# articles

feed_id: http://creativecommons.org/?p=41127
title: Plaintext versions of Creative Commons 4.0 licenses
uri: Plaintext-versions-of-Creative-Commons-4-0-licenses
url: http://creativecommons.org/weblog/entry/41127
content:
<p>We are continuing our practice of providing official plaintext versions of the licenses, <a href="https://creativecommons.org/weblog/entry/27094">as we did with version 3.0</a>.</p>
<ul>
<li><a href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/legalcode.txt">BY 4.0 (plaintext)</a></li>
<li><a href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/legalcode.txt">BY-SA 4.0 (plaintext)</a></li>
<li><a href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/legalcode.txt">BY-NC 4.0 (plaintext)</a></li>
<li><a href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/legalcode.txt">BY-NC-SA 4.0 (plaintext)</a></li>
<li><a href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/legalcode.txt">BY-ND 4.0 (plaintext)</a></li>
<li><a href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/legalcode.txt">BY-NC-ND 4.0 (plaintext)</a></li>
</ul>
<p>As said in the previous entry: &#8220;For most works, plaintext legalcode doesn’t matter as linking directly to the deeds (say with the copy-paste output you get with the license chooser) is good enough, even ideal. And it’s important to note that the XHTML licenses are still the canonical versions. But for some projects plaintext legalcode may be a very good thing. For example, it is traditional practice in free and open source software projects to bundle your licenses along with your project. More and more FOSS projects are using Creative Commons licenses or CC0 for their non-software content, so having plaintext legalcode will probably be very useful in these instances. Additionally, some other projects which release their content in a way that is largely offline may benefit from plaintext legalcode.&#8221;</p>
<p>If you need to mark your work with licensing information in plaintext, here is an example to follow:</p>
<pre>
&lt;WORK&gt; (c) by &lt;AUTHOR(S)&gt;

&lt;WORK&gt; is licensed under a
Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.

You should have received a copy of the license along with this
work.  If not, see &lt;http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/&gt;. 
</pre>
<p>(The first line in this example is optional.)</p>
<p>For reference, here are the updated examples of how you would annotate your works for the 4.0 licenses.</p>
<p>CC BY 4.0:</p>
<pre>
&lt;WORK&gt; (c) by &lt;AUTHOR(S)&gt;

&lt;WORK&gt; is licensed under a
Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

You should have received a copy of the license along with this
work. If not, see &lt;http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/&gt;. 
</pre>
<p>CC BY-SA 4.0:</p>
<pre>
&lt;WORK&gt; (c) by &lt;AUTHOR(S)&gt;

&lt;WORK&gt; is licensed under a
Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.

You should have received a copy of the license along with this
work. If not, see &lt;http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/&gt;. 
</pre>
<p>CC BY-ND 4.0:</p>
<pre>
&lt;WORK&gt; (c) by &lt;AUTHOR(S)&gt;

&lt;WORK&gt; is licensed under a
Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

You should have received a copy of the license along with this
work. If not, see &lt;http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/&gt;. 
</pre>
<p>CC BY-NC 4.0:</p>
<pre>
&lt;WORK&gt; (c) by &lt;AUTHOR(S)&gt;

&lt;WORK&gt; is licensed under a
Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.

You should have received a copy of the license along with this
work. If not, see &lt;http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/&gt;. 
</pre>
<p>CC BY-NC-SA 4.0:</p>
<pre>
&lt;WORK&gt; (c) by &lt;AUTHOR(S)&gt;

&lt;WORK&gt; is licensed under a
Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.

You should have received a copy of the license along with this
work. If not, see &lt;http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/&gt;. 
</pre>
<p>CC BY-NC-ND 4.0:</p>
<pre>
&lt;WORK&gt; (c) by &lt;AUTHOR(S)&gt;

&lt;WORK&gt; is licensed under a
Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

You should have received a copy of the license along with this
work. If not, see &lt;http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/&gt;. 
</pre>


feed_id: http://creativecommons.org/?p=41633
title: Policy Projects at CC: Open Policy Network and Institute for Open Leadership
uri: Policy-Projects-at-CC-Open-Policy-Network-and-Institute-for-Open-Lea
url: http://creativecommons.org/weblog/entry/41633
content:
<p>Over the last year we’ve been working on developing two new projects: the Open Policy Network and the Institute for Open Leadership. Both of these initiatives arise out of a direct identified need from the Creative Commons community. Let’s explain a bit more about each of these projects.</p>
<p><a href="http://openpolicynetwork.org"><img src="media/d28f9ca3.OPN-logo.png" data-original-source="http://creativecommons.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/01/OPN-logo.png" alt="OPN logo" width="613" height="167" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-41639" /></a></p>
<h3>Overview</h3>
<p>Over the last several years, Creative Commons and related organizations have been contacted by multiple institutions and governments seeking assistance on how to implement open licensing and develop materials and strategies for open policies. By “open policies” we mean policies whereby publicly funded resources are developed and released as openly licensed resources. The <a href="https://creativecommons.org/weblog/entry/26100">$2 billion Department of Labor TAACCCT grant program</a> would be considered an open policy. There is a pressing need to provide support to policymakers so they can successfully create, adopt, and implement open policies. And CC affiliates from around the world have asked for an informational hub where open policies could be shared and discussed.</p>
<p>The open community needs access to existing open policies, legislation, and action plans for how open policies were created, discussed and passed. Advocates need to know what barriers were encountered and how they were overcome, and because politics and opportunities are local, open advocates may need support customizing an open policy solution and strategy. This is why we need the Open Policy Network (OPN). </p>
<h3>Mission</h3>
<p>The mission of the Open Policy Network is to foster the creation, adoption and implementation of open policies and practices that advance the public good by supporting advocates, organizations, and policy makers with information and expertise, and connecting policy opportunities with those who can provide assistance.</p>
<h3>Description of activities</h3>
<p>The OPN supports the creation, adoption, and implementation of open policies around the world. We will engage in the following activities: </p>
<ul>
<li>Connect policy makers and other interested parties to expert open policy advocates and organizations who are able to provide assistance and support when open policy opportunities arise.</li>
<li>Identify and build new open policy resources and/or services only where capacity and expertise does not currently exist, by providing needed resources, information, and advice.</li>
<li>Provide a baseline level of assistance for open policy opportunities as they arise, to ensure no open policy opportunity goes unfulfilled.</li>
<li>Link to, catalog and curate existing and new open policies and open policy resources from around the world.</li>
<li>Connect open policy advocates and organizations on a listserv and monthly phone conference to maximize knowledge transfer and cooperation.</li>
<li>Build new constituencies and advocates in support of open policies.</li>
<li>Operate in a manner respectful of member organizations’ existing messaging, communities, and business models.
</li>
<li>Release all content produced under the project under CC BY and data under CC0, in a fully transparent manner on the project website.</li>
</ul>
<h3>Guiding principles</h3>
<p>We believe:</p>
<ul>
<li>The adoption of open policies can maximize the return on public investments and promote a global commons of resources for innovative reuse.</li>
<li>Publicly funded resources should be openly licensed resources.</li>
<li>Open policies should require, as a default, licenses compliant with the <a href="http://opendefinition.org/">Open Definition</a>, with a preference for open licenses that at most require attribution to the author (such as CC BY) for publicly funded content and no rights reserved (such as CC0) for publicly funded data. We recognize that there may be limited exceptions to the default.</li>
<li>The OPN is a open network free for anyone to join as long as they agree to contribute and abide by the mission and guiding principles.</li>
<li>The OPN work is aligned with the recommendations of existing initiatives such as the <a href="http://www.budapestopenaccessinitiative.org/">Budapest Open Access Initiative</a>, <a href="/weblog/entry/33089">Paris Open Educational Resources Declaration</a>, <a href="http://www.capetowndeclaration.org/">Cape Town Declaration</a>, <a href="http://pantonprinciples.org/">Panton Principles</a>, and the <a href="http://infojustice.org/washington-declaration">Washington Declaration on Intellectual Property and the Public Interest</a>.</li>
</ul>
<h3>Join this project!</h3>
<p>For the time being, the Open Policy Network is being led by Creative Commons, but we envision that the coordination of the Network can be transferred to another group after some time. <strong>We are looking for interested individuals and groups to join the network, and we&#8217;ll begin monthly organizing conference calls soon. You can sign up to the <a href="https://groups.google.com/forum/#!forum/open-policy-network">Google group</a> now.</strong></p>
<p><a href="http://wiki.creativecommons.org/IOL"><img src="media/f71a6110.IOL-logo.png" data-original-source="http://creativecommons.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/01/IOL-logo.png" alt="IOL logo" width="628" height="169" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-41640" /></a></p>
<h3>Background</h3>
<p>The Open Policy Network is committed to facilitating adoption of open policies around the world by improving access to resources and expertise for advocates of open policies. Creative Commons will begin to host an Institute for Open Leadership (IOL) to train new leaders in education, science, and public policy fields on the values and implementation of openness in licensing, policies, and practices. The Institute will be a tangible project under the umbrella of the OPN. </p>
<p>The Institute for Open Leadership will select twenty applicants per year&#8211;through a competitive application process&#8211;to participate in an intensive weeklong training session with leading experts in open fields. Each participant will develop an outcomes-based plan for a capstone open project, and report on progress within one year. Through training and the project period, participants will develop the skills, relationships, and motivation to become leaders for openness in their institutions and fields. The Institute complements and strengthens the OPN’s mission, and generates open policy projects by training a new corps of leaders ready to inculcate open policies and practices in their institutions and across their professional communities. We will initially run two cohorts of the Institute (2 years), though the goal is to make the Institute an annual event.</p>
<h3>Problem meant to solve</h3>
<p>There is significant and growing demand for leaders to support open initiatives in educational, cultural, and scientific institutions, as well as governmental agencies. At the organizational level, our capacity to meet this demand is limited. Yet we believe that there is strong potential to transfer and scale leadership experience to new champions for openness, and to systematically cultivate a broad network of leaders to meet the increasing demand. There is also significant interest among discretionary institutional funding programs (such as publicly funded national and state/provincial grants) to learn about and adopt CC licenses. A new and broader group of leaders could address this interest by reaching and educating institutions and professional communities about copyright and the benefits of open licensing and open policies.</p>
<p>As open movements approach mainstream status, there is a vastly increased need for more leaders who share the values of open licensing, the understanding of openness best practices (e.g. open technical formats, modular design, and accessibility standards), and the desire to guide some portion of this ecosystem. The IOL will relieve the strain on existing leaders and resources by recruiting and training a new group of experts who can meet the demand for expertise on open licensing, pursue new opportunities for publishing and using open content, and directly influencing policy decisions in institutions and across fields of work.</p>
<h3>Activities</h3>
<p><em>Application and selection process</em><br />
Creative Commons will solicit applications from interested persons around the world to participate in the Institute. We will select a maximum of twenty participants each year for two years. We plan to target persons who are mid-level managers and/or potential leaders who are not currently involved in the open movement, but who are moving toward leadership positions in their institutions or fields of work over the next 5-10 years. The selection criteria will include an evaluation of which candidates the committee estimates will have the highest impact when they return to their home institution/government. All applicants will be required to propose a capstone open project they will complete after attending the IOL. These projects must be properly scoped and must contain a strong open policy component and contribute to increasing openness within their institution and field. </p>
<p><em>Prerequisites</em><br />
Once selected, participants will be required, prior to attending, to complete any two online <a href="https://p2pu.org/en/schools/school-of-open/">School of Open</a> courses (e.g., copyright and open licensing, open education, open science, etc.). </p>
<p><em>Immersive training period</em><br />
The IOL will be held at an appropriate conference facility or university campus. All participants and instructors will stay in the same accommodations and spend the majority of time together, creating the potential for informal discussions and relationship building. Institute instructors will be drawn from the top experts/leaders in the fields of open access, open science, open educational resources, open culture, etc. Each day of the week-long workshop will feature a concentration on open licensing and policy in one of the fields and include time for participants to consult directly with the instructors on their own open project plans. </p>
<p><em>Capstone project work</em><br />
By the end of the workshop week, participants will have polished and expanded their proposed capstone projects and have integrated open policy aspects more thoroughly based on their newly acquired expertise and the assistance of the instructors. The point of the capstone project is for the participant to transform the concepts learned at the Institute into a practical, actionable, and sustainable initiative within his/her institution. Capstone open projects can take a variety of forms depending on the interests of the participant and the type of institution where the project will be implemented. Common features of a successful capstone open project will be to:</p>
<ul>
<li>Increase the amount of openly licensed materials in the commons;</li>
<li>Increase awareness among colleagues or related stakeholders about the benefits of openness;</li>
<li>Propose an open policy within the participants’ institution with an action plan to implement the open policy;</li>
<li>Demonstrate measurable results and complete report after 12 months that analyzes project progress, challenges, and sustainability.</li>
</ul>
<p>An example of a successful capstone open project might be a librarian at a university that is able to foster an open access policy at their institution whereby university faculty agree to contribute publicly funded research into the university repository under open licenses.</p>
<p><em>Reporting</em><br />
In addition to the written reports (shared under <a href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY 4.0</a>), there will also be a webinar scheduled 12 months after the Institute to share the outcomes of each participant’s project. All webinars will continue fostering the development of a new open leadership cohort. </p>
<h3>Timeline</h3>
<ul>
<li>March-May 2014: Cohort #1 application period</li>
<li>July 2014: Cohort #1 week-long institute</li>
<li>November 2014-January 2015: Cohort #2 application period</li>
<li>March 2015: Cohort #2 week-long institute</li>
<li>July 2015: Cohort #1 12-month follow up webinar &#038; open projects completed</li>
<li>March 2016: Cohort #2 12-month follow up webinar &#038; open projects completed</li>
</ul>
<p>We’re excited to get these two exciting initiatives up and running, and we look forward to working with many individuals and organizations to make them a success. Many thanks to the <a href="http://www.hewlett.org/">William and Flora Hewlett Foundation</a> and the <a href="http://www.opensocietyfoundations.org/">Open Society Foundations</a> for funds to kickstart these projects!</p>
<p><small>Institution designed by <a href="http://thenounproject.com/thibault.geffroy">Thibault Geffroy</a> from the <a href="http://www.thenounproject.com/">Noun Project</a>, licensed <a href="https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/">CC BY</a>.</small></p>


feed_id: http://creativecommons.org/?p=41671
title: Now Hiring: Web Developer / Systems Administrator
uri: Now-Hiring-Web-Developer-Systems-Administrator
url: http://creativecommons.org/weblog/entry/41671
content:
<p style="text-align:center" xmlns:dc="http://purl.org/dc/terms/" xmlns:cc="http://creativecommons.org/ns#" about="//www.flickr.com/photos/thunder/5171349760/"><a href="//www.flickr.com/photos/thunder/5171349760/"><img src="media/88b185d0.dan-programmer.jpg" data-original-source="http://creativecommons.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/01/dan-programmer.jpg" alt="Spy Shot" width="500" height="333" border=0 /><br /><small><a href="//www.flickr.com/photos/thunder/5171349760/"><span property="dc:title">Spy Shot</span></a> / <a href="//www.flickr.com/photos/thunder/"><span property="cc:attributionName">Dan Mills</span></a> / <a rel="license" href="/licenses/by-nc-sa/2.0/">CC BY-NC-SA</a></small></a></p>
<p>Creative Commons is looking for a full-stack engineer to maintain our systems and websites. From the <a href="/opportunities#webdevsysadmin">job description</a>:</p>
<blockquote><p>Creative Commons is looking for a full time Web Developer/Systems Administrator to develop and maintain the sites and systems that power CC on the Web.</p></blockquote>
<blockquote><p>This is a unique role which requires a focus on building scalable, rock-solid architecture to power our high-traffic websites, as well as an ability to move higher in the stack to implement new features or develop new websites and services.</p></blockquote>
<p>Are you excited about powering the technical infrastructure of Creative Commons? Learn more and apply by visiting the <a href="/opportunities#webdevsysadmin">full job listing</a>.</p>


feed_id: http://creativecommons.org/?p=41688
title: Copyright Week: Tools and policies for building and defending a robust public domain
uri: Copyright-Week-Tools-and-policies-for-building-and-defending-a-robust
url: http://creativecommons.org/weblog/entry/41688
content:
<p><a href="https://www.eff.org/copyrightweek"><img src="media/9298f904.copyrightweek1.jpg" data-original-source="http://creativecommons.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/01/copyrightweek1.jpg" alt="copyrightweek1" width="700" height="185" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-41690" /></a></p>
<p>The public domain is the DNA of creativity. Whereby current copyright law requires permission in order to use a work, the public domain is a copyright-free zone whereby anyone can use the work for any purpose without restriction under copyright law. One way works rise into the public domain is when the copyright protection term expires. Over the years, copyright terms have been extended again and again, making it really difficult for creative works to enter the public domain. While most early copyright terms lasted only a few years, a majority of copyright terms today last for the duration of the life of the author + 50-100 years. Increasing copyright terms have stymied creativity, <a href="http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20130114/20344621680/new-research-extending-copyright-massively-increases-prices-limits-dissemination-knowledge.shtml">drastically raised the prices of books</a>, and exacerbated the orphan works problem (where authors of works can no longer be located to ask permission to use a work).</p>
<p>But the extremely long term of copyright is not the only problem for the public domain. The contours of copyright law grant certain rights to the author automatically, and without any necessary action from the creator. This seems like a reasonable thing to do for some creators, but it doesn’t support those who simply wish to make their content freely available, or who wish to opt out of copyright in the first place. </p>
<h3>Tools</h3>
<p>Authors should be able to say what they want to do with their creativity. The <a href="https://creativecommons.org/licenses/">Creative Commons license suite</a> provides a flexible way for creators to indicate the rights they wish to grant and those they wish to retain. Creators can use the CC licenses, which are a nonexclusive license that relies on existing copyright law for enforceability. And the CC license lasts for as long as the copyright term, after which the work will then be in the public domain. The CC licenses help to lower transaction costs by communicating certain rights in advance. That way, users don’t have to hunt down authors to get their permission to use a work. The permission is granted in advance by the author, so long as the user follows the terms of the license.</p>
<p>Another way for works to enter the public domain is when creators proactively waive their copyrights&#8211;they can place works in the public domain before the copyright term is over. Creative Commons has developed the <a href="https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/">CC0 (read “CC Zero”) Public Domain Dedication</a> tool to allow authors to do this. The CC0 tool is used by authors who want to release all copyrights to their work and fully break down all barriers to downstream reuse.  </p>
<p style="text-align: center" <a href="https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/"><img src="media/6603eab2.cc-zero.png" data-original-source="http://creativecommons.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/01/cc-zero.png" alt="cc-zero" width="403" height="142" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-41695" /><br /><strong><a href="https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/">CC0 Public Domain Dedication</a></strong></p>
<blockquote><p>CC0 enables scientists, educators, artists and other creators and owners of copyright- or database-protected content to waive those interests in their works and thereby place them as completely as possible in the public domain, so that others may freely build upon, enhance and reuse the works for any purposes without restriction under copyright or database law.
</p></blockquote>
<p>The CC0 Public Domain Dedication is used widely by creators to waive all copyright and put their content in the worldwide public domain. It is used by open access publisher BioMed Central, who has adopted a policy whereby it now requires that <a href="https://creativecommons.org/weblog/entry/41329">data supporting its published articles be released into the public domain using CC0</a>. Europeana uses CC0 to <a href="http://blog.europeana.eu/2013/11/europeana-celebrates-5-years-and-30-million-objects/">describe 30 million cultural objects</a> in its massive collection. And even video game creative assets <a href="https://creativecommons.org/weblog/entry/38768">are being released into the public domain under CC0</a>. And there are many more cases where creators and institutions in all fields are releasing their cultural, scientific, and educational works into the public domain. </p>
<p>CC0 allows authors to place their work into the public domain prior to the expiration of the copyright term. But what about works that are already in the public domain, such as really old works where it’s clear that the copyright has expired? To help label those works as already part of the public domain, CC has developed the <a href="https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/mark/1.0/">Public Domain Mark</a>. </p>
<p style="text-align: center" <a href="https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/mark/1.0/"><img src="media/024362aa.publicdomain.png" data-original-source="http://creativecommons.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/01/publicdomain.png" alt="publicdomain" width="403" height="142" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-41699" /><br /><strong><a href="https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/mark/1.0/">Public Domain Mark</a></strong></p>
<blockquote><p>[The] Public Domain Mark enables works that are no longer restricted by copyright to be marked as such in a standard and simple way, making them easily discoverable and available to others.
</p></blockquote>
<p>One particularly interesting use of the Public Domain Mark is from <a href="http://europeana.eu/">Europeana</a>. Whereas Europeana uses the CC0 tool to dedicate to the public domain the metadata that describes cultural works (so anyone can use it to create interesting representations or applications), they use the Public Domain Mark to signal which of the works in their digital collection (e.g. the very old paintings, sculpture, etc.) are in the public domain already because the copyright term has clearly expired. In this way, it’s easy for users to filter the catalog to view works that are already in the public domain and which may be used for any purpose because their copyrights have expired.</p>
<div style="float:left;padding:1px;border:dotted;background-color:LightGray">
<a href="http://europeana.eu/portal/record/91622/raa_kmb_16001000219404.html?start=2&#038;query=public+domain+mark&#038;qf=RIGHTS:http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/mark/1.0/*&#038;startPage=1&#038;rows=12"><img src="media/0c2e4d1f.europeana-pdm1.jpg" data-original-source="http://creativecommons.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/01/europeana-pdm1.jpg" alt="europeana pdm" width="700" height="520" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-41721" /></a></div>
<h3>Advocacy &#038; policy change</h3>
<p>Even with tools making it easier for authors to communicate the rights they want attached (or not) to the works they create, we need to support public policy efforts to increase access to the public domain. One such effort is led by the International Communia Association, <a href="http://www.communia-association.org/about-2/">whose mission is</a> “to foster, strengthen and enrich the public domain.” Communia originally developed the <a href="http://publicdomainmanifesto.org/manifesto">Public Domain Manifesto</a> (which you can sign <a href="http://publicdomainmanifesto.org/manifesto#sign">here</a>), and also has generated <a href="http://www.communia-association.org/recommendations-2/">14 policy recommendations</a> that lay out ways that the public domain should be supported through public policy changes and community action. Recommendations include reducing the term of copyright protection overall, making the process of identifying public domain works simpler by harmonizing rules of copyright duration and territoriality, and mandating that digital reproductions of works in the public domain should also belong to the public domain. </p>
<p style="text-align: center" <a href="http://www.communia-association.org/recommendations-2"><img src="media/9dc98ff4.communia-card-small.jpg" data-original-source="http://creativecommons.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/01/communia-card-small.jpg" alt="communia card small" width="564" height="402" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-41704" /></p>
<p>Another way to support the public domain is to highlight and champion community-generated norms. For instance, Creative Commons has been a longtime supporter of the <a href="http://pantonprinciples.org/">Panton Principles</a>, which advocates that scientific data should be made available in the public domain.</p>
<blockquote><p>By open data in science we mean that it is freely available on the public internet permitting any user to download, copy, analyse, re-process, pass them to software or use them for any other purpose without financial, legal, or technical barriers other than those inseparable from gaining access to the internet itself. To this end data related to published science should be explicitly placed in the public domain.
</p></blockquote>
<p>We can also support the development of public domain policies where they make the most sense. Creative Commons and other groups have provided feedback to policy consultations on a variety of areas whereby the public could benefit from the adoption of public domain policies. For example, in the recent consultation in the European Union on public sector information (PSI), <a href="https://creativecommons.org/weblog/entry/40741">we argued</a> that there should be no conditions attached to the re-use of PSI. </p>
<blockquote><p>The best case scenario would be for public sector information to be in the public domain, exempt from copyright protection altogether by amending national copyright laws. If it’s not possible to pass laws granting positive re-use rights to PSI without copyright attached, public sector bodies should use the CC0 Public Domain Dedication (CC0) to place public data into the worldwide public domain to ensure unrestricted re-use.
</p></blockquote>
<p>In the United States, federal agencies are determining how they will support the President’s Directive requiring <a href="https://creativecommons.org/weblog/entry/35267">public access to federally funded research and data</a>. In addition, the White House itself is trying to figure out how to guide implementation of another <a href="https://creativecommons.org/weblog/entry/38269">Executive Order on open data</a>. We <a href="media/fbfea963.NASFederalAgencieshearingonopendata.pdf" data-original-source="http://wiki.creativecommons.org/images/c/c1/NASFederalAgencieshearingonopendata.pdf">said</a> that any data generated using federal monies should be marked clearly as being in the public domain (possibly using a tool like CC0) and immediately deposited in a scientific data repository. And the US Federal Government has heard from other public domain advocates for government information, who’ve drawn up the <a href="http://theunitedstates.io/licensing/">Best Practices Language for Making Data “License-Free.”</a></p>
<p>Building and defending a robust public domain requires work on multiple fronts&#8211;from the ongoing development and support of tools that can grow the pool of creative works in the public domain&#8211;to the active participation in policy change and <a href="https://creativecommons.org/weblog/entry/39639">copyright reform</a>. While content in the public domain is owned by no one, the responsibility for strengthening this absolutely crucial resource should be shared by all who care about the future of creativity.  </p>


feed_id: http://creativecommons.org/?p=41737
title: Google Image Search improves license filtering
uri: Google-Image-Search-improves-license-filtering
url: http://creativecommons.org/weblog/entry/41737
content:
<p align="center"><a href="https://www.google.com/search?as_q=cat&#038;tbs=sur:fmc&#038;tbm=isch"><img src="media/8bb9efe5.catsearch-500.jpg" data-original-source="http://creativecommons.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/01/catsearch-500.jpg" width=500 height=375 border=0 /></a></p>
<p>If you use <a href="http://images.google.com/">Google Image Search</a> to look for CC-licensed photographs, you might have noticed an improvement to the interface this week. Rather than having to hunt for it in the advanced search options, you can now filter by CC license right from the &#8220;Search Tools&#8221; menu on the search results page.</p>
<p>You can also get to Google Image Search results &#8211; along with results from numerous other search engines &#8211; through our <a href="http://search.creativecommons.org/">Creative Commons Search</a> page.</p>
<p><em>Via <a href="http://lessig.tumblr.com/post/73299449182/glorious-day-google-has-launched-a-simple-way-to">Lessig</a></em></p>


feed_id: http://creativecommons.org/?p=41760
title: Why we choose open
uri: Why-we-choose-open
url: http://creativecommons.org/weblog/entry/41760
content:
<p align="center"><a href="https://donate.creativecommons.org/?utm_campaign=2013fund&#038;utm_source=blog7&#038;utm_medium=blog"><img src="media/26f346ce.cathy-ilovetoshare-600.jpg" data-original-source="http://creativecommons.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/01/cathy-ilovetoshare-600.jpg" width=600 height=400 border=0 /></a></p>
<p>I promise to keep this short. I wanted to share a note we received from CC donor Dorothea Salo:</p>
<blockquote><p>When I was a librarian hired to run an institutional repository, CC licenses helped me cut through copyright thickets with worried-but-interested faculty. CC&#8217;s unwavering support for free culture, and promotion of its benefits, demonstrated every day to often-skeptical, occasionally-hostile workplaces that I was not alone in working for openness.</p></blockquote>
<p>Dorothea, you&#8217;re <em>not</em> alone. The Creative Commons community fights for open because we&#8217;ve seen its impact in the worlds of culture, education, science, and more. We choose open because open works.</p>
<p>As some of you know, I will be leaving my role as CEO of Creative Commons at the end of February. My greatest CC experiences have been meeting members of the community and learning about the countless innovative ways you use CC licenses. You give our tools meaning by using them to change the world.</p>
<p>Alas, before I go, I have a final request. The Brin Wojcicki Foundation is matching every donation CC receives in January. That means now is the perfect time to <a href="https://donate.creativecommons.org/?utm_campaign=2013fund&#038;utm_source=blog7&#038;utm_medium=blog">make a donation to Creative Commons</a>. We have some fun gifts for donors (people are really loving the Team Open trading cards), but much more importantly, we will use your investment to fight harder and more strategically than ever for a more open world.</p>
<p>While the CEO is changing, our vision of universal access to knowledge and culture is as rock solid as ever. Realizing that vision is more important today than it&#8217;s ever been.</p>
<p>With warmest regards,<br />Cathy</p>
<p align="right"><a href="https://donate.creativecommons.org/?utm_campaign=2013fund&#038;utm_source=blog7&#038;utm_medium=blog"><img src="media/c3173c56.heart-email-6.png" data-original-source="http://creativecommons.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/01/heart-email-6.png" width=114 height=100 alt="Support Creative Commons" /></a></p>


