To support Hans's view with a more official one, here is what I have to tell:<br><br>We believe it would be more convenient to first get to know each other a better and discuss our communications and infrastructure before meeting up in a politically big place, for example Brussels.<br>
<br>I suggest Brussels meeting should be held after a year. Then a lot of more PPs wold be active and we could expect to hear some insider experiences from Engström's work in EU by then.<br><br>We in Piraattipuolue in Finland are ready to host this preliminary conference in the beginning of 2010 before Brussels or such. Arranging this in February-March (like it was last year) would also coincide with our party meeting, where all of you would also, naturally, welcomed to attend to.<br>
<br>Let's get the websites, wikis and work in better shape before having an assembly in a politically high-profile place.<br><br>- Joonas Mäkinen, vice chairman of Piraattinuoret, the Pirate youth of Finland.<br><br><div class="gmail_quote">
Den 3 augusti 2009 21.34 skrev Hans Häggström <span dir="ltr"><<a href="mailto:hans.haggstrom@iki.fi">hans.haggstrom@iki.fi</a>></span>:<br><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="border-left: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204); margin: 0pt 0pt 0pt 0.8ex; padding-left: 1ex;">
I too agree that we should decide on the purpose and focus of the PPI<br>
organization first, as it can help suggest how it is best to organize.<br>
<br>
Patrick has a good list of goals that are related to internal<br>
communication, sharing best practices, and helping new parties form.<br>
<br>
Another very important function is outward communication - telling the<br>
world what the pirate ideologies are, and what different pirate<br>
parties are doing and what their status are (so both up-to date long<br>
term progress information, as well as day to day blog updates and<br>
press-releases from different parties). This part should also be<br>
relatively press-friendly, with free-to-use pictures and persons that<br>
can be contacted for interviews (where applicable), but also be in<br>
blog form, with (possibly moderated) comments, RSS feeds, etc.<br>
<br>
In addition I think PPI could help the work of the pirate parties by<br>
organizing, hosting, or just collecting links to fact digging about<br>
various transnational (and maybe national) law proposals, reports, or<br>
law making processes. E.g. list the different repressive surveillance<br>
laws in different countries / EU that we are trying to stop or<br>
reverse, or beneficial laws that we are trying to push, and our<br>
success and current status with them. The fact digging may be best to<br>
let happen as a swarm work in various places, without too much attempt<br>
at central direction, other than encouraging, finding, indexing and<br>
collecting it. Although much of this is specific to one country and<br>
maybe can best be done by the specific pirate party internally, at<br>
least in EU there are a lot of common work, as well as with<br>
transnational proposals such as ACTA.<br>
<br>
Technically, those functions can be implemented with a blog, wiki,<br>
mailing list, IRC, and regular off-line meetings. The last three we<br>
have, while the current site could be split into a separate blog and<br>
wiki (and possibly forums, although they seem to have been unused for<br>
some time). The role of the PPI teams would then be to maintain the<br>
infrastructure, encourage updating of status information that seems to<br>
have gone outdated, forward blog updates from their parties, and<br>
organize the off-line meetings. Different groups of people could of<br>
course take care of each type of task.<br>
<br>
Looking at PPI like this, it becomes more a facilitator of<br>
communication and collector of information than a policy making body<br>
(as, in the end, each party anyway decides on their policies on their<br>
own). Hence, PPI could be set up more like a knowledge collecting,<br>
site maintenance, and conference arranging organization.<br>
<br>
<br>
-- Hans<br>
Finnish Pirate Party member - the expressed views are my own though,<br>
and do not necessarily reflect the views of my party.<br>
<div><div></div><div class="h5"><br>
<br>
<br>
On Sun, Aug 2, 2009 at 9:43 PM, Patrick Mächler v/o<br>
Valio<<a href="mailto:valio@visionsinteractive.ch">valio@visionsinteractive.ch</a>> wrote:<br>
> I absolutely agree with Eric.<br>
> But I'm not sure whether the mailing list is the way discuss this issue.<br>
> Maybe the message board is better suited for that?<br>
><br>
> Anyway...the main goals of PPI in my view are:<br>
> 1. Guarantee communication between all pirate party members and<br>
> affiliates around the world (we already have that more-less with this<br>
> list and the message board)<br>
> 2. Guarantee communication between all pirate party board of directors<br>
> to all members (let them report in a cyclic manner, collect those<br>
> reports in a regular newsletter)<br>
> 3. Organize regular opportunities for delegates [in RL or VL] to<br>
> establish common goals across nations<br>
> 4. Evaluate best practices across nations for party work (such as<br>
> finding new members)<br>
> 5. Coordinate development work with established parties for nations that<br>
> do not have an established party yet.<br>
> 6. Having a database with people, that are very specialized and which<br>
> are hard to get (famous celebrities?)<br>
><br>
> But point 6 is actually the least important for me; e.g. according to my<br>
> experience, most translation work can actually be done in national<br>
> parties, so I doubt whether it's of that much importance.<br>
><br>
> cheers<br>
> patrick<br>
><br>
> Eric Priezkalns wrote:<br>
>> Guys,<br>
>><br>
>> A word of advice. One mistake that voluntary organizations make is to<br>
>> focus on things like governance (who gets to attend, who gets to vote,<br>
>> how often you meet) at the expense of purpose (what you intend to achieve).<br>
>><br>
>> For this reason, before this conversation goes much further, I would<br>
>> like to ask anyone interested to clearly state what they think a PPI<br>
>> committee, a PPI conference, and any other PPI entity/organization/event<br>
>> is intended to achieve. Can we generate a common agreed list, that<br>
>> briefly and clearly lists somewhere between four and twelve goals to be<br>
>> satisfied by the PPI? I say this now, because people being unclear<br>
>> about what is meant to be achieved is a common and fundamental reason<br>
>> for why activities like this fail in practice. Identifying the purpose<br>
>> is also something that can and should be resolved at the very beginning,<br>
>> before other planning takes place. That way, you can plan to fulfill<br>
>> the purpose. Choices like who to invite and how decisions get made will<br>
>> probably be different for different kinds of goals. However, I am<br>
>> currently very unclear about what the PPI is meant to achieve.<br>
>><br>
>> Best regards,<br>
>><br>
>> Eric<br>
>><br>
</div></div><snip older conversation><br>
<div><div></div><div class="h5">____________________________________________________<br>
Pirate Parties International - General Talk<br>
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</div></div></blockquote></div><br><br clear="all"><br>-- <br>Joonas "JoonasD6" Mäkinen<br>Varapuheenjohtaja, viceordförande<br>Piraattinuoret - Piratungdom<br><br>Department of Mathematics and Statistics<br>Faculty of Science<br>
University of Helsinki<br><br>gsm +358 40 700 5190<br>