TechCamp Reflections
October 18th, 2005
Digital Rights Ireland had its first outing into the public eye courtesy of a presentation at TechCamp last Saturday. I just thought it might be good to post what we learned from the experience, and to give people who were there, or who weren’t but were interested in the topic, a chance to dig a little deeper. That comments button is there for a reason, after all.
Firstly, we think that TechCamp was a very successful venture, so we were glad that our contribution was also seen as positive. (Thanks, of course, due to Piarias and Ed who organised the self-organising event. Because somebody always has to.) TJ McIntyre and Damien Mulley managed to draw people into a conversation, rather than give a lecture, and to reassure them that they wouldn’t be made feel foolish if they said the wrong thing. That may sound easy, but as anyone who’s ever stood up in front of an audience knows- it ain’t.
So, our reflections on the event- we had a capacity crowd for our room, we provoked some discussion and thought, and perhaps by the end we won some people over by the reasonableness of our answers to their doubts or queries.
People were interested. They wanted to know more. They were accepting, in general, of our bona fides. It was a good way to introduce ourselves. Having spoken face-to-face with people, we will already have a decent start of a reputation with them. There has been discussion, all positive so far, of our ideas online. We really couldn’t have asked for a better outcome than that. The further that spreads, the better.
So, what did we learn? Well, even at TechCamp, it was surprising to some of us how low the awareness was about a lot of the issues we discussed. The IRMA iPod position has been in the papers, but there was frank disbelief when we told people about it. The data retention issue showed up as the hottest, in terms of being the most contentious, of our menu of topics. And we expected that. But it is invaluable to be able to test those kinds of presumptions in the real world, with real people, before a full launch.
Just from trying to gauge reactions while Damien and TJ were talking, I thought that the question of matters arriving from Europe left people a little bewildered. I’m afraid we may need to find a good beginner’s guide to the EU’s workings to link to, or write one ourselves if we can’t find it. (There’s a search incentive if ever there was one. If you know of one, please point us in the right direction- Save Our Lawyers!). We need to explain in simple terms why leaving things in the hands of elected governments is not the democratic choice at a European level, if we’re to beat attempts to push matters through on Council of Ministers directions/Pillar 3 stuff. Because people will only take action (writing to their MEPs/TDs) if they can see why it matters.
Some of the people there had lovely stories. Robin of the Geared Up blog who told us about his O2 discoveries struck me as having just the right mix of awareness and divilment to make a good contribution. Eval Oren, the Dutchman who didn’t know it was illegal for him to crack DVDs he’d paid for, to play on his Linux computer, was another. We’d love to hear more from those kinds of people.
Does anyone else have any other ideas about what we learned on Saturday? I think it would be very useful to have that kind of discussion, as it is the best way of making use of our opportunities to speak to people and make sure our message gets through, more clearly and smoothly every time.
Entry Filed under: DRI, Data Retention, ID Cards, Intellectual Property
15 Comments Add your own
1. Joe Drumgoole | October 18th, 2005 at 1:57 pm
Intro to the European community here,
http://europa.eu.int/index_en.htm
Where did they get the .int domain from? Don’t ask me, but its a pretty good site.
2. Fergus | October 18th, 2005 at 4:36 pm
Hi Joe,
The .int Top Level Domain was set-up in 1988.
It was was established for registering organisations established by international treaties between or among national governments.
This includes the likes of the International Telecommunications, the World Health Organisation and the UN.
More info here
Fergus
3. Fergus | October 18th, 2005 at 4:50 pm
Oops, that info URL is:
http://www.iana.org/int-dom/int.htm
4. Gavin Byrne | October 18th, 2005 at 4:56 pm
The digital rights discussion was certainly the highlight of the day for me.
Although I didn’t record it myself, Bernie did and I’ll get a copy off him to put up on the TechCamp podcast.
We’d also be very happy to have you back to NEAR fm to talk on air.
Thanks.
Gavin.
