This is a report of what was said at Monday’s meeting. Not everything here will be things the organising group agree with, but it’s important that everyone who couldn’t go gets a chance to have their say too. We must let everyone’s voice be heard.

Organisation

We need a wider organisation for other issues as they come up – we’re proposing “Australian Internet Lobby” as a name for that.

We will keep “Stop Internet Censorship” as name for the campaign – this is clearer than “No Clean Feed” or “Open Internet”.

Great Australian Internet Blackout during week 25-29 January 2010

The New Zealand Blackout campaign (against a planned law saying you could have your internet cut off if you were accused of illegal Internet filesharing) was a big success and reached the mainstream media there.

Anything we do with people who agree with us has to be based on going beyond online services like Twitter and talking to people who don’t already agree with us and trying to win them to our point of view.

On the Saturday before that week (Sat Jan 23rd) we will be planning to do roadside stalls in the suburbs promoting our campaign, talking to ordinary people.

Australia Day, January 26th

Protests and rallies have been proposed. We prefer the idea of an informal BBQ which won’t be as confronting. We’re planning to have this at Orleigh Park in West End. It will also be a way for us to get our own supporters motivated.

Main purpose of Australia Day BBQ (and rally we plan to hold in mid-Feb) is to build up our own supporters and set them up to go and meet with others and try to convince them to oppose censorship

General Strategy Discussion:

Two important points that came out of this article by “Liberal hack” Tim Andrews are that we should talk about how this is a Nanny State plan, and also about the taxes it will cost and the costs it will impose on business.

Some of the things discussed included:

• We need to work out what our single key issues are
• We need powerful ideas to convince others to our point of view
• How are we going to make sure ideas in the meeting don’t disappear?
• Specifics on a media/communications strategy

We also need people to:

1. Spread the word about our meetings and events – watch our Facebook group and/or this blog for details
2. Edit the Wiki with campaign ideas
3. Create content for the campaign

If you couldn’t make the meeting please let us know if you have any ideas or want to help out – just leave us a comment.

Thanks to everyone who came along to tonight’s Stop Internet Censorship meeting at Brisbane Square Library. It was a bit of a hassle getting into the building but now that we know the score we can communicate how it works a bit better than we did.

I have to be honest here and say that I had some feelings of disappointment at the end of the night. I felt like what we thought you expected from us, and what you really expected from us were two different things. There were times where there was some frustration that we hadn’t brought to the meeting the things you wanted, and that the things we were talking about weren’t interesting to you. And to me, that is disappointing.

Don’t misunderstand what I’m saying here. I think tonight’s meeting was very important and that a lot was achieved. I’m certainly not disheartened at the passion and commitment being shown by the group in attendance.

What we seem to have here is a mismatch in expectations. And that always leads to expectations not being fulfilled.

So I’d like to lay down what I expect from the group. I’m not speaking on behalf of the other organisers of this, just me.

What I expect from everyone, including myself is:

• Commitment. Commitment to work towards fighting this issue to the hilt.
• Cooperation. We all need to put our ideas into the melting pot, but realise that we have to come to a consensus sooner rather than later.
• Passion. This is the most important one. What we need to give is our passion. If your passion is creating wacky YouTube videos, let’s see them! If you are a graphic artist, use your skills to create amazing imagery to get the Australian public thinking. Think you can raise $100,000 for a television ad campaign? Do you work for a video production company? Work together to make it happen.

I see my role as a conduit to help bring people together to work on this issue, using their skills and ideas to bring about one result: no internet censorship.

Now that I’ve been honest and upfront with you, be honest with me. What do you want from me? Yourself? The Group?

The floor is yours. Or drop by the wiki.

In the last few days there has been a lot happening behind the scenes. We have taken a lot of the feedback on board from the Brisbane meeting last Monday night. Here are a couple of small things that I thought I would let you know about straight up

New Name

It was suggested at the meeting that we should find a more positive name. It was also suggested that we should look at being a group with a more broad base of appeal. So we are looking at a new name that is less focused on a campaign and more focused on our aims as an organisation.

Our ultimate aim is to be around in the long term. Long after this campaign there will be other battles to be had to ensure that the rights of Internet users within Australia are protected.

This will require a coordinated response right across Australia and we feel that we can turn this enthusiasm for this campaign into an organisation to help protect the rights and freedoms of Internet users well into the future.

Spreading our wings

We have seen that there are groups within other states of Australia who are trying to come together and work against this same issue. We also hope that they will want to work with us and combine resources together so that we can get a consistent, clear and concise message to all Australians.

We are looking for people within locations other than Brisbane to help organise action. This is something that will take a little time to work through but in the meantime, please get in touch to express your interest if you wish to help us out and you aren’t in Brisbane.

If you have a great idea for a new name or are interested in helping us out you can email us at helpus@stopinternetcensorship.org.