 This is a lot bigger crowd than I was expecting, so thank you all so much for coming. So my name's Heather Burns, and this morning I'm going to talk about making your voice heard, how to win friends, and influence policy. And this talk actually is Morton's fault. Morton, where are you? Blame him if you don't like this, because this talk all started with a question that he asked Matt Mullenweg at the State of the Word address in December last year. And the question he asked was considering it's 27% of the web, WordPress is in a position of influence over how the web works and how the web evolves. It begs the question if WordPress as an entity should now play an active role in the bodies which govern the web. And Matt gave a very diplomatic answer where he said, you know, it's not a matter for automatic or WordPress to get involved in, but if members of the WordPress community as individuals wish to get involved with the processes of internet governance, please go right ahead, it would be great to have representation there, because these entities do have a huge influence. And Matt went on to say as an example of getting involved in internet governance, that he had a friend who actually lobbied for the dumpling emoji to be in the Unicode. No disrespect intended to Matt or Matt's friend, but as an industry, as professionals, we have some slightly bigger issues to deal with than the dumpling emojis in the Unicode. In fact, what we're facing right now is the shaking of the foundations of the open web. Here's what we've all had to come to terms with just since we last gathered together last year in Vienna. For those of us from the UK, Brexit is spelling the end of the freedom of movement for tech talent, whether that's the right to go work in a European country, or even to just hop on a plane to a conference like this. It's going to spell the withdrawal from the European data protection system, which could end international data flows overnight. It means a withdrawal from the digital single market legislative framework, which is the strategy that aims to create one single trading block for all of Europe, trading on one set of digital rules for everything ranging from vat to copyright. And Brexit is being done against a current of authoritarian, nationalist, and occasionally openly racist tendencies, which have included a push towards mass surveillance and backdoors in hardware. That's those of us in the UK. For those of you from the US, under the Trump administration, we've seen the threat to the end of freedom of movement, as we saw it so horrifically in February with the Muslim travel ban. We have seen the stripping away from what little already weak privacy and data protection legislation there is in the United States. We're seeing the threats to the end of net neutrality, which is the requirement for all internet service providers to treat all data the same, and to not prioritize some data over others, whether that's a Netflix stream or WordPress.com blogs. And all of that is being done against a push towards stripping away policies and regulation in favor of turning these things over to corporation and the markets, which in other words means letting Facebook decide what privacy law should look like. And all of that is being done against a current of authoritarian, nationalist, and openly racist tendencies, which include a push for mass surveillance and backdoors in hardware. There will come a time when we will all sit back and laugh about this over dumplings. But for now, we have work to do. And if you still think politics and these issues are far away things that don't really impact you, those of us in the UK have also had to wrap our heads around this. On the 26th of March this year, the UK Home Secretary, Amber Rudd, publicly linked WordPress.com to the spread of terrorism. This was part of a major media campaign on the Sunday, largely done through the right-wing press. And one of those media mentions was this apps that let extremists plot in secret. Terrorists are using encrypted apps to swap messages in which they plot atrocities, atrocities, and groom youngsters in secret. And these apps include WhatsApp, just pasted, Telegram, and WordPress. Another article in this media push said, why is WordPress linked to terror? It's low cost, ease of use, and anonymous interface mean terror groups are as likely as the average website owner to create their sites using WordPress.com for propaganda, radicalization, or publicity. It is possible to secure an encrypted WordPress site server so content cannot be hacked, and to share an encryption key with others so content can be shared privately. That same article took it a bit further and asked this question, who runs it? The WordPress project was co-founded in 2003 by two developers, American Map Mullenweg and Britain Mike Little. Mullenweg's company, Automatic, owns WordPress.com, which acts as a host for the majority of smaller WordPress sites. Automatic was valued at over a billion in its latest funding round. Do you understand what they're doing there? They're implying that Automatic and Mike and Matt personally are knowingly financially profiting from deliberately spreading terrorism. If you want to radicalize me, why don't you accuse one of my personal friends of spreading terrorism? The WordPress project is all about democratizing publishing, giving everyone a voice, and it is a shame that a tiny, tiny fraction of those people chose to disrespect that. But that has made WordPress a target. So in a world that's got all these very scary and confusing political currents, which are closing on us very fast, it's worth remembering something else that Matt said, which was at the word camp Europe last year, which is that we are the 1%. Those of us who gather together at word camp Europe