[pp.int.general] My proposed PPI strategy for 2012/2013 period

[Gregory Engels]

Dear all, 

In preparation of my candidature for the PPI Co-Chairman
I have written up what I will be conducting as the elected Co-Chairman.
This is not set in stone, but should give you the idea. I will 
present this election program later today during my candidacy presentation, 
that can be followed over the stream of the #PPint conference.

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 PPI Action Plan 2012/2013
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1 Situation
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Pirate Parties International exists to help establish, to support and promote, and to maintain communication and co-operation between pirate parties around the world.

The Pirate Parties International is an organization constantly meeting new challenges and expanding its activities into new countries. The Pirate Movement keep expanding to new regions. New Parties are being formed and existing ones are celebrating election successes. On the same time established political actors got this success on its radar, and beginning to notice pirate success, and starting first counter-reactions aiming to ridicule the pirate movement as aimless, harmless and perhaps even dangerous. 

The coming time for the Pirate Parties International will be crucial to prove itself in its intentions and capability to support the Pirate Movement and in representing it goals at the international level.  To achieve this, a concentration on the available resources and strength of the PPI is needed, also, to establish a higher level of agility and effectiveness. 

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2 General Strategy
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To achieve its goals it is needed that the PPI will develop a higher level of agility and effectiveness in its work and structures. PPI must concentrate on its core strengths and expanding from that to become a noticeable actor on the international political arena.

We need to strengthening the connections between the Pirate Parties worldwide and create structures that can constantly adopt to change. 

2.1 More Opportunities for Interaction

Like every large political organization, the PPI can improve its functioning if all members contribute to the elaboration of a long enough term strategy and to the creation of more opportunities of interaction.

One of the most fruitful and empowering aspects of the work of PPI is the organization of conferences, this should be extended with more conferences, distinct from the formal General Assembly meetings. This can happen in organization of topical conferences and regional meetings. Also, it makes sense to create meetings for communities of interest - like meetings of the treasures of the member organizations, or of the persons responsible for IT or press teams. The later can be supported by remote voice conferences over mumble or telephone.

2.2 Communications

To achieve its goals PPI needs to broaden the communications and to optimize it to different channels, so it can reach the relevant audience in the most effective way.

2.2.1 towards Members

The communication towards PPIs members must focus on delivering and distributing the news of the Pirate Movement and of PPI internal developments. A member focused Newsletter (and a Blog) needs to be established. This can also include the production of podcasts on parties development. The experience has shown, that it is not feasible to rely on PPI's members to deliver content for PPI's website, but rather a proactive way needs to be pursued, by creating a team of authors and editors inside the PPI for content creation.

The internal developments communication needs change to the pro-active mode and streamline its distribution channel. (e.g. the board's meeting minutes and other material needs to be published on the homepage in addition to the wiki, and an announcement of this publication needs to be sent out pro-actively) 

2.2.2 towards Media

In the past PPI's board handled the contacts with the media in a reactive way - mainly responding to journalists requests. This is not sufficient for the PPI roles as the political international, a new, proactive approach must be installed. PPI need active press relations management and proactive communication towards press. A dedicated team of press relations needs to be established, with direct responsibility from the team from the PPI's board.

2.3 Structure

The once established structure of dividing PPIs work into self-managed and self-organized Task-Forces has failed to deliver persistent results, with a notable exception of the translation task force. This is mainly because a lack of an leader has always led to a blatant lack of resources. 
To address this, the work structure of the PPI needs to change for the following two principles: 
First: all PPI undertakings should have a project oriented approach, with clear goals, plan and structure. 
Second: It needs to follow more the structure of the service-groups with a leader appointed by the board and taking responsibility for the project. This leader should also plan the resource need and recruit volunteers to be part of his service-group or project team. But having a more rigid structure and an appointed leader does not mean, that we are abounding the advantages the open task-forces have had, it is still possible for anyone to participate and have a democratic influence on the work, it is just that PPI's board and members will have a clear communication entry point into this group.

2.4 Finance

PPI's funds and resources are very limited, so in order to fulfill its goals a broadened financing must be established. A financing on memberships fees is the most obvious solution, however a way needs to be found that is satisfactory to all members, in the end it is the task of the General Assembly to decide on this. PPI also need to find additional funding sources - by structuring its work into projects it will allow apply for public and private grants. A donation system needs to established that will allow for easier contributions from individuals. (Right now, there is no "donate" button on the PPI homepage).

