Listen to the full debate at the bottom of the page.

Wikimedia Commons, Wiktionary, Wikidata, and of course Wikipedia – the popular online encyclopedia: you probably use some of these websites to obtain free knowledge on a daily basis, but have you already asked yourself about the rules behind the decentralized collaboration on Wikimedia?

Which political structures and norms allow access to information, while also halting online misinformation? Which laws are behind the millions of articles and how do these laws affect the information you can find on the internet? What is the role of different national laws that aim to decrease hate speech, blasphemy or defamation – and what are the regulations on copyright?

For Varanda ITS #80, we invite the senior manager of public policy at Wikimedia, Jan Gerlach, for a debate with Sérgio Branco, Director of Education at ITS. Both will discuss the opportunities and challenges of maintaining a collaborative and decentralized information system in a hyperconnected, yet also plural world, where different interpretations of what is the “open internet” coexist.