are the 1% of the 27%. And as I've said before, I feel that you are people of enormous power and influence over how the web works. So at a time when our very platform is under threat, much less the open web that we work on, what better way to give our platform the respect and authority it deserves than for you to find your voices in the processes of internet governance. So today we're going to discuss how the web is governed, how you can have a voice in those processes, how to work with the system, how to create a position of influence, and as I've already touched on why this matters now more than ever. And let's be clear, this is not about what automatic should do or WordPress should do. I don't work for them and it's not my job to tell them how to do theirs. This is about you. This is about individuals as talented professionals, as representatives of your own communities, finding your voices and participating in the processes of internet governance. But before we can get into the mechanics of that, we've got to talk a little bit about why we don't do that. And if you're in Petia's talk this morning at the end, this question was even asked right then. Why don't we get involved in these processes? Why don't we get involved in the politics of the web? Here's a quote I really like, it's from the founder of Pinboard whose name I'm not even going to attempt to pronounce. But he said, tech workers trust their founders, find labor organizing distasteful, and are happy to leave larger ethical questions to management. A workplace free of politics is just one of the many perks the tech industry offers its pampered employees. So our one chance to enact meaningful change is slipping away. And I really like this quote because it's so representative of my experience in writing and speaking with people about the politics of the web. People in this industry and in this community don't want to talk about politics. There's a horrible polarization and an unwillingness to touch on anything outside our little tiny bubbles of comfort. Politics is even approached from a position of contempt and spite by some of the more libertarian corners of our community. Politics is something we shouldn't even have to worry about because we work in cyberspace, right? It's this imaginary place where laws and borders and policies don't apply. But to believe so is to do so from a position of privilege. And that is not a privilege that the users of your services and products have. When people do tend to overcome their biases against getting involved in internet governance, all too often they go the wrong way. They go for something called digital solutionism. And digital solutionism is when people like you look at a problem and you think, you know what we can do? We can fix this with an app. But the problem to quote a colleague of mine in Scotland is that if you apply digital to a thing that is broken, you will have a broken digital thing. The problem is our perspective. The problem is our attitudes towards engagement and governance. The way to fix it is through digital responsibility. We can fix this by showing up. Showing up emotionally, showing up mentally, and yes, showing up physically. I know you know how to build websites and apps. Today I want to teach you about digital responsibility, which is about building relationships. So how do these processes of internet governance actually work? Here's a quick whistle stop tour of how these things happen. How is the web governed? Well, it's governed in three ways, and you're actually familiar with all of them, even if you don't realize it. The first is through web standards. These are projects like open data, open source file formats. Accessibility is probably the example you can all think of where these expert groups come together to plan these standards, and yes, dumpling emojis in the Unicode. Beyond web standards, you then go into national and regional policy, which are the rules of the road in the countries where you work concerning things like privacy and copyright and accessibility law, e-commerce law, data protection, things like that. And beyond national and regional policy, you have what we would call global internet regulation. Things like net neutrality laws, intermediary liability laws, which is the so important concept that says a platform, whether it's Facebook or WordPress.com, is not legally liable for the content that its members post to it. And the laws that enable international data floats between countries, between systems are also a function of internet regulation. If you were to take the view that the internet is a series of tubes, web standards determine the ingredients of what goes in the tubes, national and regional policy determines what's in the tubes, and internet regulation determines the tubes. It's as simple as that. So once you have those three governance processes in place, how is the web actually regulated? Again, there's three ways. The first is through industry self-regulation, and this is characterized by the American approach to privacy, which is by state or sector or industry. The ad choices icon you see in banner ads, which is an industry self-regulatory program of privacy standards, is an example of that. Reporting abuse on social media is also a form of industry self-regulation, and that's in the news so much lately where you see Facebook agrees to crack down on content, Twitter agrees to crack down on content, but they're not doing so because a law is making them. In fact, they're doing so because a government has nudged them and said, you regulate yourself before we have to regulate you. So when issues go beyond industry self-regulation, we then go into government regulation, and this is characterized by things like the European approach to privacy, where we have one overarching data protection and privacy regime, unlike the United States, the net neutrality protections we enjoy in Europe, and also things like defamation law, where you have issues that go beyond what Facebook decides they can and cannot moderate. The last way it's regulated is by co-regulation, which is when a government regulation references an industry defined standard, and again the most common example of this is accessibility. So when a government puts in a law saying all public websites in our country must be accessible to the WCHV 2.0 or double A standard, that's an example of co-regulation, really as simple as it is, how the web is governed and how the web is regulated, and all of these processes are open to any of you at any time should you choose to participate. So how does that process actually work? How is the regulation made? Whether it's defamation law, data protection, accessibility, cookies, any of the things you're familiar with in your work. This is any law really, it's not just digital. Once a group or a government feels an idea is worth legislating, they take about a year to run it through the proposal phase, where they work through, do we really need this law? And that's done in cooperation with groups, they're not doing this behind closed doors. It then goes into the draft phase which can take anything up to five years, as we've seen with the data protection overhaul, where they determine through consultations and constructive involvement with the people that the laws are going to impact what the law should look like and how it should work. Then it goes onto the books into what I call the legislative phase, which can last anything from one to 20 years. And while it is the law of the land, that law is constantly monitored through industry groups, through representative bodies, through people like you. In addition to governments complying and implementing and enforcing the law as required. When the law is no longer fit for purpose, we go into the review phase where everyone goes back and takes a look at it and says, do we need to renew this, do we need to refit it, or do we need to scrap it all together? And then we go right back to the start. And again, you can get involved in any of these processes at any time. The bottom line is that governance and regulation shape the rules which define our craft. And I'm going to be a little bit provocative here, but this needs to be said to our industry. Failing to participate in the shaping of our craft is unprofessional. It is literally unprofessional because being a professional means contributing back to your industry. It means looking out for your fellow professionals. It means having a say in the way your industry and your work fits within the world. And turning your nose up at the processes of governance because you don't like law and you don't like these policies is irresponsible. No other industry behaves that way. It's time for us to get a grip. So now that you know how the web is governed, how it's regulated, and how our regulations made, how do you actually get involved? What do you need to do? Let's run through how to engage constructively in the processes of internet governance. First thing you have to do is you have to work through groups and industry bodies. Organize groups, issue groups. You can approach the government as an individual, but unless your name is Tim Berners-Lee, your opinion is not going to count for much. This image is something somebody emailed me, and it's a full page advert from an English newspaper placed by the National Farmers Union, which is the agriculture body. And it says, with Article 50 triggered, our dedicated professionals have got you covered, and it's showcasing the seven policy professionals their body has hired just to work on Brexit. These people will do nothing but represent the agriculture and farmers industry, making sure they get the best possible deal throughout the Brexit process. Who is speaking up for you in this process? There's no one. There's no one because it's your job to make that organized group or an industry body. And yes, that means you have to organize. I get really annoyed when I see people turning their noses up saying, big business has lobbied for this law, big media, big social media. What you call big business, I call the people who actually bother showing up. It's all well and good to turn your nose up at big business work, play the victim. But you literally don't even show up to processes that govern your own craft, and then you complain about the results. You have to organize into a functional working group or industry body. And once you have the authoritative voice of your members, you have to aspire to consultative status. This means the process you go through with the government where they acknowledge you as an authority and a representative group of your members. And this picture is of two women you owe a lot of gratitude to. These were two women who were leading the EU VAT action campaign, which worked so tirelessly to get that moss fixed and sorted for you. And this picture is then heading off to Brussels to meet with the European finance ministers because they got their pressure group recognized with consultative status. That meant that any changes that the EU wanted to make to VAT moss had to go by their members. They could do it working from their kitchen tables in six months, so can you. You have to be patient. Internet governance is slow and long and tedious. Any idea you can't, you have. You're looking at at least a two-year lead-in. There's going to be months where you don't hear a word out of anybody and no one in these governance processes you're going to be working with has slack. You're going to have to deal with it because that's how it works. And you have to engage with politicians