Submissions/New Wikimedian Order - How to represent Wikimedia's values in international organisations?

This is a Completed submission for Wikimania 2017 ready to be reviewed by a member of the Programme Committee.

Submission no. 4003 Subject - LE3

Title of the submission: New Wikimedian Order - How to represent Wikimedian values in international trade negotiations?

Type of submission roundtable discussion

Author of the submission: John Weitzmann, Dimi Dimitrov

Language of presentation: English, French, German

E-mail address: john.weitzmannwikimedia.de, dimiwikimedia.be

Username: User:John_Weitzmann_(WMDE), User:Dimi_z

Country of origin: Germany, Belgium

Affiliation, if any (organisation, company etc.): WMDE, WMBE

Personal homepage or blog

Abstract (up to 300 words to describe your proposal)

In the past decade, Wikimedia has been becoming increasingly visible in public debates surrounding education and knowledge sharing. We are now recognised as a relevant stakeholder by numerous national and regional bodies thanks to the work of local affiliate communities. In Europe we have a continental structure assuring regular interaction with the European Union institutions, while in Africa an initiative to structure our conversations with the African Union has just been proposed.

When it comes to global organisations, though, and especially to international negotiations leading up to far-reaching trade agreements, civil society is notoriously under-visible. While individual chapters have made some efforts to assure we are represented, our voice still isn't heard in global organisations and negotiations that lay the foundations of the internet and the copyright framework. Such international bodies would be the World Intellectual Property Organization, the International Telecommunication Union and the UN Development Programme.

At the same time, more than others the Wikimedia Movement seems to be equipped to engage in these international fora. The questions are: How do we agree on concrete positions for such engagements? How do we leverage our worldwide network of dedicated people, especially volunteers, in a sustainable way? Who could organise these engagement efforts and how? We would like to invite everyone who takes an interest in global governance to discuss whether and how Wikimedia and its movement should make itself heard in this sphere, how we should structure our presence and which organisations it makes sense for us to be working with.

What will attendees take away from this session?

The goal is to have a basic idea how we want Wikimedia represented in international organisations and negotiation rounds, so we can work on a establishing guidelines that WMF, chapters and user-groups can rely upon.

Theme of presentation: 60 minutes

Legal & Free Culture

For workshops and discussions, what level is the intended audience? intermediate, advanced

Length of session (if other than 25 minutes, specify how long): 45 minutes

Will you attend Wikimania if your submission is not accepted?: yes

Slides or further information (optional)

Special requests: In order to assure that all interested participants can be present, we would be extremely grateful if this session could take place on Friday or Saturday.

This is a Completed submission for Wikimania 2017 ready to be reviewed by a member of the Programme Committee.

Interested attendees

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