Freestater has done a quick summary of all the IrishBlogs on the EFI idea Antoin and myself have been commenting on the post too.
Antoin has posted his EFI views too on his site.
While there is talk of funding, if you look at the IrelandOffline model, we run on nothing pretty much. I’d be of the idea that save as much money and be as frugal as possible, not because money is precious but spending time looking after money and collecting money is a pain in the ass and uses up your time when it could be used to do much more important things.
The IrelandOffline Committee itself largely interacts via private mailing lists, online IRC meetings and phone conversations. We meet up in the physical world only now and then, generally when it’s to meet telcos or Govt bodies.
The initial EFF idea seems to be forking already, though in a good way possibly. There seems to be some people that are more interested in a Bloggers Representative Group to be a voice and adviser for the irishblogs and others interested in more of an EFF style group.
I like Antoin’s suggestion about working with other groups in this area and building on their strenghts instead of starting from scratch but I am slightly wary of the ICCL‘s ability after volunteering so many times and being pretty much ignored. They are still a must to talk to though, to see where they are now and what they have planned. To go slightly off on a tangent for a sec they need a mailing list that works, a proper website and online discussion forums.
If people are interested in the EFF idea I’d suggest them letting one of us know either on boards.ie or leaving comments on Freestater’s or Antoin’s site. Get people you know to look at what is being written online too. Post a link to the discussion on your blog and on discussion forums. Forward the link to mailing lists (without spamming).
If you go online in anyway or use any form of electronic communication then an EFF Style group is important, and while you may not want to get involved in setting one up and running it, you should support it by talking about it, linking to it and advertising it.
Update:
Contacted the ICCL to see what they cover. Seems they haven not looked into this area for ages and their E-Rights group has been disbanded. Waiting to hear back from the ICCL for clarification on what areas of the digital domain they are researching. They have some research on privacy they’ll be publishing.