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3 Actions
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To fulfill the topics outlined in the general strategy section following concrete actions needs to be executed

3.1 Conferences

Instead of having only one conference per year, in the following 2012/2013 board period four to five conferences should be conducted

3.1.1 Regional Conferences

Despite that PPI is a worldwide organization with Members from all continents, the PPI Conferences happened to be only in Europe. There are several reasons for this, one is the concentration of democratic evolved countries with Pirate Parties in Europe, and the other is the lack of resources in the Pirate Parties outside Europe to organize a large international conference. One of the solutions for this is the organization of regional conferences, as it would bring the pirates together from the regions that are lacking the opportunity for a larger gathering and exchange.

3.1.1.1 Latin and South America

A regional PPI conference in South America will make the most impact on new Pirate Parties in that continent - so far only the Pirate Party of Brazil is a PPI Member, having a regional conference could introduce the Pirate Parties of Argentina, Uruguay, Venezuela, Colombia, Peru, Guatemala, Panama, Ecuador, Costa Rica and El Salvador to the PPI's work.

3.1.1.2 North America

A regional PPI conference in North America can help exchange the experience between the Pirate Party of Canada with the US and Mexican colleagues, seeding impulses for developing regional parties structures. So far only the Pirate Party of Canada is a PPI Member and have started collecting election experiences and campaign expertise. Besides of Pirate Party of Florida who has become first PPI Observer Member from North America, there are a number of other states Parties in the US that could benefit from a PPI Regional Conference.

3.1.1.3 Other Region

If resources permit, a third or even forth Regional Conference in Northern Africa and/or Balkan Region could be conducted. Both regions have Pirate Parties facing comparable challenges and sharing a relative similar stage of development.

3.1.2 Topical Congress

In addition to the annual PPI General Assembly that is dominated by formal statutory tasks like elections and inclusion of new Members, a broader events for exchange and development on core pirate topics should be conducted. Those should have a character of a  congress, by facilitating a space for a dialog between pirates, research experts and stakeholders of all kind.

3.1.2.1 Patents Congress

One of the topics to start with for such a topical congress is the discussion on patents. Pirates have already a strong opinion on some patents issues, like the patents on software and life forms, but many other issues need a deeper dive into this matter in order to develop a profound positions. This Congress probably needs to happen in Europe, because the Pirate Parties capable of organizing such an international event are concentrated here.

3.1.3 Next GAs

In order to simplify the travel arrangements for PPI members and the conference planning, the date and location for the next ordinary General Assembly should be called for proposals as soon as possible - PPI conferences will grow in the future, so having more time for organizing them is essential. So the planning of the conference after the next one should also be started now, so that it will be known more than a year in advance, which could allow the bids also for smaller Pirate Parties by giving them more time for founding the resources and solving organizational challenges.

3.2 Cooperation

PPI needs to create more opportunities for cooperation, both internally and externally

3.2.1 Internal

Internal cooperation means of bringing together the communities of interest of the PPI Members by providing opportunities for regular exchange - for example as a regular mumble conference of parties treasures and financial officers, or IT responsible. On some occasions even organizing a physical meeting might be feasible.
Besides of the administrative communities of interests, there should also be communities for municipal politicians, the student wings, youth parties, and so on (as long as they don't have their own umbrella organizations set up).

3.2.2 External

Pirate Parties International needs to get in contact and explore the possibilities of cooperation with the friendly NGOs like Free Software Foundation, Electronic Frontier Foundation, Knowledge International, Global Network Initiative, and so on. It might be possible to set up mutual projects, or just finding opportunities for personal exchange.

3.3 Lobby

PPI should use more its unique position of an international NGO to lobby the pirate politics into areas that are unreachable for its Members on their own. Below are some areas (not concluding) of some opportunities for influence on the international political arena.

3.3.1 Comments Process

Many international institutions are calling for comments from the civil society on its legislation. Some of those calls for comments are fitting into the areas the Pirate Parties are concerned about and where they have formulated policy. PPI should channel those policies into the consultancies processes. 

3.3.1.1 EU Consultancies

Several bodies of the European Union are running public consultancies. Some Pirate Parties have participated in this processes in the past. However, a lot of opportunities have gone unused or even unnoticed. PPI need to have an appointed coordinator (see 2.3) for creating a team for monitor the opportunities for consultations and to asses the topics on the question of how it is affecting the pirate platforms. This team should also work closely with the Pirate MEPs.

