The subtitle of Suw Charman’s blog (http:// chocnvodka.blogware.com/) is “bubbling enthusiasm for $arbitrary_topic” and it is an almost perfect summary of Charman herself.

Charman is, by her own admission, “a weird hybrid”. A former journalist, Charman is also a web developer, a blog enthusiast and trainer, a social software consultant and has been executive director of the Open Rights Group (ORG) since it was set up last year. These different interests, and the way they combine into a single-minded enthusiasm for the digital world and, in particular, for civil liberties in that digital world, make her a fascinating spokesperson for an alternative view of the information world.

The ORG was created at the end of 2005 by a group of enthusiasts who decided to give a voice to the public within the ongoing debate about digital rights, privacy and copyright. The main aim was to represent the voice of many whom, it was felt, hadn’t had much representation in discussions about important laws that affect people’s lives, their livelihood and liberties. Through increasing general awareness of digital rights issues, the ORG wants to preserve and extend civil liberties in the digital age.

“The ORG was started because of a clear need for an organisation to take a wide view of digital rights issues,” explains Charman. “At the start of 2005, there were a lot of conversations between different people and the consensus was that something needed to be done. There were issues coming up that we thought had gone away.”

These issues included concern about legislation such as the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act and the EU directive on data retention. Charman and her co-member of ORG are particularly worried about heavy handed law-making that has too great an impact on online rights. “There is a lot of bad legislation done in the name of protecting us against potential threats,” says Charman, who believes the founding of ORG was timely. “The community already existed and the ORG has tapped into it,” she comments. “This is about a group of people who are passionate about these issues and we wouldn’t be here now if there hadn’t been such a high level of support from the public.”

The ORG is not alone. Groups with similar aims have been set up in other countries, among which is Digital Rights Ireland and Online Rights Canada. One of the biggest influences in setting up the ORG was the US Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF), which has been around since 1990. London-based author Cory Doctorow, who is on the ORG’s advisory council, was, until recently, the EFF’s European affairs director.

But the ORG operates differently from the EFF, points out Charman. “The EFF has a lot of impact on legislation,” she explains. “They have a lot of lawyers, and they pick cases that will help them change the law. We can’t do that here. We don’t have the resources to do that and it wouldn’t be possible in the same way. So the main aim of the ORG is to focus on working with the media, to put journalists in touch with experts and give them a route to an alternative side of the story.”

Group sessions
In a relatively short space of time, the ORG has found itself involved in a good deal of complex debate about these type of issues. The group has already participated in several high-level enquiries into digital issues, including submitting views to former Financial Times editor Andrew Gowers’ independent review into the UK’s intellectual property framework, and providing evidence to MPs putting together the All-Party Internet Group’s report on digital rights management (DRM).

It also has a close relationship with the British Library in the area of UK intellectual property law and DRM. “We have been very supportive of the British Library’s recent IP campaign, and we do share a lot of common ground in being concerned about copyright law being subjugated by contract law,” says Charman.

One of the challenges with a group like this is trying to keep the debate away from simplistic concepts. “The ORG is striving for a nuanced view,” comments Charman. “It is easy to get into an extreme niche and get a lot of headlines, but that is not helping the debate. We are keen to look at the biggest picture. But it can be hard.

“For instance, in the debate about DRM, it’s not about being for or against creative people. It’s about the public good and the economic good in the long term. We’re not anti-industry. We are not saying all music should be free. That is neither credible nor tenable. But we do need to be more honest about business models.

“There is a concern that the industry is trying to prop up old-fashioned business models that, frankly, we shouldn’t be propping up. So debates tend to become very complex very quickly.

“It is the same when we look at privacy issues. Once you start looking at the whole question of mass surveillance, you rapidly get into some intricate discussions.”

Charman believes it is important within the information industry to have a voice like that of the ORG, to represent a different kind of viewpoint. Getting that viewpoint across to MPs and those in the industry has been a key focus for the group in its first year of activity. “MPs are well exposed to industry views, so it has been important for us to engage with MPs in order to help them understand some of these issues in a way they are not getting from anywhere else,” she says.

“My personal background in working as a social software consultant leads me to believe it is important to talk about issues and to transfer a bit of knowledge. It’s not about wagging a finger and saying don’t do this or that,” she explains.

Because the ORG is new and relatively small, getting it up and running with this public voice has been a challenge. The ORG started by asking supporters to pledge £5 a month. Its aim was to sign up 1,000 supporters. By June 2006, it had some 500 supporters regularly donating the monthly fee: enough to begin laying the foundations for the group. It now has enough money from its supporters, plus a small grant from the Joseph Rowntree Reform Trust, to begin looking for a full-time executive director.

