Thanks to a generous grant from the Open Society Institute, we’re seeking to expand our campaigning team. We’re looking for an experienced and committed digital rights campaigner to amplify our work on issues around copyright reform and copyright infringement, taking the concerns of ORG and its supporters to Europe and beyond.

The right candidate will be a self-starter, someone who can set their own goals, delegate and prioritise and who has the ability to initiate and successfully execute projects. It’s an exciting opportunity to be part of a small, committed team working to protect civil liberties and consumer rights in the digital age.

If you’re interested in applying, please read this job description for further details about the position. CVs and covering letters should be sent in .pdf format to michael [AT] openrightsgroup.org by midnight on Sunday 11 May. Interviews will take place in central London in the period 14-16 May.

If you’ve ever:

• signed the Open Rights Group pledge;
• said you’d support the Open Rights Group and haven’t; or
• supported ORG in the past and then stopped

…then it’s likely you’ll have received an email from me today, telling you about our Review of Activities and asking you to dig deep into your pockets to support ORG.

The good news is that if you support ORG now, the Joseph Rowntree Reform Trust Ltd will match the amount you give to us. Which means everything that you give will be worth double to ORG. So get giving!

This arrangement is set to be in place for the next two years, or until the Open Rights Group has received £10,000 in new funds, whichever happens first. Thanks heartily to JRRT Ltd, and thanks especially to all the people who have already reacted to our emails, and are sending in funds.

Today I’m proud to be able to publish a review of the Open Rights Group’s first two years of activity, including our first year’s accounts. I hope that ORG supporters will enjoy reading how their contributions - financial, mental and physical - have collectively created an organisation that has had a demonstrable effect on UK digital rights issues. I also hope that ORG’s story so far will encourage more people to join the swelling ranks of ORG supporters.

As ORG chair Louise Ferguson writes in her foreword to the Review:

“ORG benefits from all manner of support from the many people involved in this grassroots organisation. From the individuals who support us financially or in kind, to the scores of people who keep our lively email list buzzing and those who generously volunteer their time and expertise, there are hundreds of people who contribute to ORG’s success. Our supporters and volunteers, who come from right across the political spectrum, drive our organisation, informing debates on a wide range of issues and providing amazing energy for projects and campaigns”

But today is not all about back-slapping. Now, more than ever, ORG needs your support. 2008 holds new challenges. Content industries, not satisfied with controlling your devices, are seeking to control your internet connection too. And next year will be a decisive one in the fight against the surveillance state, as political energy mounts around securing individual citizens’ rights to privacy. ORG needs to be there, speaking up for your digital rights.

So if you’re not yet supporting ORG, please start today.

If you’re not sure whether you are supporting ORG, please email me or Michael (becky AT; or michael AT openrightsgroup DOT org) and we’ll let you know. And if you are supporting ORG, please use today to spread the word about ORG to your friends and colleagues, and let them know why they should be too.

Finally, huge thanks to everyone who has made ORG’s first two years such a success - we’ve tried to namecheck as many of you as possible, but I’m sure we’ve left some people out. Here’s to building on our success, and to a bright future for our digital rights!

Update: The review is now available in html format.

The Open Rights Group, in collaboration with 01zero-one and funded by the London Development Agency, is beginning an exciting new research project, examining how the internet enables creative entrepreneurs to develop innovative business practices by being more open with their intellectual property. Creative Business in the Digital Era will examine new business models and the wider context in which they sit, culminating in one day-long and two evening courses at which we will share our findings.

In the fine tradition of eating our own dogfood, we are developing the course out in the open, and under a Creative Commons licence, using a wiki. But we need your help. We have only a couple of months to do our research, so we need you to help us shape of the course, figure out the format of the case studies, and carry out research. Time is genuinely tight - we must complete all the course materials by the beginning of February, ready for delivery in March.

Right now, this week, we need your ideas. What open-IP business models have you come across? And who is experimenting with opening up their IP? We’re thinking of examples like Radiohead letting their fans decide a fair price for the digital version of their new album. Or Magnatune’s use of Creative Commons licences to allow music buyers to sample songs before they buy. Or writers like Cory Doctorow, Lawrence Lessig and Tom Reynolds giving away their books for free under a CC licence whilst also publishing and charging for print copies. Or websites that produce an API so that others can build third party applications using their data, such as Google Maps. Once we’ve gathered a list of examples, we will pick a few case studies to focus our research on.

We also need to know what you would want to know about these business models and examples if you were thinking of opening up your information to the world. What questions would you ask? What would you be concerned about? What would you be excited to know more about? Getting answers to these questions will be essential to ensuring that our case studies are meaningful and useful.

This project is about the real world, not theory, and we want people to walk away from the course with a good understanding of what others are doing and feeling inspired to do something innovative themselves. Which means we also need to know about failures. Who has tried an open-IP business model and failed? What did they do? Why didn’t it work? It’s easy for us to be optimistic about the future of such businesses, but we’ve already drunk the kool-aid. In order to convince those sitting on the fence, we need to honestly examine what can go wrong and what can be done to ensure that people pursuing an open IP business don’t fall into the same traps.

If all this sounds exciting to you, and you want to get involved, then there are several things you can do:

1. Sign-up for a free account on the wiki and get cracking!
2. Join the ORG-Discuss mailing list and contribute to the conversation there.
3. Save relevant links to Del.icio.us using the tag org-cbde
4. Follow our Twitter stream

We’re really excited about starting this project, and we really hope you’ll join us on the wiki.

