Wikimedia Europe

Visions of AI in Popular Culture: report is out

by Anna Mazgal
April 2, 2024April 16, 2024

Martians vs. Thunder Child, Henrique Alvim Corrêa for the novel The War of the Worlds, in public domain

Activist organisations often have difficulties with raising awareness around the problems that they make it their mission to solve. While lack of adequate expertise or access to funding that could be spent for information campaigns, are among reasons, there is a lot to be said about the messaging and methods we chose. What if we got inspiration from pop-culture and artworks that excell at translating the emerging tendencies and new technologies into the zeitgeist?

These are the droids you’re looking for

Together with SWPS University’s Institute of Humanities in Warsaw, Poland, we delved into exactly this inspiration! Students worked under the direction of the faculty on data collection and report Visions of AI in Popular Culture: Analysis of the Narratives about Artificial Intelligence in Science Fiction Films and Series. The Wikimedia assignment was to examine attitudes and winning narratives pertaining to the key narrative tropes:

by EU Policy Team
March 25, 2024

Wikimania Singapore 2023 - Opening reception by Pedro J Pacheco under CC BY SA 4.0 source: Wikimedia Commons

The great celebration of everything Wikimedia will take place in Katowice, Poland, August 7-10 . Wikimedia Europe was asked to curate the track on Legal and Advocacy, which we are happy to support. As Wikimania 2024 gathers under the topic of the Collaboration of Open, we present under your consideration some ideas on how to align with this message.

You can submit a session proposal for Wikimania 2024 here.

Food for thought

In this time of global conflict, disinformation and digital authoritarianism, the Wikimedia movement offers a model for decentralised, grassroots governance of free knowledge. Our movement empowers communities to exercise their right to access knowledge, and to advance other fundamental human rights. The Wikimedia model offers inspiration on how to create connections between people of various backgrounds, cultures and beliefs.

by Dimi Dimitrov
March 14, 2024

"Towards progressing science further and faster". Author: Dasaptaerwin. License: Creative Commons CC0 1.0 (https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/deed.en)

A digital knowledge act for europe

In December 2023 the Communia Association, which Wikimedia Europe is a member of, rolled out the idea of a Digital Knowledge Act at the European Union level. A EU regulation that makes the interests of knowledge institutions, such as libraries, universities and schools, a top priority.

In the past five years we have seen the EU tackling various specific digital issues through legislation – content moderation through the Digital Services Act, market power through the Digital Markets Act, data sharing through the Data Act and the Data Governance Act. All these were necessary steps, we believe, they however treated institutions, such as libraries, archives, universities and schools, almost as an afterthought.

by Michele Failla
March 6, 2024March 7, 2024

"Wikipedia censored", Author: Julo, License: CC-BY-SA (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/deed.en)

The new legal tool only introduces minimum safeguards: it’s now up to Member States to transpose the new rules ensuring a comprehensive and meaningful protection for the victims of SLAPPs as well as freedom of expression and information.

Introduction

The European Parliament formally adopted, during the last February plenary session held in Strasbourg, the anti-SLAPPs (Strategic Lawsuits Against Public Participation) Directive, which it has also been referred to as Daphne’s law from the name of the Maltese journalist, Daphne Caurana Galizia, who was murdered in 2017. The adopted text is the result of the compromise that both Parliament and Council struck in November 2023, one year and half later the Commission published the proposal. Now, the text needs to be formally adopted by the Council, this will normally happen in March, and published in the Official Journal.

by Dimi Dimitrov
March 1, 2024March 1, 2024

IoT Drawing, Author: Wilgengebroed, Source: Flickr, Licnese: Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/deed.en)

We finally have a deal on the Cyber Resilience Act.

It is a EU regulation thought up to make internet-connected products safer. With other words, it tackles the IT security and software maintenance of your smart toaster and AI-powered fridge. The tool originally chosen is to create obligations to manufacturers and/or vendors. We were involved in these negotiations because the newly proposed obligations could have seriously messed up the free & open software ecosystem.

Perhaps not intended, but the initial proposal and some of the interim versions didn’t clearly protect free software and would have risked that individual, volunteer contributors of code to free software projects are liable and have to comply with the same stringent obligations as large companies.

by admin
February 23, 2024

Computer Lab, Author: Denise Krebs, License: Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/)

Originally posted on 17 January 2024 by Richard Gaines on Diff.

The Wikimedia Foundation has published an independent assessment to understand the impacts, risks, and opportunities posed to children who access and participate in Wikimedia projects.

by Michele Failla
January 11, 2024March 7, 2024

An image depicting a Netflix account being blocked due to Geo Restrictions. Image by mikemacmarketing, CC BY 2.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0>, via Wikimedia Commons

The European Parliament’s resolution offers the opportunity to clarify Wikimedia Europe’s position on the practice of geo-blocking and its impact on Wikipedia and its sister projects.

by Eric Luth
December 18, 2023December 18, 2023

The monkey selfie, leading to a famous copyright dispute. The court decided that neither the monkey that took the photo nor the photographer had copyright, and that the photo is thus in the public domain.

On 30 November, Eric Luth at Wikimedia Sverige was invited to give a speech on Wikimedia, Wikipedia, and copyright at an interdisciplinary IP symposium in Stockholm. This is his speech.

European Media Freedom Act: some reflections from Wikimedia Europe

by Michele Failla
November 10, 2023November 10, 2023

Press freedom 2023 according to Reporters Without Borders, author: NordNordWest, license: Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons

The European Media Freedom Act is a proposal for regulation put forward by the EU Commission in September 2022 aiming at safeguarding media freedom and pluralism in Europe. For Wikimedia it is relevant, because, on the one hand, it wants to regulate how online platforms moderate content by media service providers and, on the other, it introduces some general rules of media law, including the protection of journalists.

by EU Policy Team
November 9, 2023November 9, 2023

The Arc de Triomphe de l’Étoile with traffic speeding by at night in Paris, France. Image by Jennyzibreva, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons.

Written by Jan Gerlach, Director of Public Policy at the Wikimedia Foundation; Phil Bradley-Schmieg, Lead Counsel at the Wikimedia Foundation; and, Michele Failla, Senior EU Policy Specialist at Wikimedia Europe

(Wikimédia France, the French national Wikimedia chapter, has also published a blog post on the SREN bill)

The French legislature is currently working on a bill that aims at securing and regulating digital space (widely known by its acronym, SREN). As currently drafted, the bill not only threatens Wikipedia’s community-led model of decentralized collaboration and decision-making, it also contradicts the EU’s data protection rules and its new content moderation law, the Digital Services Act (DSA). For these reasons, the Wikimedia Foundation and Wikimedia Europe call on French lawmakers to amend the SREN bill in order to make sure that public interest projects like Wikipedia are protected and can continue to flourish.

Michael S Adler, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Stefan Krause, Germany, FAL, via Wikimedia Commons

Benh LIEU SONG (Flickr), CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

JohnDarrochNZ, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Markus Trienke, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Charles J. Sharp, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Sergey Pesterev / Wikimedia Commons

NASA Goddard Space Flight Center from Greenbelt, MD, USA, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons