Initial Relese v1.0 published and opened for signing Aug 24th 2017 at: https://mydata.org/declaration

The MyData Declaration emerged out of the "European PIMS (Personal Information Management Services) Community" which met in Brussels (November, 2015), Paris (April, 2016), Helsinki (August, 2016), London (December, 2016) and Berlin (March, 2017). More specifically, the Berlin meetings produced a memorandum that stated two complementary goals:

1. To establish a MyData Global Network as a legal entity

2. To start by developing a common set of principles for the human centric personal data

This MyData Declaration is the response to the second goal.

This initial version (1.0) of the Declaration was written by three persons who are all heavily involved in the PIMS Community as well as in organising the MyData Conference:

• Antti "Jogi" Poikola (Finland), researcher at Aalto University and founding member and former chairman of the Open Knowledge Finland association, also the main organizer of the MyData Conference and leading author of the Finnish MyData white paper.

• Daniel Kaplan (France), cofounder and scientific advisor to Fing and France’s MesInfos project, member of the MyData Conference’s core team and core contributor of the MesInfos Self Data Charter.

• Tanel Mällo (Estonia), head of Research Administration Office at Tallinn University, lead of MyData Estonia network, member of the MyData Conference’s core team, in charge of MyData 2017’s Tallinn events.

This initial drew inspiration from a thorough reading of 20 existing charters and statements of principles, and was prepared by a workshop in Berlin which organised and prioritised the central ideas.

A draft version was sent for comments to the Founding members of the MyData Global Network, as well as participants to the Berlin workshop. It received more than 90 comments. After a 2-weeks comments period, the current version of the Declaration was fixed in its current state.

This Declaration is the founding text of the "MyData Global Network" (whose name might change) and will be managed by it as soon as this organization is more formally established.

The published version of the declaration is now stable and can be signed by individuals and organisations.

In the future, new versions of the text will certainly need to be written based on experience, as well as on the advancement of technology, markets, uses and regulations. A set of issues has explicitly been left open for future discussions (see the link in the Participate-section below). The next MyData community meeting (Aarhus, Denmark, Nov. 23-24, 2017) will define a formal review process.

Also, a discussion is already underway as to how selective and binding this Declaration should be, so that organisations can’t just sign it without actually committing to implementing it. We want the Declaration to be open for all to sign, but we also want it to herald a significant change in the "normal" way in which all organisations handle personal data.

• Sign the Declaration, as an individual and/or as an organisation.

• Use the Declaration to further your own projects and intentions. Base your trust framework, or your terms of services, on it. Use it to lobby and convince clients, partners, stakeholders etc. And please, let us know, so we can all benefit from your experience!

The MyData Declaration’s future versions will be produced in an open manner and everyone is welcome to contribute. The conversation takes place on the MyData Declaration mailing list. This list is currently facilitated by Antti "Jogi" Poikola, Daniel Kaplan and Tanel Mällo. A list of issues left open in the v. 1.0 of the declaration can be accessed here. The next MyData community meeting (Aarhus, Denmark, Nov. 23-24, 2017) will define a formal review process.

We are happy te receive translations of the MyData Declaration in different languages. We will update the declaration website with new language versions just before the Aarhus meeting (Nov. 23.-24. 2017).

If you can use git, clone the MyData Declaration repository, add your translation under declaration/1.0/languagecode/index.markdown eg declaration/1.0/FR/index.markdown for French, then submit a pull request.

More traditionally without git knowledge you can simply download the original english version here, translate it, and send to [email protected].

The following contributors took part in workshops and/or provided comments to the initial versions (1.0) of the declaration:

David Alexander, Malte Bayer-Katzenberger, Simon Carroll, Fabien Coutant, Paul-Olivier Dehaye, Katryna Dow, Harri Honko, Viivi Lähteenoja, Joss Langford, Hubert Le Lièpvre, Joachim Lohcamp, Maarten Louman, Maciei Machulak, Robert Madge, Jack Mitchell, Michele Nati, Tristan Nitot, Kei Ohashi, Juuso Parkkinen, Julian Ranger, Geoff Revill, Clara Schmitt, Doc Searls, Tarmo Toikkanen, Luk Vervenne, Colin Wallis.