OpenMedia is a Canadian non-partisan, non-profit advocacy organization working to encourage open and innovative communication systems within Canada. Its stated mission is "to advance and support a media communications system in Canada that adheres to the principles of access, choice, diversity, innovation and openness." The organization employs online campaigns, participatory events, school presentations and workshops. Its online petition for the "StopTheMeter.ca" campaign became the largest online appeal of its kind in Canadian history. In 2013, OpenMedia launched campaigns aimed at ensuring accountability in the Canadian government's

surveillance Surveillance is the monitoring of behavior, many activities, or information for the purpose of information gathering, influencing, managing, or directing. This can include observation from a distance by means of electronic equipment, such as ...

activities.

Activities

SaveOurNet.ca

OpenMedia was the primary organizer behind the SaveOurNet.ca coalition, whose aim is to protect openness, choice, and access for Canada's Internet.

StopTheMeter.ca

OpenMedia spearheaded the "StopTheMeter.ca" campaign against usage-based billing in Canada; including an

online petition An online petition (or Internet petition, or e-petition) is a form of petition which is signed online, usually through a form on a website. Visitors to the online petition sign the petition by adding their details such as name and email address. T ...

. The petition reached over 500,000 signatures and caused the

Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission The Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC; ) is a public organization in Canada tasked with the mandate as a regulatory agency tribunal for various electronic communications, covering broadcasting and telecommunic ...

to reexamine its decision on the way Canadians are billed for their

Internet access Internet access is a facility or service that provides connectivity for a computer, a computer network, or other network device to the Internet, and for individuals or organizations to access or use applications such as email and the World Wide ...

. It is the largest online appeal of its kind in Canadian history. The petition was supported by Canadian

Internet service provider An Internet service provider (ISP) is an organization that provides a myriad of services related to accessing, using, managing, or participating in the Internet. ISPs can be organized in various forms, such as commercial, community-owned, no ...

s affected by the ruling (such as TekSavvy, which sent out invitations to sign to all of their customers), the

Liberal Party of Canada The Liberal Party of Canada (LPC; , ) is a federal political party in Canada. The party espouses the principles of liberalism,McCall, Christina; Stephen Clarkson"Liberal Party". ''The Canadian Encyclopedia''. and generally sits at the Centrism, ...

, the

New Democratic Party The New Democratic Party (NDP; , ) is a federal political party in Canada. Widely described as social democratic,The party is widely described as social democratic: * * * * * * * * * * * * * The Editors of ''Encyclopædia Britann ...

and

Stephen Harper Stephen Joseph Harper (born April 30, 1959) is a Canadian politician who served as the 22nd prime minister of Canada from 2006 to 2015. He is to date the only prime minister to have come from the modern-day Conservative Party of Canada, ser ...

, who voiced his concerns over Twitter. As of November 10, 2015, 514,741 Canadians had signed the http://stopthemeter.ca petition.

FreshMedia.me

OpenMedia are also the force behind the FreshMedia initiative, which celebrates innovative and independent media. FreshMedia.me aims to: # Ignite a national conversation to re-imagine media and journalism in Canada. # Celebrate the exciting and innovative experiments in independent and public media currently underway. # Develop a crowd-sourced plan to support innovative and quality media and independent journalism.

VoteNet.ca

VoteNet.ca was launched as a campaign to ensure that Internet access issues would become a focus for the 2011 Canadian federal election. Citizens were provided with a letter that they could modify and email to candidates in their riding asking them to become "pro-Internet". Politicians were then also able to register as pro-Internet candidates through the website. Multiple candidates have stated their support for the campaign.

Current Campaigns

Protect Our Privacy

Protect Our Privacy is a campaign program organized by OpenMedia to help protect the privacy of the users of the Internet from government interference. This campaign supports the idea of transparency and privacy.

StopFastTrack.com

Stop Fast Track is a campaign to stop congress from fast tracking legislation for the

Trans-Pacific Partnership The Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), or Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement (TPPA), was a proposed trade agreement between 12 Pacific Rim countries: Australia, Brunei, Canada, Chile, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Peru, Singapore, Vietn ...

, which they argue is being negotiated behind closed doors. Openmedia.org is one of over 100 organizations that has taken a stand against fast tracking legislation, each one created a statement that is under 140 characters so that people can easily tweet what the different organizations think about TPP.

AFairDeal.org

A Fair Deal is a multi-organization campaign to ensure that copyright laws do not change in the face of the Trans-Pacific Partnership. Openmedia.org argues that the current TPP agreement could restrict peoples access to the internet as well as how new media and information is created.