Here’s this month’s update, including tales from ‘Conference’ and much more besides.

ORG Supporters Update - September 2007

If you’re an org-supporter who wants Supporter Updates in their inbox, but don’t currently receive, let us know.

If you’re in or around Brighton this weekend, be sure to come and have a drink with ORG. We’re really keen to meet ORG supporters in the area and find out about local digital rights concerns. It’s not often we get to leave the big smoke on official ORG business (we’re roadshowing our e-voting campaign at the Liberal Democrat party conference), so we want to make the most of it.

We’re meeting at the Black Lion Pub, on Black Lion St, from 1600 this Sunday 16 September. Who knows, we might even raise a belated glass to Software Freedom Day.

So I’ve just returned from Lugradio Live 2007, where there seemed to be a lot of enthusiasm for the work ORG has been doing over the last year. Thanks to Glyn and Richard for their dedication in manning the ORG stall. Together we met a lot of ORG supporters, and found a few more!

There was much concern over the BBC’s soon-to-launch iPlayer and its use of Microsoft DRM, to the exclusion of Linux and Mac users. You can read ORG’s submission to the BBC Trust (pdf), and there’s still time to sign this e-petition and draw Downing Street’s attention to the situation.

It’s hard to know how to get the BBC to listen to the concerns of Linux and Mac users on this issue, so please leave suggestions for further action in the comments, and watch this space.

Update: deadline for applications is Friday June 22nd

It’s hard to believe, but the Open Rights Group is nearly two years old! Over this period, ORG’s Board have steered the organisation on a steady course. But there’s still a long way to go yet, and we’re looking to refresh our ranks with new folks interested in dedicating their time to building a sustainable digital rights organisation that can continue to make a real difference in the way the media and policy-makers approach networked, digital technologies.

So we’re looking for applications to become a non-executive member of ORG’s board. This is a position that requires serious dedication – at least two days out of every month plus the commitment to attend monthly evening meetings, and quarterly Advisory Council meetings. It is also a formal position – collectively, the Board ensures that ORG remains solvent and financially strong and takes responsibility for ensuring that ORG activities comply with all legal requirements. The position is unpaid, although out-of-pocket expenses will be refunded.

But it’s also a position that promises significant rewards:

• Playing a major part in the success of an innovative young campaigning organisation that is already making a significant impact on the UK’s politics and media.
• Being at the cutting edge of politics and technology.
• Working with a strong community of like-minded staff, advisers and volunteers committed to strengthening human rights and freedoms in the digital era.

If you’re interested in applying, take a look at our detailed job description.

Last night’s inaugural Support ORG! (and Party) event was a huge success - thanks to everyone who came. We signed up over a dozen new supporters, with dozens more walking away with supporter forms tucked inside their free culture goodie bags. Danny O’Brien’s speech was characteristically rousing, and Dave Rowntree did a great job as our raffle puller. A pool of photos is growing on Flickr, as revellers recover from their hangovers and get uploading their photos (if you’re uploading photos of the night to Flickr, please tag them “openrightsgroup”).

Thanks to all the volunteers who made the night go so smoothly - Glyn, Sheila, Chris, Janita, Felix - and to Tim, Andrew and Johnny V for sounds and visuals. Thanks to Ian and Lee at Bar Kick, to No2ID, Genewatch, Magnatune, Canonical, O’Reilly and Beatpick for their contributions to the goodie bags, and to EFF and Mind Candy for some last minute schwag. Thanks to all our celeb raffle donors, and big, big thanks to Michael for pulling the whole thing together so artfully.

And now for the moment you’ve all been waiting for… the ORG raffle winners:

• A signed copy of Lawrence Lessig’s Code 2.0 goes to Kimberley Gahramt
• A signed copy of Bruce Schneier’s Beyond Fear goes to Karen Molden
• A signed copy of the Gowers Review of Intellectual Property goes to Grant Slater
• Neil Gaiman’s signed keyboard goes to Ben Goldacre
• £90 of O’Reilly vouchers goes to Laurie Rich
• £60 of O’Reilly vouchers goes to Zach Robinson
• The 12 CD Beatpick compilation goes to Lawrence Lessig (you should have heard the cheers that one got on the night)
• And the chance to be written into Cory Doctorow’s next book and receive a signed author’s galley goes to Graeme Sutherland

Congratulations to all our winners. Michael will be getting in touch with those of you who weren’t at the party to collect your prize soon to arrange delivery. Commiserations to those who were less successful, but take heart in the knowledge that the money you’ve spent on raffle tickets is going to a very good cause.

It’s less than two weeks until Support ORG! (and Party) - the ORG supporter event on the evening of 11 April at Bar Kick, London. To recap - SO!(aP) is a chance for ORG supporters to meet one another, and we’re asking each ORG supporter to bring at least one friend who they think would like to support ORG if they knew more about our work. The event will feature “public domain” music, remixed visuals and free culture goodie bags - truly an evening not to be missed.

And I’m pleased to announce that our very special guest speaker will be ORG’s pledge founder - Danny O’Brien - who is flying in to the UK from his EFF outpost in San Francisco. What’s more, we’ve got even more treats to add to the ORG raffle - a signed copy of Code 2.0 from Lawrence Lessig, £150 in O’Reilly book vouchers and… wait for it… a signed copy of the Gowers Review of Intellectual Property! But remember, you don’t get a chance to win anything, if you don’t buy a ticket (£2.50 each - available now via Paypal or on the night for cold, hard cash).

We want as many people as possible to come and join us for this event, so please spread the word. See you there!