feed_id: http://creativecommons.org/?p=41744
title: Copyright Week: Read-only access is not enough
uri: Copyright-Week-Read-only-access-is-not-enough
url: http://creativecommons.org/weblog/entry/41744
content:
<p><a href="https://www.eff.org/copyrightweek"><img src="media/9298f904.copyrightweek1.jpg" data-original-source="http://creativecommons.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/01/copyrightweek1.jpg" width=700 height=185 border=0 /></a></p>
<p>Today is the third day of <a href="https://www.eff.org/copyrightweek">Copyright Week</a>, and today, we&#8217;re focusing on open access. As EFF put it in the Copyright Week principles:</p>
<blockquote><p>The results of publicly funded research should be made freely available to the public online, to be fully used by anyone, anywhere, anytime.</p></blockquote>
<p>This is a principle that Creative Commons has always upheld. It&#8217;s crucial that the public has free online access to the research it pays for. It&#8217;s important, too, not to forget the second part of the principle: &#8220;&#8230;to be fully used by anyone.&#8221; In CC&#8217;s opinion, simply giving the public access isn&#8217;t enough. It&#8217;s impossible to enable full use without communicating the legal rights available to downstream users of those works. The definition in the seminal <a href="http://www.budapestopenaccessinitiative.org/read">Budapest Open Access Initiative</a> makes this point clear:</p>
<blockquote><p>By &#8220;open access&#8221;&#160;&#8230; we mean its free availability on the public internet, permitting any users to read, download, copy, distribute, print, search, or link to the full texts of these articles, crawl them for indexing, pass them as data to software, or use them for any other lawful purpose, without financial, legal, or technical barriers other than those inseparable from gaining access to the internet itself.</p></blockquote>
<p>The open license attached to open access publications has enabled innovations that would have been impossible without it. For example, Daniel Mietchen (co-winner of the Accelerating Science Award Program), <a href="http://asap.plos.org/finalists/visualizing-complex-science/">developed a software tool</a> to crawl and export multimedia files from openly licensed science articles in PubMed Central. The tool has uploaded <a href="http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/User:Open_Access_Media_Importer_Bot">over 13,000 files</a> to Wikimedia Commons, where  they&#8217;ve been subsequently used in more than 135 English Wikipedia articles.</p>
<p>In some ways, 2013 was a great year for open access. In the United States, the White House issued a <a href="/weblog/entry/35267">groundbreaking directive</a> requiring that most publicly funded research be made available to the public, and Congress introduced the <a href="/weblog/entry/36699">Fair Access to Science and Technology Research Act (FASTR)</a>, a bill that would require those federal agencies with yearly external research budgets exceeding $100 million to provide the public with online access to research articles stemming from such funding within 6 months of publication in a peer-reviewed journal. And <a href="/weblog/entry/37830">several states</a> are considering public access policies of their own.  In Europe, Neelie Kroes, Vice President of the European Commission for the Digital Agenda, helped launch a pilot to <a href="http://europa.eu/rapid/press-release_IP-13-1257_en.htm%20">open up publicly funded research data</a>.</p>
<p>But the march toward open access is long and slow. Open licensing requirements for publicly funded research should really go hand in hand with those for other publicly funded materials, including educational resources and cultural works. <a href="/weblog/entry/41633">Creative Commons recently formed the Open Policy Network and the Institute for Open Leadership</a> to equip advocates for open policy across disciplines.</p>
<p>A few months ago, <a href="/weblog/entry/39707">we published these infographics</a> to help make the economic case for open access to publicly funded research:</p>
<p><a href="media/e70f1dee.FileResearch_articles_cycles.jpg" data-original-source="http://wiki.creativecommons.org/File:Research_articles_cycles.jpg"><img src="media/39c3900b.closed_research.png" data-original-source="http://creativecommons.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/09/closed_research.png" width=640 height=401 border=0 /></a></p>
<p><a href="media/e70f1dee.FileResearch_articles_cycles.jpg" data-original-source="http://wiki.creativecommons.org/File:Research_articles_cycles.jpg"><img src="media/0c796eb1.optimised_research.png" data-original-source="http://creativecommons.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/09/optimised_research.png" width=640 height=476 border=0 /></a></p>
<p>The point is obvious: the fewer restrictions are put on the public&#8217;s use of materials, the more swiftly scientific progress, the more efficiently those research grants can achieve their purpose of advancing knowledge.</p>
<p><strong>Related</strong></p>
<ul>
<li><a href="/weblog/entry/39707">Public access to publicly funded materials: What could be</a></li>
<li><a href="/weblog/entry/40129">The past year in open access</a></li>
</ul>


feed_id: http://creativecommons.org/?p=41768
title: Letters for Bassel
uri: Letters-for-Bassel
url: http://creativecommons.org/weblog/entry/41768
content:
<div style="float:right; padding:10px" xmlns:dc="http://purl.org/dc/terms/" xmlns:cc="/ns#" about="http://www.flickr.com/photos/dtkindler/8570312584/"><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/dtkindler/8570312584/"><img width="320" height="213" src="media/e71e5a07.8570312584_02a312778d_n.jpg" data-original-source="http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8525/8570312584_02a312778d_n.jpg" alt="#FreeBassel" /></a>
<p><small><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/dtkindler/8570312584/"><span property="dc:title">#FreeBassel</span></a> / <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/dtkindler/"><span property="cc:attributionName">David Kindler</span></a> / <a rel="license" href="/licenses/by/2.0/">CC BY</a></small></p>
</div>
<p><a href="http://creativecommons.org/tag/freebassel">We&#8217;ve written several times</a> on this blog about <a href="http://freebassel.org/">Bassel Khartabil</a>, the Syrian Creative Commons community leader who&#8217;s been imprisoned since March 2012 without having had any charges brought against him.</p>
<p>European Parliament members Charles Tannock and Ana Gomes recently <a href="http://freebassel.org/campaign/statements/2013/12/10/eu-parliament/">submitted an official question to the Parliament leadership</a> concerning Bassel&#8217;s imprisonment:</p>
<blockquote><ol>
<li>Is the VP/HR aware of the ongoing imprisonment of Bassel Safadi Khartabil? If so, has she issued any public statement on the matter?</li>
<li>Does she agree that this represents a further abuse by the Assad regime in its attempts to block the free spread of information?</li>
<li>Will the VP/HR use the leverage available to her to press for his release, insisting upon his status as a non-combatant whose only crime has been to oppose censorship and promote the freedom of information?</li>
</ol>
</blockquote>
<p><a href="https://twitter.com/kikisurvives">Our friend Niki Korth</a> recently created <a href="http://lettersforbassel.tumblr.com/">Letters for Bassel</a>, a blog that collects letters to Bassel from friends or people who&#8217;ve been inspired by his story. <a href="http://lettersforbassel.tumblr.com/post/72675653875/happy-anniversary-to-bassel-and-noura-and-may-you">She recently published this heartbreaking letter</a> that Bassel wrote to his wife Noura on their first anniversary:</p>
<p align="center"><a href="media/f85309e0.basselnoura-fullsize.jpg" data-original-source="http://creativecommons.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/01/basselnoura-fullsize.jpg"><img src="media/afe4870b.basselnoura-400.jpg" data-original-source="http://creativecommons.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/01/basselnoura-400.jpg" width=400 height=533 border=0 /></a></p>
<p><a href="/weblog/entry/37414">As Cathy wrote in her piece on Bassel for Huffington Post</a>, &#8220;For Bassel and others around the world who fight for open, a free internet is not a theoretical matter. Real lives hang in the balance.&#8221; Creative Commons&#8217; wish for 2014 is for Bassel to be freed and rejoin our community.</p>


feed_id: http://creativecommons.org/?p=41780
title: CC is now a Group on Earth Observations (GEO) Participating Organization
uri: CC-is-now-a-Group-on-Earth-Observations-(GEO)-Participating-Organizat
url: http://creativecommons.org/weblog/entry/41780
content:
<p><img src="media/38099ef6.GEO_logo.gif" data-original-source="http://creativecommons.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/01/GEO_logo.gif" alt="GEO logo" width="310" height="100" class="alignleft size-full wp-image-41790" /></p>
<p>As of yesterday (January 15, 2014), the <a href="http://earthobservations.org/about_geo.shtml" title="Group on Earth Observations" target="_blank">Group on Earth Observations</a> approved Creative Commons as now a Participating Organization (PO) at its GEO-X Plenary in Geneva.</p>
<p>GEO was launched in response to calls for action by the 2002 World Summit on Sustainable Development and by the G8 (Group of Eight) leading industrialized countries to exploit the growing potential of Earth observations to support decision making in an increasingly complex and environmentally stressed world. GEO is coordinating efforts to build a <a href="http://www.earthobservations.org/geoss.shtml" title="GEOSS" target="_blank">Global Earth Observation System of Systems</a> (GEOSS).</p>
<p><img src="media/a9df70b8.GEOSS_logo.jpg" data-original-source="http://creativecommons.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/01/GEOSS_logo.jpg" alt="GEOSS logo" width="445" height="285" class="alignleft size-full wp-image-41791" /></p>
<p>GEOSS provides decision-support tools to a wide variety of users via a global and flexible network of content providers. GEOSS lets decision makers access a range of information by linking together existing and planned observing systems around the world and support the development of new systems where gaps exist. GEOSS promotes common technical standards so that data from the thousands of different instruments can be combined into coherent data sets. The <a href="http://www.geoportal.org" title="GEOPortal" target="_blank">GEOPortal</a> offers a single Internet access point for users seeking data, imagery, and analytical software packages relevant to all parts of the globe. For users with limited or no access to the internet, similar information is available via the <a href="http://www.earthobservations.org/geonetcast.shtml" title="GEONETCast" target="_blank">GEONETCast</a> network of telecommunication satellites.</p>
<p>GEO is a voluntary partnership of governments and international organizations providing a framework to develop new projects and coordinate their strategies and investments. As of 2013, GEO’s Members include 89 Governments and the European Commission. In addition, 67 intergovernmental, international, and regional organizations with a mandate in Earth observation or related issues have been recognized as Participating Organizations (PO).</p>
<p><a href="http://creativecommons.org/science/board#chen" target="_blank">Dr. Robert Chen</a>, CC&#8217;s Science Advisory Board member, was at the Plenary, and he had the following comment, &#8220;The GEO Executive Director, Barbara Ryan, pointed out in plenary that there was an extensive discussion in the GEO Executive Committee about making sure that new POs are active contributors to GEO activities. She noted that all of the proposed POs in today&#8217;s slate met this criterion.&#8221;</p>
<p>Creative Commons has been contributing to the GEO Data Sharing Task Force&#8217;s Legal Interoperability Sub-Group and its draft white paper on &#8220;<a href="media/494b15f8.aft_white_paper_geoss_legal_interoperability_30_october_2011.pdf" data-original-source="http://www.earthobservations.org/documents/dsp/draft_white_paper_geoss_legal_interoperability_30_october_2011.pdf" target="_blank" title="Legal Options for the Exchange of Data through the GEOSS Data-CORE">Legal Options for the Exchange of Data through the GEOSS Data-CORE (PDF)</a>.&#8221; (I was a part of the Sub-Group as a Science Fellow, and our Senior Counsel, Sarah Pearson, reviewed the paper). We intend to continue to be active contributors by guiding GEO and its members on the legal aspects of data sharing.</p>
<p>Thanks to Paul Uhlir of the <a href="http://sites.nationalacademies.org/PGA/brdi/index.htm" title="BRDI, NAS" target="_blank">Board on Research Data and Information, National Academies</a> for making the right introductions; and to <a href="http://creativecommons.org/science/board#wilbanks" target="_blank">John Wilbanks</a>, another Science Advisory Board member, for initially encouraging CC to get involved with GEO.</p>


feed_id: http://creativecommons.org/?p=41155
title: OER Summer Camp on Luxi Island
uri: OER-Summer-Camp-on-Luxi-Island
url: http://creativecommons.org/weblog/entry/41155
content:
<p><em>The following is a guest post by LIUPing and SUN Beibei, members of the <a href="http://wiki.creativecommons.org/China_Mainland">CC China Mainland Affiliate team</a> and the <a href="http://schoolofopen.org/">School of Open</a> community. Below, they describe CC China Mainland&#8217;s experience with running a two-week open educational resources (OER) summer camp for the children of <a href="http://goo.gl/maps/qDHT4">Luxi Island</a>, a remote island off the coast of China. The CC China Mainland OER Summer Camp was included in the <a href="/weblog/entry/41423">2013 round-up of School of Open activities</a>.</em></p>
<hr />
<p style="text-align:center" xmlns:dc="http://purl.org/dc/terms/" xmlns:cc="http://creativecommons.org/ns#" about="http://creativecommons.net.cn/wp-content/uploads/2013/07/%E9%B9%BF%E8%A5%BF%E5%B2%9BOER5.jpg"><a href="http://creativecommons.net.cn/2013/07/11/2013-7-11/"><img src="media/4d40a072.OER5.jpg" data-original-source="http://creativecommons.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/01/鹿西岛OER5.jpg" alt="oer summer camp 1" border=0 /></a><br /><small><span property="dc:title"></span><span property="cc:attributionName">ZHU Renkai</span> / <a rel="license" href="/licenses/by/3.0/cn">CC BY</a></small></p>
<p>The idea of a real world open educational resources (OER) activity has long been on the agenda of CC China Mainland volunteers. As one of the CC global community’s OER advocates, CC China Mainland has in the past put more effort into promoting the use of CC licenses in OER instead of co-hosting  multi-party activities in remote China. This past summer, however, CC China Mainland co-organized a real world OER activity in rural China which taught us how powerful collaboration across organizations could be. </p>
<h3>Where did it happen?</h3>
<p>Luxi, a small, remote island (1600km from Beijing) in Northeast Dongtou County, Wenzhou City, Zhejiang Province. The island depends on ferry for transportation to surrounding areas twice a day. </p>
<p>Because of the inconvenient transportation, there are very limited educational materials available for primary and middle school students from the island. In addition, many of the students’ parents work in big cities to make a living. These “left behind” children have to stay with their grandparents for most of their childhood.  However, they have the same dreams like kids in urban cities. </p>
<h3>Who made it happen?</h3>
<p>For 5 successive years, students from Renji School of Wenzhou Medical University have served as volunteer teachers for Luxi children of various grades during their summer vacations. In summer 2013, LI Lujing, a member of CC China Mainland team and teacher in Wenzhou Medical University, led a group of 30 volunteer students to Luxi for another summer session.  </p>
<p>After initial communications, CC China Mainland decided to turn the Luxi project into the first OER summer camp by inviting some OER providers to join the lessons. <a href="http://www.guokr.com/">Guokr.com</a> responded to CC’s initiative first based on past cooperation.  </p>
<p style="text-align:center" xmlns:dc="http://purl.org/dc/terms/" xmlns:cc="http://creativecommons.org/ns#" about="http://creativecommons.net.cn/wp-content/uploads/2013/07/%E9%B9%BF%E8%A5%BF%E5%B2%9BOER3.jpg"><a href="http://creativecommons.net.cn/2013/07/11/2013-7-11/"><img src="media/503f3426.OER3.jpg" data-original-source="http://creativecommons.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/01/鹿西岛OER3.jpg" alt="oer summer camp 2" border=0 /></a><br /><small><span property="dc:title"></span><span property="cc:attributionName">ZHU Renkai</span> / <a rel="license" href="/licenses/by/3.0/cn">CC BY</a></small></p>
<h3>How did it happen?</h3>
<p>After several rounds of online discussion, CC China Mainland OER camp took place:</p>
<p><img src="media/58a03561.oer-summer-camp-chart.jpg" data-original-source="http://creativecommons.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/01/oer-summer-camp-chart.jpg" alt="oer summer camp chart" width="650" height="402" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-41580" /></p>
<h3>What did the partners think?</h3>
<p><em>Here is some feedback both from Guokr.com and Renji School.</em></p>
<p>Guokr.com (the most popular online platform for science and knowledge sharing in China) contacted a couple of active users who used to put their own video lessons online. All of them were very interested in helping but none could make the travel because of time or distance. Based in Beijing, with members all around the country, Guokr thought that it would be difficult to send members to Luxi Island, due to both finance and timing. </p>
<p>But it turned out that distance doesn&#8217;t matter.</p>
<p>At this point, Guokr.com&#8217;s MOOC initiative inspired us. Guokr has been dedicated to popularizing MOOCs and its MOOCs online community has become the largest in China. We decided to support the program by designing a MOOC.</p>
<p>Deyi is a student majoring in agricultural science who happened to run a Guokr-sponsored project named &#8220;box of making plant specimens &#8211; a teaching guide.&#8221; The box contains materials for producing plant specimens as well as teaching guidance. To facilitate teaching, Deyi recorded 4 videos to show viewers how to use the box. A quiz is displayed in the middle of the videos as well.</p>
<p>Before the formal classes, Deyi delivered 4 boxes to the school and contacted a local volunteer as the teaching assistant. He trained the volunteer on how to play the videos and guide students to use the box.</p>
<p>That&#8217;s how a MOOC-like class goes into a school on a small island and that&#8217;s how a class happens without the teacher standing in the front of a classroom.</p>
<p><em>The content below is provided by Renli School of Wenzhou University.</em></p>
<p>Every summer, 30 volunteer students go to Luxi Island to give some courses to Luxi Children. The free teaching activity has lasted for 6 years and is warmly welcomed by the parents of the island, because most of the children were &#8220;left behind&#8221; and needed to be cared for.</p>
<p>Last year, a kid told us his dream of being a scientist. At that time, we realized that they want more than what the island can offer. But most of the volunteers are medical students, lacking the professional knowledge of other fields. At that time, we thought about cooperation. CC was our first choice and with their help, we got connected with Guokr.com. </p>
<p>In the local classroom, one of our volunteer students played the role of teaching assistant to guide the children to learn better, because the children were too young to understand the video alone. After the class, every student got to focus on their own work. They were really happy to be involved and asked us to bring more courses next year. </p>
<p style="text-align:center" xmlns:dc="http://purl.org/dc/terms/" xmlns:cc="http://creativecommons.org/ns#" about="http://creativecommons.net.cn/wp-content/uploads/2013/07/%E9%B9%BF%E8%A5%BF%E5%B2%9BOER6.jpg"><a href="http://creativecommons.net.cn/2013/07/11/2013-7-11/"><img src="media/5a16fc74.OER6.jpg" data-original-source="http://creativecommons.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/01/鹿西岛OER6.jpg" alt="oer summer camp 3" border=0 /></a><br /><small><span property="dc:title"></span><span property="cc:attributionName">ZHENG Haotian</span> / <a rel="license" href="/licenses/by/3.0/cn">CC BY</a></small></p>
<hr />
<p>In addition to the OER Summer Camp, CC China Mainland has run <a href="/weblog/entry/39057">engineering and design challenge workshops</a> incorporating open source and CC licensing education for university students in China. Called the eXtreme Learning Process (XLP) at Tsinghua University in collaboration with <a href="http://toyhouse.cc/video/extreme-learning-process-first-test-in-tsinghua">Toyhouse</a>, it is also a School of Open project and was <a href="http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB10001424052702303722604579111253495145952">highlighted</a> in the Wall Street Journal last year.</p>
<h3>About the School of Open</h3>
<p><a href="http://schoolofopen.org/"><img src="media/0f80fa89.school-of-open-logo-small.png" data-original-source="http://creativecommons.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/12/school-of-open-logo-small.png" alt="school of open logo" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-39074" /></a></p>
<p><em>The School of Open is a global community of volunteers focused on providing free education opportunities on the meaning, application, and impact of “openness” in the digital age and its benefit to creative endeavors, education, research, and more. Volunteers develop and run online courses, offline workshops, and real world training programs on topics such as Creative Commons licenses, open educational resources, and sharing creative works. The School of Open is coordinated by Creative Commons and <a href="http://p2pu.org/">P2PU</a>, a peer learning community and platform for developing and running free online courses.</em></p>


feed_id: http://creativecommons.org/?p=41802
title: Congress passes spending bill requiring free access to publicly funded research
uri: Congress-passes-spending-bill-requiring-free-access-to-publicly-funded
url: http://creativecommons.org/weblog/entry/41802
content:
<div style="padding:10px" <a href="media/fabd18a3.agencylogos.jpg" data-original-source="http://creativecommons.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/01/agencylogos.jpg"><img src="media/fabd18a3.agencylogos.jpg" data-original-source="http://creativecommons.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/01/agencylogos.jpg" alt="agencylogos" width="700" height="178" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-41805" /></div>
<p></p>
<p><em><strong>Update: The <a href="http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/bdquery/z?d113:h.r.3547:">bill</a> was signed by President Obama January 17, 2014.<br />
</strong></em></p>
<p>Both the U.S. House of Representative and Senate have passed the <a href="media/e26cdc77.CPRT-113-HPRT-RU00-h3547-hamdt2samdt_xml.pdf" data-original-source="http://docs.house.gov/billsthisweek/20140113/CPRT-113-HPRT-RU00-h3547-hamdt2samdt_xml.pdf">2014 omnibus appropriations legislation</a> (2.9 MB PDF). President Obama is expected to sign the bill shortly. </p>
<p>What’s so special about this legislation? Federal agencies with research budgets of at least $100 million per year will be required provide the public with free online access to scholarly articles generated with federal funds no later than 12 months after publication in a peer-reviewed journal. The agencies affected by the public access provision of the appropriations bill include the Department of Labor, Department of Education, and Department of Health and Human Services (which includes research-intensive sub-agencies such as the National Institutes of Health, Food and Drug Administration, and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention). </p>
<p>According to <a href="http://www.sparc.arl.org/news/omnibus-appropriations-bill-codifies-white-house-directive">SPARC</a>, the bill “ensure[s] that $31 billion of the total $60 billion annual U.S. investment in taxpayer-funded research is now openly accessible.” </p>
<p>The inclusion of the public access provision builds upon existing initiatives, such as the <a href="http://publicaccess.nih.gov/">NIH Public Access Policy</a>. And it echoes the more recent push for public access to publicly funded research advocated through the introduction of the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fair_Access_to_Science_and_Technology_Research_Act">Fair Access to Science and Technology Research Act</a> (FASTR) and the White House <a href="media/652d6d11.ostp_public_access_memo_2013.pdf" data-original-source="http://www.whitehouse.gov/sites/default/files/microsites/ostp/ostp_public_access_memo_2013.pdf">directive</a>. But with FASTR tabled in Congress last year and the federal agencies dragging their feet on complying with Obama’s public access directive (plans were due in August 2013), the passage of the 2014 spending legislation is a welcome measure for increasing access to publicly funded research. </p>
<p>SPARC thinks the language in the bill could be strengthened by adopting a shorter embargo period (e.g. six months), which would benefit the public without harming journal publishers. In addition, they suggest that research articles be shared via a central repository similar to PubMed Central and incorporate provisions to ensure the ability to conduct text and data mining on the entire corpus of federally-funded articles. <a href="https://creativecommons.org/weblog/entry/41744">Creative Commons</a> and <a href="http://blog.okfn.org/2014/01/15/copyright-and-open-access-2014/">other groups</a> have also communicated the need for not only free public access, but also access whereby publicly funded research is made available under open licenses. </p>
<p><small><a href="http://thenounproject.com/term/open-access/27477/">Open Access icon</a> was created by <a href="http://thenounproject.com/Duke%20Innovation%20Co-Lab">Duke Innovation Co-Lab</a> and in the public domain.<br />
<a href="media/83bb2869.FileUS-DeptOfEducation-Seal.svg" data-original-source="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:US-DeptOfEducation-Seal.svg">U.S. Department of Education seal</a> is in the public domain.<br />
<a href="media/97d18f0c.FileUS-DeptOfLabor-Seal.svg" data-original-source="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:US-DeptOfLabor-Seal.svg">U.S. Department of Labor seal</a> is in the public domain.<br />
<a href="media/0fb6a792.FileUS-DeptOfHHS-Seal.svg" data-original-source="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:US-DeptOfHHS-Seal.svg">U.S. Department of Health and Human Services seal</a> is in the public domain.</small></p>


feed_id: http://creativecommons.org/?p=41819
title: Copyright Week: What happened to the Brazilian Copyright Reform?
uri: Copyright-Week-What-happened-to-the-Brazilian-Copyright-Reform
url: http://creativecommons.org/weblog/entry/41819
content:
<p><a href="https://www.eff.org/copyrightweek"><img src="media/9298f904.copyrightweek1.jpg" data-original-source="http://creativecommons.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/01/copyrightweek1.jpg" width=700 height=185 border=0 /></a></p>
<p>A few years ago, a major copyright reform in Brazil seemed imminent. What happened? On the Creative Commons Brazil blog, Mariana Giorgetti Valente and Pedro Nicoletti Mizukami have an <a href="http://creativecommons.org.br/blog/copyright-week-en/">excellent post</a> on the complicated history of copyright reform in Brazil:</p>
<blockquote><p>In December 2007, the Brazilian Ministry of Culture — then under Minister Gilberto Gil&#8217;s administration — started the National Copyright Law Forum, a series of seminars across the country with the participation of lawyers, researchers, artists and industry representatives, with the goal of gathering information and pave the way for a copyright reform process. Based on these events, and other closed and open meetings with different stakeholders, the Ministry of Justice prepared a draft copyright reform bill, which was submitted to public consultation in 2010.</p></blockquote>
<blockquote><p>The consultation took place in an <a href="http://www2.cultura.gov.br/consultadireitoautoral/">online platform</a> similar to that used for the Marco Civil consultation on Internet regulation. Comments could be submitted on an article by article basis, and the analysis of almost 8,000 contributions resulted in a project that was considerable superior to current law, with greater attention to public interest issues, <a href="http://infojustice.org/archives/26900">an expanded list of copyright exceptions</a> — including a general clause, the permission to circumvent DRM/TPMs in certain conditions, checks on the collective management of copyright (a serious problem in Brazil), and the explicit recognition that copyright may be limited by consumer protection law, antitrust law, as well as human rights.</p></blockquote>
<blockquote><p>When Dilma Rousseff was elected the 36th President of Brazil, however, the copyright reform process suffered its first major setback. To succeed Juca Ferreira as her Minister of Culture, Rousseff chose Ana de Hollanda, a singer with close ties to the recording industry and ECAD — the central office for collecting societies in Brazil, one of the greatest adversaries of the draft bill. Indicative of how different her approach to copyright policy would be, one of the first measures de Hollanda took as Minister was to remove Creative Commons licensing from the Ministry of Culture’s website. Soon after, de Hollanda replaced most of the staff of the Ministry’s Intellectual Rights Directorship (Diretoria de Direitos Intelectuais), and mostly stalled the reform process, despite concluding <a href="http://infojustice.org/archives/6369">a revision of the text</a>.</p></blockquote>
<p><a href="http://creativecommons.org.br/blog/copyright-week-en/">Read the full post</a>.</p>


feed_id: http://creativecommons.org/?p=41863
title: Free Bassel Day, coming March 15
uri: Free-Bassel-Day-coming-March-15
url: http://creativecommons.org/weblog/entry/41863
content:
<p><a href="http://freebassel.org/">Bassel Khartabil</a> is a computer engineer who, through his innovations in social media, digital education, and open-source web software, played a huge role in opening the internet in Syria and bringing online access and knowledge to the Syrian people. Many people reading this blog know Bassel through his work as lead for CC Syria.</p>
<p><a href="http://ab14.globalvoicesonline.org/">Coinciding with the 4th Arab Bloggers Meeting</a> (at which Bassel was sorely missed) and the Geneva II Peace Conference, the #freebassel Campaign is announcing the call for pledges for Free Bassel Day 2014.</p>
<p>The second <a href="http://freebasselday.org/">Free Bassel Day</a> will be held globally on March 15, marking the second anniversary of his imprisonment and the third anniversary of the beginning of the Syrian civil war. We encourage you to join the CC and #freebassel communities and get involved.</p>
<p>For more information or to share your pledge for Free Bassel Day, contact the #freebassel campaign at <a href="mailto:love@freebassel.org">love@freebassel.org</a>.</p>
<p>Projects already in the works:</p>
<ul>
<li><strong>Bassel Junto:</strong> This week, Disquiet Junto is running a music project to honor Bassel (<a href="/weblog/entry/41768">See our previous post</a>).</li>
<li><strong><em>#freebassel</em> album:</strong> <a href="http://fabricatorz.com">Fabricatorz</a> will release an album on #FREEBASSELDAY. Contact <a href="mailto:freebassel@fabricatorz.com">freebassel@fabricatorz.com</a> for more information.</li>
<li><strong><em>#freebassel</em> cookbook:</strong> <a href="http://thebigconversationspace.org">The Big Conversation Space</a> is collecting recipes from Bassel&#8217;s family, friends, and supporters, to be released as a digital cookbook on Free Bassel Day. Contact <a href="mailto:freebasselcookbook@gmail.com">freebasselcookbook@gmail.com</a> for more information.</li>
<li><strong>Letters for Bassel</strong> –  Niki Korth is leading an effort to collect handwritten and typewritten letters to Bassel from friends, family, and supporters (<a href="/weblog/entry/41768">See our previous post</a>).
</li>
<li><a href="https://www.thunderclap.it/projects/8292-pledge-for-freebasselday-2014">Join the global </a><a href="https://www.thunderclap.it/projects/8292-pledge-for-freebasselday-2014">Thunderclap</a> on March 15.</li>
</ul>
<p>For more information or to submit your Free Bassel Day event or project, visit <a href="http://freebasselday.org">freebasselday.org</a>.</p>
<p><strong>Related</strong></p>
<ul>
<li><a href="/weblog/entry/41768">Letters for Bassel</a></li>
<li><a href="/weblog/entry/37414">Free Bassel, Free Culture</a></li>
<li><a href="/weblog/entry/36271">Lawrence Lessig&#8217;s WSJ Article on Bassel Khartabil</a></li>
</ul>


