to the Bundestag.
Who is organizing the action? The wiki was set up by the niche bloggers of Telemedicus in cooperation with Germany’s most important blog on net politics, award-winning netzpolitik.org.
Tags: bill, Germany, Telemediengesetz, wiki
Posted in Campaigns, Europe, Listservs, Wikis |
By dan mcquillan on Nov 8, 2008 | Reply
Yes, good work there by german bloggers.
But i think the most exciting aspect of the german movement against ‘Stasi 2.0′ (as they say) has been it’s ability to convene and mobilise offline as well as online.
firstly, because i suspect organising IRL is where the real social impact of the internet lies.
secondly, because they’re pulling people in to events aound issues that are, well, pretty geeky!
as a board member of the open rights group in the uk, i’m happy to say that we did our small part for the recent international Freedom not Fear action (http://www.openrightsgroup.org/2008/10/11/freedom-not-fear-the-big-picture-unveiled-on-parliament-square/), which the german groups played a big part in initiating (you get a sense of the scale in my post: http://www.internetartizans.co.uk/freedom_not_fear_openrightsgroup)
fwiw, some of the most insightful stuff in english i’ve seen about developments in germany has come from Ralf Bendrath; see for example http://bendrath.blogspot.com/2007/09/how-to-build-privacy-movement.html.
best
dan
By Simon Columbus on Nov 9, 2008 | Reply
Hi Dan,
first of all thank you for your comment, and congratulate you to the efforts of the Open Rights Group. By the way I liked your Freedom not Fear action pretty much. It combines political activism with an aspect of arts and culture, which is the best statement to underline the “Freedom”.
Regarding your perception of the German anti-surveillance movement I can’t but agree with you on the fact that the Arbeitskreis Vorratsdatenspeicherung has done a great work combining on- and offline activities.
Having done on-the-ground work for the AK VDS myself not only by participating in demonstrations, info and art events, but also by doing workshops with students on privacy issues I cannot deny that today the major social impact can be done offline.
Still I tend to disagree with you on your position that “IRL is where the real social impact of the internet lies.”
Let me explain this a bit. I have just attended a conference on the of the “social web” for political activism. And I think some of the most interesting lectures was a keynote by richard rogers who explained something quite impressive:
That not only the time of a cyberspace separated from the “real” world was over, but also the time when the virtual was part of the real. He claimed, from a sociologists point of view, that nowadays, “the virtual has become an indication of what’s going on in the real”.
If you then take a look on what Teemu Arina writes about mobiles, you will see that these people do not see a border between virtual and real any longer.
Well, and now I hope I haven’t misinterpreted your comment.
And yes, Ralf is great. I’ve met him once and he’s really a nice guy, adding to his great knowledge.