That will be a great step forward for such a relatively young organisation, according to Charman, who has been acting as a part-time, unpaid executive director since the ORG began. “Although we need more supporters, a lot of our current supporters are donating more. I’m keen to stay a supporter-funded organisation because one of the reasons for our credibility is that we represent hundreds of people,” she says. “In a few years’ time, I’d like to think the ORG will be representing thousands of people. The pendulum has swung too far and people are becoming concerned about these issues. The privacy of association, of communications and data are important issues, and people are a bit fed up with being told what to do.”

Expanding the org
The ORG is looking to expand its work, to do more campaigning and more public educating. “We don’t want to get into sensationalised media; we want more balanced conversations with the press,” says Charman. “Lots of people are unaware of these important issues, and we know we have to reach people outside our expected constituency. That is a really big objective.

“We also have to look beyond the technological perspective and look at the economic aspects of these issues. We have to find ways to communicate with the industry.”

Charman’s own job as a social software consultant, advising clients on the use of new media such as blogs and wikis, fits well with her work at the ORG. “I’m often approached by companies that are open and forward-looking,” she says. “Companies that are interested in social software are a fairly self-selecting group and they are, whether they realise it or not, generally aligned with the aims of the ORG.”

At the same time, Charman’s work with the ORG has helped enhance her professional role. “I already had an interest in issues such as security and copyright, but my work with the ORG has been beneficial in that I am more aware of these areas,” she points out.

Charman is now looking forward to the ORG having its own, full-time executive director so that she can move into a more policy-based role with the organisation. She also believes present trends in the blogosphere will lead to even more exciting times. “The real killer is when people can make stuff and do stuff online,” she comments. New software tools are making it easier for individuals to be creative, and that is opening up new possibilities. “The most valuable media is what we create, not what we buy, and we are seeing an explosion in people creating their own media. It is becoming far easier to make music, to write, to make movies, and that makes things really interesting,” she says.

Suw Charman
Suw Charman started writing features while she was studying geology at Cardiff University. Her first job after graduating was as an editorial assistant for science publishing house Current Biology. In her spare time, she wrote and edited a Radiohead fanzine.

After what Charman calls a “detour into private music education”, she became a music journalist, reporting on the technical side of the industry. By the end of 1998, finding freelance work in that field was becoming increasingly difficult and the dotcom boom was underway, so Charman switched focus to developing business websites.

In July 2000, Charman secured a two-week web design contract with PricewaterhouseCoopers’ in-house studio. She ended up staying for nine months before her next jobs, working first as an intranet editor and then in the e-learning team at mobile phone operator Hutchison 3G (now 3).

At the same time, Charman had been learning Welsh since 1998 and in 2001 began a website for Welsh learners. So when her contract at Hutchison 3G ended, she launched her own business, to provide Welsh learning materials to subscribers. Get Fluent in Welsh, or Y Ffynhonnell Ltd, was launched in August 2002, providing weekly worksheets by email, with Charman writing, translating and typesetting all 40 worksheets, as well as designing and building the website.

But by the end of 2003, with the new media industry still depressed and development funding difficult to secure, Charman decided to scale back her work with Get Fluent and start freelancing as a writer again. She started her personal blog, Chocolate and Vodka, in June 2002 and her professional blog, Strange Attractor, in July 2004. Charman has been the executive director of the ORG since its foundation in November 2005, working for the ORG on a part-time basis in order to get it up and running. She is a writer, a blogger and a social software consultant who specialises in blogs and wikis. She also speaks frequently at seminars.

Open Rights Group (ORG)
The ORG was formed in November 2005 to raise awareness of issues such as privacy, identity, data protection, access to knowledge and copyright reform. It wants to improve understanding and policy in digital rights matters affecting both businesses and the public. It is funded by small grants and donations from supporters, and its activities include organising campaigns, lobbying government, and helping journalists find experts and alternative voices for stories.

The ORG’s goals
• To raise awareness in the media of digital rights abuses;
• To preserve/extend traditional civil liberties in the digital world;
• To collaborate with other digital rights and related organisations;
• To help connect journalists with experts/activists, thus providing a media clearinghouse; and
• To nurture a community of volunteers, from grassroots activists to technical/legal experts.

The ORG’s board
Suw Charman – executive director
Louise Ferguson – chair
James Cronin – company secretary
Ian Brown – treasurer
Rufus Pollock, Ben Laurie,William Heath and Danny O’Brien