feed_id: http://creativecommons.org/?p=41834
title: Help bridge our open communities: Open Coalition Project Coordinator Job
uri: Help-bridge-our-open-communities-Open-Coalition-Project-Coordinator
url: http://creativecommons.org/weblog/entry/41834
content:
<p style="text-align:center" xmlns:dc="http://purl.org/dc/terms/" xmlns:cc="http://creativecommons.org/ns#" about="http://farm3.staticflickr.com/2422/3989366746_161f4d0f6c_o.jpg"><a href="https://secure.flickr.com/photos/statelibraryqueensland/3989366746/in/photostream/"><img src="media/461bf8d8.bridge-brisbane.jpg" data-original-source="http://creativecommons.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/01/bridge-brisbane.jpg" alt="" border=0 /></a><br /><small><span property="dc:title"><a href="https://secure.flickr.com/photos/statelibraryqueensland/3989366746/in/photostream/">Construction of the Story Bridge, Brisbane, 1939</a></span> / <span property="cc:attributionName">State Library Queensland</span> / <a href="http://www.slq.qld.gov.au/home/copyright/#flickr">No known copyright restrictions</a><br /></small></p>
<p>Last November, a bunch of us from Wikimedia, Mozilla, P2PU, OKFN, Creative Commons, School of Open, and other communities got together for a session at Mozfest called &#8220;<a href="https://creativecommons.org/weblog/entry/40455#collaborations">Collaborations across the Open Space</a>.&#8221; That session not only laid the groundwork for better communication among open organizations, but also resulted in the momentum to draft a job description for a project coordinator who will &#8220;support the development of a stronger network of organizations working in the areas of open knowledge and open access.&#8221;</p>
<p>The part-time position is being funded by Wikimedia UK with the hope that another organization will pick up it up after the initial 6 month term. The full description is at <a href="https://wikimedia.org.uk/wiki/Open_Coalition_Project_Co-ordinator">https://wikimedia.org.uk/wiki/Open_Coalition_Project_Co-ordinator</a> &#8211; but here are the highlights of what we envision the person to be doing:</p>
<ul>
<li>    Have a thorough understanding of issues relating to open knowledge, open access, open source, and open content licences</li>
<li>    Lead on the development of a small event for organisations working in this space, including Wikimedia UK, Open Knowledge Foundation, Creative Commons, Mozilla, Open Rights Group, and OpenStreetMap, among others</li>
<li>    Act as a conduit for organisations acting in the open space, facilitating discussion and collaboration</li>
<li>    Lead on the creation of a website and booklet explaining what it means to be an open organisation, what the &#8220;open sector&#8221; is and the benefits it brings</li>
<li>    Build a relationship of trust with the group and the wider open community</li>
<li>    Develop and deliver sessions about the open coalition at Wikimania in London, August 2014</li>
</ul>
<p>The position is based in London, but will be working with open community members from around the world. Have a look at the <a href="https://wikimedia.org.uk/wiki/Open_Coalition_Project_Co-ordinator">position</a> and also at the <a href="https://wikimedia.org.uk/wiki/Joint_Mozfest_session/Write_up">notes</a> from the original Mozfest session for reference.</p>


feed_id: http://creativecommons.org/?p=41850
title: Disquiet Junto honors Bassel Khartabil
uri: Disquiet-Junto-honors-Bassel-Khartabil
url: http://creativecommons.org/weblog/entry/41850
content:
<div style="float:right; padding:10px" xmlns:dc="http://purl.org/dc/terms/" xmlns:cc="/ns#" about="//www.flickr.com/photos/kl/8558785553/"><a href="//www.flickr.com/photos/kl/8558785553/"><img width="320" height="212" src="media/73300b0f.8558785553_456d5bee56_n.jpg" data-original-source="http://creativecommons.org//farm9.staticflickr.com/8528/8558785553_456d5bee56_n.jpg" alt="#FREEBASSEL" /></a>
<p><small><a href="//www.flickr.com/photos/kl/8558785553/"><span property="dc:title">#FREEBASSEL</span></a> / <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/kl/"><span property="cc:attributionName">Kennisland</span></a> / <a rel="license" href="/licenses/by-sa/2.0/">CC BY-SA</a></small></p>
</div>
<p>We&#8217;re big fans of <a href="https://soundcloud.com/groups/disquiet-junto/">Disquiet Junto</a>, a group of Creative Commons musicians who create original works and remixes each week around a different theme.</p>
<p>This week, Disquiet Junto is honoring <a href="http://freebassel.org/">Bassel Khartabil</a>, <a href="/weblog/entry/37414">the Syrian CC community leader who&#8217;s been in prison in Syria since March 2012</a>, with a music project dedicated to Bassel.</p>
<p>From Disquiet Junto:</p>
<blockquote><p>On Thursday, January 23, a special collaborative sound and music project will help raise awareness about Palestinian Syrian programmer and Creative Commons advocate Bassel Khartabil, who has been detained in Syria since March 15, 2012. As the two-year anniversary of Bassel&#8217;s incarceration approaches, the Disquiet Junto music community on SoundCloud.com will spend four days developing original sound works in Bassel&#8217;s honor. This week&#8217;s project will invite musicians to flesh out a work-in-progress that Bassel has, naturally, not been able to complete due to his imprisonment.</p></blockquote>
<blockquote><p>Late in the day each Thursday, a new compositional prompt goes out to members of the Disquiet Junto, who then have until 11:59pm the following Monday to submit a piece of music. The Bassel project will be the 108th weekly Disquiet Junto project. As of this date, over 3,000 original pieces of music have been uploaded to the Disquiet Junto group on SoundCloud by over 400 musicians from around the world. The Disquiet Junto began the first week of January 2012, and has continued weekly ever since. Past Disquiet Junto projects include the interpretation of polling data as a graphically notated score, the use of wind chimes as a percussive instrument, the creation of &#8220;goodbye music&#8221; for the Voyager 1 space probe made from the sounds of interstellar space, and numerous Creative Commons&#8211;inspired remixes of music originally published on netlabels.</p></blockquote>
<blockquote><p>The Disquiet Junto was created and is moderated by Marc Weidenbaum, the San Francisco&#8211;based author of the book <em>Selected Ambient Works Volume II</em>, based on the Aphex Twin album of that name. Subscribe to the <a href="https://tinyletter.com/disquiet-junto">Disquiet Junto email announcement list</a>.</p></blockquote>
<p><strong>Update (January 24):</strong> The challenge has now launched. <a href="http://disquiet.com/2014/01/23/disquiet0108-freebassel/">Submit your project by Monday!</a></p>
<p><strong>Related</strong></p>
<ul>
<li><a href="/weblog/entry/41768">Letters for Bassel</a></li>
<li><a href="/weblog/entry/37414">Free Bassel, Free Culture</a></li>
</ul>


feed_id: http://creativecommons.org/?p=41895
title: Honda releases 3D models under CC
uri: Honda-releases-3D-models-under-CC
url: http://creativecommons.org/weblog/entry/41895
content:
<p>This morning, auto manufacturer Honda <a href="http://world.honda.com/news/2014/41401283D-Data-Concept-Models/index.html">released 3D data for the exterior designs of several of its concept models</a> under a <a href="/licenses/by-nc/4.0/">CC Attribution-NonCommercial (BY-NC)</a> license. <a href="http://world.honda.com/news/2014/41401283D-Data-Concept-Models/index.html">From the press release</a>:</p>
<blockquote><p>With the data downloaded from the website &#8220;<a href="http://www.honda-3d.com/">Honda 3D Design Archives</a>,&#8221; Honda&#8217;s concept models can easily be replicated by a household 3D printer, which is becoming more popular in recent years. By offering data of its concept models, which embody the spirit of &#8220;Honda Design,&#8221; Honda offers opportunity to enjoy a simulated experience of Honda&#8217;s &#8220;art of manufacturing.&#8221;</p></blockquote>
<p>You can view the designs on <a href="http://www.honda-3d.com/">the new Honda 3D site</a> or download them in <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/STL_(file_format)">STL</a>. Since the designs are licensed under BY-NC, anyone can share, modify, and remix them noncommercially. Now that these designs are in the wild, it will be cool to see who mods them in unexpected and creative ways.</p>
<p><iframe width="560" height="315" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/kdOVr4Tqdoc" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe></p>
<p><strong>Related:</strong> <a href="/weblog/entry/30605">CC and the 3D Printing Community</a></p>


feed_id: http://creativecommons.org/?p=41874
title: 4.0 translation process begins
uri: 4-0-translation-process-begins
url: http://creativecommons.org/weblog/entry/41874
content:
<p>We are excited to announce the launch of the official translation process for the 4.0 license suite.  As most of you know, CC made a significant push to make this latest version of the licenses as internationally robust as possible. The result is a set of licenses we hope will be used around the world. As part of that effort, we plan to publish official translations of the licenses in as many languages as possible, so that people around the world can read the legal code in their own languages. We will need the help of our <a href="http://wiki.creativecommons.org/CC_Affiliate_Network">affiliate network</a> and the larger CC community to accomplish this goal. </p>
<p>We have prepared a <a href="http://wiki.creativecommons.org/Legal_Code_Translation_Policy" target="_blank">formal translation process</a> to help us achieve such an ambitious undertaking. The process requires coordination across jurisdictions, as the goal is to create a single translation of any given language wherever possible. Communication and teamwork will be critical, as will attention to detail. (As with all CC official legal code, once published, it will be permanently locked per CC’s long-standing commitment not to change the <a href="http://wiki.creativecommons.org/Legal_code">legal code</a> once published for adoption.) </p>
<p>The CC regional coordinators will be leading the translation teams and helping to organize the effort across jurisdictions. CC Legal will oversee each translation project to help ensure the official translations have the same legal meaning and effect as the original. To aid the effort, we have created <a href="http://wiki.creativecommons.org/Legal_Code_Translation_Policy#Supporting_documents">several guides</a> designed to help translators complete the project. There is a translation guide, which will be continually updated with new tips and guidelines as we learn more throughout this process, a guide to building the other five licenses in the suite once the first license is translated, and a worksheet to help translators and CC Legal stay on the same page. </p>
<p>If you would like to get involved in this important internationalization effort, please contact a <a href="http://wiki.creativecommons.org/Regional_Coordinators">CC regional coordinator</a>. </p>


feed_id: http://creativecommons.org/?p=41906
title: U.S. PIRG report finds students would perform better with open textbooks
uri: U-S-PIRG-report-finds-students-would-perform-better-with-open-textbo
url: http://creativecommons.org/weblog/entry/41906
content:
<div style="float:left; padding:1px" xmlns:dc="http://purl.org/dc/terms/" xmlns:cc="/ns#" about="http://uspirg.org/sites/pirg/files/reports/NATIONAL%20Fixing%20Broken%20Textbooks%20Report1.pdf"><a href="http://uspirg.org/reports/usp/fixing-broken-textbook-market"><img width="" height="" src="media/e35b651a.Fixing-the-Broken....jpg" data-original-source="http://creativecommons.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/01/Fixing-the-Broken....jpg" alt="Fixing-the-Broken-Textbook-Market" /></a>
<p><small><a href="http://uspirg.org/reports/usp/fixing-broken-textbook-market"><span property="dc:title"></span></a><a href="http://uspirg.org/reports/usp/fixing-broken-textbook-market"><span property="cc:attributionName">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Center for Public Interest Research, Inc.</span></a> / <a rel="license" href="/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></small></p>
</div>
<p>The U.S. PIRG Education Fund <a href="http://uspirg.org/news/usp/survey-shows-students-opting-out-buying-high-cost-textbooks">released</a> a report this week called, &#8220;<a href="http://uspirg.org/reports/usp/fixing-broken-textbook-market">Fixing the Broken Textbook Market: How Students Respond to High Textbook Costs and Demand Alternatives</a>.&#8221; The report features responses to a survey administered to over 2,000 students across 163 college campuses in the U.S. in regards to the rising cost of textbooks and how it affects student usage and academic performance. The report has been making the rounds in major news outlets and is highlighted in a <a href="media/dbecc89f.S.20170420Dear20Colleague.pdf" data-original-source="http://www.sparc.arl.org/sites/default/files/S.%201704%20Dear%20Colleague.pdf">letter to Congress</a> by Senators Durbin and Franken as a push for the <a href="http://www.sparc.arl.org/advocacy/national/act">Affordable College Textbook Act</a>. It is available for anyone to read online under the <a href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license</a>, but here are the <a href="https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/TL;DR">tl;dr</a> highlights: </p>
<h3>What the survey results say</h3>
<ul>
<li>65% of students choose not to buy a college textbook because it&#8217;s too expensive</li>
<li>94% report that they suffer academically because of this choice</li>
<li>48% say they altered which classes they took based on textbook costs, either taking fewer classes or different classes</li>
<li>Senator Durbin wholeheartedly agrees: &#8220;According to the students surveyed in this report, the rising cost of textbooks not only adds to the overall financial burden of attending college, it can also have a measurably negative impact on their academic performance and student outcomes.&#8221;</li>
<li>82% of students say they would do significantly better in a course if the textbook were free online and a hard copy was optional!</li>
<li>Case studies at both <a href="http://contentdm.lib.byu.edu/cdm/singleitem/collection/IR/id/2827/rec/1">Houston Community College</a> and <a href="http://www.eurodl.org/?p=current&#038;article=533">Virginia State University</a> suggest that classes using open textbooks have higher grades and better course completion rates</li>
</ul>
<h3>Textbook industry facts</h3>
<p><em>(as reported by the U.S. PIRG Education Fund and the Student PIRGs)</em></p>
<ul>
<li>College textbook prices have increased by 82% in the past ten years, aka 3x the rate of inflation</li>
<li>Though alternatives to the new print edition textbooks exist, the costs of these alternatives (such as rental programs, used book markets and e-textbooks) are still dictated by publishers who re-issue editions every few years</li>
<li>Ethan Sendack at U.S. PIRG <a href="http://www.usnews.com/news/articles/2014/01/28/report-high-textbook-prices-have-college-students-struggling">says</a>: &#8220;[Students] can&#8217;t shop around and find the most affordable option, meaning there&#8217;s no consumer control on the market.&#8221;</li>
<li>On average students spend $1,200 a year on textbooks which = 14% of tuition at a four-year, public college; 39% of tuition at community college</li>
</ul>
<h3>Open textbook facts</h3>
<ul>
<li>Open textbooks are written by faculty and peer-reviewed like traditional textbooks</li>
<li>Open textbooks are free to access, use, download to electronic devices, and affordable to print &#8212; all thanks to the open content licenses on them that legally allows these uses</li>
<li>U.S. PIRG estimates that open textbooks could save each student ~$100 per course they take</li>
</ul>
<h3>Find out for yourself</h3>
<p>Links to the press release, full report, and news coverage below.</p>
<ul>
<li>Press release: <a href="http://uspirg.org/news/usp/survey-shows-students-opting-out-buying-high-cost-textbooks">http://uspirg.org/news/usp/survey-shows-students-opting-out-buying-high-cost-textbooks</a></li>
<li>Full report: <a href="http://uspirg.org/reports/usp/fixing-broken-textbook-market">http://uspirg.org/reports/usp/fixing-broken-textbook-market</a></li>
<li>SPARC&#8217;s blog post: <a href="http://www.sparc.arl.org/blog/survey-says-textbook-costs-threat-student-success">http://www.sparc.arl.org/blog/survey-says-textbook-costs-threat-student-success</a></li>
<li>US News &#038; World Report: <a href="http://www.usnews.com/news/articles/2014/01/28/report-high-textbook-prices-have-college-students-struggling">http://www.usnews.com/news/articles/2014/01/28/report-high-textbook-prices-have-college-students-struggling</a></li>
<li>NBC Today show: <a href="http://www.today.com/money/college-textbook-costs-more-outrageous-ever-2D11999533">http://www.today.com/money/college-textbook-costs-more-outrageous-ever-2D11999533</a></li>
<li>The Chronicle of Higher Education: <a href="http://chronicle.com/blogs/wiredcampus/open-textbooks-could-help-students-financially-and-academically-researchers-say/49839">http://chronicle.com/blogs/wiredcampus/open-textbooks-could-help-students-financially-and-academically-researchers-say/49839</a></li>
</ul>
<h3>What you can do</h3>
<p>Support the Affordable College Textbook Act which would establish open textbook pilot programs at colleges and universities across the country! Learn more at <a href="http://www.sparc.arl.org/advocacy/national/act">http://www.sparc.arl.org/advocacy/national/act</a> and read Senators Durbin and Franken&#8217;s Dear Colleague letter to Congress at <a href="media/dbecc89f.S.20170420Dear20Colleague.pdf" data-original-source="http://www.sparc.arl.org/sites/default/files/S.%201704%20Dear%20Colleague.pdf">http://www.sparc.arl.org/sites/default/files/S.%201704%20Dear%20Colleague.pdf</a>. </p>


feed_id: http://creativecommons.org/?p=41902
title: Knowledged Unlatched invites university libraries to open access publishing pilot
uri: Knowledged-Unlatched-invites-university-libraries-to-open-access-publi
url: http://creativecommons.org/weblog/entry/41902
content:
<p><em>This guest blog post was written by Lucy Montgomery, deputy director of <a href="http://www.knowledgeunlatched.org/">Knowledge Unlatched</a>.</em></p>
<p>Knowledge Unlatched is inviting university libraries to join the pilot of a new approach to achieving open access for specialist scholarly books.</p>
<p>Specialist books in the Humanities and Social Sciences, or <em>monographs</em>, sell for between $50 and $200. Monograph publishing is in danger of extinction. The average monograph now sells just 200-400 copies. In spite of eye-watering prices, monograph publishers are struggling to cover their costs and many are subsidized. There has to be a better way!</p>
<p>Knowledge Unlatched is helping publishers, libraries and authors to secure the future of specialist scholarly books by engaging with the possibilities of open access. By working together, libraries have an opportunity to create incentives for the open access publication of high quality, peer-reviewed books, providing publishers with room to innovate and ensuring that the knowledge contained in books is made available for free to anyone with an internet connection.</p>
<p>Here&#8217;s how it works: KU is helping libraries to pool their funds to pay publishers to make a book available under a Creative Commons NonCommercial license as soon as it is published.  Publishers remain free to sell other formats.</p>
<p>KU is running a proof of concept pilot, inviting libraries to sign up to support a package of 28 new titles from 13 well-known scholarly publishers. If at least 200 libraries pledge their support for the package by February 28, 2014, all of the books will be made available as fully downloadable PDFs under <a href="/licenses/by-nc/4.0/">CC BY-NC</a> or <a href="/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/">BY-NC-ND</a>. If more than 200 participate, then the cost per library will drop.</p>
<p>If the pilot is successful, KU plans to begin scaling up later this year: offering libraries more selection options including subject specific packages. It eventually aims to make individual titles available so libraries can select individual books that they would like to support.</p>
<p>See <a href="http://www.knowledgeunlatched.org/">www.knowledgeunlatched.org</a> for more information. If you are a library sign up now. The closing date for the pilot is the 28th of February and every pledge counts!</p>
<p>If you are not a library but care about scholarly books, tell your librarian about Knowledge Unlatched.</p>


feed_id: http://creativecommons.org/?p=41946
title: Discussion period open for Draft ShareAlike Statement of Intent
uri: Discussion-period-open-for-Draft-ShareAlike-Statement-of-Intent
url: http://creativecommons.org/weblog/entry/41946
content:
<p>Today we&#8217;re beginning our discussion period for the Draft Statement of Intent for the ShareAlike Licenses. Because of the <a href="http://wiki.creativecommons.org/4.0/ShareAlike#Draft_4">new provision in the 4.0 ShareAlike licenses</a> allowing licensees to use SA works in Adapted Material under the conditions of a later license version, we are working on a statement of intent that publicly commits to attributes of the ShareAlike licenses that CC will keep constant in future versions. The statement is meant to address concerns about what may happen with future versions of SA, and what it means for licensors.</p>
<p>You can view the <a href="http://lists.ibiblio.org/pipermail/cc-licenses/2013-November/007506.html">initial announcement to the license development list</a>, and the <a href="http://lists.ibiblio.org/pipermail/cc-licenses/2014-February/007529.html">announcement of the new revision and final discussion period</a>. </p>
<p>Many of you are familiar with the <a href="http://wiki.creativecommons.org/CC_Attribution-ShareAlike_Intent">existing statement of intent on the scope of ShareAlike</a>, made in preparation for Wikipedia&#8217;s migration from GFDL to CC BY-SA, which we <a href="https://creativecommons.org/weblog/entry/8186">wrote about in 2008</a>. This statement isn&#8217;t a replacement for it; instead, it will be a supplement to the commitments made there. The 10 items in the current discussion draft include a commitment to a public discussion process for all future license versions, as well as a commitment not to narrow the scope of future versions (though it could be expanded). Items 9 and 10 of the draft are proposals included for consideration, but are unlikely to appear in the final document. </p>
<p>We are discussing the development of this statement on the license development list before publication so that the CC community can provide its thoughtful guidance and feedback before we make this long-term commitment. (<a href="http://lists.ibiblio.org/mailman/listinfo/cc-licenses">You can sign up here</a>  to join the discussion.) It will remain open for comment until February 21. </p>
<p><strong>Update (February 19):</strong> After hearing community feedback, we&#8217;ve decided not to publish this now, but instead to revisit it at a later date as more general versioning principles for all of the CC licenses. </p>


feed_id: http://creativecommons.org/?p=41933
title: School of Open: “Writing Wikipedia Articles” Course Now Open for Registration
uri: School-of-Open-Writing-Wikipedia-Articles-Course-Now-Open-for
url: http://creativecommons.org/weblog/entry/41933
content:
<p><em>Below, Sara Frank Bristow invites you to join &#8220;Writing Wikipedia Articles: The Basics &#038; Beyond&#8221;. Sara is a co-organizer of the course and a member of <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:OPEN">WikiProject Open</a>. Both projects are part of the School of Open.</em></p>
<hr />
<p>The School of Open will offer its popular &#8220;<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:WIKISOO">Writing Wikipedia Articles</a>&#8221; course (WIKISOO) starting <strong>25 February, 2014</strong>. This free introductory online course, now in its fourth incarnation, runs for six weeks. Enrollment is open to all.</p>
<div style="float:right; padding:10px" xmlns:dc="http://purl.org/dc/terms/" xmlns:cc="/ns#" about="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/27/WikiSOO_Burba.jpg"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:WIKISOO_badges"><img width="" height="" src="media/daf17671.WikiSOO_Burba.jpg" data-original-source="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/27/WikiSOO_Burba.jpg" alt="WikiSOO_Burba" /></a>
<p><small><span property="dc:title">WIKISOO Burba Badge</span><span property="cc:attributionName"></span></small></p>
</div>
<p>WIKISOO students learn about the values and culture that have driven hundreds of thousands of volunteers to build Wikipedia. Through their work in the course, they join an effort that has generated millions of free articles in hundreds of languages since 2001.The course covers the technical skills needed to edit articles, and also offers practical insights into the site&#8217;s collaborative norms and social dynamics. Students graduate with a sophisticated understanding of how to use Wikipedia both as a reader and as an active participant.</p>
<p>The course focuses on articles about openness in education: <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Open_educational_resources">open educational resources</a> (OER), <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MOOCs">MOOCs</a>, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Creative_Commons">Creative Commons</a> <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Creative_Commons_license">licenses</a> and more. Students will forge connections with <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:OPEN">WikiProject Open</a>, a community of volunteers focused on this topic area. Upon successful completion, students earn the <a href="http://badges.p2pu.org/en/badge/view/22/">WIKISOO Burba Badge</a>.</p>
<p>The course is sponsored by the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation and the University of Mississippi. Course instructors are:</p>
<ul>
<li>Pete Forsyth, Wikipedia trainer &#038; consultant (Wiki Strategies)</li>
<li>Sara Frank Bristow, OER and online education researcher (Salient Research)</li>
<li>Dr. Robert Cummings, Associate Professor (University of Mississippi)</li>
</ul>
<p>Course registration is now open!</p>
<ul>
<li>More course information: <a href="http://enwp.org/WP:WIKISOO ">http://enwp.org/WP:WIKISOO </a></li>
<li>Enroll: <a href="http://enwp.org/WP:WIKISOO/NOW">http://enwp.org/WP:WIKISOO/NOW</a></li>
</ul>


feed_id: http://creativecommons.org/?p=41962
title: “Really Open Education” Policy Discussion In the European Parliament
uri: Really-Open-Education-Policy-Discussion-In-the-European-Parliam
url: http://creativecommons.org/weblog/entry/41962
content:
<p><a href="media/ae730405.ROE_banner.png" data-original-source="http://creativecommons.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/02/ROE_banner.png"><img src="media/ae730405.ROE_banner.png" data-original-source="http://creativecommons.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/02/ROE_banner.png" alt="ROE_banner" width="650" height="173" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-41964" /></a></p>
<p>Creative Commons would like to invite you to a breakfast discussion &#8220;Really Open Education. Domestic Policies for Open Educational Resources&#8221;. The event will take place on the 18th of February 2014 and be hosted in the European Parliament by Róża Gräfin von Thun und Hohenstein, MEP.</p>
<p>The event will highlight open education initiatives currently implemented in European member states, with a particular focus on primary and secondary education. With the event, we would like to draw the attention to the development and use Open Educational Resources as a key aspect of the new &#8220;Opening Up Education&#8221; initiative.</p>
<p>Invited panelists will present projects that deal with open e-textbooks and supplemental resources, repositories for open resources created by teachers, and policies developed in support of open education initiatives. We aim these examples to support the development of open education in Europe within the scope of current educational initiatives and programs, such as Erasmus+.</p>
<h3>Program of the event</h3>
<p><em>Welcoming remarks:</em><br />
<strong>Róża Gräfin von Thun und Hohenstein, MEP</strong></p>
<p><em>Presentations of country-level activities and key issues related to Open Educational Resources:</em></p>
<ul>
<li><strong>Hans de Four</strong> (KlasCement, Belgium): the role of KlasCement, an open educational resources repository, in Belgian education;</li>
<li><strong>Teresa Nobre</strong> (Creative Commons Portugal): legal aspects of Open Education, in the perspective of EU copyright reform;</li>
<li><strong>Robert Schuwer</strong> (UNESCO Chair on OER, Open Universiteit, Netherlands): development of Open Education in the Netherlands;</li>
<li><strong>Krzysztof Wojewodzic</strong> (Centre for Educational Development, Poland): Polish open e-textbooks project and the „Digital School” program.</li>
</ul>
<p><em>Presentation of the &#8220;Opening Up Education&#8221; Initiative:</em><br />
<strong>Ricardo Ferreira</strong> (DG Education and Culture, European Commission)</p>
<p>Questions and answers.</p>
<p>The meeting will be moderated by Alek Tarkowski (European Policy Advisor, Creative Commons).</p>
<p><strong>The event will take place on the 18th of February (Tuesday) at 8.15-10.00, in the Members’ Salon, Altiero Spinelli Building, European Parliament.</strong></p>
<p>Please note that badges are needed to enter the European Parliament building. Badges will be handed out to participants at the Place du Luxembourg entrance. Persons with European Parliament badges should enter through the rue Wiertz entrance (closer to the salon).</p>
<p><strong>If you plan attending the event, please RSVP by sending email to: <a href="mailto:rsvp@oerpolicy.edu">rsvp@oerpolicy.eu</a><br />
</strong></p>
<p>(<a href="media/f1d555c4.invitation_really-open-education.pdf" data-original-source="http://oerpolicy.eu/wp-content/uploads/2014/02/invitation_really-open-education.pdf">Information about the event (PDF)</a> and <a href="media/ea3d5919.poster_really-open-education.png" data-original-source="http://oerpolicy.eu/wp-content/uploads/2014/02/poster_really-open-education.png">event poster (PNG)</a> – please share!)</p>
<p><small>This blog post was written by Alek Tarkowski and originally published on the <a href="http://oerpolicy.eu/really-open-education-policy-discussion-in-the-european-parliament-18th-february-2014/">European Open Education Policy Project website</a>. It is licensed under <a href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/">CC BY 3.0</a>.</small></p>