StopStingrays.org

Stop Stingray Surveillance is a multi-organization campaign to raise awareness towards the use of

IMSI-catcher An international mobile subscriber identity (IMSI) catcher is a telephone eavesdropping device used for intercepting mobile phone traffic and tracking location data of mobile phone users. Essentially a "fake" mobile tower acting between the targ ...

devices, often called Stingray, that are increasingly used by government agencies and law enforcement personnel. According to the campaign website, these devices can invade the personal conversations of anyone unknowingly without mandate. They demand oversight, accountability, and judicial safeguards to ensure right to privacy is respected.

StopWatching.us

OpenMedia is actively involved in bringing into the public's attention on National Security Agency's surveillance apparatus. They emphasize on the fact that NSA is abusing the rights of individuals. OpenMedia wrote a letter to the US congress informing their concerns of this surveillance apparatus.

ProtectInternetFreedom.net

This campaign's goal is to urge Internet users to join organizations by signing a petition in regards to Internet surveillance and censorship. OpenMedia claims that individuals should have their rights to embrace anything online.

EU Copyright Directive

OpenMedia has put forth a campaign sponsored by Google to spam policymakers in Europe against the adoption of EU Copyright Directive.

Organizations involved with OpenMedia

OpenMedia has worked and coordinated action with a number of national and regional media-related organizations, as well as unions and civil liberty groups.

Media and Technology organizations

*Acanac *Agentic *

Canadian Media Guild The Canadian Media Guild (CMG) is a trade union representing employees at the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (outside Quebec and New Brunswick), the Canadian Press, Thomson Reuters, Agence France-Presse, the Aboriginal Peoples Television Netwo ...

*Fongo *

Megaphone A megaphone, speaking trumpet, bullhorn, blowhorn, or loudhailer is usually a portable or hand-held, cone-shaped horn (acoustic), acoustic horn used to amplifier, amplify a person's voice or other sounds and direct it in a given direction. ...

Magazine *National Campus-Community Radio Association (NCRA) *The Edmonton Small Press Association (ESPA) *

The Tyee The Tyee is an independent daily news website based in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. It was founded in November 2003 as an alternative to corporate media. Articles in The Tyee focus on politics, culture, and life. The Tyee was founded b ...

*Pull Focus Film School
Koumbit Networks

Public Interest Organizations

*BC Association for Media Education *Canadian Association of Campus and Community Television User Groups and Stations (CACTUS) *Canadian Internet Policy and Public Interest Clinic (CIPPIC) * Council of Canadians *Community Media Education Society (CMES) *Media Action *Hospital Employees' Union (HEU) *National Union of Public and General Employees (NUPGE) *

Wilderness Committee The Western Canada Wilderness Committee (often shortened to Wilderness Committee) is a non-profit environmental education organization that aims to protect Canada, Canada's wild spaces and species. Paul George was the founding director, and f ...

*World Association of Christian Communication (WACC) North America

Civil liberty organizations

*The Center For Information Awareness (CFIA) *Civil Liberties Association, National Capital Region (CLA-NCR) *Democracy Watch *

Public Interest Advocacy Centre In public relations and communication science, publics are groups of individual people, and the public (a.k.a. the general public) is the totality of such groupings. This is a different concept to the sociological concept of the ''Öffentlichkei ...

(PIAC) *The Ruth & Henry Goodman Fund for Social & Ecological Justice *The

British Columbia Civil Liberties Association The British Columbia Civil Liberties Association (BCCLA) is an autonomous, non-partisan charitable society that seeks to "promote, defend, sustain, and extend civil liberties and human rights." It works towards achieving this purpose through La ...

(BCCLA)

References

{{reflist, refs= {{cite web, url=http://openmedia.org/about-us , title=About Us , publisher=OpenMedia , access-date=November 10, 2011 {{cite web, url=http://www.saveournet.ca/ , title=SaveOurNet | OpenMedia , publisher=Saveournet.ca , access-date=November 10, 2011 {{cite web, url=http://freshmedia.me/ , title=FreshMedia , publisher=Freshmedia.me , access-date=November 10, 2011 {{cite web, url=http://stopthemeter.ca/ , title=Stop The Meter On Your Internet Usage , publisher=Stopthemeter.ca , access-date=November 10, 2011

External links

OpenMedia
Non-profit organizations based in Vancouver Computer law organizations Copyright law organizations Internet-related activism Internet privacy organizations Digital rights organizations Communications and media organizations based in Canada