Digital Bill UK: The Story So Far

What is Cybersalon

Cybersalon is a real and virtual space where people involved in digital creativity can congregate. From 1999 to 2003, we organised monthly events at the ICA (Institute of Contemporary Art) and from 2003 to 2006 at the Dana Centre in the Science Museum. Cybersalon was re-launched in January 2013 at the Arts Catalyst, we now run events at the DigitasLBi agency in Brick lane. Cybersalon is produced in partnership with the Media Department and the Lansdown Centre at Middlesex University.

Open Letter

In November 2014 we published our Open Letter from the Digital Pioneers to the Digital Natives and asked MPs and industry to adopt our pledges. And in this way, launch our Digital Citizen Bills of Rights project. https://cybersalon.org/digital-citizen-pledge-draft/

In the 90s we experienced the Internet as a collaborative place and a creative space. As corporations are populating the Internet more and more – increasingly the platforms and interfaces we use are driven by profit making aims. We are concerned that the ‘Global Village’ is becoming a corporate space of consumption – robbing users from some of the freedoms we experienced in the 90s. We outlined these and other concerns in our letter.

Event at the Parliament 23rd March

The letter caught the attention of Tom Watson and John McDonnell MPs who invited us to run an event at the Houses of Parliament on the 23rd of March (as part of the People’s Parliament programme), talk about our letter and also comment on the recent reports by the House of Lords and the government on the UK’s digital future.*

 

* House of Lords Select Committee on Digital Skills, Make or Break: The UK’s Digital Future http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/ld201415/ldselect/lddigital/111/111.pdf

*Government Office of Science UK Govt Chief Scientific Adviser, The Internet of Things: making the most of the second digital revolution

https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/409774/14-1230-internet-of-things-review.pdf

https://cybersalon.org/digital-citizenship/

See video here: https://cybersalon.org/cybersalon-at-the-house-of-commons/

 

Digital Bill of Rights – A Call to Action! April 2015

In April 2015, we used the themes of our Open Letter and wrote and published 8 pledges we are asking people to adopt. Before publishing the 8 pledges we consulated feedback by our members and networks (see partners section below).

https://cybersalon.org/digital-bill-of-rights-a-call-to-action/

https://cybersalon.org/digital-bill-of-rights-what-you-told-us/

 

Writing the Digital Citizen Bill of Rights 

We have been asked by the two MPs to write the Digital Citizen Bill of Rights, so it can be presented and debated at the House of Commons. We have now launched a forum and have invited people to participate and share thoughts and ideas on each of the themes outline in our letter and forum. After this two-month consolation period, we will begin writing the Bill with the help of a professional bill writer provided by the MPs.

Web We Want Festival at the Southbank Centre 30-31 May 2015 

We had a stand at the ‘market’ area of the festival where we promoted our project and asked people to comments using POST IT notes. We collated almost 570 contributions, most were concerned about personal data ownership, digital education and transparency in data collection.

https://cybersalon.org/cybersalon-at-web-we-want/

Digital Democracy Workshop House of Commons 1st July 2015

1st of July we presented the bill of rights to MPs in Digital Democracy workshop House of Commons (Portculis house)

The forum

We have created an collaborative online forum to invite comments on the Digital Bill of Rights. Join the discussion here

 

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