feed_id: http://creativecommons.org/?p=41983
title: Precocious One Year Old Turning Academic Publishing On Its Head
uri: Precocious-One-Year-Old-Turning-Academic-Publishing-On-Its-Head
url: http://creativecommons.org/weblog/entry/41983
content:
<div id="attachment_41996" style="width: 746px" class="wp-caption alignleft"><a href="https://peerj.com/articles/264/"><img src="media/b5697a16.b7b6add1e0f6e8c5cabbd7759311bc27.jpg" data-original-source="http://creativecommons.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/02/b7b6add1e0f6e8c5cabbd7759311bc27.jpg" alt="ANK repeat consensus sequence across all domains of life" width="736" height="201" /></a><p class="wp-caption-text"><a href="https://peerj.com/articles/264/">ANK repeat consensus sequence across all domains of life</a></p></div>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<div style="border:1px dotted grey;padding: 10px;background-color: #f5f5f5">
&#8220;If we can set a goal to sequence the Human Genome for $99, then why shouldn&#8217;t we demand the same goal for the publication of research?&#8221;
</div>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<p><a href="http://peerj.com" target="_blank"><img src="media/9d9ebb2a.peerJ_logo_transparent.png" data-original-source="http://creativecommons.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/02/peerJ_logo_transparent.png" alt="PeerJ logo" width="70" height="31" align="left" style="padding: 4px" /></a> started with that bold challenge. Now, the scrappy startup that dared has done it. One year old today, <em>PeerJ</em>, the peer-reviewed journal, has seen startling growth having published 232 articles under CC-BY 3.0 last year. By the way, per <a href="http://www.scimagojr.com/">Scimago</a> that number is more than what 90% of any other journal publishes in a year. Then in April 2013 PeerJ started publishing <em>PeerJ PrePrints</em>, the non-peer-reviewed preprint server with 186 PrePrints in 2013, all under CC BY 3.0.</p>
<p>Now PeerJ has more than 800 Academic Editors, from a wide variety of <a href="https://peerj.com/academic-boards/editors/">countries and institutions</a>. There are also <a href="https://peerj.com/academic-boards/advisors/">five Nobel Prize winners</a> on the PeerJ Board. PeerJ receives submissions from all over the world, and covers all of the <a href="https://peerj.com/academic-boards/subjects/">biological, health, medical sciences</a>. As of the time of this post&#8217;s publication, the top subject areas for PeerJ submissions were</p>
<table>
<col style="text-align:left" />
<col style="text-align:left" />
<thead>
<tr>
<th style="text-align:left;background-color: #ccc">Subject</th>
<th style="text-align:left;background-color: #ccc">Articles</th>
</tr>
</thead>
<tbody>
<tr>
<td style="text-align:left">Ecology</td>
<td style="text-align:left">106</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td style="text-align:left">Bioinformatics</td>
<td style="text-align:left">69</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td style="text-align:left">Evolutionary Studies</td>
<td style="text-align:left">66</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td style="text-align:left">Zoology</td>
<td style="text-align:left">54</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td style="text-align:left">Computational Biology</td>
<td style="text-align:left">49</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td style="text-align:left">Microbiology</td>
<td style="text-align:left">48</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td style="text-align:left">Psychiatry and Psychology</td>
<td style="text-align:left">47</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td style="text-align:left">Marine Biology</td>
<td style="text-align:left">45</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td style="text-align:left">Biodiversity</td>
<td style="text-align:left">45</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td style="text-align:left">Biochemistry</td>
<td style="text-align:left">45</td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
<p>Not everything has been easy. Starting an entire publishing company from scratch has been a learning experience for the entire team. From no brand recognition, no history, no infrastructure etc. to having successfully established themselves in all the places that a publishing company should be in: archiving solutions; DOI issuing services; indexing services; membership of professional bodies; ISSN registrations etc. PeerJ has done very well. Last year PeerJ won the <a href="http://blog.peerj.com/post/61392904259/peerj-has-won-the-2013-alpsp-publishing-innovation" title="ALPSP Award for Publishing Innovation" target="_blank">ALPSP Award for Publishing Innovation</a>.</p>
<p><a href="https://peerj.com/about/beliefs/">PeerJ&#8217;s vision/mission</a> are deceptively simple:</p>
<ul>
<li>Keep Innovating</li>
<li>Remember Whom We Serve</li>
<li>Pass on the Savings</li>
</ul>
<a href="https://peerj.com/articles/234/"><img src="media/5f47e0f9.fig-2-2x.jpg" data-original-source="http://creativecommons.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/02/fig-2-2x.jpg" alt="Interpretive drawing of DNHM D2945 Hongshanornis longicresta" width="187" height="300" align="left" style="padding: 10px" /></a>
<p>PeerJ decision-making process is fast, very fast. Authors get their first decision back in a median of 24 days. Being small, and non-traditional means they can take risks. They have built interesting functionality and models such as <a href="http://blog.peerj.com/post/43139131280/the-reception-to-peerjs-open-peer-review">optional open peer review</a>; Their business model is based on individuals purchasing low cost lifetime publication plans, and that has resulted in a lot of their functionality being very <a href="http://iospress.metapress.com/content/c31412857m362q53/?p=9c4b929454ac4cd68987f308601fc123&amp;pi=5">individual-centric</a>.</p>
<p>Compared to traditional publishers, PeerJ is a very tech-focused company. They built all the technology themselves, quite unusual in the academic publishing world, which normally uses third parties for their peer-review software and publication platforms. By doing it themselves they have much more control over their <a href="http://blog.peerj.com/post/43394057052/how-peerjs-architecture-keeps-costs-down-for-academics">destiny, cost, and can build functionality which suits their unique needs</a>. The <a href="http://blog.peerj.com/post/60349658127/results-of-the-first-peerj-author-survey">high percentage of authors describing their experience with PeerJ as their best publishing experience</a> is arguably a direct result of this. Much of PeerJ&#8217;s software is <a href="https://github.com/PeerJ">open source</a>, and their techie roots are evident in their engagement with the community via events such as <a href="http://blog.peerj.com/post/52709586382/hack4ac-a-london-hackday-to-celebrate-cc-by" target="_blank">Hack4ac,</a> a hackday to specifically celebrate, ahem, CC BY!</p>
<p>Peter Binfield, Co-Founder, says:</p>
<blockquote><p>
We firmly believe that Open Access publishing is the future of the academic journal publishing system. With the current trends we see in the marketplace (including governmental legislation; institutional mandates; the rapid growth of the major OA publishers; and the increasing education and desire from authors) we believe that Open Access content will easily make up &gt;50% of newly published content in the next 4 or 5 years.<br />
<br />&nbsp;<br />
Once all academic content is OA and under an appropriate re-use license we believe that significant new opportunities will emerge for people to use this content; to build on it for new discoveries and products; and to accelerate the scientific discovery process.
</p></blockquote>
<p>Binfield continues:</p>
<blockquote><p>
We regard the CC-BY license as the gold standard for OA Publications. Some other publishers provide authors with &#8220;NC&#8221; options, or try to write their own OA licenses, but we have a firm belief in the CC BY flavor. If there are many different OA licenses in play then it becomes increasingly difficult for users to determine what rights they have for any given piece of work, and so it is cleaner and simpler if everyone agrees on a single (preferably liberal) license. We were pleased to see the license updated to 4.0 and were quick to adopt it.
</p></blockquote>
<p>In Jan 2014, PeerJ moved to CC BY 4.0 for all articles newly submitted from that point onwards (prior articles remain under CC BY 3.0 of course). Today, on PeerJ&#8217;s first birthday, we at CC send PeerJ our best wishes, and look forward to ever more courageous, even outrageous innovations from this precocious one year old. </p>


feed_id: http://creativecommons.org/?p=42003
title: Call for Participation: Open Education Week 2014
uri: Call-for-Participation-Open-Education-Week-2014
url: http://creativecommons.org/weblog/entry/42003
content:
<p style="text-align:center" xmlns:dc="http://purl.org/dc/terms/" xmlns:cc="http://creativecommons.org/ns#" about="http://creativecommons.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/02/oew-logo-2.jpg"><a href="http://www.openeducationweek.org/"><img src="media/aebbad5c.oew-logo-2.jpg" data-original-source="http://creativecommons.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/02/oew-logo-2.jpg" alt="oew-logo 2" width="700" height="407" /></a><br /><small><span property="dc:title"></span><span property="cc:attributionName">OCW Consortium</span> / <a rel="license" href="/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></small></p>
<p>Creative Commons invites you to participate in the 3rd annual <a href="http://openeducationweek.org/">Open Education Week</a>! Taking place from <strong>10-15 March, 2014</strong>, the purpose of Open Education Week is raise the profile of open educational resources (<a href="https://creativecommons.org/education#OER">OER</a>) and the global movement of people and organizations behind them, in addition to highlighting the crucial role that legal tools, such as Creative Commons licenses, play in <a href="http://creativecommons.org/education">making OER possible</a>. </p>
<p>The OpenCourseWare Consortium, organizer of Open Ed Week, <a href="http://engage.intel.com/thread/20815">cites</a> several case studies demonstrating the growing impact of OER, including:</p>
<ul>
<li>A pilot program in Utah&#8217;s K-12 schools that used printed open textbooks, cutting textbook costs by over 50%</li>
<li>A Haitian solar energy company that built their business to serve the needs of its local community thanks to open courseware that helped to deepen its knowledge about solar engineering</li>
<li>An engineer in India that developed his management skills and international perspectives to advance his career thanks to a self-designed study plan consisting of OER</li>
</ul>
<p>&#8230;not to mention CC&#8217;s own set of <a href="http://teamopen.cc/">Team Open</a> and <a href="http://wiki.creativecommons.org/OER_Case_Studies">OER case studies</a>!</p>
<p>You can contribute to the week by submitting an informational video about OER or a specific OER project; hosting a local event/workshop or webinar, and promoting the week to your networks. The deadline to submit your resource or event is <strong>28 February, 2014</strong>.</p>
<ul>
<li><strong><a href="http://www.openeducationweek.org/call-for-participation/">Submit your proposal</a></strong></li>
<li><strong><a href="http://www.openeducationweek.org/about-oew2014/downloads/">Promote the week by hosting a banner on your website</a></strong></li>
</ul>
<p>We look forward to seeing your contributions in March!</p>


feed_id: http://creativecommons.org/?p=42082
title: Next phase of the CC Toolkits project: Regional events
uri: Next-phase-of-the-CC-Toolkits-project-Regional-events
url: http://creativecommons.org/weblog/entry/42082
content:
<p>Back in November, we <a href="http://creativecommons.org/weblog/entry/40228">launched</a> the <a href="http://cctoolkits.com">CC Toolkits</a> project with the aim of invigorating the CC Community through affiliate events. CC Argentina collaborated with Wikimedia Argentina to hack out a template for the toolkits during a sprint, creating a starting point for just about anyone to collect open content about CC, and publish it on the web.</p>
<div align="center" style="float:none; padding:10px;" xmlns:dc="http://purl.org/dc/terms/" xmlns:cc="/ns#" "><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/recortesirreales/10284262343/in/set-72157636569907214"><img src="media/12d5cfe0.10284262343_a9ed7e64f7_n.jpg" data-original-source="http://farm3.staticflickr.com/2837/10284262343_a9ed7e64f7_n.jpg" width="320" height="213" class /></a>
<p><small><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/recortesirreales/10284262343/in/set-72157636569907214">CC Toolkits Hackathon</a> /  by <span property="cc:attributionName">Gino Cingolani / <a rel="license" href="creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0/">CC BY-NC-SA</a></span></small></p>
</div>
<h3>Building momentum for sharing resources about CC</h3>
<p>This month, affiliate groups in Argentina, Paraguay, Nigeria, and Poland will be running local events bringing people together around openness in law, government, education, and cultural works. Though the events will be about much more than open copyright licenses, volunteers in our community will be sprinting and hacking to gathering  and create useful videos, guides, and other content on the web that make it easy for others to learn about the importance of CC. </p>
<p><a href="http://cctoolkits.com"><img src="media/d8131ab6.Screen-Shot-2014-01-29-at-4.09.40-PM.png" data-original-source="http://creativecommons.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/02/Screen-Shot-2014-01-29-at-4.09.40-PM.png" alt="CC Toolkits Homepage" width="640" height="614" class="size-full wp-image-42091" style="border: 2px solid #BDBDBD;" /></a>
</p>
<p><small>CC Toolkits Homepage</small></p>
<p>The toolkit template developed by the design team is composed of a WordPress theme built from the ground up, with media panes for embedding and linking and viewing content about CC that various affiliate groups have created. The goal is make it easier for creators and curators in the CC community to frame interesting and useful content into toolkits that can support conversations about CC. But beyond the tech, the regional events happening this month will help set the stage for new ways we can share about open.</p>
<p><b>Here is a rundown of events being run by affiliates this month:</b></p>
<p><img src="media/512d05bf.ng.png" data-original-source="http://creativecommons.org/images/international/ng.png" style="border: 1px solid #BDBDBD;" width="54" height="27" alt="CC Nigeria flag" class="alignleft" /><br />
<a href="http://wiki.creativecommons.org/Nigeria">CC Nigeria</a> will be hosting an event at the University of Lagos to talk about CC, address offline and low-bandwidth components of toolkit bundles, and translate the current version of the Basics of CC toolkit into local languages.<br />
&nbsp;<br />
<img src="media/7cb7b143.ar.png" data-original-source="http://creativecommons.org/images/international/ar.png" style="border: 1px solid #BDBDBD;" width="54" height="27" class="alignnone" /><br />
<a href="http://wiki.creativecommons.org/Argentina">CC Argentina</a> will be running a multi-day event in Capital Federal (Buenos Aires), Resistencia (Chaco), and Cordoba, focusing CC and it’s importance in education. Two days of hackathons will take place in late February, bringing together members of CC and other open organizations to discuss how CC licenses can improve education.<br />
&nbsp;<br />
<img src="media/e0d3ac6f.125px-Flag_of_Paraguay.svg.png" data-original-source="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/2/27/Flag_of_Paraguay.svg/125px-Flag_of_Paraguay.svg.png" style="border: 1px solid #BDBDBD;" width="54" height="27" class="alignnone" /><br />
<a href="http://cc.tedic.org/">CC Paraguay</a> will be hosting a 2 day &#8220;CCthon&#8221; in late February to produce toolkit materials to support CC in government. The group has invited participation from the Open Government of Paraguay to guide the toolkit, and is coordinating the event with local translators and bloggers.<br />
&nbsp;<br />
<img src="media/3dd249bf.pl.png" data-original-source="http://creativecommons.org/images/international/pl.png" style="border: 1px solid #BDBDBD;" width="54" height="34" class="alignnone" /><br />
<a href="http://wiki.creativecommons.org/Poland">CC Poland</a> will be focusing on the GLAM sector (galleries, libraries, archives, museums), holding a meeting between among CC community members, Wikimedians and other open culture supporters. The two-day summit will take place February 20-21 in Krakow, Poland, crafting a toolkit about CC licence use for cultural heritage institutions.<br />
&nbsp;</p>
<div align="center"><a class="twitter-timeline" data-dnt="true" href="https://twitter.com/search?q=%23cctoolkits" data-widget-id="434404092643794944">Tweets about &#8220;#cctoolkits&#8221;</a><br />
<script>!function(d,s,id){var js,fjs=d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0],p=/^http:/.test(d.location)?'http':'https';if(!d.getElementById(id)){js=d.createElement(s);js.id=id;js.src=p+"://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js";fjs.parentNode.insertBefore(js,fjs);}}(document,"script","twitter-wjs");</script></div>
<p>To keep up with the working groups, check out the <a href="http://cctoolkits.com/about/">About</a> page on cctoolkits.com, and the hashtag <a href="https://twitter.com/search?q=%23cctoolkits">#cctoolkits</a> on social media channels, and uploading photos to flickr with the same tag. If you’re interested in seeing how the pieces of the toolkits are being threaded together, the Collaborate page has more information about creating toolkits with our design files and media.</p>


feed_id: http://creativecommons.org/?p=42142
title: School of Open: Copyright & Creative Commons for Educators Courses Now Open for Sign-up
uri: School-of-Open-Copyright-Creative-Commons-for-Educators-Courses-Now
url: http://creativecommons.org/weblog/entry/42142
content:
<p style="text-align:center" xmlns:dc="http://purl.org/dc/terms/" xmlns:cc="http://creativecommons.org/ns#" about="http://farm4.staticflickr.com/3480/3700283776_217df59c0c_z.jpg?zz=1"><a href="https://secure.flickr.com/photos/liako/3700283776/in/photostream/"><img src="media/26f99eef.fuzzy-copyright.jpg" data-original-source="http://creativecommons.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/02/fuzzy-copyright.jpg" alt="fuzzy copyright" width="640" height="460" /></a><br /><small><span property="dc:title"><a href="https://secure.flickr.com/photos/liako/3700283776/in/photostream/">Is copyright a little fuzzy?</a></span> / <span property="cc:attributionName">Elias Bizannes</span> / <a rel="license" href="/licenses/by-sa/2.0/">CC BY-SA</a></small></p>
<p>Following on the heels of &#8220;<a href="https://creativecommons.org/weblog/entry/41933">Writing Wikipedia Articles: The Basics and Beyond</a>,&#8221; three more School of Open courses are now open for sign-up. They are:</p>
<h4>1. <a href="https://p2pu.org/en/courses/1196/">Copyright 4 Educators (AUS)</a></h4>
<p>This course will equip Australian educators with the copyright knowledge to confidently use copyright material in the classroom. It will also introduce Open Educational Resources (OER) and teach you how to find and adapt free, useful resources for your classes. The course is open to all educators around the world, but it is specifically targeted to Australian teachers, teacher-librarians from K-12, TAFE teachers, University lecturers/tutors, and University students studying to become teachers. The course material is learnt around practical case studies faced by teachers when using copyright material in their day-to-day teaching and educational instruction.</p>
<p><em>Facilitators: <a href="https://p2pu.org/en/Jessica_Smith/">Jessica Smith</a> and <a href="https://p2pu.org/en/delia%20browne/">Delia Browne</a></em></p>
<p>To sign up, click the &#8220;Start course&#8221; button on the bottom left of the <a href="https://p2pu.org/en/courses/1196/">course page</a>. </p>
<h4>2. <a href="https://p2pu.org/en/courses/1275/">Copyright 4 Educators (US)</a></h4>
<p>This is a course for educators who want to learn about US copyright law in the education context. Educators who are not in the US are welcome to sign up, too, if they want to learn about copyright law in the US. The course is taught around practical case studies faced by teachers when using copyright material in their day-to-day teaching. By answering the case scenarios and drafting and discussing the answers in groups, you and other participants will learn:</p>
<ul>
<li>    What is the public domain?</li>
<li>    What does copyright law protect?</li>
<li>    What is fair use?</li>
<li>    What other exceptions are there in copyright law?</li>
<li>  What are open access educational resources?</li>
</ul>
<p><em>Facilitators: <a href="https://p2pu.org/en/lquilter/">Laura Quilter</a> and <a href="https://p2pu.org/en/lilabailey/">Lila Bailey</a></em></p>
<p>To sign up, apply using the <a href="https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1LSQD7yBuEnS0Ww6wFnZia7SBafH_hC_ullAEaccyEEc/viewform">Google form</a> &#8212; also linked at the top of the <a href="https://p2pu.org/en/courses/1275/">course page</a>. </p>
<h4>3. <a href="https://p2pu.org/en/courses/1283/">Creative Commons for K-12 Educators</a></h4>
<p>K-12 educators would like to find and adapt free, useful resources for their classes. Some would even like to incorporate activities that teach their students digital world skills &#8212; such as finding, remixing, and sharing digital media and materials on the web. In this lightly facilitated course, we will learn how to do these things with each other in a peer learning environment.</p>
<p><em>Facilitator: <a href="https://p2pu.org/en/janepark/">Jane Park</a></em></p>
<p>To sign up, click the &#8220;Start course&#8221; button on the bottom left of the <a href="https://p2pu.org/en/courses/1283/">course page</a>. </p>
<h3>About the School of Open</h3>
<p><a href="http://schoolofopen.org/"><img src="media/0f80fa89.school-of-open-logo-small.png" data-original-source="http://creativecommons.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/12/school-of-open-logo-small.png" alt="school of open logo" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-39074" /></a></p>
<p><em>The School of Open is a global community of volunteers focused on providing free education opportunities on the meaning, application, and impact of “openness” in the digital age and its benefit to creative endeavors, education, research, and more. Volunteers develop and run online courses, offline workshops, and real world training programs on topics such as Creative Commons licenses, open educational resources, and sharing creative works. The School of Open is coordinated by Creative Commons and <a href="http://p2pu.org/">P2PU</a>, a peer learning community and platform for developing and running free online courses.</em></p>


feed_id: http://creativecommons.org/?p=42167
title: Affiliate Project Grant Update: Africa
uri: Affiliate-Project-Grant-Update-Africa
url: http://creativecommons.org/weblog/entry/42167
content:
<p>Last June, CC began a project grant program for our Affiliate Teams around the world. Of over 70 applicants, <a href="http://creativecommons.org/weblog/entry/39505">18 were selected</a> to receive funds to support events or activities in their region. The chosen projects in music, education, data, culture, and technology all work towards CC’s mission to promote the understanding and adoption of open policies and practices globally.</p>
<p>We wanted to share how these have unfolded in the past months. Each week for the next five weeks, we will be featuring projects from different regions: Africa, Arab World, Asia-Pacific, Europe, and Latin America. This week we’re showcasing the innovative projects from Africa.</p>
<hr />
<p align="center"><img src="media/051c2b6f.Africa_small.jpg" data-original-source="http://creativecommons.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/02/Africa_small.jpg" /></p>
<p><br class="spacer_" /></p>
<p align="center"><span style="font-size: medium;"><strong><a href="http://wiki.creativecommons.org/Kenya" title="CC Kenya">Kenya</a>: School of Open Kenya Initiative<br />
#schoolofopen</strong></span><br />
<em>by project lead Simeon Oriko</em></p>
<p><strong>Introduction</strong><br />
The School of Open Kenya Initiative is a series of workshops aimed at introducing high school students to the concept and culture of ‘Open’ through the courses listed on the <a href="https://p2pu.org/en/schools/school-of-open/" title="School of Open">School of Open</a> website. This will help them learn about and employ open tools, such as the CC licenses, as well as participate in open culture through collaboration and sharing.</p>
<p><strong>Progress</strong><br />
Jamlab has run this project for six months now. We have worked with about two hundred high school students directly. The first batch was in Precious Blood Riruta, a girls’ high school in Kenya. The second, was Lycee Malick Sy in Thies, Senegal. The SOO Kenya program was designed to simply introduce the students to the idea of “Open” but the students gradually became more immersed and have began creating their own openly licensed content. Precious Blood Riruta students have released an <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CQwQJPIi2g0&#038;feature=youtu.be" title="Open Education Video">Open Education Video</a> on YouTube based on the Kenya High School literature curriculum. The students from Senegal, on the other hand, have become active editors in the Wikipedia space in Senegal. Their first collaborative effort is a <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lycee_Malick_SY" title="Lycee Malick Page">Wikipedia page about their school</a>.</p>
<p><strong>What’s coming up?<br />
</strong>For the next series of workshops, we are planning to focus our efforts in four Kenyan high schools. This will enable us to work with another two hundred students countrywide. In addition to introducing them to Open ideals, we will also encourage a system of competition in the creation of openly licensed material among the schools in order to thrust them deeper into the ecosystem that until now, has proven to change and affect their mindsets in the most gratifying way.</p>
<p><br class="spacer_" /></p>
<p align="center"><span style="font-size: medium;"><strong><a href="http://wiki.creativecommons.org/South_Africa" title="CC South Africa">South Africa</a>: Creative Commons for Kids<br />
#schoolofopen</strong></span><br />
<em>by project lead Kelsey Wiens</em></p>
<p><a href="http://za.creativecommons.org/" title="CC South Africa">Creative Commons South Africa (ZA)</a> and <a href="http://www.obami.com/" title="Obami">Obami</a> are busy building a CC4Kids curriculum. This pilot program is aiming for innovative and dynamic course work to interest kids of all ages. Barbara Mallinson from Obami approached Kelsey Wiens, OER Lead from CC ZA last year to build the program after seeing a number of copyright violations from the kids on the network. The motivation behind the program: Wouldn&#8217;t it be cool if instead of teaching kids how to protect and lock down their stuff we instead taught them how to open and share freely? This is something kids and teenagers tend to do naturally. The course is planned to launch in March 2014 as part of the <a href="https://p2pu.org/en/schools/school-of-open/" title="School of Open">School of Open</a>. We&#8217;re looking forward at getting a peek at what they&#8217;ve come up with!</p>
<p><br class="spacer_" /></p>
<p align="center"><span style="font-size: medium;"><strong><a href="http://wiki.creativecommons.org/Tanzania" title="CC Tanzania">Tanzania</a>: Tanzania CC Salon</strong></span><br />
<em>by project lead Paul Kihwelo</em></p>
<p><a href="https://www.facebook.com/cc.tanzania" title="CC Tanzania">Creative Commons Tanzania</a> affiliate team held their inaugural CC Salon on 6th December, 2013 at the Open University of Tanzania headquarters in Dar es Salaam. The Salon was the third in Sub Saharan region following Kenya&#8217;s in early 2013 and South Africa&#8217;s held in August, 2006.<br />
Attracting over 60 diverse professionals, including academics, bloggers, journalists, scientists, engineers, students, librarians and information system experts, lawyers, medical practitioners, policy makers, IT professionals, representatives of Tanzania Medical Students Association, Consortium of Tanzania University Libraries and Researchers and Coalition for Open Access in Tanzania, among other participants.<br />
Among the prominent attendees included Ms. Doreen Sinare, CEO-Copyright Society of Tanzania, Ms. Loy Mhando representing CEO-Business Registration and Licensing Agency, Dr. Mary Mayige, Director General &#8211; St. Laurent Diabetes Centre and Alex Gakuru the Regional Coordinator – Africa, Creative Commons based in Kenya.</p>
<p align="center"><img src="media/007398fe.TanzaniaSalon.jpg" data-original-source="http://creativecommons.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/02/TanzaniaSalon.jpg"/><br />
<a href="media/33307969.NQp6bBpCmB" data-original-source="https://www.dropbox.com/sh/dobz4z2fqf81nuw/NQp6bBpCmB">Paul Kihwelo</a> / <a href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/" title="CC BY 4.0">CC BY</a></p>
<p>The salon focused on the importance of open copyright and open educational resources, including how Africa stood to benefit from openness in teaching, learning, and sharing as well as increased access to knowledge and quality of learning resources. Open University of Tanzania Institutional Repository also explained how the institutional repository leveraged the university and the country in adding more African content online, as African materials currently represent just 2% of online content. Other topics discussed included health and medicine, and the need to share information for better prevention and/or management for ongoing health problems like diabetes.<br />
Alex Gakuru, Creative Commons Africa Regional Coordinator, summed up the event nicely with an overview of how the CC philosophy ties with the African community: “Creative Commons reflects our common culture and heritage of sharing.”<br />
<a href="media/e8f0a7ff.creative20commons20_tanzania20201320salon.pdf" data-original-source="http://www.out.ac.tz/images/creative%20commons%20_tanzania%202013%20salon.pdf">Click here</a> for the full report on Tanzania&#8217;s salon.</p>
<p><iframe width="420" height="315" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/wCxQgdSR3aM" style="text-align: center; " frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe></p>
<p><br class="spacer_" /></p>
<p align="center"><span style="font-size: medium;"><strong><a href="http://wiki.creativecommons.org/Uganda" title="CC Uganda">Uganda</a>: Promoting Creative Commons Initiatives in Uganda</strong></span><br />
<em>by project lead Moses Mulumba</em></p>
<p>In August 2013, CC Uganda received a grant from CC HQ to implement the project “Promoting Creative Commons Initiatives in Uganda.” The project, which is in its final stages, implemented activities to include:</p>
<ul>
<li>Stakeholder mapping</li>
<li>Convening CC Uganda Affiliates to discuss the potential for the implementation of the Creative Commons initiatives in Uganda.</li>
<li>Producing promotional materials like CC Uganda customised T-shirts, factsheets, stickers &#038; IEC materials on CC Initiatives</li>
<li>Holding a salon illustrating Creative Commons licences as an example of an alternative model based on copyright to stakeholders</li>
<li>CC Translation Sprint.</li>
</ul>
<p>The team met at Café Java on September 9th, 2013 and mapped out stakeholders to engage. The then team was composed of only 15 members i.e 9 lawyers, 2 information scientists, and 4 technology specialists  (Javie Ssozi, Ruth Aine, Collins Mugume, and Micheal Niyitegeka) joined the team that day &#8211; as below:</p>
<p align="center"><img src="media/95f7a357.uganda1.png" data-original-source="http://creativecommons.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/02/uganda1.png"/><br />
Moses Mulumba / <a href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/" title="CC BY 4.0">CC BY</a></p>
<p>Having tech specialists and social media enthusiasts join the CC Community was added advantage in breaking the monotony of lawyers being the sole advocates for CC licensing. Soon after the meeting tweets (#CCUganda) of the licences were up and blogs running news of the same –see <a href="https://twitter.com/search?q=%23ccuganda&#038;src=typd">https://twitter.com/search?q=%23ccuganda&#038;src=typd</a>.<br />
The mapping exercise was followed up with a translation sprint exercise where Affiliates were subjected to an exercise to translate CC Public domain tools/factsheets to Luganda. This too was a success as we won CC HQ support to design and print the translated factsheets for dissemination.<br />
We have also produced IEC including factsheets, T-shirts, and stickers to raise more awareness of the licences. We have convened stakeholders and held a CC salon that has attracted more members joining the open community and committing to use and advocate for use and adoption of the licences in the Ugandan community.</p>
<p align="center"><img src="media/195a3ad3.uganda2.jpg" data-original-source="http://creativecommons.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/02/uganda2.jpg"/><br />
CC Stakeholder convening held on 31st October, 2013 at the Imperial Royale Hotel in Kampala<br />
Moses Mulumba / <a href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/" title="CC BY 4.0">CC BY</a></p>
<p align="center">
<img src="media/bde46bf8.uganda3.jpg" data-original-source="http://creativecommons.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/02/uganda3.jpg"/><br />
CC Uganda Salon held on 31st January 2013, at the CEHURD Gardens in Ntinda.<br />
Moses Mulumba / <a href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/" title="CC BY 4.0">CC BY</a>
</p>
<p>Details of pictorials can be accessed at our Facebook page here: <a href="https://www.facebook.com/pages/Creative-Commons-Uganda-Affiliates-Page/335875883192903">https://www.facebook.com/pages/Creative-Commons-Uganda-Affiliates-Page/335875883192903</a>.<br />
We are currently working on our 2014 roadmap and official blog from which members can creatively post articles and developments of the open movement in Uganda. The page, which is in its infancy, can be accessed here <a href="http://creativecommonsug.wordpress.com/">http://creativecommonsug.wordpress.com/</a>.</p>
<p><br class="spacer_" /></p>
<p align="center"><span style="font-size: medium;"><strong>Cross Regional Africa: Activate Africa<br />
#schoolofopen</strong></span><br />
<em>by project lead Kelsey Wiens</em></p>
<p>To Open Africa we need to activate the community. This week is the start of a month-long training program that centres around all things &#8216;Open&#8217;. This pilot program have been created to activate 5 Africa communities. Advocates from across Africa including <em>Côte d&#8217;Ivoire, Ethiopia, Malawi, Uganda,</em> and <em>Ghana</em> are being taken through an Open bootcamp. The intense training program for them covers all the tools and skills required for them to return to their home country and activate their communities. We are teaching them all things Creative Commons, Wikipedia, Open Street Maps, Open Educational Resources (OER), Open Data, Open Government, and the related fundraising &#038; community building. An online version of the training program will be featured as part of the <a href="http://schoolofopen.org" title="School of Open">School of Open</a>. They are all racing for the prize to be the first Kumusha Bus stop (a week-long activation in their home country on Africa Day). The Kumusha Bus is the Africanized <a href="http://librebus.org/" title="LibreBus">LibreBus</a> done in South America. The winning bid country will organize activations for a week in different locations around the country. It will be the first bus stop (of many) in Africa.</p>
<p align="center"><img src="media/74d957da.Activate-Africa-.jpg" data-original-source="http://creativecommons.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/02/Activate-Africa-.jpg"/><br />
From left to right: Abel Asrat &#8211; Ethiopia, Nkansah Rexford &#8211; Ghana, Michael Phoya &#8211; Malawi, Cyriac Gbogou &#8211; Cote d&#8217;Ivorie, Erina Mukuta &#8211; Uganda<br />
Kelsey Wiens / <a href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/" title="CC BY 4.0">CC BY</a></p>