in person. No mass email your MP campaigns, no automated things. You've got to shut off your computer, step away from your desk and actually sit down and meet the people who can help you. And here's how easy it is. We have no audio. What that video was showing was my MP standing up in the House of Commons and asking a question to the minister for trade that I asked her about how Brexit is going to impact our industry. And she started off by saying, Mr. Speaker, my constituent Heather Burns works in the digital economy and is deeply concerned about these issues. She's actually not my MP anymore as of last Thursday night. But how did that come about? It came about because every couple of weeks she would do a surgery at my local library. Five minutes walk from my house. So one day I walked down the street, shook her hand, sat down with her, explained how Brexit is affecting my industry and worked with her team and she took that question directly into the House of Commons. And it was wonderful and it was ridiculous. It's ridiculous because I'm one woman working in a public library. Imagine how much more powerful and effective that question would have been if it had been the voice of dozens or hundreds of thousands rather than one person working on her own. So that's how to engage constructively in Internet governance. Here's what I don't want you to do and I'm sorry if I get a little ranty here. Don't be a slactivist. Participating in Internet governance isn't about Facebook likes. It's not about counting your blog posts. It's not about, as I said, using an automated email your politician service because one of the things my MP said to me was those things literally go in the trash, a spam because that's what they are. It's also not petitions. I hate petitions with a passion. 95% of the petitions you will sign are actually list building exercises from organizations that want to build a list so they can come back later and ask you for money so they can send out more useless petitions. This is going to be hard work. You can't automate it and don't pat yourself on the back because you shared something or signed something. You've got to get off your soapbox. Politicians want facts and figures and proof. If you're going to tell them that something is affecting your work, whether it's a copyright law, whether it's Brexit, whether it's VATMOS, whether it's cookies, give them numbers and show your work, how did you come by those numbers? How many people is this going to impact? Give them a financial figure. They're not interested in your opinions. They're not interested in your ranting. They're not interested in you riding a high horse. But if you come to them with good data, they will be falling over themselves to work with you. Don't make a fool of yourself. I see a lot of really quite frankly idiotic digital campaigns. One of them was about this man, again, Tim Berners-Lee. There was a digital rights group that didn't like one of the recommendations he was going to make on a W3C working group that he sat on. So their way of liaising with him on that was to run a public campaign to bombard his office with calls and letters and faxes. On what planet is personally harassing the founder of the worldwide web and his office staff an effective form of political engagement? It's a stupid self-serving stunt by people who want a pat on the back to think that they're doing something and they're just making fools of themselves. You've got to fight your own battles. If you get involved in internet governance, people are going to try to grab you for all sorts of things. A good example of that is to go to the VATMOS campaign and the EU VAT Action Group. They got a lot of media help and publicity from certain right-wing newspapers in the UK which were really keen to exploit the VATMOS issue as leverage for why we need to leave the European Union. And then when the EU Commission agreed to put in all these changes to the VATMOS system, the campaign approached those papers which had given them publicity before. They didn't want to know. They didn't touch it, wouldn't run the story. Because they weren't interested in anything that portrayed the EU in a good light and in fact they were never interested in the VATMOS issue or the people that affected it at all. They were just looking for evidence about Brexit. You don't have to attend every argument to which you're invited. Respect to your opponents. I went on a podcast to talk about what I do and it was pre-recorded. And when it was published I saw that the interviewer had titled the podcast episode, The Law is an Ass. When I saw that my heart just sank and I felt like I'd completely wasted my time because that's not what I'm about. How do you expect to gain a position of influence for you as a digital professional? When your position from the outset is that you are asses. These are people who show up to work every day just like you and me. They're doing their jobs just like you and me. And for you to disrespect them personally and their work is going to undermine any bit of professionalism that you might have. Hate the game, not the player. So now that you know how the web is governed, how the web is regulated, how regulations are made, what to do and what not to do, where do you start? Well this is a quote from a member of the Scottish parliament, Andy Whiteman, who a group bomb involved with has been working with. And he said, you create your own legitimacy. What he meant by that is your standing in the political sphere will not be conferred on you. You've got to work for it. You don't get it by reputation, you don't get it by the amount of time you've been around. If you want success, work for it and build on it. What he said to us is, as a politician, he deals with two sorts of advocacy groups. One