It’s official – I have been confirmed as a member of the Digital Affairs Council to the Minister of Administration and Digital Affairs. I was recommended by Internet Society Poland and Polish Linux Users Group.

What is the Digital Affairs Council anyway?¶

the Council is “minister’s advisory and consultative body” (as described in art.17 of the informatisation law). That means that on one hand it doesn’t really get to make direct decisions; on the other, however, Council’s recommendations will carry certain weight (at least, that’s the theory).

The Council is an evolution of the Informatisation Council, operating since 2005. Several members of the current Council had been involved in that previous installment.

According to the law, the Council will propose and opine projects of statements (among others, by the Council of Ministers), documents, development strategies, program projects and reports in the areas of informatisation, communications, information society development and rules regarding the functioning of public registers, rules and state of introducing ICT systems in public administration, and even Polish ICT terminology. And…

The Council can initiate activities related to informatisation, ICT market development, and development of information society.

The Council today has 20 members, representing administration, NGOs, technical organisations and business. What recommendations will the Council produce and which direction will it lean? How will the practicalities of its operation look like? Hard to say today. But the possibilities seem quite interesting.

Who’s in the Council?¶

I have had the pleasure of meeting several members of the Council on different occasions; not all of them, unfortunately. The ones I know paint an interesting picture.

• Igor Ostrowski – Council Chairman; lawyer, Vice-Minister of Administration and Digital Affairs during anti-ACTA protests, before that a member of the Prime Minister’s Strategic Advisors Team; such a choice can only please, especially all “opennists” and privacy advocates out there.
• Joanna Berdzik – Vice-Minister of Education, engaged in the Digital School project (including the Open Textbooks programme).
• Dominik Skoczek – lawyer, represents the Polish Film-makers’ Association; during anti-ACTA protests he was the head of the Intellectual Property and Media Department in the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage, and responsible for the ACTA process; copyright maximalist, claiming that copyright reform proponents are only in it for “gratis access for users”.
• Anna Streżyńska – well-known in Poland for her activities while presiding over the Office of Electronic Communications and successful fight against the Polish telco monopolist.
• Katarzyna Szymielewicz – President and co-founder of the Panoptykon Foundation, unrelenting activist for privacy, freedom and personal autonomy in the times of pervasive surveillance.
• Alek Tarkowski – “opennist”, Polish Creative Commons chapter co-ordinator, director of the Digital Centre; previously, with Igor Ostrowski, a member of the Prime Minister’s Strategic Advisors Team.
• Elżbieta Traple – law professor, copyright law expert; during the post-ACTA Ministry of Administration and Digital Affairs workshops she proposed changes to Polish copyright law reaffirming fair use in the digital domain.
• Jarosław Tworóg – Vice-President of the Board of the National Chamber of Electronics and Telecommunication; I’ve had the pleasure of taking part in several public consultation meetings along with Mr. Tworóg; expert in the area of electronics and telecommunication.
• Agata Wacławik-Wejman – co-founder and Member of the Board of the Institute of Law and Society, policy counsel at Google.
• Piotr VaGla Waglowski – operator of prawo.vagla.pl website, lawyer, activist, member of the Council of Panoptykon Foundation, co-initiator of organising Public Domain Day celebrations.

Hence we have openness and privacy activists on one hand, copyright maximalists and representatives of big IT companies on the other. What will come of this – we’ll see.