feed_id: http://creativecommons.org/?p=42052
title: Thank you, Donatella Della Ratta
uri: Thank-you-Donatella-Della-Ratta
url: http://creativecommons.org/weblog/entry/42052
content:
<p style="text-align:center" xmlns:dc="http://purl.org/dc/terms/" xmlns:cc="http://creativecommons.org/ns#" about="//www.flickr.com/photos/joi/4747473274/"><a href="//www.flickr.com/photos/joi/4747473274/"><img src="media/252323db.4747473274_28108d22b3.jpg" data-original-source="http://creativecommons.org//farm5.staticflickr.com/4082/4747473274_28108d22b3.jpg" alt="Donatella Della Ratta" width="500" height="333" border=0 /><br /><small><a href="//www.flickr.com/photos/joi/4747473274/"><span property="dc:title">Donatella Della Ratta</span></a> / <a href="//www.flickr.com/photos/joi/"><span property="cc:attributionName">Joi Ito</span></a> / <a rel="license" href="/licenses/by/2.0/">CC BY</a></small></a></p>
<p><em>Creative Commons extends its deepest gratitude to Donatella Della Ratta. For almost six years, she&#8217;s been working as a tireless advocate for Creative Commons and open culture in the Arab world, increasing the knowledge and adoption of CC, conducting outreach to creative communities, and connecting activists throughout the region. Dona has done all of this with grace and tenacity in the midst of an oftentimes unpredictable and sometimes unstable political and social environment in much of the Arab world. We thank you, Dona. </p>
<p>Even though Dona is leaving her position as regional coordinator for the Arab world, Creative Commons will continue to support this incredibly important region. We are in the process of bringing on two new part-time regional coordinators, as we&#8217;ve done with other geographic areas. Below is a note from Donatella.</em>   </p>
<hr />
<p>On my way back from Amman, where the <a href="http://ab14.globalvoicesonline.org/english">fourth Arab Bloggers meeting</a> was held this year, I was thinking that it all started here. Back to early 2008, I was lucky enough to breathe an atmosphere of excitement and change that pervaded the Arab region, and encouraged the Arab youth to gather and discuss ideas, projects, new challenges. Technology played a key role in these gatherings: at the time, open communities such as Linux, Wikipedia, Mozilla, and the like, were being formed and getting together. We started the Creative Commons Arab world community during that wave of change, connecting with the other Arab communities which were using technology to create content together, promote social change, defend freedom of choice &#8211; and of expression.</p>
<p>We launched the first archive of CC-licensed broadcast footage with Al Jazeera, at a time when the lack of foreign journalists on the ground in Gaza during the Israeli attack had made information a very precious and scarce resource. Since 2008, many things happened in the Arab region. The Creative Commons Arab community has grown exponentially, and many countries have joined: together with Jordan and Egypt, where we had already official affiliates prior to 2008, informal communities started to gather in Lebanon, Syria, Qatar, UAE, Palestine, Tunisia, Algeria, Morocco, Iraq, Oman, and Mauritania. The latest addition has been Yemen, where few months ago the <a href="http://al-mlab.com/news/85081">first training workshop</a> on CC and open licensing was held in Sana`a.</p>
<p>During these years, we have held CC Salons everywhere in the region, from Doha to Casablanca; we have hosted CC Iftars in a number of Arab capitals, from Damascus to Amman. CC Arab communities have gathered in regional meetings four times (2009 Doha; 2010 Doha; 2011 Tunis: 2012 Cairo). We have hosted CC training sessions, panels and hands-on workshops in many regional, tech and community related events. In 2011, we started the first Pan Arab peer-produced and CC-licensed music project, “It will be wonderful”, which is still traveling around the world and being remixed. We produced the first collaborative, open-licensed comics fanzine between Egyptian and Moroccan artists. And many other exciting projects are in the pipeline: books, videos, music, and training toolkits, in Arabic and free to share.</p>
<p>Meanwhile, the Arab uprisings have happened, and this was probably the biggest change that the region witnessed in decades. Today the Arab world lives in difficult conditions: after the first wave of excitement for the toppling of many authoritarian regimes in the region, the civil movement for change has now to face tough challenges. Activists are being jailed and tortured, and creativity and cooperation are being repressed in an atmosphere of dire restoration. One of the most prominent member of the CC Arab world community, Bassel Khartabil aka Safadi, has been imprisoned by the Syrian government for two years without charges, probably being guilty of having dreamt a more free and open society for himself and his peers. Yet, against all odds, the Creative Commons Arab world, together with many other youth-led movements and communities in the region, is still producing content, sharing and building on other people`s ideas, and working for a better, more open society.</p>
<p>After five years spent as Arab world regional coordinator, I am proud to have helped this community to come together, and humbled by the strength and energy of this youth. While I am leaving my official role at Creative Commons, I will always be involved with the amazing Arab community and work together to push forward new ideas and exciting projects, despite all the problems we have to face in the region. And we will be waiting for our friend Bassel Safadi to join us in new, upcoming challenges.</p>


feed_id: http://creativecommons.org/?p=42188
title: CC Workshop for Musicians in Vanuatu
uri: CC-Workshop-for-Musicians-in-Vanuatu
url: http://creativecommons.org/weblog/entry/42188
content:
<p style="text-align:center" xmlns:dc="http://purl.org/dc/terms/" xmlns:cc="http://creativecommons.org/ns#" about="https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10202110645948306"><a href="https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10202110645948306"><img src="media/07c918c9.vanuatu1.jpg" data-original-source="http://creativecommons.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/02/vanuatu1.jpg" alt="Singaot Musik Kamp" width="500" height="333" border=0 /></a><br /><small><span property="cc:attributionName">Cristina Panicali</span> / <a rel="license" href="/licenses/by-nc/4.0/">CC BY-NC</a></small></p>
<p>The first-ever CC Workshop in Melanesia was held on October 23rd in Port Vila, Vanuatu during the Singaot Musik Kamp, a two-week long residency program for musicians from the Pacific, Southern Africa, and Europe.</p>
<p><a href="http://musicbridgesconnect.org/music-camp/vanuatu-2013/">Singaot Musik Kamp</a> is part of the <a href="http://musicbridgesconnect.org/en/">Music Bridges</a> project which aims to reinforce the creation and production of music industry in Vanuatu and Mozambique, engaging with diverse musicians from Melanesia and Southern Africa through music camps, festivals, and workshops. Around 70 musicians and experts in the music industry from Vanuatu and the Pacific region, Mozambique, Reunion Island, and Australia gathered to share experience, build networks, and to learn skills and strategies to promote their music.</p>
<div style="float:right; padding:10px" xmlns:dc="http://purl.org/dc/terms/" xmlns:cc="/ns#" about="https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10202111248843378"><a href="https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10202111248843378"><img width="300" height="200" src="media/45498ddd.vanuatu2.jpg" data-original-source="http://creativecommons.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/02/vanuatu2.jpg" alt="Singaot Musik Kamp" /></a>
<p><small><span property="cc:attributionName">Cristina Panicali</span> / <a rel="license" href="/licenses/by-nc/4.0/">CC BY-NC</a></small></p>
</div>
<p>After the two weeks of festive live performances and jam sessions, musicians were invited to sit down together to discuss various topics such as distribution/promotion strategies and copyright, including Creative Commons licenses. Entitled &#8220;Music Industry Development &#038; Rights,&#8221; the two-day training workshops were dedicated to discussing technical, managerial, and production skills and related issues for musicians, artists, and industry professionals to build careers and opportunities. As most of the participating musicians had very limited or no knowledge about copyright and music industry, it was especially meaningful to help them understand copyright system and learn how they can manage and exercise their right in a way they want.</p>
<p>Representatives from SOMAS &#8211; a collective management society from Mozambique &#8211; and a collective management society in Fiji introduced the concepts of copyright and collective management in general and discussed business strategies for musicians who wanted to promote their work and develop their careers.</p>
<p>The second day was dedicated to the introduction of CC licenses as the last session to wrap up the whole program. Around 50 people in the music field attended the workshop from Vanuatu and neighboring islands as well as Mozambique and Reunion Island in South Africa. Cristina Perillo from Fondazione Lettra27 opened the session as the moderator, welcoming the participants and introducing the structure and background of the workshop. I gave a presentation to introduce what the CC license is and how it works and to explain why it can be useful to musicians using some case studies. Some participants nodded when the presenters pointed out that sharing was what musicians (including those who were participating in the camp) had already been doing to get inspiration for their work and to meet and communicate with the audience, and that CC license could be useful as a way to meet broader audience and to promote one&#8217;s work.</p>
<div style="float:left; padding:10px" xmlns:dc="http://purl.org/dc/terms/" xmlns:cc="/ns#" about="https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10202145239973135"><a href="https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10202145239973135"><img width="300" height="200" src="media/1ccdfdf5.vanuatu3.jpg" data-original-source="http://creativecommons.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/02/vanuatu3.jpg" alt="Singaot Musik Kamp" /></a>
<p><small><span property="cc:attributionName">Cristina Panicali</span> / <a rel="license" href="/licenses/by-nc/4.0/">CC BY-NC</a></small></p>
</div>
<p>Luciano Mabrouck from <a href="http://www.kom-zot.fr/">Kom Zot</a>, a band renowned as the pioneers of reggae made in Reunion, took part in the workshop as guest speaker to share his experience of the benefits of sharing. He introduced an interesting example where one of his band&#8217;s demo files were accidentally leaked to the public. Unexpectedly, it acted in the band&#8217;s favor: more people listened to and loved their music, resulting in increase in sales. The band and their management team did not take any action to stop people from sharing the files; rather they used it as an opportunity to communicate with fans, promote their music, and explore new opportunities. Luciano&#8217;s talk allowed the participants to have a better understanding of the benefits of what sharing and CC license can bring in a more practical way.</p>
<p>The last session was a group discussion where participants shared their views and questions with each other. They helped each other understand the new concepts and talked about challenges they would face when using CC license.</p>
<p>The workshop was a good opportunity to help musicians in the region have a better understanding of copyright and CC license and what sharing can bring to them. It was also meaningful in that it was the first-ever CC-related workshop in Melanesia, which I hope will lead to more CC stories in the region of vibrant culture and rich heritage in the future.</p>
<p>The music camp was the first part of the two-year-long project. Next year Music Crossroads will be the host to in Maputo, Mozambique.</p>
<p><strong><a href="http://www.cosv.org/en/cue-cosv/music-bridges-ottobre-2013-a-vanuatu/">Read a blog post by COSV</a></strong> to learn more about the event.</p>


feed_id: http://creativecommons.org/?p=42214
title: Cookbook in honor of Bassel Khartabil
uri: Cookbook-in-honor-of-Bassel-Khartabil
url: http://creativecommons.org/weblog/entry/42214
content:
<div style="float:right; padding:10px" xmlns:dc="http://purl.org/dc/terms/" xmlns:cc="/ns#" about="//www.flickr.com/photos/kl/8558335273/"><a href="//www.flickr.com/photos/kl/8558335273/"><img width="320" height="256" src="media/c6b343c1.freebassel-gate.jpg" data-original-source="http://creativecommons.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/02/freebassel-gate.jpg" alt="#FREEBASSEL" /></a>
<p><small><a href="//www.flickr.com/photos/kl/8558335273/"><span property="dc:title">#FREEBASSEL</span></a> / <a href="//www.flickr.com/photos/kl/"><span property="cc:attributionName">Kennisland</span></a> / <a rel="license" href="/licenses/by-sa/2.0/">CC BY-SA</a></small></p>
</div>
<p>In honor of Bassel Khartabil and <a href="/weblog/entry/41863">Free Bassel Day</a>, artist <a href="http://lettersforbassel.tumblr.com/">Niki Korth</a> is putting together a <a href="http://freebassel.org/">#freebassel</a> cookbook. Bassel, a free software activist and leader of the Syrian Creative Commons community, <a href="http://freebassel.org/campaign/">has been in prison since 2012</a>. In Niki&#8217;s words:</p>
<blockquote><p>The #FreeBassel Cookbook is a collection of recipes from people who care about Bassel and would like to share a meal with him if he weren&#8217;t in prison.</p></blockquote>
<blockquote><p><a href="https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1J4bRAL2zyR4UP_AE-7nNmX0Bk3Qaf6LuAzb6kVu7AOs/viewform"><strong>Please contribute a recipe to this collection.</strong></a> Submit it before 10 March 2014 to get it included in the first edition of the cookbook. Pick a recipe that is special to you, a recipe that makes you think of Bassel, a recipe that reminds you that the virtual/digital world is only a tool for real world human encounters, and is in no way a substitute for experiences such as sharing a meal, or a recipe for a meal that you think Bassel would enjoy.</p></blockquote>
<blockquote><p>The #FreeBassel Cookbook V.1 will be released as a free, digital book on #FreeBassel Day 2014 (15 March)</p></blockquote>
<blockquote><p>If Bassel has not been freed by this date, please make a recipe from this collection on this day in his honor and share it with people who you care about. Share pictures of your meal with the #FreeBassel hashtag.</p></blockquote>
<blockquote><p>Repeat until Bassel is free.</p></blockquote>
<p><a href="https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1J4bRAL2zyR4UP_AE-7nNmX0Bk3Qaf6LuAzb6kVu7AOs/viewform">Submit your recipe here</a>. <a href="/weblog/entry/41863">See our previous post</a> to learn how to get involved with Free Bassel Day.</p>
<p><strong>Previously:</strong> <a href="/weblog/entry/41850">Disquiet Junto honors Bassel Khartabil</a></p>


feed_id: http://creativecommons.org/?p=42208
title: Affiliate Project Grant Update: Arab World
uri: Affiliate-Project-Grant-Update-Arab-World
url: http://creativecommons.org/weblog/entry/42208
content:
<p><a href="http://creativecommons.org/weblog/entry/42167">CC is doing a five week series</a> on the Affiliate Team project grants. Last week, you heard about the exciting events and activties from CC&#8217;s African region, and today we are featuring those from the Arab World. You&#8217;ll learn about a book about Arabic iconic figures that is first of its kind, videos explaining CC in a simple and exciting format, a book on open technology and media production, and an open source platform for stories of hope and change led by a group of Palestinian rappers and spoken word artists.</p>
<p align="center"><img src="media/240301ff.ArabWorld.jpg" data-original-source="http://creativecommons.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/02/ArabWorld.jpg" /></p>
<p><br class="spacer_" /></p>
<p align="center"><span style="font-size: medium;"><strong>Algeria: Arabic Icons </strong></span><br />
<em>by Meryl Mohan (project lead: Faiza Souici)</em></p>
<p>CC Algeria is currently finalizing its project agreement. With Faiza Souici as lead, the team will prepare an Arabic book under CC licenses, telling the stories of iconic Arabic figures who have had a positive influences in countries throughout the Arab World. They plan to include as many as 20 participants from the community, each writing about the distinctive personality of his or her country. CC Algeria plans to introduce the book at the next CC Salon.</p>
<p><br class="spacer_" /></p>
<p align="center"><span style="font-size: medium;"><strong><a href="http://wiki.creativecommons.org/Lebanon" title="CC Lebanon">Lebanon</a>: CC Explained Simply in Arabic</strong></span><br />
<em>by project lead Maya Zankoul</em></p>
<p>We’re working on two explainer videos for Creative Commons in Arabic. The first movie explains to people with no background whatsoever what Creative Commons is, how it started, and why there is a strong need for Creative Commons. The second movie is focused on licensing, explaining in Arabic what are the different types of licenses and how they can be used.</p>
<p>Our first movie is ready; you can view it here:</p>
<p><iframe width="560" height="315" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/AfnNd9xMT6s" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe></p>
<p>Our second movie is being animated at the moment and will be ready in the coming weeks. In the meantime, here is a screenshot from the movie!</p>
<p align="center"><img src="media/427c6208.cc-movie2-screenshot-1.png" data-original-source="http://creativecommons.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/02/cc-movie2-screenshot-1.png"/><br />
Maya Zankoul / <a href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></p>
<p><br class="spacer_" /></p>
<p align="center"><span style="font-size: medium;"><strong>Morocco: Creative BookSprint </strong></span><br />
<em>by Meryl Mohan (project lead: Ahmed Mansour)</em></p>
<p>CC Morocco is writing a print and online book that will be the first in Arabic language on open source software for multimedia production, remixing, and publication. The title of the book will be &#8220;Guide to Free Culture,&#8221; or in Arabic &#8220;دليل الثقافة الحرة&#8221; where they will talk about the broad free culture movement (open source software, open data, OER, etc.) with a focus on Creative Commons licenses and most importantly how to be part of that larger movement by licensing your content using CC.</p>
<p>The project targets media creators in the Arab region by introducing them to the free culture movement and the benefits of CC licenses. In addition, it will be a how-to guide to using open source software in producing and remixing media including audio manipulation and video editing.</p>
<p>Four participating authors from Morocco’s affiliate team will work on the project, and upon its completion, they will continue to update the book with feedback from the community. By collaboratively engaging the local community and sending the resulting book to other local affiliates in the region, others can also use it for future workshops and events. With this initial project, free culture and the CC mission can continue to spread throughout Morocco and the North African region.</p>
<p>The book cover and the website (still under construction) where the book will be available for download and online viewing are here: <a href="http://opentaqafa.github.io">http://opentaqafa.github.io</a>.</p>
<p>The cover is made of a &#8220;remix&#8221; of the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Hacker_Emblem">Glider that represents the hacker subculture</a> and CC license symbols.</p>
<p align="center"><img src="media/ed5ac36c.GuidetoFreeCulture.png" data-original-source="http://creativecommons.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/02/GuidetoFreeCulture.png"/><br />
Ahmed Mansour / <a href="http://creativecommons.org/about/cc0">CC0</a></p>
<p><br class="spacer_" /></p>
<p align="center"><span style="font-size: medium;"><strong>Palestine, Lebanon: Hope Spoken/Broken: Change in the Eyes of Palestinian Refugees </strong></span><br />
<em>by project leads Bashar Lubbad and Stefan Larsson</em></p>
<p><a href="http://hopespokenbroken.com/" title="Hope Spoken/Broken">Hope Spoken/Broken</a> is a social innovation project hosted by the Internet Institute and the Center for Middle Eastern Studies at Lund University. The project records stories of hope and change from the Jabalia Refugee Camp in Palestine and invites rappers and spoken word artists to reflect on these stories using hip hop and spoken word poetry. In this project, we will interview Palestinians from different age groups, record their oral histories, and work with rap artists and poets (spoken word artists/lyricists) to turn their true stories into performance pieces for a wider audience. Using digital and social media, we will spread the words, thoughts, and feelings of Palestinians living in the Jabalia Refugee Camp to viewers around the world who would otherwise never hear these stories. Spoken word and hip hop poetry have the unique ability to increase listeners&#8217; empathy. By connecting with poets who live in both Washington D.C. and Palestine as well as with rappers from Sweden, Denmark, and Palestine, we will build an international partnership to create, record, and share an original collection of poems and songs inspired by recorded oral histories from the Jabalia Refugee Camp. Artists (poets and rappers) will attempt to draw parallels between the lives of Palestinian refugees and that of ethnically, socially, politically and economically marginalized groups in the United States, Denmark, and Sweden.</p>
<p><iframe width="560" height="315" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/z4IIkatQNxQ" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe></p>
<p>For further information, check out the links below: </p>
<ul>
<li><a href="http://hopespokenbroken.com/">http://hopespokenbroken.com/</a></li>
<li><a href="https://youtube.com/hopespokenbroken">https://youtube.com/hopespokenbroken</a></li>
<li><a href="https://facebook.com/hopespokenbroken">https://facebook.com/hopespokenbroken</a></li>
<li><a href="https://soundcloud.com/hopespokenbroken">https://soundcloud.com/hopespokenbroken</a></li>
<li><a href="https://instagram.com/hopespokenbroken">https://instagram.com/hopespokenbroken</a></li>
</ul>


feed_id: http://creativecommons.org/?p=42232
title: A message from Cathy: Farewell for now
uri: A-message-from-Cathy-Farewell-for-now
url: http://creativecommons.org/weblog/entry/42232
content:
<p style="text-align:center" xmlns:dc="http://purl.org/dc/terms/" xmlns:cc="http://creativecommons.org/ns#" about="//www.flickr.com/photos/chuckthephotographer/5289836974/"><a href="//www.flickr.com/photos/chuckthephotographer/5289836974/"><img src="media/08160400.5289836974_557e1a2ed1.jpg" data-original-source="http://creativecommons.org//farm6.staticflickr.com/5169/5289836974_557e1a2ed1.jpg" alt="The Long Lonely Road" width="335" height="500" border=0 /><br /><small><a href="//www.flickr.com/photos/chuckthephotographer/5289836974/"><span property="dc:title">The Long Lonely Road</span></a> / <a href="//www.flickr.com/photos/chuckthephotographer/"><span property="cc:attributionName">Chuck Abbe</span></a> / <a rel="license" href="/licenses/by/2.0/">CC BY</a></small></a></p>
<p>Dear CC Community,</p>
<p>I love this CC photo of the open road. It is inspiring, and speaks to me of the journey, the path one travels. You can&#8217;t quite see around the bend, but you suspect the road will take you to another intriguing place, and so you are urged on and continue to learn and explore.</p>
<p>And so it is with me. Tomorrow I will sign off from this section of the path. My journey with CC has had different segments, contexts, and textures. What I have found so rewarding during this leg as CEO is working closely with our deeply talented and dedicated staff, regional coordinators, affiliates, partners, and supporters.</p>
<p>Together, we have made tremendous progress to create a global footprint of sharing, legally. We continue to extend our reach into critical communities &#8211; learning, science, data, and culture &#8211; and educate the world about the power of open. And while we have not yet reached our collective mission, we have advanced, and will continue to do so. Here at CC, we have worked hard over the past months to ensure the CEO transition is smooth. <a href="/weblog/entry/41605">The board has the search well underway</a> and <a href="/board#paulbrest">Paul Brest</a>, CC board chair, has stepped up as interim CEO. My profound thanks to Paul, both personally and on behalf of the broader community, for his unyielding leadership and support.</p>
<p>My open journey began more than a decade ago with an arc that brought me from Hewlett to Carnegie to CC, and has most often felt like a sprint. So during the next few months, I will pause and relish more time with family and at the coast, and the opportunity to trek along remote mountain paths. After my hiatus, after what I am sure will feel like the blink of an eye, you will find me re-engaged to advance the newly emerging architecture for learning, an ecosystem no longer constrained by time, space, and pace.</p>
<p>Looking back on the open road, I am grateful for the camaraderie of fellow travelers energized by the challenge. And looking ahead, I await our next productive collaboration.</p>
<p>Until then I wish you all the very best,<br />Cathy</p>


feed_id: http://creativecommons.org/?p=42249
title: Affiliate Project Grant Update: Asia-Pacific
uri: Affiliate-Project-Grant-Update-Asia-Pacific
url: http://creativecommons.org/weblog/entry/42249
content:
<p>This is part three of a five week series on the Affiliate Team project grants. So far, you&#8217;ve heard from our affiliates in <a href="http://creativecommons.org/weblog/entry/42167">Africa</a> and the <a href="http://creativecommons.org/weblog/entry/42208">Arab World</a>. Today, we&#8217;re showcasing projects in our Asia-Pacific region, including open data workshops from Japan, a media studies textbook from New Zealand, and software tools and guidelines for public domain materials from Taiwan.</p>
<hr />
<p align="center"><img src="media/c69f073c.AsiaPacific.jpg" data-original-source="http://creativecommons.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/02/AsiaPacific.jpg" /></p>
<p><br class="spacer_" /></p>
<p align="center"><span style="font-size: medium;"><strong><a href="http://wiki.creativecommons.org/Japan" title="Japan">Japan</a>: Workshops and Symposium for Open Data in Japan </strong></span><br />
<em>by Puneet Kishor (project lead: Tomoaki Watanabe)</em></p>
<p>Last year in June, the <a href="http://creativecommons.jp/”>CC Japan Affiliate team (CCJP)</a> hosted by <a href="http://commonsphere.jp">CommonSphere</a>, won a grant to hold three workshops and a public symposium on the use of CC tools (<a href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/">licenses</a> and the <a href="http://creativecommons.org/about/cc0">CC0 Public Domain Dedication</a>) in the context of open data. The aim of the workshops was to respond to informal inputs from government and other stakeholders on their implementation of CC tools in the context of open data, a new frontier of openness in the last few years in Japan. The team was planning to invite involvement from Japanese national and municipal government agencies and <a href="http://blog.okfn.org/category/okfnlocal/okf-japan/">Open Knowledge Foundation Japan</a>.</p>
<p>The <a href="http://www.ipa.go.jp/about/research/20131121.html">first event was a workshop</a> at Information Processing Agency, IPA, an independent administrative agency discussing open data licensing. The panel involved a member of Open Knowledge Foundation Japan as well. The whole session was video-recorded by the IPA staff, and it is now available online, along with presentation materials. The attendance was mostly government officials and the agency staff, around 50 people, and an attendant survey indicated a reasonable success.</p>
<p>The second meeting was held among key figures related to open data and other relevant initiatives, as invitation-only discussions on licensing and other legal issues. CCJP provided logistics support and expertise. It was decided by the attendants that the discussion will remain informal and unpublished. </p>
<p>The third was a symposium to discuss implementation issues of open data, including licensing issues organized by the third party, <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZI5SGgXjMRE">Innovation Nippon</a>, a joint project between Google Japan and GLOCOM. Both CCJP and OKF Japan helped with pre-event publicity and provided expertise. It featured and was attended by local government officials and municipal law makers, along with business people and academics. The event was videocast and the archive is available already, along with the slides.</p>
<p>The team also responded to an important emerging development – Japanese national government is revising terms of use for government web sites. Creative Commons Japan&#8217;s interest has been to present benefits of interoperability with Creative Commons licenses, and ways to achieve that. </p>
<p>The discussion is still ongoing, and some are concerned about potential &#8220;undesirable&#8221; use of government information, which may lead to a non-interoperable terms of use. The Japanese government may lean towards more liberal and interoperable approach if a few of the following happen:</p>
<ol>
<li> Political will, however, key politicians are not necessarily expected to support liberal licensing allowing use that goes against public order.</li>
<li>Evidence, anecdotal or scientific, showing that more liberal licensing results in better outcomes. However, such evidence is not abundant, and some government agencies have very specific uses in mind that may make them hesitate.</li>
<li>Evidence showing other governments of developed countries are doing things differently from what Japan is doing or planning to do. UK, FR, US, AU, NZ all are CC-BY compatible or use a CC-BY license. Their licensing all seem to be open in the Open Definition sense. Japan may result a bit differently.</li>
<li>Prospective users actively asking for a change.</li>
</ol>
<p>The challenges faced by the team so far have been 1) the above-mentioned development away from CC tools and 2) the lack of availability of licensing and editing talent on a more stable basis. </p>
<p>The team is in talks with a local government to hold at least one more workshop to discuss licensing issues as they relate to local governments. The symposium was originally planned to be at the end, but given the emerging development above, it may be timed differently.</p>
<p><br class="spacer_" /></p>
<p align="center"><span style="font-size: medium;"><strong><a href="http://wiki.creativecommons.org/New_Zealand" title="New Zealand">New Zealand</a>: Media Text Hack</strong></span><br />
<em>by project lead Matt McGregor</em></p>
<p>In the middle of 2013, a few New Zealand academics and librarians began to toss around an exciting-but-preposterous-sounding idea: what if they could hack a media studies textbook in a weekend, and then release the results to the world under an open Creative Commons license?</p>
<p>The social benefit – the why – was clear. With textbook prices continuing to rise (and rise) well above inflation, and student debt levels ballooning, the Pacific region desperately needs a new model for producing and distributing educational resources. As Dr Erika Pearson, who led the Media Text Hack project, put it, “Textbooks currently available for New Zealand first year students are often produced overseas, usually the US, and can have a cripplingly high price tag.”</p>
<p>The how was a bit more difficult. Academics and librarians are already rather busy people, and the process of building and managing a team of contributors is labor intensive, with plenty of emailing, documenting, cat-herding, and problem-solving. Thankfully, with the help of a $4000 affiliate grant from Creative Commons, the team could hire a project manager &#8212; Bernard Madill &#8212; to help build the network of contributors, document progress, and make sure the hack weekend progressed smoothly.</p>
<p>Cut to 16-17 November, 2013: the team, largely made up of early career researchers from across New Zealand and Australia, got together and successfully produced the &#8216;beta&#8217; version of the textbook. For the last few months, they have been progressively editing and re-editing content, to ensure that the textbook is classroom ready in time for the first down-under semester, which starts in late February. </p>
<p>As the book is shared, edited, and reused by students and teachers across the world, the team will incorporate new ideas, explanations, and examples, producing a text that can be hacked and re-hacked over the years ahead.</p>
<p>This is new territory: while there have been a few textbooks hacks in other disciplines – including <a href="http://creativecommons.org/weblog/entry/34643">this inspirational group of Finnish mathematicians</a> – this is of the first (to our knowledge) of this kind of text-hack in the humanities.</p>
<p>For this reason, the team is putting together a parallel &#8216;cookbook&#8217;, to enable other projects to understand what worked – as well as what did not work – about the project. This will be released in the first half of 2014, and will hopefully inspire other projects around the world to attempt open textbook projects of their own.</p>
<p>The team is hopeful that open textbooks will become more prevalent in public higher education. As University of Otago Copyright Officer Richard White, a core member of the text-hack team, puts it, the open textbook marks a return to the “core principles of academia: sharing knowledge, learning from, and building on the work of others.”</p>
<p><br class="spacer_" /></p>
<p align="center"><span style="font-size: medium;"><strong><a href="http://wiki.creativecommons.org/Taiwan" title="Taiwan">Taiwan</a>: Practices and Depositories for The Public Domain</strong></span><br />
<em>by project lead Tyng-Ruey Chuang</em></p>
<p>The project &#8220;Practices and Depositories for The Public Domain&#8221; (PD4PD) aims to develop software tools and practical guidelines to put public domain materials online more easily. This is a joint uptake of the GNU MediaGoblin project [1], NETivism Ltd. [2], and Creative Commons Taiwan [3], with the latter coordinating the team effort. The overall project goal is to firm up access to and reuse of the many digital manifestations of public domain cultural works by means of replicable tools, practices, and communities. </p>
<p>Tools: The plan is to extend the functionality of the GNU MediaGoblin software package so as to make it more suitable for hosting large collections of public domain materials. For this purpose, new features have been suggested to add to GNU MediaGoblin to help users self-hosting their media archives. These features include batch upload of media (with proper metadata annotations), customizable themes and pages, and an &#8220;easy install&#8221; script (to install GNU Media Goblin itself). </p>
<p>Practices: The plan is to develop guidelines and how-to on self-hosting public domain materials. Two versions are planned: One in English and the other one in the Chinese language used in Taiwan. An educational website on the public domain, and self-hosting, is also planned.</p>
<p>Community: The plan is to outreach to content holders in Taiwan, and  to work with them in releasing some of their holdings to the public domain. It will be demonstrated by a website using the tools mentioned above. </p>
<p>This six-month project started in December 2013 and plans to finish in June 2014. The GNU MediaGoblin project has been focusing on tool development while NETivism Ltd. is concentrating on community outreach. Creative Commons Taiwan is working on practical guidelines. Several interns have been recruited to help with this project.</p>
<p>[1] <a href="http://mediagoblin.org/">http://mediagoblin.org/</a><br />
[2] <a href="http://netivism.com.tw/">http://netivism.com.tw/</a><br />
[3] <a href="http://creativecommons.tw/">http://creativecommons.tw/</a></p>