are the people like the people I want you to be, dedicated, hardworking industry professionals who are in it because you want to make a difference in your profession. The other sort of group he deals with is what he diplomatically called rich men's golf clubs. These are the groups that have been around forever and don't really do much and they show up in suits and throw in a lot of buzzwords and go off to a golf tournament because they think that their reputation and their political efficacy should be based on prestige alone. And as a politician, Andy said he'd much rather work with people like us than people like them. So how do you get some successes in internet governance under your belt? Where are some issues where you could start? Where do we start? Intermediary liability, which is the international concept which protects WordPress.com from having to manually pre-scan and moderate every blog post everyone makes in case they say something racist or sexist or pro-terrorism. And you don't have to pre-moderate your Facebook posts and all your Twitter posts aren't pre-moderated either. That's under threat. When you see politicians saying things like social media must do more to crack down on extremism, when Amber Rudd associates WordPress.com with terrorism, the way they're going to go after that is by attacking the concept of intermediary liability. That is one place where we need to raise our voices. GDPR, the data protection overhaul taking place next year is going to have a huge impact on all of your workflows and the ways you engage with your customers. And I know that you're all ahead of the privacy overhaul ahead of May 2018, aren't you? Of course you are. But one of the provisions of GDPR says that industry bodies can come up with their own guidance and code of conduct for their members to follow. Wouldn't it be a hell of a lot more sensible if all of us had a standardized set of rules to follow from an industry group instead of doing what we have to do which is get to grips with it personally as individuals on our own time, every single one of us? That is something that an industry body absolutely should be handling, and maybe you're the one to start that industry body. What's going to happen when Donald Trump's bombast and bluster finally destroys privacy field? Which is the agreement that allows European data to be transferred to the United States? Never mind how will you do business with your customers, how will your phone sink? It's that fundamental. We as professionals need to be prepared for how we're going to deal with the international data protection agreement collapsing. Net neutrality is under threat and there is a day of action coming up in July where many, many large profile digital organizations are going to raise their voices and stage a day of action in protecting net neutrality. And I would love for you and your businesses and your agencies to get involved with that. Back to basics, get involved in the formation of accessibility standards. WCAG 3.0 is coming. Have your say in how accessibility is going to work for the age of virtual reality. What is the UK's digital sector going to look like after Brexit? How are we going to continue to do business when we can't just hop on a plane or send our data or hire someone from abroad? All of these are issues which I know you're passionate about. So pick an issue, dedicate yourself to it, dive in and build your own legitimacy. I know we're living in really scary times and I can still barely comprehend what's happening myself. But as they say, it's time for us to take back control. I want you as representatives of this amazing community and ethos we've all come to Paris to celebrate, to act like it. It's time for the WordPress community to find your voice, fulfill your potential and lead the way as a force for good across the web. We're the one percent, so let's act like it. Let's show the world what we as a platform and a community are made of. And I'm out of time and I would have loved a lot more to talk to you more about this. But to close, I'll show you how we're actually walking the walk. I'm working with a group of professionals in the U.K. to create an independent adversarial industry body to deal with governments, representatives of the people who work on the web with all these issues that we're facing ranging from Trump to Brexit to God knows what else. So you can follow us at web-matters.uk and find us at the very heavily underscored Web Matters Twitter handle. And please come up and speak to me after the talk about how you can get involved. You can find me on Twitter at webdevlaw. Thanks for listening. Go out there and do it. That was awesome. I am so impressed by your story. I am quite sad that there are so little people here to see it. So if you see the video, it's going to be on WordPress TV. Please share because the world needs to know. This is word camp. We're 82 countries are represented this weekend. What if we're not in America or in the U.K. Can we do if we're in another country? It's the same story. It's the same story. I've just given you everything you need. Great. Roll up your sleeves and get involved. All right. Not now, Wendy. Any questions? With the caveat that I cannot see any of you. There is somebody back there. Please come to the front. There is a mic here and you can ask a question. I like that waving your phone like we're at a gig. Hi, Hannah. Oh, hi, Hannah. Hi. Thank you so much. That was so inspiring. Obviously, when we talk about issues, and you mentioned quite a few, I think sometimes it's important, especially for all of us and definitely me who have heard this for the first time, really, in this way that you've put it. Do you think or is there an issue that should be prioritized? Is there like one thing we should work on