3.3.1.2 CC 4.0

Creative Commons are in the process of issuing the updated version of its licenses, and have publicly asked for input on the first public draft [1]. Two more drafts are to come. As many Pirate Parties have been involved in actively proposing CC-compatible legislation in their respective countries, there should be in the interest of PPI to develop a comment on the proposed CC-4.0 draft.

[1] https://creativecommons.org/weblog/entry/32157

3.3.2 EU Lobby Register

As the Pirate Parties are advocating political transparency, the PPI should register itself in the EU Lobby register [2] even if not yet required by the EU to do so.

[2] http://europa.eu/transparency-register/your-organisation/faq/index_en.htm

3.3.3 Observer Memberships

One of the functions of an Political International is to interact with the actors of international policy making. This can also happen by the means of applying for observer memberships at those organizations. Some of them have more priorities, however:

3.3.3.1 WIPO

PPI meet the requirements for applying for an observer memberships at the WIPO. If such status will be granted, it will allow to send a observant Pirate delegation to the WIPO events, such as the WIPO Assembly (this year it is from October 1st to 9th in Geneva) where the topics of patents, copyright, trademarks and so called "Intellectual Property" are discussed. We should not let this field of lobbying to the entertainment industry, but instead communicate the Pirate view on those topics.

3.3.3.2 ECOSOC

United Nations Economic and Social Council is one of the most important UN bodies that is responsible for 70% of the UN financial and humanitarian resources. It conduct a series of regular events and have 3200+ observers from NGOs. The Pirates should be concerned, as the ECOSOC is one of the bodies that covers humanitarian affairs and also global technical questions. PPI should apply for the observer status at those meetings, as soon as its meet the admission criteria. The ECOSOC observer status grants also the access to most other UN bodies and meetings.

3.3.3.2.1 UNHRC

The UN Human Rights Council conducts a periodic Universal Periodic Review in that PPI could participate in writing regardless of the ECOSOC observer status. In this Report the UN evaluate on a 4 year cycle the status of the human rights in every country of the world. This might be the key to point out the lack of democratic structures in the countries of the PPI Members.

3.4 Projects

As outlined in the strategy section 2.3 the PPI should conduct its work in a project structure, with clear responsibilities, goals, scope and resources. Below is a non terminal list of projects that needs to be started in order to fulfill the PPI goals of supporting the Pirate Movement.

3.4.1 International Pirate Archive

The first Pirate Party have started only six years ago, yet it is already hard to impossible to find the information from the beginning days. The first version of the Piratpartiet website is probably gone for ever, as it has not been cached by the Way-back-Machine of Archive.org. Regardless, of how the Pirate Parties will develop, it is important to conserve the documents (and this include electronic and physical resources) of Pirate Parties for the research to come. By having described a clear structure and goals of the International Archive of Pirate Movement it will be possible to apply for grants and founding, to find through PPI Members a team of professional archivists, and even to join the Section on Political Archives of the International Council on Archives [3]

[3] http://www.ica.org/792/about-section-for-archives-of-parliaments-and-political-parties-spp/about-parliamentary-and-political-party-archives-spp.html

3.4.2 International Newsletter

An international newsletter should be issued by a PPI team, that will target of distributing news and best practices of the Pirate Movement. This will need to have a proper journalistic setup - with a group of authors and editors and with a schedule of topics. A good structure to copy here is from the successful newsletter of the Pirate Party of Germany the "Flaschenpost".

3.4.3 Image Bank

We need a Pirate Image Bank for collecting and tagging of pirate related pictures, graphics, videos and similar material. It needs to hold copyright free material, but be flexible enough to take into account of the different free licenses that are "out there". This Image Bank could be used by the PPI Newsletter, the PPI Members and by general Press.

3.4.4 Media Team

This team should fulfill the "communication toward media" strategy, by creating an infrastructure capable of distributing the press releases and addressing the international media.

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4 Conclusion
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We must approach the challenges with determination and enthusiasm. Now is the time where our movement needs to have a sense of purpose and unity, to take on those who are working hard behind the international scenes to erode the human rights in the name of fighting the terrorism or the protection of children, while all what they longing in truth is to execute control and to protect their outdated business models. We must not let those forces prevail. 


sincerely yours, 

Gregory Engels
International Coordinator
Pirate Party of Germany

mobile: +49 172 853 44 91
skype:gregory.engels
jabber:dichter at jabber.piratenpartei.de
my free time: https://tungle.me/dichter






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