feed_id: http://creativecommons.org/?p=42256
title: CC Europe responds to review of EU copyright rules
uri: CC-Europe-responds-to-review-of-EU-copyright-rules
url: http://creativecommons.org/weblog/entry/42256
content:
<p>Yesterday the European CC Leads have under their regional identity CC Europe <a href="media/adf8addc.EU_Consultation_-_CC_Europe_response_final.pdf" data-original-source="http://wiki.creativecommons.org/images/1/12/EU_Consultation_-_CC_Europe_response_final.pdf">responded (PDF)</a> to the <a href="http://ec.europa.eu/internal_market/consultations/2013/copyright-rules/index_en.htm">&#8216;Public consultation on the review of the EU copyright rules&#8217;</a>, run by the EU Commission through its Internal Market and Services Directorate. Like several other groups, the CC Leads have stressed the need for more robust and flexible exceptions and limitations throughout the region, especially regarding transformative uses in general and educational uses in particular. They also urge the EU Commission to find ways for copyright law in Europe to better recognize creator&#8217;s wishes to contribute to the &#8216;voluntary Public Domain&#8217; through legal tools like CC0. They also <a href="https://creativecommons.org/about/reform">highlighted once more</a> the fact that CC Licenses are a patch for certain aspects of the copyright system but not a fix that substitutes legislative action. According to the Commission, all responses to the 80 question consultation will be published at some point in the future.</p>


feed_id: http://creativecommons.org/?p=42267
title: Join us in San Francisco for Free Bassel Day
uri: Join-us-in-San-Francisco-for-Free-Bassel-Day
url: http://creativecommons.org/weblog/entry/42267
content:
<p align="center"><img src="media/f01bbfc9.bassel-2014-570x260-dull-8bit.png" data-original-source="http://creativecommons.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/bassel-2014-570x260-dull-8bit.png" width=570 height=260 /></p>
<p><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bassel_Khartabil">Bassel Khartabil</a> is a Syrian-Palestinian computer engineer who, through his innovations in social media, digital education, and open-source web software, played a huge role in opening the internet in Syria and bringing online access and knowledge to the Syrian people. <a href="/tag/freebassel">Many people reading this blog know Bassel</a> through his work as lead for CC Syria. He was arrested in March of 2012 in Damascus, and has been detained ever since.</p>
<p>The second <a href="https://www.thunderclap.it/projects/8292-pledge-for-freebasselday-2014">#FreeBassel Day</a> will be held globally on March 15, marking the second anniversary of his imprisonment and the third anniversary of the beginning of the Syrian uprising.</p>
<p>If you are in the San Francisco Bay Area, come join the SF open community on #FreeBassel Day SF at the Wikimedia Foundation offices in downtown San Francisco. In addition to sharing art, music, food, and stories about Bassel, we will be hosting a Wikipedia Edit-a-thon in honor of him. Bassel is a Wikipedian himself, so we&#8217;ll be working on writing and improving articles on topics that he cares about (and might be editing now if he weren’t in prison). Such topics include: Syria, computers, technology in the MENA region, open source web development, and peace (to name a few). Learn more about Bassel in his own words and the words of friends <a href="http://freebassel.org/campaign/">here</a> and <a href="http://lettersforbassel.tumblr.com/">here</a>.</p>
<p>No Wikipedia editing experience is necessary &#8211; just bring your laptop, and seasoned Wikipedians will be there to provide guidance in copy-editing, article creation, and sourcing. And friends and colleagues of Bassel will be there to tell you more about him and his work.</p>
<p>We&#8217;ll have an informal potluck, including food and beverages sourced from the <a href="/weblog/entry/42214">#FreeBassel Cookbook V.1</a>, a collection of recipes from friends and supporters of Bassel, collected by <a href="http://www.thebigconversationspace.org/">The Big Conversation Space</a> and sponsored by <a href="https://aerbook.com/site/">Aerbook</a>. Please bring something to share.</p>
<p>We&#8217;ll also be sharing art and media created by #FreeBassel supporters, including <a href="http://disquiet.com/2014/01/23/disquiet0108-freebassel/">Disquiet Junto #FreeBassel</a> and <a href="https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCfCDM6-DanbOElTDjwGtLHw">Letters for Bassel</a>.</p>
<p><strong>Details</strong></p>
<ul>
<li><strong>Date:</strong> Saturday, March 15</li>
<li><strong>Time:</strong> 12–4 pm</li>
<li><strong>Location:</strong> Wikimedia Foundation offices (<a href="http://maps.google.com/maps?q=149+New+Montgomery+Street&#038;hnear=149+New+Montgomery+St,+San+Francisco,+California+94105&#038;gl=us&#038;t=m&#038;z=16">149 New Montgomery Street, 3rd Floor, San Francisco, CA 94105</a>)</li>
<li><strong>Event:</strong> An edit-a-thon, pot luck, and more! Learn how to contribute to Wikipedia and collaborate with others to show your support for Bassel.</li>
<li><strong>Hashtag:</strong> <a href="https://twitter.com/search?q=%23freebassel">#freebassel</a></li>
</ul>


feed_id: http://creativecommons.org/?p=42278
title: Getty Images allows free embed of 35 million photographs
uri: Getty-Images-allows-free-embed-of-35-million-photographs
url: http://creativecommons.org/weblog/entry/42278
content:
<p><span xmlns:cc="http://creativecommons.org/ns#" xmlns:dc="http://purl.org/dc/terms/" about="//flickr.com/photos/kalexanderson/5367782072"><a href="//flickr.com/photos/kalexanderson/5367782072/"><img src="media/130b70c7.5367782072_e2b522692a_z.jpg" data-original-source="http://creativecommons.org//farm6.staticflickr.com/5084/5367782072_e2b522692a_z.jpg" width="624" height="424" border=0 /><br />
<small><a href="//flickr.com/photos/kalexanderson/5367782072/"></a><a href="//www.flickr.com/photos/kalexanderson/"><span property="cc:attributionName">Kristina Alexanderson</span></a> / <a rel="license" href="/licenses/by-nc-sa/2.0/">CC BY-NC-SA</a></small></a></span></p>
<p>Getty Images recently announced that it will allow <a href="http://www.gettyimages.com/Creative/Frontdoor/embed">free noncommercial embedding</a> of 35 million of the images in its stock photography database. This is a good step toward better supporting a variety of users. Getty is clearly seeing its images appear across the web anyway, so it’s decided to go down the embed road, similar to how other content providers like YouTube handle the media they host. By requiring embedding, Getty will be able to track where its photos are being used online, and reserves the right to display advertisements. The announcement demonstrates a general understanding that Getty needs to meet users halfway in providing content in ways that is affordable, useable, and aligned with how people wish to share online today. At the same time, users may run into roadblocks in using Getty content, and openly-licensed resources could provide a straightforward alternative. </p>
<p>The Getty Images <a href="http://www.gettyimages.com/Corporate/Terms.aspx">terms of use</a> say that users can “only use embedded Getty Images Content for editorial purposes (meaning relating to events that are newsworthy or of public interest)”. Creative Commons-licensed images can be used for any purpose, by anyone, anywhere around the world, as long as the user follows the terms of the license. But no CC license dictates that a piece of licensed content may only be used for a specific purpose&#8211;editorial or otherwise.  </p>
<p>The Getty terms also state that images “may not be used &#8230; for any commercial purpose (for example, in advertising, promotions or merchandising) or to suggest endorsement or sponsorship&#8230;”. The British Journal of Photography, in an interview with Getty Images representative Craig Peters, <a href="http://www.bjp-online.com/2014/03/getty-images-makes-35-million-images-free-in-fight-against-copyright-infringement/">clarifies</a> Getty’s interpretation of the boundaries of noncommercial use. </p>
<blockquote><p>Blogs that draw revenues from Google Ads will still be able to use the Getty Images embed player at no cost. “We would not consider this commercial use,” says Peters.
</p></blockquote>
<p>Creative Commons has maintained a static definition of noncommercial use in its licenses over the years (which has earned its share of criticism). In <a href="https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/legalcode">license version 4.0</a> “NonCommercial means not primarily intended for or directed towards commercial advantage or monetary compensation.” </p>
<p>Another difference between the Getty Images embed service and Creative Commons-licensed images is that Getty would reserve the right to revoke its embedded photographs at any time. Its terms of use state that the “availability may change without notice. Getty Images reserves the right in its sole discretion to remove Getty Images Content from the Embedded Viewer. Upon request, you agree to take prompt action to stop using the Embedded Viewer and/or Getty Images Content.” So unlike even <a href="https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/">the most restrictive Creative Commons license</a> (which permits verbatim noncommercial copying with attribution), Getty Images requires an HTML embed which it solely controls. When images are licensed under Creative Commons licenses, downstream users are granted more permissive rights. As stated in our <a href="http://wiki.creativecommons.org/FAQ#What_happens_if_the_author_decides_to_revoke_the_CC_license_to_material_I_am_using.3F">Frequently Asked Questions</a>: </p>
<blockquote><p>The CC licenses are irrevocable. This means that once you receive material under a CC license, you will always have the right to use it under those license terms, even if the licensor changes his or her mind and stops distributing under the CC license terms.
</p></blockquote>
<p>Finally, the Getty terms prohibit uses “outside of the context of the Embedded Viewer”, which means that you can’t use the Getty images in remixes, videos, or really anywhere that doesn&#8217;t use embeds. On the other hand, CC-licensed images permit reuse in any medium. The licenses grant users authorization to exercise their rights under the license “in all media and formats &#8230; and to make technical modifications necessary to do so.”</p>
<p>It’s good that Getty Images is providing free online access to millions of images. But the advantages of CC-licensed photos is clear: users can’t have the content pulled out from underneath them, the images can be used for any reason in any format, and in many cases images are licensed for broad reuse and modification. And remember, there’s a huge trove of Creative Commons-licensed images out there too (not to mention millions of photographs in the public domain for use without any restrictions whatsoever!). <a href="https://www.flickr.com/creativecommons/">Flickr</a> now contains over 300 million CC-licensed photos. <a href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Main_Page">Wikimedia Commons</a> hosts over 20 million multimedia files (a large proportion which are openly-licensed photographs being used on Wikipedia). Or even check out <a href="https://creativecommons.org/weblog/entry/41737">Google Images</a> or <a href="http://www.bing.com/blogs/site_blogs/b/search/archive/2013/07/01/filter.aspx">Bing</a> to easily discover CC-licensed images.</p>


feed_id: http://creativecommons.org/?p=42264
title: How open licensing is transforming design
uri: How-open-licensing-is-transforming-design
url: http://creativecommons.org/weblog/entry/42264
content:
<div style="float:right; padding:10px" xmlns:dc="http://purl.org/dc/terms/" xmlns:cc="/ns#" about="http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Account_of_the_new_invented_Pennsylvania_fire-places_by_Benjamin_Franklin.jpg"><a href="media/719202a9.e_new_invented_Pennsylvania_fire-places_by_Benjamin_Franklin.jpg" data-original-source="http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Account_of_the_new_invented_Pennsylvania_fire-places_by_Benjamin_Franklin.jpg"><img width="236" height="240" src="media/b8e662d4.e_new_invented_Pennsylvania_fire-places_by_Benjamin_Franklin.jpg" data-original-source="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/b/b2/Account_of_the_new_invented_Pennsylvania_fire-places_by_Benjamin_Franklin.jpg/236px-Account_of_the_new_invented_Pennsylvania_fire-places_by_Benjamin_Franklin.jpg" alt="Account of the new invented Pennsylvania fire-places" /></a>
<p><small><a href="media/719202a9.e_new_invented_Pennsylvania_fire-places_by_Benjamin_Franklin.jpg" data-original-source="http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Account_of_the_new_invented_Pennsylvania_fire-places_by_Benjamin_Franklin.jpg"><span property="dc:title">Account of the new invented<br />Pennsylvania fire-places</span></a><br /><span property="cc:attributionName">Benjamin Franklin</span> / <a rel="license" href="/publicdomain/mark/1.0/">Public Domain</a></small></p>
</div>
<p>I&#8217;m very excited to be <a href="http://schedule.sxsw.com/2014/events/event_IAP22367">speaking at South by Southwest tomorrow</a> along with <a href="https://twitter.com/scottbelsky">Scott Belsky</a> of <a href="https://www.behance.net/">Behance</a>, <a href="https://twitter.com/nounproject">Sofya Polyakov</a> of <a href="http://www.thenounproject.com/">The Noun Project</a>, and <a href="https://twitter.com/TweetEricStover">Eric Stover</a> of <a href="http://www.autodesk.com/">Autodesk</a>. Each speaker represents a community of designers that use open content or licenses in some way. I&#8217;m sure it will be a fascinating discussion.</p>
<p>For people coming to this blog post from the talk, here are some links you might like:</p>
<ul>
<li><strong><a href="https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1JNpMoIXpZsZ5tVSjvy6A4fqpwGKzjadT4_73-vK0Zro/edit?usp=sharing">Slides from the panel</a></strong></li>
<li><strong><a href="/weblog/entry/35882">Featured CC Platform: Behance</a>:</strong> My interview with Scott from a couple years ago, where he discusses why Behance users have so fully embraced CC licenses.</li>
<li><strong><a href="http://teamopen.cc/sofya/">Sofya Polyakov / Team Open</a>:</strong> Sofya explains why open licensing is integral to The Noun Project&#8217;s business model.</li>
<li><strong><a href="/weblog/entry/39184">Autodesk invites users to remix its content</a>:</strong> Our blog post from last year about Autodesk adopting CC licenses for all of its training content.</li>
<li><strong><a href="http://opendesignnow.org/">Open Design Now</a>:</strong> Online and print anthology about open design. Very fun read.</li>
<li><strong><a href="http://www.inc.com/guides/201109/how-to-crowdsource-your-resarch-and-development.html">Fiat: The Case for Letting Your Customers Design Your Products</a>:</strong> Article in Inc. from a few years ago about Fiat&#8217;s CC-licensed car.</li>
<li><strong><a href="http://creativecommons.org/weblog/entry/39978">CC in design: expanding your team of collaborators</a></strong>: My notes from a previous panel on open licensing in design.</li>
</ul>
<p>After the panel, I&#8217;ll add a link to the slides.</p>


feed_id: http://creativecommons.org/?p=42286
title: Open Education Week: A focus on Latin America
uri: Open-Education-Week-A-focus-on-Latin-America
url: http://creativecommons.org/weblog/entry/42286
content:
<p>On Thursday, March 14 <a href="http://karisma.org.co/">Fundación Karisma</a>, in collaboration with <a href="http://www.unesco.org/new/es/office-in-montevideo/home/">UNESCO</a> and Creative Commons will launch the report <a href="http://www.openeducationweek.org/ai1ec_event/lanzamiento-del-informe-unesco-gasto-publico-en-la-educacion-de-america-latina-puede-servir-a-los-propositos-de-la-declaracion-de-paris-sobre-recursos-educativos-abiertos-2/?instance_id=39">“Public Expenditure On Education in Latin America: Can It Serve the Paris Open Educational Resources Declaration’s Purposes?”</a></p>
<p><a href="http://karisma.org.co/?p=3346">“Human rights are not left at the door when we enter the online world.”</a> This is the premise on which we embark on a new research project related to one of the fundamental rights <a href="http://redpatodos.co/internetlibre/">under threat</a> in a networked society: access to knowledge.</p>
<p>In Latin America, paper textbooks coexist with digital technologies, but for the most part these digital resources are not yet an essential part of education systems. Despite efforts to foster the pedagogical use of information technology, in Latin America there is currently more emphasis on connectivity issues. Without adequately addressing the challenges to connectivity, the educational ecosystem is wasting real opportunities to boost the adoption and implementation of appropriate technologies.</p>
<p>Open education promotes knowledge as a public good based on the following elements: redistribution (sharing with others), remixing (combining resources to create new content), free reuse of whole or partial educational materials with proper attribution, the ability to revise resources in order to make modifications, enhancements, and adaptations according to context, and peer reviewing to ensure resource quality.</p>
<p>As described in the report, the increasing availability of Open Educational Resources open up a range of possibilities for the countries of the region that are still depending on a high level of negotiations between state educational systems and the publishing industry. But while many governments do not have the technological capabilities to facilitate the realization of human rights, the recommendations of important instruments such as the <a href="media/e5df3b66.Paris20OER20Declaration_01.pdf" data-original-source="http://www.unesco.org/new/fileadmin/MULTIMEDIA/HQ/CI/CI/pdf/Events/Paris%20OER%20Declaration_01.pdf">Paris Open Educational Resources (OER) Declaration</a> can be a useful tool to prompt political and social change within the educational systems in Latin America. According to the Paris OER Declaration, Open Educational Resources include any teaching, learning and research materials which are in the public domain or released under an intellectual property license that allows for free use, adaptation and distribution.</p>
<p>The report was commissioned by the <a href="http://www.unesco.org/new/es/office-in-montevideo/home/">UNESCO Regional Bureau for Science in Latin America and the Caribbean</a>. It will be released on Thursday and published under a Creative Commons <a href="https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/">BY-NC-ND</a> license. The report seeks to identify and analyze public policy and the investment and expenditure that the governments of Argentina, Chile, Colombia, Paraguay and Uruguay have committed for the development and procurement of textbooks, books and digital content for primary and secondary education (K-12).</p>
<p>Because the purpose of <a href="http://www.openeducationweek.org/">Open Education Week</a> is to raise awareness about the movement and its impact on teaching and learning worldwide, we invite you to be part of the <a href="http://www.openeducationweek.org/ai1ec_event/lanzamiento-del-informe-unesco-gasto-publico-en-la-educacion-de-america-latina-puede-servir-a-los-propositos-de-la-declaracion-de-paris-sobre-recursos-educativos-abiertos-2/?instance_id=39">webinar</a>. The event will be a dialogue on open education issues in the region with the participation of Carolina Rossini, OER expert from Brazil, Juan Carlos Bernal from the Ministry of National Education of Colombia, and Patricia Diaz and Virgina Rodes, who are members of the Uruguayan OER community. In addition to these speakers, a Creative Commons and UNESCO representatives will join the talk, as well as the group of researchers from Fundación Karisma who developed the report.</p>
<p><strong>Webinar details:<br />
</strong></p>
<ul>
<li>Date: March 13, 2014 </li>
<li>Time: 5:00 pm (Bogotá, UCT-5) </li>
<li>Place: Watch for the webinar link on our social networks: Twitter <a href="https://twitter.com/karismacol">@karismacol</a>, Facebook <a href="https://www.facebook.com/karismacol">Fundación Karisma</a>, and our website: <a href="https://www.facebook.com/karismacol">karisma.org.co</a> </li>
</ul>
<p><small>This post originally appeared via <a href="http://karisma.org.co/?p=3914">Fundación Karisma</a>, a civil society organization based in Bogotá, Colombia. The organization supports and promotes access to information and communication technologies in Colombian and Latin American society.</small> </p>


feed_id: http://creativecommons.org/?p=42311
title: Affiliate Project Grant Update: Europe
uri: Affiliate-Project-Grant-Update-Europe
url: http://creativecommons.org/weblog/entry/42311
content:
<p>This is part four of a five week series on the Affiliate Team project grants. So far, you&#8217;ve heard from our affiliates in <a href="http://creativecommons.org/weblog/entry/42167">Africa</a>, <a href="http://creativecommons.org/weblog/entry/42208">Arab World</a>, and <a href="http://creativecommons.org/weblog/entry/42249">Asia-Pacific</a>. Today, we&#8217;re featuring our Europe projects, including a revived CC WordPress plugin from Finland, an awareness raising event in Dublin, Ireland, and a course for librarians and academics led by CC Romania.</p>
<hr />
<p align="center"><img src="media/4fd2f3dd.Europe.jpg" data-original-source="http://creativecommons.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/02/Europe.jpg" /></p>
<p><br class="spacer_" /></p>
<p align="center"><span style="font-size: medium;"><strong><a href="http://wiki.creativecommons.org/Finland" title="CC Finland">Finland</a>: WpLicense Revived </strong></span><br />
<em>by project lead Tarmo Toikkanen</em></p>
<p>CC Finland is working on a revived Creative Commons WordPress plugin, building upon the <a href="http://wiki.creativecommons.org/WpLicense">existing official plugin</a> built by Nathan Yergler, former CC CTO.<br />
The renewed plugin will work in multi-author blogs with varying license needs, which displays correct author information on all pages in the license RDF, and which is localized to several languages. As an additional feature, integration with online CC-licensed image banks for searching and using figures in blog posts would be extremely useful in helping bloggers use pictures legally.<br />
As WordPress is the most used CMS in the world, it should have robust Creative Commons functionality, officially produced by CC. The plugin would both make it easy for bloggers to share their content openly, and would educate many about CC licenses.<br />
On February 19th, we announced an alpha version of the renewed WpLicense plugin. Download it here: <a href="https://github.com/tarmot/wp-cc-plugin/releases/tag/release-2.0-alpha">https://github.com/tarmot/wp-cc-plugin/releases/tag/release-2.0-alpha</a><br />
We welcome any bug reports, issues or general feedback on WPLicense on the cc-devel mailing list or as issues in Github.</p>
<p><br class="spacer_" /></p>
<p align="center"><span style="font-size: medium;"><strong><a href="http://wiki.creativecommons.org/Ireland" title="CC Ireland">Ireland</a>: Awareness-raising Event in Dublin, November 2013</strong></span><br />
<em>by project lead Darius Whelan</em></p>
<p>Creative Commons Ireland held an awareness-raising event in Dublin on “Maximising Digital Creativity, Sharing and Innovation” in January 2014. The event took place in the National Gallery of Ireland and was attended by 100 people working in technology, libraries, academia, galleries/libraries/museums, media and education.  The speakers represented a cross-section of perspectives, and the event was an opportunity for CC Ireland to develop relationships with organisations such as the Open Knowledge Foundation, Digital Rights Ireland, and Ireland’s Copyright Review Committee.  Eoin O’Dell of the Law School, Trinity College Dublin talked about copyright law reform and its impact on Creative Commons licences. The Copyright Review Committee, which was chaired by Dr O’Dell, published its proposals for change in Ireland in October 2013 (see <a href="http://www.djei.ie/press/2013/20131029.htm">http://www.djei.ie/press/2013/20131029.htm</a>). O’Dell said his committee’s report had provided the first legal definition of metadata, which particularly aimed to protect the rights of digital photographers. The report also proposed that parody and linking should be allowed without any infringement of copyright, as well as a nine-point ‘fair use’ doctrine.  Kristina Alexanderson of CC Sweden spoke about how she uses CC licences in her work and her work has been accessed by very large audiences as a result. </p>
<p align="center">
<img src="media/d1bb2cb5.12015441806_fea32404b8.jpg" data-original-source="http://creativecommons.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/02/12015441806_fea32404b8.jpg"/><br />
<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/114281612@N04/12015441806/">Conor McCabe</a> / <a href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></p>
<p>Alek Tarkowski, European Policy Advisor, CC, discussed open policies for user rights and freedoms, and highlighted a Polish project for providing open education textbooks. Gwen Franck, CC Regional Co-ordinator, highlighted the work of CC Affiliates throughout Europe.  Professor David Post, of Temple Law School, Philadelphia, USA said there were between 400 million and 800 million Creative Commons licences in use today, and Creative Commons represented people “taking the law into their own hands.” He said copyright law had “run amok,” with copyright protection running for too long and being too wide. The event was chaired by Darius Whelan and Louise Crowley of CC Ireland and the Faculty of Law, University College Cork. Photos, videos and slides are available at <a href="http://www.creativecommonsireland.org/">www.creativecommonsireland.org</a>. </p>
<p><strong>Photos</strong>: <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/114281612@N04/">http://www.flickr.com/photos/114281612@N04/</a><br />
<strong>Videos</strong>: <a href="http://www.youtube.com/user/creativecommonsirl">http://www.youtube.com/user/creativecommonsirl</a><br />
<strong>Slides</strong>: <a href="http://www.slideshare.net/cc-ireland">http://www.slideshare.net/cc-ireland</a></p>
<p><br class="spacer_" /></p>
<p align="center"><span style="font-size: medium;"><strong><a href="http://wiki.creativecommons.org/Romania" title="CC Romania">Romania</a>: OER Awareness Activities for Librarians and Academics in Romania<br />
#schoolofopen </strong></span><br />
<em>by Jane Park (project lead: Bogdan Manolea)</em></p>
<p>Many librarians and academics in Romania are not aware of or knowledgeable about open educational resources (OER) and how they can best leverage them for their needs. CC Romania, along with the Association for Technology and Internet (ApTI), the National Association of Public Libraries and Librarians in Romania, and Kosson and Soros Foundation Romania teamed up to put on a series of workshops to raise awareness among librarians and academics on the topics of open educational resources (OER), copyright, and CC licenses.<br />
The project was launched during the National Association of Librarians and Public Libraries (ANBPR) annual conference which took place between 10-12 October 2013 in Sibiu, Romania. The presentation prepared by the team project and delivered by Andra Bucur from the Soros Foundation explained in short about copyright issues and their limits, how to apply an open license to a creation, what are open educational resources (OER) and where to find them.<br />
From this conference, participants signed up for a series of workshops which focused on the correct attribution of the CC licenses, aspects of OER, online courses and MOOCs delivered by Bogdan Manolea from ApTI and Nicolaie Constantinescu (ANBPR &#038; Kosson.ro).<br />
The series kicked off in 15 November in Brașov, Romania, as part of the International Colloquium on Social Science and Communication, a social science academic event.<br />
Subsequent workshops were held in December 2013 and January 2014 at V.A. Urechia Regional Library in Galați; at Octavian Goga Regional Library in Cluj; at Polytechnical University in Timișoara; and University Vasile Goldiș in Arad. Future workshops wil take plece in Iași and Bucharest in February 2014.<br />
The partners of the project are also organizing a conference in Bucharest during the open education week to share the best practices on education taught, but also learned in the project.<br />
CC Romania also attended BVCCC &#8211; the first CC Film Festival to be ever organized in Romania that took place in Brașov in November 2013. This was a great opportunity for the team to reach out to a different type of public &#8212; mostly local artists and digital content creators.</p>