5. Deirdre Kilroy | October 18th, 2005 at 5:37 pm
This organisation is an interesting addition to the current crop of Irish interest groups. The article above mentions “our message”. Can we anticipate seeing position papers on the site elucidating in greater detail what the message might be?
6. Gareth Stack | October 18th, 2005 at 9:12 pm
Hey guys,
Just came across the mention of you guys on boingboing. I run a small podcast which focus’s on civil liberties and technology issues (in addition to popular science), from DRM to US corporations in China to software patents etc.
We’d love to have one of you guys on the show to discuss your plans, and maybe drum up interest from our audience in participating in ‘EFF style’ work in this country. Drop us a line and let us know if you’d be interested!
7. TJ | October 19th, 2005 at 4:00 pm
Deirdre – we’re working on positions at the moment before we formally launch. One of the reasons we’re going public now is to seek input on what issues we should prioritise, as well as how we should approach those issues. Once we adopt a position paper, you can be sure that we will put it on the site as soon as possible.
In an ideal world we would have a full set of position papers up already. But there are some factors which mean that we have to hasten slowly. In broad terms we’re in agreement on (for example) data retention – but the devil is in the details. We have to be sure that what we say is entirely accurate, both technically and legally. In other areas, such as ID cards, we would be concerned about some of the proposals for Irish ID cards, but we might consider holding off on adopting a position until we see a formal proposal from the government.
Incidentally, one of our functions (as set out in our Memorandum) is to promote “public and political awareness” of digital rights issues. Even if we haven’t adopted a formal position on a particular topic, we will still be making progress if we can stimulate public debate on that topic.
8. Sean O'Donnell | October 20th, 2005 at 11:28 am
Hi Guys, I sadly missed your appearance at techcamp as I was not able to make it until lunchtime. Just finished reading the IRMA iPod position. This strikes me as an ideal target for a first campaign. “Legalize the iPod”. I cant see many TD’s wanting to explain to their constituients why little johnny is being sued for listening to a cd he bought on his iPod. It has an appeal to those with no special interest in technology issues, and you would be remembered fondly be people who would otherwise never hear of you.
9. bgoldbach | October 20th, 2005 at 1:24 pm
I played the audio track from the Digital Rights seminar to third level students and was surprised how many were totally unaware of the extent of their “criminal” activities while re-recording content or sharing music samples. I suspect that’s the case in the general population.
10. EWI | October 21st, 2005 at 12:17 am
The iPod issue is certainly… startling, and goes against all notions of common-sense.
Getting McDowell on the record as to whether or not he endorses Joe Soap ‘breaking’ the law would make for an interesting exercise… better if it’s done after asking him if he owns one
11. Tuppenceworth.ie blog &ra&hellip | October 21st, 2005 at 11:38 am
[...] I attended the first public outing- a sort of a beta launch the other attendees might have called it- of Digital Rights Ireland. Rather than repeat what I thought here, I’ll just point you at my little overview on the Digital Rights Ireland website. [...]
12. Paul Browne | October 28th, 2005 at 3:47 pm
Good presentation – it’s topic that many people aren’t aware of (until it happens to them!)
Thought you mgiht be interested in this article from Wired Magazine
US Judges refuses requests for tracking using Mobile-Phones
13. Charlie McHugh | October 29th, 2005 at 5:24 am
Just on a related note to the whole IRMA/ipod sbuject, what is IRMA’s stance on p2p. Are they looking to prosecute people involved with running p2p’s, people uploading or people downloading?Iit appears to me that they don’t even know their own stance on the issue and that they are merely acting on behalf of the big British reord labels. The ipod issue would seem to indicate that someone high up is barking down orders who themselve is out of touch with the subject.
14. Simon McGarr | November 5th, 2005 at 12:19 pm
IRMA have sent warning letters to 17 uploaders, demanding settlement monies from them. They say that if they don’t get such monies, they’ll sue for copyright infringment.
You can find further discussion of this issue on the Digital Rights section of boards.ie.
http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/forumdisplay.php?f=570
15. FlasheR!&hellip | June 7th, 2007 at 4:17 pm
And some else, come here……
The most interest!…
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