The movement for Right to repair is growing globally, and it’s starting to get traction with policy makers. Yet, we’re still far from securing a universal Right to repair. And increasingly we need to make the case for removing software barriers set by manufactures, preventing us from repairing and reusing products.
In the session we’ll present the European Right to Repair campaign, and work with participants on our next challenges.
Participants will first contribute their priorities for the campaign to consider. Then we’ll work in small groups to prototype solutions to key issues we face:
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How best to collaboratively document and tackle the mounting software barriers to our right to repair?
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How can individuals and organisations in the MozFest community multiply the reach and impact of the campaign?
The session is just the beginning, and we’ll encourage participants to get involved in ongoing campaign activities
We see the session as just the beginning of collaboration opportunities with participants. Our campaign already engages 40 organisations across 15 European countries, and we welcome new organisations and individuals to join. We have a shared digital workspace which could be used for follow-ups
All ideas/projects emerging from the session will be shared with the campaign's core team, so that at least some of them will continue to be discussed/progressed after the session, even if session participants are unable to keep contributing.
What is the goal and/or outcome of your session?:The session has two key goals:
- bringing the collective wisdom of the MozFest community together to contribute to the challenges we face
- inspire participants to get involved long-term with our campaign
We're specifically interested in tackling the growing issues around software obsolescence and other software barriers which are quickly becoming crucial in ensuring our right to repair. MozFest participants are the perfect community to engage, because of the eclectic skills and interests of participants (based on sessions I've organised and participated in at previous editions of Mozfest)
We hope the session will also inspire participants to think about how they can contribute to the success of Right to repair within their own work.
How will you deal with varying numbers of participants in your session?:The session is designed to scale. We plan to work in small groups, with break-out rooms. This can allow meaningful contributions even if very few/many people join - while providing participants with insights and feedback from the campaign's team.
In case a large number of participants joins in, we'll create quick reporting and extensive documentation in each group, to ensure everyone - and not just session organisers - can benefit from the richness of the contribution of the group.
Ugo Vallauri is Policy Lead of The Restart Project, a London-based charity fixing our relationship with electronics. Restart co-founded the European Right to Repair Campaign.
Founder of Marlow Repair Café (UK)