feed_id: http://creativecommons.org/?p=42314
title: Proposed U.S. law would weaken and postpone public access to publicly funded research
uri: Proposed-U-S-law-would-weaken-and-postpone-public-access-to-publicly
url: http://creativecommons.org/weblog/entry/42314
content:
<p>This week the US House Representatives introduced H.R. 4186, the <a href="media/257bf2d0.HR4186.pdf" data-original-source="http://science.house.gov/sites/republicans.science.house.gov/files/documents/HR4186.pdf">Frontiers in Innovation, Research, Science and Technology Act of 2014 (FIRST Act)</a>. The stated goal of the proposed law &#8212; “to provide for investment in innovation through scientific research and development, [and] to improve the competitiveness of the United States &#8212; is worthy and well received. But part of the bill (Section 303) is detrimental to both existing and proposed public access policies in the United States. </p>
<p><a href="http://www.sparc.arl.org/news/advocacy/first/pr">According to SPARC</a>:</p>
<blockquote><p>Section 303 of the bill would undercut the ability of federal agencies to effectively implement the widely supported White House Directive on Public Access to the Results of Federally Funded Research and undermine the successful public access program pioneered by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) – recently expanded through the FY14 Omnibus Appropriations Act to include the Departments Labor, Education and Health and Human Services.  Adoption of Section 303 would be a step backward from existing federal policy in the directive, and put the U.S. at a severe disadvantage among our global competitors.
</p></blockquote>
<p>The <a href="https://creativecommons.org/weblog/entry/35267">White House Directive</a>, <a href="http://publicaccess.nih.gov/">NIH Public Access Policy</a>, <a href="https://creativecommons.org/weblog/entry/41802">Omnibus Appropriations Act</a>, and the proposed <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fair_Access_to_Science_and_Technology_Research_Act">Fair Access to Science and Technology Research Act (FASTR)</a> all contain similar provisions to ensure public access to publicly funded research after a relatively short embargo (6-12 months). These policies make sure that articles created and published as a result of federal funding are deposited in a repository for access and preservation purposes. In addition, the policies provide for a reasonable process and timeline for agencies to development a plan to comply with the public access requirements.   </p>
<p>The FIRST Act would conflict with each of these practices. Instead, if enacted it would permit agencies that must comply with the law to: </p>
<ul>
<li>Extend embargoes to federally funded research articles to up to 3 years after initial publication, thus drastically increasing the time before the public has free public access to this research. We’ve <a href="media/bdca1a3f.ents_of_Creative_Commons_to_OSTP_Publications_RFI_Jan_6_2012.pdf" data-original-source="http://wiki.creativecommons.org/images/c/c5/Comments_of_Creative_Commons_to_OSTP_Publications_RFI_Jan_6_2012.pdf">said before</a> that the public should be granted immediate access to the content of peer-reviewed scholarly publications resulting from federally funded research. Immediate access is the ideal method to optimize the scientific and commercial utility of the information contained in the articles. </li>
<p></p>
<li>Fulfill access requirements by providing a link to a publisher’s site. However, this jeopardizes long-term access and preservation of publicly-funded research in the absence of a requirement that those links be permanently preserved. A better outcome would be to ensure that a copy is deposited in a federally-controlled repository. </li>
<p></p>
<li>Spend up to 18 additional months to develop plans to comply with the conditions of the law, thus further delaying the plans that are already being organized by federal agencies under the White House Directive and Omnibus Appropriations Act. </li>
</ul>
<p><strong>This bill is <a href="https://science.house.gov/markup/subcommittee-research-and-technology-markup-hr-4186">scheduled</a> to be marked up in the House Committee on Science, Space, and Technology tomorrow, March 13.</strong> </p>
<p>But there are better alternatives, both in existing policy (e.g. White House Directive), and in potential legislation (e.g. FASTR). Here’s what you can do right now:</p>
<ul>
<li><a href="http://www.congressweb.com/SPARC/24">Send a letter</a> to members of the House Science, Space and Technology Committee opposing Section 303 of the FIRST Act.</li>
<li>Use the <a href="http://sparc.arl.org/advocacy/national/first">SPARC action center</a> to customize and send letters directly to your legislators.  Tweet your opposition to Section 303 of the FIRST Act, or post about the bill on Facebook.</li>
<li>Write a letter to the editor or an op-ed for your local or campus newspaper. You can write directly to them or by using the <a href="http://www.congressweb.com/SPARC/Media/Main">SPARC legislative action center</a>.</li>
<li>Share this post with your colleagues, labs, friends and family.</li>
</ul>


feed_id: http://creativecommons.org/?p=42332
title: CC Salon in San Francisco: Free culture and social justice
uri: CC-Salon-in-San-Francisco-Free-culture-and-social-justice
url: http://creativecommons.org/weblog/entry/42332
content:
<p style="text-align:center" xmlns:dc="http://purl.org/dc/terms/" xmlns:cc="http://creativecommons.org/ns#" about="http://www.flickr.com/photos/dtkindler/8259566904/"><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/dtkindler/8259566904/"><img src="media/7216769c.8259566904_b9f17d09ab.jpg" data-original-source="http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8212/8259566904_b9f17d09ab.jpg" alt="CC10 Party in San Francisco" width="500" height="333" border=0 /><br /><small><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/dtkindler/8259566904/"><span property="dc:title">CC10 Party in San Francisco</span></a> / <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/dtkindler/"><span property="cc:attributionName">David Kindler</span></a> / <a rel="license" href="/licenses/by/2.0/">CC BY</a></small></a></p>
<p>Creative Commons is thrilled to announce that we will be reviving CC salons on a quarterly basis starting March 27!</p>
<p>Years ago, CC ran a series of CC Salon events in the Bay Area, informal events that brought together creators of all kinds to talk about how and why they choose open in their fields. <a href="http://wiki.creativecommons.org/Salon">CC salons continue to occur all over the world</a>, but on March 27, CC will host a salon on social justice and open innovation right here in San Francisco.</p>
<p>This informal event will feature short talks from guests in local nonprofits and the free culture community, as well as lots of interesting people to network and socialize with. It&#8217;s free and open to everyone.</p>
<p align="center"><strong>Thursday, March 27, 2014<br />6:00 &#8211; 7:30 PM Pacific time<br /><a href="http://www.theroyalesf.com/">Cafe Royale</a>, 800 Post St, San Francisco, CA 94109<br />Bart: Civic Center, Powell St.<br /><a href="https://www.facebook.com/events/236564669862509/">Facebook invite</a></strong></p>
<h3>Speakers</h3>
<p><img src="media/b3eb3b4c.JoshuaKnox944.jpg" data-original-source="http://creativecommons.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/JoshuaKnox944.jpg" align="left" style="padding: 10px;" /></p>
<p><strong>Joshua Knox, <a href="http://brute.is/">Brute Labs</a></strong></p>
<p>Joshua Knox is co-Founder and CFO for <a href="http://brute.is/">BRUTE LABS</a>, a non-profit out to prove that anyone can do good. BRUTEs use design and technology to create sustainable social entrepreneurship. Our small, all-volunteer team has launched 11 projects around the world and across a broad spectrum of causes; from <a href="http://brute.is/Cotton%20&#038;%20Ink">cyclone relief in Myanmar</a>, to <a href="http://welldone.org/">clean water wells in Ghana</a>, to a <a href="http://brute.is/Biodiesel">bio-diesel project with Stanford</a>. Our <a href="http://www.ssireview.org/blog/entry/open_source_altruism/">open source altruism</a> has also garnered <a href="http://cause-affect.org/past-winners/2009/brute-labs.php">multiple design awards from AIGA</a> and <a href="http://www.adobeawards.com/us/">Adobe</a> as well as partnerships with local businesses, the city of San Jose, Google, Nike, Facebook and many more.</p>
<hr />
<p><img src="media/d1ab3c5c.nikikorth-136.jpg" data-original-source="http://creativecommons.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/nikikorth-136.jpg" width=136 height=136 align="left" style="padding: 10px;" /></p>
<p><strong><a href="http://www.thebigconversationspace.org/">Niki Korth</a>, Writer and Free Culture Activist</strong></p>
<p>Niki Korth is an artist, writer, and free culture enthusiast/activist who resides in the triad of the creative arts, technological literacy, and human rights. Together with Clémence de Montgolfier, she co-founded <a href="http://www.thebigconversationspace.org/">The Big Conversation Space</a> (TBCS), an art, research, and consulting organization based in Paris and San Francisco that acts as a participatory production platform for books, media, and games involving free speech, art, technology, politics, philosophy, and the occult. TBCS has exhibited and lectured internationally at venues including Palais Tokyo (Paris), TCB Gallery (Mellbourne, Australia), Yerba Buena Center for the Arts (San Francisco), and Human Resources (Los Angeles).</p>
<p>Their most recent projects include <a href="/weblog/entry/41768">Letters for Bassel</a> and <a href="/weblog/entry/42361">The #FreeBassel cookbook</a>, both dedicated to creative and participatory methods of advocacy for the release of CC community member Bassel Khartabil, who has been detained in Syria for the last two years. They also have a book coming out in summer 2014 titled I Can Do Anything Badly II, which uses conversational interviews to explore the intersections of DIY and Free Culture in the arts, the internet, sociology, and design.</p>
<p>Korth is also an advocate for trees and sustainable urban planning, and works in marketing and operations at <a href="http://www.deeproot.com/">DeepRoot Green Infrastructure</a>, a San Francisco&#8211;based company that provides arboriculturally-oriented products and services for the built environment.</p>
<p>In the spirit of McLuhan but in the age of the Internet – she believes that we all own the message, humans as much as plant life. But the medium may have a mind of its own.</p>
<hr />
<p><img src="media/9ec3967b.SupriyaMisra_TeachAIDS.jpg" data-original-source="http://creativecommons.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/SupriyaMisra_TeachAIDS.jpg" width=136 height=136 align="left" style="padding: 10px;" /></p>
<p><strong>Supriya Misra, <a href="http://teachaids.org/">TeachAIDS</a></strong></p>
<p>Supriya Misra is a Senior Project Manager at TeachAIDS, where she helps lead the development, maintenance, and expansion of TeachAIDS products. Founded at Stanford, and recognized as an innovation that will &#8220;change the world&#8221; by MIT Technology Review, TeachAIDS is a nonprofit social venture that creates breakthrough software to solve persistent problems in HIV prevention. Used in more than 70 countries, TeachAIDS provides the most effective HIV prevention software to educators, governments, and NGOs around the world &#8211; for free.</p>
<p>With a background in behavioral health research and expertise in innovative applications of new technologies in preventative care, she has previously worked at HopeLab and the Institute for Brain Potential, and co-authored a handbook on the neurobiological basis for forming positive health habits. She holds an M.A. and a B.A. with Honors in Psychology, with a concentration in Neuroscience, from Stanford University.</p>
<hr />
<p><img src="media/aa5d62a7.rachelweidinger-136.jpg" data-original-source="http://creativecommons.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/rachelweidinger-136.jpg" width=136 height=136 align="left" style="padding: 10px;" /></p>
<p><strong><a href="https://twitter.com/rachelannyes"><br />
Rachel Weidinger</a>, <a href="http://upwell.us/">Upwell</a></strong></p>
<p>Rachel Weidinger is the Founder and Executive Director of Upwell, a nonprofit PR firm with one client, the ocean. At Upwell, Rachel leads the development of cutting edge big listening practices. She couples this big data approach with the resiliency-increasing tactic of campaigning across a distributed network to increase online attention to ocean issues. Because of Rachel&#8217;s vision, the ocean community knows the baseline of online conversation for its issues for the first time.</p>
<p>Previously, Rachel was the Senior Manager of Marketing and Communications at TechSoup Global where she provided marketing vision and leadership for TechSoup Global, and the TechSoup Global Network of partners in 36 countries. She has also worked with social enterprises including NTEN, Common Knowledge, the Black Rock Arts Foundation, SF Environment, Copia, and the Xtracycle Foundation.</p>
<p>Rachel has a B.Phil. in Interdisciplinary Studies from Miami University&#8217;s Western College Program, and completed the coursework for a masters in Arts Policy and Administration at Ohio State University. When she&#8217;s not working to save the ocean, she makes preserves, swims in the Bay, and gardens at her tiny home in San Francisco. She is obsessed with whale sharks.</p>


feed_id: http://creativecommons.org/?p=42353
title: The global CC community: building a more open world
uri: The-global-CC-community-building-a-more-open-world
url: http://creativecommons.org/weblog/entry/42353
content:
<p align="center"><em>Stay up to date with CC by <a href="https://donate.creativecommons.org/civicrm/mailing/subscribe?utm_campaign=newsletter_1403&#038;utm_medium=web&#038;utm_source=newsletter">subscribing to our newsletter</a> and <a href="http://twitter.com/creativecommons">following us on Twitter</a>.</em></p>
<p align="center"><small><a href="/weblog/entry/42353?utm_campaign=newsletter_1403&#038;utm_medium=web&#038;utm_source=newsletter"><img src="media/cda4068c.201403-earthfromspace.jpg" data-original-source="http://creativecommons.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/201403-earthfromspace.jpg" border=0 width=600 height=300 /></a><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/gsfc/8805097211/">Alaska&#8217;s Pavlof Volcano: NASA&#8217;s View from Space</a> (cropped)<br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/gsfc/">NASA Goddard Space Flight Center</a> / <a href="/licenses/by/2.0/">CC BY</a></small></p>
<p align="center"><strong><a href="/tag/affiliate-network?utm_campaign=newsletter_1403&#038;utm_medium=web&#038;utm_source=newsletter">The global CC community: building a more open world</a></strong></p>
<p>Over the past few weeks, we&#8217;ve been featuring some of the amazing activities of our global affiliate network. Learn about a Finnish team building a CC plugin for WordPress, an open data symposium in Japan, a series of School of Open workshops in Kenya, a booksprint in Morocco, and much more. Take a tour of the CC communities in <strong><a href="/weblog/entry/42208?utm_campaign=newsletter_1403&#038;utm_medium=web&#038;utm_source=newsletter">the Arab world</a></strong>, <strong><a href="/weblog/entry/42167?utm_campaign=newsletter_1403&#038;utm_medium=web&#038;utm_source=newsletter">Africa</a></strong>, <strong><a href="/weblog/entry/42249?utm_campaign=newsletter_1403&#038;utm_medium=web&#038;utm_source=newsletter">Asia-Pacific</a></strong>, and <strong><a href="/weblog/entry/42311?utm_campaign=newsletter_1403&#038;utm_medium=web&#038;utm_source=newsletter">Europe</a></strong>.</p>
<table cellpadding="10" width="100%">
<tbody>
<tr>
<td style="border:1px solid gray" valign="top" width="50%">
<p about="http://www.flickr.com/photos/ioerror/335161549" style="text-align:center">
					<small><a href="/weblog/entry/42003?utm_campaign=newsletter_1403&#038;utm_medium=web&#038;utm_source=newsletter"><img alt="School of Open" height="160" src="media/d0b070b0.201403-openedwk.png" data-original-source="http://creativecommons.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/201403-openedwk.png" width="250" /></a><br />&#160;<br />&#160;</small></p>
<p>Open educational resources aren&#8217;t just a good idea; they&#8217;re the center of a global movement that&#8217;s transforming how education works worldwide. Browse the resources from <strong><a href="http://www.openeducationweek.org/">Open Education Week</a></strong> to learn more.</p>
</td>
<td style="border:1px solid gray" valign="top" width="350">
<p about="http://www.flickr.com/photos/joi/4670781482/" style="text-align:center" xmlns:cc="/ns#" xmlns:dc="http://purl.org/dc/terms/">
					<small><a href="/weblog/entry/41863?utm_campaign=newsletter_1403&#038;utm_medium=web&#038;utm_source=newsletter"><img alt="Bassel" height="160" src="media/b9c6379c.201301-bassel.jpg" data-original-source="http://creativecommons.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/01/201301-bassel.jpg" width="250" /></a><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/joi/4670781482/" rel="cc:attributionURL"><span property="dc:title">Bassel</span></a><br /><span property="cc:attributionName">Joi Ito</span> / <a href="/licenses/by/2.0/" rel="license">CC BY</a></small></p>
<p>
Longtime CC community leader Bassel Khartabil has been in prison in Syria since 2012. <strong><a href="/weblog/entry/41863?utm_campaign=newsletter_1403&#038;utm_medium=web&#038;utm_source=newsletter">Join the worldwide open community to honor Bassel</a></strong> this Saturday, March 15. If you&#8217;re in the Bay Area, <strong><a href="/weblog/entry/42267?utm_campaign=newsletter_1403&#038;utm_medium=web&#038;utm_source=newsletter">join us at the Wikimedia offices in San Francisco</a></strong>.</p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td style="border:1px solid gray" valign="top" width="50%">
<p about="http://www.openeducationweek.org/" style="text-align:center">
					<small><a href="/weblog/entry/42314?utm_campaign=newsletter_1403&#038;utm_medium=web&#038;utm_source=newsletter"><img alt="Don't Look At The Sign!" height="160" src="media/8068f72b.201403-closed.jpg" data-original-source="http://creativecommons.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/201403-closed.jpg" width="250" /></a><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/28552335@N00/2242879626/" rel="cc:attributionURL"><span property="dc:title">Don&#8217;t Look At The Sign!</span></a><br /><span property="cc:attributionName">smlp.co.uk</span> / <a href="/licenses/by/2.0/" rel="license">CC BY</a></small></p>
<p>
Learn how a proposed US law would <strong><a href="/weblog/entry/42314?utm_campaign=newsletter_1403&#038;utm_medium=web&#038;utm_source=newsletter">weaken public access to federally funded research</a></strong>.</p>
</td>
<td style="border:1px solid gray" valign="top" width="50%">
<p about="/weblog/entry/39184?utm_campaign=newsletter_1403&#038;utm_medium=web&#038;utm_source=newsletter" style="text-align:center" xmlns:cc="/ns#" xmlns:dc="http://purl.org/dc/terms/">
					<small><a href="/weblog/entry/42278?utm_campaign=newsletter_1403&#038;utm_medium=web&#038;utm_source=newsletter"><img alt="Photo by Kristina Alexanderson" height="160" src="media/4a1bfc70.201403-photos.jpg" data-original-source="http://creativecommons.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/201403-photos.jpg" width="250" /></a><br /><a href="http://flickr.com/photos/kalexanderson/5367782072/"><span property="cc:attributionName">Kristina Alexanderson</span></a><br /><a href="/licenses/by-nc-sa/2.0/" rel="license">CC BY-NC-SA</a></small></p>
<p>
Is Getty Images&#8217; new photo embed service <strong><a href="/weblog/entry/42278?utm_campaign=newsletter_1403&#038;utm_medium=web&#038;utm_source=newsletter">a step in the right direction?</a></strong></p>
</td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
<ul>
<li>Join us in San Francisco for a <strong><a href="/weblog/entry/42332?utm_campaign=newsletter_1403&#038;utm_medium=web&#038;utm_source=newsletter">discussion on free culture and social justice</a></strong>.</li>
<p></p>
<li>The CC Europe team has been following the proposed changes to EU copyright law. <strong><a href="/weblog/entry/42256?utm_campaign=newsletter_1403&#038;utm_medium=web&#038;utm_source=newsletter">Read their analysis and recommendations</a></strong>.</li>
<p></p>
<li>&#8220;People should support Creative Commons if they care about what they&#8217;re doing, and they want to get their work to as many people as possible; if they care about collaborating with people all over the world together and coming up with something beautiful.&#8221; <strong><a href="http://teamopen.cc/khalid/?utm_campaign=newsletter_1403&#038;utm_medium=web&#038;utm_source=newsletter">Khalid Albaih is on Team Open</a></strong>.</li>
</ul>


feed_id: http://creativecommons.org/?p=42361
title: Free Bassel Day
uri: Free-Bassel-Day
url: http://creativecommons.org/weblog/entry/42361
content:
<p style="text-align:center" xmlns:dc="http://purl.org/dc/terms/" xmlns:cc="http://creativecommons.org/ns#" about="http://www.flickr.com/photos/kl/8558783531/"><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/kl/8558783531/"><img src="media/fcded454.8558783531_32a65e7f3d.jpg" data-original-source="http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8379/8558783531_32a65e7f3d.jpg" alt="#FREEBASSEL" width="500" height="375" border=0 /><br /><small><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/kl/8558783531/"><span property="dc:title">#FREEBASSEL</span></a> / <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/kl/"><span property="cc:attributionName">Kennisland</span></a> / <a rel="license" href="/licenses/by-sa/2.0/">CC BY-SA</a></small></a></p>
<p>As of today, CC Syria community leader <a href="http://freebassel.org/">Bassel Khartabil</a> has been in prison for two years. Today, we join the worldwide open community in honoring Bassel and insisting that he be freed.</p>
<p>Amnesty International and Front Line Defenders have produced this <a href="http://free-syrian-voices.org/bassel-khartabil/">excellent video about why Bassel&#8217;s story is important to our community</a>, featuring interviews with CC co-founder Lawrence Lessig and the Electronic Frontier Foundation&#8217;s <a href="https://twitter.com/jilliancyork">Jillian York</a>.</p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><iframe align="center" width="560" height="315" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/iCryvkgBUfo" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe></p>
<blockquote><p>&#8220;Bassel could have gotten out, but he chose to stay. And that decision was very costly for him, and it was an important decision for us. It symbolized his commitment to making this democracy possible, and to continuing the work to spread that message. And we owe him for that, and we have an obligation to do as much as we can to keep the world aware of this incredible person.&#8221; &#8211; Lawrence Lessig</p></blockquote>
<p>In honor of <a href="http://freebassel.org/">Free Bassel Day</a>, our friend <a href="http://www.thebigconversationspace.org/">Niki Korth</a> has compiled a cookbook in honor of Bassel, featuring recipes submitted by people who know Bassel or are involved with the #freebassel campaign. You can <a href="http://aerbook.com/books/The_FreeBassel_Cookbook-4614-110793.html">read the cookbook online</a> or <a href="media/8fbe3ecf.freebassel_cookbook.pdf" data-original-source="http://creativecommons.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/freebassel_cookbook.pdf">download a PDF</a> (469 KB).</p>
<p>Niki is planning to release a Version 2 of the cookbook, so it&#8217;s <a href="https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1J4bRAL2zyR4UP_AE-7nNmX0Bk3Qaf6LuAzb6kVu7AOs/viewform">not too late to submit a recipe</a>.</p>
<p>We honor Bassel today and look forward to the day he is freed.</p>


feed_id: http://creativecommons.org/?p=42373
title: Professor spends sabbatical building “50 Wise Speakers” open videos
uri: Professor-spends-sabbatical-building-50-Wise-Speakers-open-vide
url: http://creativecommons.org/weblog/entry/42373
content:
<p><iframe width="560" height="315" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/sG9sOEQRaLQ" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe></p>
<p>I recently interviewed Dr. Phil Venditti, professor of communication studies at Clover Park Technical College in Washington State (USA). Phil teaches public speaking and other oral and written communication courses. In 2010 Phil learned about the <a href="http://opencourselibrary.org/" title="Open Course Library">Open Course Library</a> project and became an enthusiastic adherent. Phil developed two courses in the Open Course Library, wrote a textbook which he licensed <a href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/">CC BY</a>, and has since saved his students roughly $60,000 by using open educational resources (OER).</p>
<p>The Open Course Library was Phil’s first exposure to OER, but it wasn&#8217;t his last. He testified to the State Legislature in favor of a bill which would have mandated that all educational materials created by state postsecondary education employees be openly licensed. As President of <a href="http://factc.org/wp/">FACTC</a> &#8212; the Washington Faculty Association of Community and Technical Colleges, Phil has promoted adoption of OER by college faculty members throughout his state. FACTC passed a resolution in 2012 endorsing the ideal of OER on economic, educational, and moral grounds.</p>
<p>Phil recently went on sabbatical and decided to interview 50 prominent speakers to gather tips on effective public speaking for his students &#8212; and for the world because all of Phil&#8217;s work and videos are openly licensed under <a href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY 4.0 license</a>. Nearly 30 hours of his videos can be browsed at Phil&#8217;s <a href="https://www.youtube.com/playlist?feature=edit_ok&#038;list=PLs9z28IVBuVgVNSsFwyvDu_0nRtzS4Tmp">YouTube channel</a>. Speakers included in the project are 29-time Emmy winner and &#8220;Almost Live&#8221; alum Bill Stainton, Tacoma News Tribune Executive Editor Karen Peterson, former NFL quarterback Jon Kitna, Tacoma Mayor Marilyn Strickland, and wildlife artist and conservationist Becci Crowe. To complete the project, 40 of Phil’s public speaking students and a team of editors from Clover Park’s Media Design and Production program spent more than 700 hours reviewing and editing the interviews. When it is launched online in May of this year, the project will offer a database of free, CC BY-licensed materials at <a href="http://cptc.edu/fifty-wise">cptc.edu/fifty-wise</a> on subjects ranging from how to conquer stage fright to how to organize a presentation. </p>
<p>On March 20, the &#8220;50 Wise Speakers&#8221; project will be presented in a red-carpet gala at Clover Park Technical College.</p>
<p>Phil says OER has changed the way he thinks about teaching and learning. </p>
<blockquote><p>&#8220;I believe that the essence of education should be sharing. Every day I ask myself, ‘How can I help connect more people to more information that might change their lives?&#8217;&#8221;</p></blockquote>
<p>Following Phil&#8217;s lead, what will you share today?</p>


feed_id: http://creativecommons.org/?p=42393
title: Affiliate Project Grant Update: Latin America
uri: Affiliate-Project-Grant-Update-Latin-America
url: http://creativecommons.org/weblog/entry/42393
content:
<p>This is the final installment in our five week blog post series on the Affiliate Team project grants. You&#8217;ve heard about projects in <a href="http://creativecommons.org/weblog/entry/42167">Africa</a>, <a href="http://creativecommons.org/weblog/entry/42208">Arab World</a>, <a href="http://creativecommons.org/weblog/entry/42249">Asia-Pacific</a>, and <a href="http://creativecommons.org/weblog/entry/42311">Europe</a>. Today, you&#8217;ll hear about projects from our Latin America region, including: a report on the evolution of the academic journals’ presence and dissemination in Chile, a School of Open course for librarians on copyright led by Colombia, El Salvador, and Uruguay, and a free music festival and open source website from Guatemala and Uruguay.</p>
<hr />
<p align="center"><img src="media/8a5e259b.LatinAmerica1.jpg" data-original-source="https://creativecommons.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/02/LatinAmerica1.jpg" /></p>
<p><br class="spacer_" /></p>
<p align="center"><span style="font-size: medium;"><strong><a href="http://wiki.creativecommons.org/Chile" title="CC Chile">Chile</a>: Promotion of Open Knowledge in the Chilean Academia: Ways to Facilitate Adoption of Creative Commons in the Academic World </strong></span><br />
<em>by project lead Francisco Vera</em></p>
<p>In Derechos Digitales, we have been working almost 10 years on copyright and access to knowledge issues, by doing public advocacy on copyright reform and working with Creative Commons licenses to enable all kind of creators to share their works in the digital environment, through the use of these tools.<br />
One of our stronger research lines has to do with scientific and scholarly work, how this knowledge is being disseminated, and how we can improve that process to make this information accessible to everybody interested.<br />
Following that path, since 2008 we have been researching academic journals production and their publishing terms, along with creating legal guides to academics to get a sense of how to use CC licenses and make them able to share their work. That allowed us to publish a couple books with our findings and internal policy recommendations.<br />
Thanks to the CC grant we were awarded, we have been able to resume that work, updating our figures from the 2008 research and taking one step further, conducting field research on the academic community about the way they publish and manage that content, and if they are aware of the CC and Open Access movements.<br />
At this point, we have interviewed scholars from the major Chilean universities in different fields on exact and social sciences to be aware of their perceptions and needs regarding open access. In parallel, we are researching academic publications to determine how the situation has evolved from 2008 to this day, in terms of journal continuity but also in terms of how these deal with publishing formats and licensing terms.<br />
We hope, by April this year, to have a step forward on our diagnosis of the academic dissemination environment, and with more insights of the academic world, a report that speaks on the evolution of the journals’ presence and dissemination. We also hope to have performed a couple workshops with government officers and academic community, in order to boost open access and open licensing initiatives.</p>
<p><br class="spacer_" /></p>
<p align="center"><span style="font-size: medium;"><strong><a href="http://wiki.creativecommons.org/Colombia" title="CC Colombia">Colombia</a>, El Salvador, Uruguay: ABC of Copyright for Librarians<br />
#schoolofopen</strong></span><br />
<em>by project lead Maritza Sanchez</em></p>
<p>A CC grant made possible that since August 2013, three Creative Commons chapters -Colombia, El Salvador and Uruguay- are working to adapt an online course for librarians about copyright and with an eye on the Open world.<br />
The project aims to develop the necessary open educational resources (OER) for an online course, self-taught and in Spanish, that will be available through the <a href="https://p2pu.org/en/schools/school-of-open/" title="School of Open">School of Open</a>, and eventually in the OER projects of the chapters developing the course (i.e. <a href="http://www.internetactiva.net/Inicio" title="Internet Activa">Internet Activa</a> and <a href="http://www.articaonline.com/cursos/" title="Artica">Artica</a>).<br />
Why Basic Copyright Concepts for Librarians? It is not a secret that many librarians and libraries in Latin America work with little or no knowledge about the copyright frame. We want to offer this target group and other related professionals (e.g. academic researchers, teachers, OER developers, librarian students, archivists, museum workers, all those interested on heritage conservation, etc.) the basic knowledge for their work.<br />
We believe that this knowledge is much needed right now and will also be useful to promote CC licenses among librarians in the region.<br />
The material in this course will be open as a self-guided course that can be tapped on demand &#8212; individually, at a user-preferred time and date. Moreover, the course can be harnessed as a group, from a collective or specific institution, to be facilitated according to the possibilities and conditions of a given community.<br />
We are currently finalizing the legal and pedagogical review process of the last module of the course that we have titled, “<em>ABC Copyright</em>.” The legal review ensures the strengthening of self-learning potential of all students, while the pedagogical review is valuable to contextualize accurately and clearly each module to Latin American culture. We are also working on building a communication strategy which will be essential once the course is published at the School of Open for the dissemination to the audience of this open educational material. We have already developed the graphic concept, which we share as a preview in this post! We are at the stage of creating new graphic elements that will complement some of the most complex issues and will make their assimilation much easier.<br />
We are working with love and energy so that very soon all those curious and interested can learn, share and supplement the online course, <em>ABC Copyright for Librarians in Latin America</em>!</p>
<p><br class="spacer_" /></p>
<p align="center"><span style="font-size: medium;"><strong><a href="http://wiki.creativecommons.org/Guatemala" title="CC Guatemala">Guatemala</a>, Uruguay: Promoting Free Music in Central and South America</strong></span><br />
<em>by Meryl Mohan (project lead: Renata Avila)</em></p>
<p>This project, a collaboration between CC Guatemala and Uruguay, was drafted following the suggestions of six bands who are starting to use open licenses in Guatemala. It represents a unique opportunity to reconnect and expand the open license network in the Latin American music community, consisting of an open call for free music followed by a week dedicated to festivals and concerts in multiple jurisdictions. Each country will have at least ten bands participating, and is combined with training for musicians, producers, artists, and copyright experts to explain artists’ rights, how copyright law affects music, and the power of sharing. The activities will be posted on an open source website filled with the LP of Latin American free music, photos and videos of the workshop, a free music declaration, and showcase of successful cases in Latin America and all the activities of the free music week. Since it’s open source, anyone can use it to recreate the same project in their region or country.</p>


