Archive:2005-01-04

Minutes for a conference call on January 4, 2005 for working on the Spring 2005 Policy Paper and Spring 2005 Strategy Paper

=External Policy Paper=
 * Public Knowledge's policy paper is short and to the point, and it makes a good starting point for our own paper...

Review example mission statement from PK (emailed to list by Nelson) We need something nice, short and sweet to give to legislators, so they know who the heck we are. Example from ??? from Swarthmore Start with an introduction of who we are Ã¢â‚¬Å“Students and supportersÃ¢â‚¬?  How much detail should we give? National/international/none? Specific number of campuses? 14? Over a dozen...</li> Colleges across the country</li> Want to include info about how we're a student movement</li> Do we want to associate ourselves with other orgs?</li> It was agreed upon that we will not explicitly list any associations.</li> Catch phrase Ã¢â‚¬Å“What will be is built on what is and what was.Ã¢â‚¬?</li></ul>

Some pieces of an introduction:

We are for a vibrant, open culture that people can freely draw on to build upon. We believe that free enterprise strives upon openness/open access.

We are against the use of technology to subvert (oppose?) (or undermine?) competition in the free market. (can we say both the positive and the negative in this sentence, say "technology is a tool to enhance free market competition and should be perverted as to undermine free and unfettered competition in the marketplace of ideas or commerce.)

Democratic form of distribution. (... of content)

Key points to make: <ul>One like PK's first</li> Academic freedom</li> We believe in the Betamax decision (i.e., substantial non-infringing uses)</li> We oppose abuse of the legislative process to protect old industries ('old industries' is both ambiguous and incorrect - when Ben D conceive of an old industry I think coal mining. how about something like 'abusive market leaders')  from innovation.</li> Any public works produced by the government should be freely and openly available to all citizens.</li></ul>

Sentence fragments for academic freedom: innovation and growth depend on research, which must be able to be carried out unhindered. Academic research depends on open access to information. Our nation is dependent upon innovation and research.

Should we explicitly reference the DMCA? e.g., the safe-harbor clause, the anti-circumvention. (Ben D thinks so: these are staffers. First, this gives the impression that we know what we are talking about.  The last thing that a staffer wants is some sappy memo of some philosophical platitude.  I think referencing DMCA, etc. give them concrete and specific things to consider within the general context and framework of an external policy paper or whatever we are calling this thing)

'''Next meeting: Thursday 10PM EST on IRC. We will be finishing (really!) our internal strategy paper.'''

Some to-do items for the meeting:<ul> Finish strategy paper</li> Resolve question of whether suggestions for locals belong in strategy paper (or, which).</li> Re-organize strategy paper accordingly.</li> Decide which campaigns to undertake.</li> Prioritize projects.</li> Assign responsibilities.</li></ul>