My open organisations donations in 2016

Back in November Leigh wrote a post about donating to support the ‘commons’ this Christmas. He provided a list of a whole bunch of organisations that are fighting to keep the internet free & open. It is well worth a look.

As it happens I have made a habit of donating to some of those organisations over the years anyway. My charitable giving ‘strategy’ these days is primarily split between big internet freedom causes and very local charities and campaigns.

So each year I support the following (and have just made my annual donations this morning)

• The Mozilla Foundation: as it happens I don’t use Firefox much and don’t always agree with their focus but I 100% believe the Foundation is a force for good on the web and they have the scale and the ‘brand’ to make a real difference. We need advocates who can operate at this global level and get their voices heard.
• Wikipedia: for all its flaws Wikipedia remains an amazing resource that only becomes more useful over time. It also is the tent pole that holds up a bunch of other important but less high profile services and experiments in the open arena.
• The Internet Archive: as someone with a history degree I will forever love the ‘way back machine’. It is an amazing research tool that has become increasingly important in this post-truth era. It is safe to say that new regimes on both sides of the Atlantic play fast and loose with what they publish and delete from their web estates and the Archive will fast become the record.
• The Open Rights Group: the ORG have never been more important than they are today. The Investigatory Powers Bill and the Digital Economy Bill both massively undermine the rights of individuals online and legitimise an era of mass surveillance — one that empowers far more than the Security Services. I am a member and I encourage you to sign up as well.