first? So, Anna's question is, are there issues that we should prioritize? Absolutely. For me, the two big ones right now are the threats to intermediary liability and net neutrality. And just since we've been here, I've seen a headline in the Times, I think it was, which was websites continue to promote extremism. Do you see how the language has changed? They're not just saying that social media sites and blogs host extremist content. They're switching the rhetoric to saying they promote extremism. See what they're doing there? We need to be very vigilant and speak out about that. Because remember, wordpress.com is a target specifically in the UK. For American viewers, I would say net neutrality. Net neutrality is the idea that all traffic flowing through an internet service provider must be treated equally. And this came about because some of the ISPs in America wanted to prioritize their content over others. So, if they were running a streaming video service, you could get their service quicker than Netflix. But let's say that things go really, really, really bad politically, and America starts looking like a horror movie. One way you could silence dissent is by throttling social media sites so that they load really slowly or not at all. So, let's say there's a global day of protest and Donald Trump doesn't like what's being said about him. So, he phones up the head of the Federal Communications Commission, who used to be the head of Verizon, and he says, slow down those wordpress.com blogs. That's why you need to fight for net neutrality. We are the one present. I feel like I have to roll up my sleeves and get to work. There is one more question. Okay. I cannot see. Hi, Morten. Hi, Heather. Thank you very much. I think this is a message that needs to be heard, not just in this community, but in the wider web community as well, and it's amazing that you've put this together. Since you have this poster behind you, I think the question a lot of people, when they hear your talk, have on their mind is, how difficult is it to get started? And seeing as you've actually started something, you have some data to share on this? A lot easier than we thought. We first talked about it in February, and we're doing our legal incorporation right now. We've got a lawyer to do all those bits pro bono. So, there are certain steps you have to follow to be a legally recognized organization, and we're having our first AGM next week. So, we have to elect officers like a secretary and a treasurer. We have to have articles of association on a constitution. We have to have members. But we've got a lawyer to help us draw up all this, and once we have a bank account and members paying in dues, as articles of association said, we're ready to go. So, there's the sort of legally bit, and then there's the social bit. So, we've already spoken with the Scottish Parliament about registering as a consultative body, and then we'll move on to Westminster, and hey, maybe we'll move on to Brussels. So, it's a lot easier than you thought, and just talk to any one of us from Web Matters. Happy to walk you through it. And how do the people of the British Isles get involved with your organization? Can you say it again, more in the acoustics in this room? How do the people of the British Isles get involved with your organization as members? We've got a really hopping slack group where we've been doing everything in the open, ranging from picking the name to getting the AV. But for legal purposes, people have to join as members and pay dues. So, when we open it up at the end of the month, I'll tell you that. Thanks, Morgan. Yeah, ask your question. Hello. This is probably the most important talk of work in Europe, so thank you very much. Thank you. The question I have, how do you deal with politicians and MPs who are not very worst in technology, and they don't know why you can't have a master key for encryption? So, the question was, how do you deal with politicians who literally and genuinely don't know what they're talking about, as in Amber Rudd saying, we need people who understand the necessary hashtags to fight terrorism? You know, I stayed up until seven in the morning on election night because her seat had to be recounted over and over and over and over again, and I was like, please, please get out, Amber, please get out. But unfortunately, she kept her seat and she kept her job as Home Secretary. Something I said in an earlier talk this year is one of the tour projects principles for dealing with the internet in hostile states, which I believe we're very much in right now, and one of them is prepare informed policy commentary. When a politician comes out and says encryption is terrorism, you have to be prepared to retort that in the public sphere in an informed and educated way. You've got to get that into the public sphere within hours, so if she's on Andrew Maher on a Sunday morning, you need that press release up on your site by 10, and then you need to make an effort to get in touch with Amber Rudd or whoever you're dealing with, sit down with her in an office and explain to her why you cannot get rid of encryption and why it's not going to do a thing for terrorism. So, organize as a group, prepare informed policy commentary, get it out rapidly, and then follow up by engaging in person. Yes, there's one more question. Are you okay with one more question, Heather? I've got you already. Sorry, it's just you mentioned the open Slack group. I didn't get if it's already like alive and working, if it is, what's it called? There's a link there. Oh, well, it's in it. There's a link on the Web Matters website. Okay, hop in there. Thanks. All right. Any more questions? No one? Heather, thank you. Deep bow for you. Thank you, everybody. It was so awesome. Thank you.