Dear reader… (maybe it’s readers plural),
This weekend I was at Open Tech 2008, which was fun. I got to hear about how cool OpenStreetMap is, about the inspiring work that the Open Knowledge Foundation are doing, and finally got to see Roo give a talk.
I won’t pretend that the talk from the Open Rights Group was the coolest talk I saw all day, but it might have been the most important. I’ve been following their work for a while but had resisted becoming a member on account of their not being a registered UK charity. On Saturday, I discovered that at least part of the reason they’re not is that becoming a charity would reduce the extent to which they can act as a political pressure group, which would in many ways defeat the object.
So here’s the deal. I’m breaking the unwritten rule of talkingCode and writing about something political that I believe in. If you live in the UK you should be supporting the work of the Open Rights Group however you can. They are a small, bright, committed bunch and are thoroughly deserving of your donations.
Go here to find out about more about them:
http://www.openrightsgroup.org/2008/07/07/growing-the-org-community-and-having-fun-doing-it/
Then donate some money.
Do this now.
They’re busy fighting some really important battles on our behalf. It’s difficult to convince people that these battles are worth fighting or that the issues are really that important when people are having trouble affording petrol or food, but it’ll be too late to unmake the laws in 20 years time when we realise what we’ve lost. By then, the very tools with which we would have fought the battle will have been taken from us.