feed_id: http://creativecommons.org/?p=42397
title: First CC0 official translation in Dutch
uri: First-CC0-official-translation-in-Dutch
url: https://creativecommons.org/weblog/entry/42397
content:
<p>The first official translation of CC0, into Dutch, is <a href="http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/legalcode.nl" title="CC0 1.0 Dutch">now published</a>! Congratulations to <a href="http://creativecommons.nl/" title="CC Netherlands">CC Netherlands</a> and <a href="http://www.creativecommons.be/" title="CC Belgium">CC Belgium</a>, who collaborated on the work.</p>
<p><a href="media/ef771487.dutchcc0.png" data-original-source="http://creativecommons.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/dutchcc0.png"><img src="media/ef771487.dutchcc0.png" data-original-source="http://creativecommons.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/dutchcc0.png" alt="dutchcc0" width="687" height="194" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-42398" /></a></p>
<p>This is not just the first CC0 translation—it is the first official translation of any international CC legal tool. Under CC&#8217;s new <a href="http://wiki.creativecommons.org/Legal_Code_Translation_Policy" title="Legal Code Translation Policy">legal code translation policy</a>, translation teams work closely with CC Legal to create official linguistic translations of the original English text. These translations are equivalent to the original English: when you create or reuse a CC0 work, you may now refer to either English or Dutch. (You can read more about official translations in our <a href="http://wiki.creativecommons.org/FAQ#What_are_the_official_translations_of_the_CC_licenses.3F" title="official translation FAQ">new FAQ entry</a>.)</p>
<p>We are excited to mark this event. CC0 and the 4.0 licenses are designed to be as fully international as possible, and to support that goal, they should be available in languages everyone reads. (Ported versions of 3.0 and earlier have generally been published in the official language(s) of the appropriate jurisdiction, but the ported licenses are not equivalent to the international licenses and may not be substituted as references.) Working with our affiliate teams to produce official translations is a detailed, painstaking endeavor, involving a lot of correspondence on precise word choices, and the first teams have been tremendously helpful to us as we developed the process. There are several teams currently working on more translations of CC0 and the 4.0 licenses, so look for more announcements in the coming months.</p>
<p><a href="http://wiki.creativecommons.org/CC0" title="CC0">CC0</a> was launched in 2009, and is designed to allow creators to dedicate their work to the public domain by waiving all their copyright and neighboring and related rights in a work, to the fullest extent permitted by law. If the waiver isn’t effective for any reason, then CC0 acts as a license granting the public an unconditional, irrevocable, non-exclusive, royalty-free license to use the work for any purpose. CC0 has been <a href="http://wiki.creativecommons.org/CC0_use_for_data" title="CC0 use">adopted widely</a> by institutions, governments, and individuals for data and other material that can be freely reused without restriction. </p>
<p>All language versions of CC0 now indicate that official translations are available. </p>


feed_id: http://creativecommons.org/?p=42415
title: CC talks with Marc Weidenbaum
uri: CC-talks-with-Marc-Weidenbaum
url: https://creativecommons.org/weblog/entry/42415
content:
<p><em><strong>This guest blog post was written by Niki Korth. If you&#8217;re in the Bay Area, <a href="http://disquiet.com/2014/01/14/aphex-twin-33-13-march-20-city-lights/">come see Marc read from his new book at City Lights Thursday night</a> and come hear Niki speak at <a href="/weblog/entry/42332">next week&#8217;s CC Salon</a>.</strong></em></p>
<div style="float:right; padding:10px"><img width="300" height="300" src="media/f8e353ac.marcweidenbaum-300.jpg" data-original-source="https://creativecommons.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/marcweidenbaum-300.jpg" alt="Marc Weidenbaum" />
<p><small>Marc Weidenbaum / Jorge Colombo</small></p>
</div>
<p><em>In 1996, Marc Weidenbaum founded the website <a href="http://disquiet.com/">Disquiet.com</a>, which focuses on the intersection of sound, art, and technology. He has written for Nature, the website of The Atlantic, Boing Boing, Down Beat, and numerous other publications. He initiated and moderates the Disquiet Junto group, where musicians respond on SoundCloud to weekly Oulipo-style restrictive compositional projects. He developed the sound design with Taylor Deupree for the 2013 documentary</em> The Children Next Door<em>. Since 2012, he has taught a course he developed on the role of sound in the media landscape at the Academy of Art in San Francisco. He cites Creative Commons as a major inspiration to his work and methodology, and <a href="/weblog/entry/41850">recently paid homage to cherished CC advocate</a> Bassel Khartabil through a Disquiet Junto prompt themed around one of his projects that remains unfinished due to his ongoing imprisonment in Syria. His new book, </em>Selected Ambient Works Volume II<em>, in Bloomsbury&#8217;s </em>33 ⅓<em> series, takes as its subject the 1994 Aphex Twin album by that name, and much of it is concerned with the album&#8217;s &#8220;cultural afterlife,&#8221; how our understanding of the music has been informed by its adoption by filmmakers, musicians, choreographers, and others. In the following interview, Marc discusses his projects, influences, and his perspective on the role of CC in the music community.</em></p>
<p><strong>Where does the name Junto come from? And how is it pronounced?</strong></p>
<p>Around the year 1727, when he was barely into his 20s, Benjamin Franklin had the desire to create a small society. He was an enthusiastic society-creator throughout his life. It can be informative to think of the United States of America as just one of the many clubs that Franklin created or helped create, along with militias, schools, fire departments, and so forth. &#8220;Junto&#8221; was the name he gave to one of his earliest such groups. I believe he imagined it to be a masculine version of &#8220;junta.&#8221; As for how it&#8217;s pronounced, this is at best a guess, but I think it&#8217;s pronounced like the Spanish &#8220;junta&#8221; — which in English we tend to think of primarily as a &#8220;military junta&#8221; — except with an &#8220;o&#8221; at the end, as in the English-language word &#8220;flow.&#8221; Add in whatever constituted a Boston accent at the time. Franklin&#8217;s dad was born in England and his mom, I believe, was born in the colonies.</p>
<p>Franklin described his Junto as a club of &#8220;mutual improvement,&#8221; and it involved regular meetings of men — exclusively men, such were the times — from various walks of life who would meet to discuss politics, philosophy, and business. It was a knowledge-sharing union — part book club, part meatspace chat room, and probably to some extent part fraternity.</p>
<p>I first came across the Junto when I was consumed by a biography of Franklin written by Walter Isaacson, having earlier read and enjoyed his biography of Albert Einstein. I was reading the Franklin book in the months that lead up to the creation of the Disquiet Junto, toward the end of 2011, and in many ways I don&#8217;t think that I would have ever started this group if I hadn&#8217;t been reading that book at that time. I was always a fan of Benjamin Franklin. I grew up on Long Island in New York, so Philadelphia and Boston and the whole revolutionary period were very close at hand, very prominent in regional memory. My hometown, Huntington, has numerous of these little plaques on the exterior walls of old buildings saying that so and so slept here or so and so died here back in the day. I turned 10 in the summer of 1976. I was an opportune age to have the Bicentennial play a huge role in my imagination.</p>
<p><strong>When you say that the Disquiet Junto project wouldn&#8217;t have come into being if you hadn&#8217;t read that book, are you saying that the act of naming sort of brought the project into fruition?</strong></p>
<p>Yeah, I think that registers. It&#8217;s more than naming, though — it&#8217;s the whole broad idea of getting people together as a creative process unto itself, and the benefits of mutual activity, of sharing knowledge and experience. All of which said, when I started the Disquiet Junto, all I was doing was experimenting: putting out a call for participation. I had no idea if anyone would join in the project, let alone whether there would be a second project the next week or the next month. I just employed the word &#8220;Junto&#8221; when I proposed the first project. I was using SoundCloud as the infrastructure, and on SoundCloud the simplest way to do this is to create what it calls a &#8220;group.&#8221; To make a group, you need to give the group a name. So, in the name slot I put &#8220;Disquiet Junto.&#8221;</p>
<p>Anyhow, having a vague historical precedent in mind meant adopting a history, looking to precedents, like the Junto of Benjamin Franklin, and more recently to the artistic movements known as Fluxus and Oulipo. In making creative work, I think it is important to think about who your &#8220;parents&#8221; are — that&#8217;s parents in the metaphoric sense — and you sort of adopt them, creating your &#8220;inheritance&#8221; of traits, rather than the other way around — you recognize them after the fact. This isn&#8217;t about laying claim to legacy; it&#8217;s about acknowledging influence, precedent, culture. And I think that&#8217;s one of the key aspects of the idea of the Creative Commons as a community, when you think about it in the long term. It&#8217;s the idea that open licenses develop an &#8220;ecosystem&#8221; that enables you to create a collaboration and a lineage not only forward, where others are free to later do the same toward you, but backward, retroactively. I&#8217;m hesitant to say the word &#8220;ecosystem&#8221; because when it&#8217;s used these days it can easily be replaced with &#8220;shopping mall&#8221; — the Apple ecosystem, the Android ecosystem — but it&#8217;s the best word for what I&#8217;m trying to get at.</p>
<p><strong>If Junto and Oulipo and Fluxus are the adopted histories, what is the more immediate history that led up to Disquiet Junto?</strong></p>
<p>Something important for me happened in 2006. I&#8217;d been running my Disquiet.com website for a decade at that point. And that year, Brian Eno and David Byrne were celebrating the 25th anniversary of their album <em>My Life in the Bush of Ghosts</em>, one of my favorite records, and they did a very simple thing that was informed by Creative Commons. They posted online the stems, the core constituent parts, of two songs off this record, and they said to the world: you can remix these, for free.</p>
<p>And at the time, I was not unfamiliar with this concept, but I was relatively unfamiliar with the idea of someone that prominent doing this so comfortably. I was a very big fan of remixes. Remixes form a huge part of the way that I understand music. I remember when I was attending college, in the mid-1980s, buying an extended version of a song that I liked, by an Australian band called INXS, and I remember being astonished by how listening to the remix could kind of make you completely rethink the way that you relate to the original, and that moment was really important, realizing that altering something does not detract from the original, but can enrich your understanding of it. Part of the reason that particular remix registered with me was because it sounded the way the music sounded in my memory — the parts I liked, the parts my memory would often play on repeat when I wasn&#8217;t actually listening to the original version of the song. </p>
<p>So, anyhow, back in 2006 I checked out the Eno-Byrne website for their <em>Bush of Ghosts</em> remix project and listened to the music that was created using their stems, and although I was inspired by the idea of this thing, I just couldn&#8217;t stand listening to it. The resulting works were just really uninteresting to me, mostly bland house and routine techno tweaks of the source material. I was disappointed — it was crazy that some of the best music that I&#8217;d ever heard was being turned into something so lackluster. So my first thought was — my immediate thought was — why isn&#8217;t so-and-so doing this, what would it sound like if person X did a remix based on this material. I wished that people whose music I admired would contribute to this Eno-Byrne thing. And so I sent out emails to some of these musicians to see if they would participate, and I don&#8217;t think anyone said no, if memory serves. This led to the compilation <a href="http://disquiet.com/2009/03/03/enobyrne-re-mix-our-lives-in-the-bush-of-disquiet/"><em>Our Lives in the Bush of Disquiet</em></a> featuring Roddy Schrock, Stephane Leonard, John Kannenberg, Mark Rushton, and (DJ) Morsanek, among others — a dozen acts in total. I initially posted the compilation at archive.org and, later, at the Free Music Archive. Between downloads and streams, it&#8217;s nearing on 80,000.</p>
<p>That project led to a series of such projects, each of which followed a similar approach. I would come up with an idea, send out the description, and collect pieces by the invited musicians. <a href="http://disquiet.com/2010/05/03/despite-the-downturn/"><em>Despite the Downturn</em></a> took issue with a peculiar article about filesharing by Megan McCardle. <a href="http://www.tabletmag.com/jewish-arts-and-culture/music/51259/anander-mol-anander-veig"><em>Anander Mol, Anander Veig</em></a> was a holiday remix album commissioned by Tabletmag.com. <a href="http://disquiet.com/2010/12/20/lowlands-a-sigh-collective/"><em>Lowlands: A Sigh Collective</em></a> was a response to criticism of artist Susan Philipsz winning the Turner prize in 2010. And then <a href="http://disquiet.com/2012/02/14/lxrmx-lisbon-remixed/"><em>LX(RMX): Lisbon Remixed</em></a> involved the sounds of the city reconstructed by eight musicians — including Steve Roden and Stephen Vitiello — as inspired by a photo exhibit by Jorge Colombo, best known as the artist who does &#8220;the iPhone covers&#8221; for the New Yorker, though he is much much more than that. And all these projects of mine were posted for free download, with a Creative Commons license.</p>
<p>My next project after those was significantly more open-ended. I got 25 musicians to make pieces of ambient music based on each other&#8217;s Instagram photos: essentially they were asked to imagine that the assigned image was the cover of their next single, and to then go and record that single. It&#8217;s titled <a href="http://disquiet.com/2011/12/28/instagrambient-25-sonic-postcards/"><em>Instagr/am/bient</em></a>. That came out at the very end of 2011, five years after the <em>Bush of Disquiet</em> project, and between Free Music Archive, SoundCloud, and the Internet Archive, Instagr/am/bient is nearing 120,000 streams and downloads.</p>
<p>This project was as essential an experience for me as was the Eno-Byrne <em>Bush of Ghosts</em> remix opportunity. Several things made Instagr/am/bient different, key among them that it was more of an open call than my earlier, invite-only projects, and because the compositional prompt was also less deterministic. My experience of it was also different — I came to be interested in how a group of 25 musicians doing something had a lot more energy, a lot more online communication, than a group of 8 to 12 musicians had in the past. Instagr/am/bient was a self-contained Creative Commons community — they each made music based on each other&#8217;s photos. I wondered, then, what would happen if I opened the floodgates wider still — and that thinking in turn led me to try out what became the Disquiet Junto approach.</p>
<p><strong>Could you say more about this collaborative aspect of <em>Instagr/am/bient</em> and how it led to your conceptualization of the Disquiet Junto?</strong></p>
<p>The important aspect of the <em>Instagr/am/bient</em> project was the fact that the musicians were supporting each other, and the relationship wasn&#8217;t just between the musicians and the audience, but amongst the musicians themselves. Each participant was creating the &#8220;prompt&#8221; — the Instagram photo — that served as the inspiration for another&#8217;s composition, as well as taking one of the prompts for their own composition. So the process created an &#8220;ecosystem&#8221; — there&#8217;s that word again — where the musicians themselves created the energy source — forgive the somewhat hippie tone to that phrase — for the project.</p>
<p>In turn, by sharing the &#8220;final&#8221; product with a Creative Commons license, those who are listening in on the conversation are allowed to actually join the conversation, and potentially expand it into a new conversation. So listening becomes a context for production. As one example, an Instagr/am/bient track by the OO-ray, aka Ted Laderas, who is based in Portland, Oregon, titled &#8220;<a href="http://freemusicarchive.org/music/the_oo-ray/instagrambient_25_sonic_postcards/18-theoo-ray-silhouettes">Silhouettes</a>,&#8221; based on a photo by Naoyuki Sasanami, who is based in Tokyo, Japan, has been used subsequently in dozens, I think, of videos by various people.</p>
<p>This experience of <em>Instagr/am/bient</em> was a big part of making me think: Wow, what if that unexpected result was the goal? What if I decreased the importance of the listener-as-consumer, what if the listener is secondary, and the interaction of the musician-participants is primary, but we as listeners can still enjoy the end result, and listen in to the &#8220;conversation,&#8221; to observe the interaction between the musicians. To be clear, this isn&#8217;t to put aside the role of the listener-consumer — just to delay it a step, and to first extend the musician interaction.</p>
<p><strong>How does this idea of diminishing the role of &#8220;the listener&#8221; inform live performance?</strong></p>
<div style="float:right; padding:10px" xmlns:dc="http://purl.org/dc/terms/" xmlns:cc="/ns#" about="http://www.flickr.com/photos/46183897@N00/7822795164/"><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/46183897@N00/7822795164/"><img width="300" height="300" src="media/919bd9c2.mw-300.jpg" data-original-source="https://creativecommons.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/mw-300.jpg" alt="Disquiet explains the evening" /></a>
<p><small><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/46183897@N00/7822795164/"><span property="dc:title">Disquiet explains the evening</span></a> / <span property="cc:attributionName">Robert Nunnally</span> / <a rel="license" href="/licenses/by/2.0/">CC BY</a></small></p>
</div>
<p>We&#8217;ve done four Disquiet Junto concerts so far. They&#8217;ve happened in New York, Chicago, Denver, and San Francisco. The thing I explain before each of them is: We&#8217;re all here in the audience to watch and listen to a concert. But what we&#8217;re really here to do is to watch the musicians interact with each other. At each concert, everyone performed original work based on the same compositional prompt. This sort of changes the concept of &#8220;listening&#8221; — it&#8217;s like, don&#8217;t just watch the people playing and absorb it, but watch them interact, watch how they pass the proverbial baton to each other, watch how they in the audience themselves react to the performances.  So it&#8217;s sort of like having the online version of the Disquiet Junto collaboration happen in person.</p>
<p><strong>So, is it a live composition among the group of participants? Are they making new compositions, or playing preconceived works from the original prompts?</strong></p>
<p>So far, these live Disquiet Junto concerts have all involved around five to seven solo performances per concert, though some of the participants bring in collaborators. Each concert has a prompt from the Junto as their subject. If memory serves then so far they&#8217;ve all used the same prompt, which is the first prompt from the Disquiet Junto project series: record the sound of ice in a glass, and make something of it.</p>
<p>We&#8217;ll be doing something similar alongside the launch events that are happening for a book I have just had published by Bloomsbury. This book is about Aphex Twin&#8217;s 1994 album <em>Selected Ambient Works Volume II</em>. My book is part of the 33 ⅓ series. Its U.S. released date is mid-February 2014, and in England it&#8217;s April. For each of the bookstore readings I&#8217;m doing about the book, I&#8217;m trying to arrange for there to be musicians present who will be playing something that was inspired by the Aphex Twin album, and that&#8217;s filtered through a prompt from a previous Junto project. In this case it&#8217;s wind-chime based piece, informed by a track on the Aphex Twin album that is often referred to as &#8220;White Blur I.&#8221;</p>
<p>I should mention that the Creative Commons was a significant influence on my <em>Selected Ambient Works Volume II</em> book. Much of the book is concerned with what I term the album&#8217;s &#8220;cultural afterlife&#8221;: that which happened to the music after it was released. I explore how the album&#8217;s tracks, which are all but one lacking titles, were given names by listeners. I interview a composer who transcribed the tracks for traditional chamber music ensemble, and two directors who used the music in their films, and a choreographer and sound designer from two different contemporary dance ensembles who used the music in performances. I talk about unofficial, unlicensed remixes, as well as official, sanctioned licensing of the music. My sense that our understanding of the album has been informed by these subsequent uses takes a cue from the old Brian Eno and Peter Schmidt koan from their Oblique Strategies set: Repetition is a form of change. The music itself hasn&#8217;t changed in 20 years, but its repeated use and reuse has changed our understanding of the music.</p>
<p><strong>It sounds like a lot of your projects involve you acting as a facilitator, or framework builder, of collaborations. Is it difficult for you to imagine doing this without access to a large network of musicians, as you have? In other words, do you have any advice for people who may be interested in trying to do something similar, but don&#8217;t have access to as wide of a network?</strong></p>
<p>Well just to begin with, it&#8217;s totally cool that you used the word &#8220;network,&#8221; but that&#8217;s a word that I tend not to use. There&#8217;s something a little possessive inherent in the term that doesn&#8217;t feel collaborative to me. It&#8217;s kind of OK as a noun, but as a verb it really is not a word I&#8217;m going to use.</p>
<p><strong>Because it&#8217;s only one person&#8217;s network?</strong></p>
<p>It can imply that one person&#8217;s network is exclusive from another&#8217;s. It can put the person whose network it is in contrast with the network itself. It&#8217;s a person&#8217;s network, rather than a network in which the person is a participant. This is why the word &#8220;community,&#8221; for all its overuse, is preferable. The word &#8220;community&#8221; isn&#8217;t sufficient, but it&#8217;s better than &#8220;network.&#8221; The word &#8220;network&#8221; tends to emphasize size, rather than being about connections, and better yet the interconnections. When I hear &#8220;network&#8221; I see &#8220;Rolodex.&#8221;</p>
<p><strong>What about &#8220;internet&#8221;? As a word or concept, not the internet itself? Since what we understand as the Internet is a network of networks, that would seem to emphasize the connections and overcome the possessive character of the term.</strong></p>
<p>I&#8217;m not sure I&#8217;m ready to use it that way, but I do like this idea of using the word &#8220;internet&#8221; to describe something that is not &#8220;the internet.&#8221; This discussion reminds me of a recent interview with Kim Stanley Robinson, the science fiction writer, where he says something similar about the word &#8220;sustainable.&#8221; He takes issue with it for various reasons, key among them that it allows people to continue their capitalist and consumerist ways without reflecting on the role those ways play in the issue in the first place. He tries out a different word, &#8220;permaculture.&#8221; Rather than &#8220;it&#8217;s sustainable so I&#8217;ll buy it,&#8221; this other word emphasizes that it is permanent, so it&#8217;s more like &#8220;it exists, and I&#8217;m going to continue to use it.&#8221; So, I feel like &#8220;network&#8221; is like &#8220;sustainable,&#8221; and I&#8217;m trying to find a &#8220;permaculture&#8221; alternative to it. Perhaps &#8220;community.&#8221; Perhaps &#8220;internet&#8221; could work. Doesn&#8217;t feel quite right at the moment, but it&#8217;s an interesting nudge in the right direction. Come to think of it, pretty much the only time I think I actively employ the term &#8220;network&#8221; is in terms of “network”  — or “networked,” more often — communication and creativity, which aligns with your &#8220;internet&#8221; idea.</p>
<p>Anyhow, with that &#8220;network&#8221; stuff out of the way, let&#8217;s get to your question. So, for people who don&#8217;t have a wide address book of potential collaborators but want to try building something like Disquiet Junto, I would say: Just work with the people you know. Look, I didn&#8217;t think that I had this &#8220;network,&#8221; either. Sure, I had gotten to know musicians, mostly tangentially, over the years, and I knew that a sizable percentage of the audience of my Disquiet.com website self-identified as musicians, in contrast with &#8220;listeners who don&#8217;t make music.&#8221; But when I posted the first Disquiet Junto project, I felt like I&#8217;d bought a keg of beer for a party that no one might even show up for. </p>
<p>If you&#8217;re creative and you have a group of like-minded people who inspire you, then that&#8217;s your group. It doesn&#8217;t take much. It&#8217;s not about an end result. It&#8217;s about an ongoing, refreshing, rewarding sense of engagement. Just work with the people you like working with, and it&#8217;ll build from there. This isn&#8217;t about scale. It isn&#8217;t about: Well, we have this many hundred participants, but how do we get to a thousand? You don&#8217;t make a garden in your backyard and start worrying about increasing your tomato haul or the density of flowers. You just tend to it, and watch it grow, shaping it as it goes, as time passes, as the seasons change, as you learn from experience. </p>
<p>Man, first &#8220;energy source&#8221; and now &#8220;online community as a garden.&#8221; I sure can come across like a digital hippie. Please let people know that&#8217;s not how I come off in person.</p>
<p><strong>So how did you first become interested in Creative Commons? How did you first hear about it?</strong></p>
<p>I have no idea. I mean, I have no specific memory. I imagine that it was an article in Wired — because back then, that was the main channel through which things like that were communicated. Or maybe, since I was into the Internet Archive so early, it could have been through there that I saw a license, and then I followed that through.</p>
<p>Since 2012, I&#8217;ve taught a class at the Academy of Art on the role of sound in the media landscape. I talk in the class about an early open source text, The Cathedral and the Bazaar by Eric S. Raymond. And I talk about the ideas discussed there – about the decentralized, at times frenzied and random organization of a bazaar and how it contrasts with the perfection-oriented, often exclusive and severely hierarchical mindset of the cathedral as an organization.</p>
<p>And even though this book was released in 1999, which is already 15 years ago, and Creative Commons was founded just 2 years later, many students are not aware that these alternatives to closed-source, super-hierarchal production methods exist. That said, they&#8217;ve come up in the culture, so it isn&#8217;t alien to them. It can be exciting for them to think about these alternatives – that by sharing and enabling more eyeballs, or eardrums, to encounter your work, you can get better feedback that helps you to develop it, and very often giving people the license to remix your work can help you to see and hear it in ways you never imagined before. More important that that, the model of the Creative Commons maps in ways to human interaction that the more traditional marketplace model does not.</p>
<p><strong>Have you had any non-computer or non-music based experiences that have also contributed to your sharing-driven creative outlook?</strong></p>
<p>One specific experience comes to mind: I took a two-week trip by myself to Scotland when I was in my mid-20s, and I was amazed by the &#8220;Right of Way&#8221; laws in the United Kingdom that permit free travel on certain routes between public places, even when those routes involve passage through an area of private property. This was completely mind-blowing to me at the time, since I came from the United States where &#8220;private property&#8221; is synonymous with &#8220;restricted&#8221; and &#8220;off limits&#8221; and often involves someone who&#8217;s more likely to shoot than to call a lawyer.</p>
<p>When I was in Scotland I walked along these Right of Ways, completely fascinated by the opportunity, the concept, and the experience. And there is a connection between this idea, and these memories, and what I&#8217;ve done since that point in my life. There&#8217;s something in that walking through the shared geography of Scotland that relates to how I think about culture. In the early 1990s, my head was deep in what some people tried to call &#8220;avant-pop,&#8221; especially writers like Jonathan Lethem and David Shields, who were doing inquisitive meta-works that involved pre-existing texts and drew from influences in an acquisitive manner, and to me this relates to the idea of property being left open for creative use. It&#8217;s like a creative stroll. </p>
<p>I also think about how artistic awards shape culture. I&#8217;m not a big fan of things like the Oscars. Think about contemporary Hollywood films. Their composition and construction is often motivated by the pursuit of the Oscar, and the Oscars in turn dictate that movies have to operate following certain types of roles, with main stars, supporting roles, and so on. Imagine if the system was changed, and there were an Oscar for the best ensemble drama. The very next year there would be movies that de-emphasize a main role in favor of a collection of roles. This isn&#8217;t just about the Oscars. There are reward structures throughout culture that define the way that people and works participate, how they&#8217;re conceived. The law plays a role. The law codifies the way that music is handled and that defines how cultural objects are shaped. I&#8217;m not saying get rid of the law. I&#8217;m saying look at the unintended ramifications of the law.</p>
<p><strong>What was your motivation behind doing the <a href="http://disquiet.com/2014/01/23/disquiet0108-freebassel/">Disquiet Bassel</a> project?</strong></p>
<p>Just about every Disquiet Junto project originates not as a project but as me thinking about things and trying to shape my thoughts into the form of a compositional prompt. I don&#8217;t set out to make a project involving the tone of rooms. I become fascinated, for example, by the idea of room tone and then I try to figure out how to explore that fascination by asking people to make music related to the idea. I try to turn my interest into a compositional prompt as a means of exploring it further.</p>
<p>So, what happened with the Bassel situation is that I was taken by several factors, in particular the passion of people whom I admire, such as Barry Threw. I knew about the <a href="http://freebassel.org/">Free Bassel</a> activity, and had talked with him about it, but a video I saw of him speaking really hit me. I read a lot of Kafka at way too young and impressionable an age, so the idea of prison is a powerful one for me, especially wrongful imprisonment.</p>
<p>Although I&#8217;ve never met Bassel Khartabil, I read about his activity in the open-source community and about his work promoting Creative Commons and the role of open source in a part of the world that has a very different take on freedom of expression, and I was really moved by it all. And I was aware that, with the second anniversary of his arrest coming up, the timing was useful to get people&#8217;s attention.</p>
<p><strong>Could you say more about the idea of risk-taking, and the process of facilitating collaborations and open submissions that can be very unpredictable?</strong></p>
<p>It was several months into the Disquiet Junto when I realized that part of what made it function was that people who participated felt comfortable failing. Initially the idea of the four-day window for participation in each project was to give people a solid deadline. But an unintended result was people felt comfortable posting work because listeners would understand that the work wasn&#8217;t necessarily finished. It gave them an &#8220;out.&#8221; A community of people making music under the same restrictions can be, in its own way, freeing.</p>
<p>I think we had like 40-60 participants the first week that I did Junto. At the time I didn&#8217;t even know if there would be a second one. At the time it felt like hubris that there was a four-digit number for the project — &#8220;0001&#8243; — which is certainly a naming structure that I borrowed from the Long Now Foundation. You know, how they have a zero before the year to make you think in terms of 10,000 years, not 1,000 years? For example, right now it is 02014, not 2014. Who knows if we&#8217;ll actually get to one thousand? Who cares? I like this idea of a numbering system that forces you to think about the future, whether or not you get there.</p>
<p><strong>What areas of the future are you forcing yourself to think about?</strong></p>
<div style="float:left; padding:10px" xmlns:dc="http://purl.org/dc/terms/" xmlns:cc="/ns#" about="http://www.flickr.com/photos/ethanhein/8224877169/"><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/ethanhein/8224877169/"><img width="300" height="300" src="media/24aa9571.disquietconcert-300.jpg" data-original-source="https://creativecommons.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/disquietconcert-300.jpg" alt="Disquiet Junto concert at apexart" /></a>
<p><small><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/ethanhein/8224877169/"><span property="dc:title">Disquiet Junto concert at apexart</span></a> / <span property="cc:attributionName">Ethan Hein</span> / <a rel="license" href="/licenses/by/2.0/">CC BY</a></small></p>
</div>
<p>I&#8217;ve been really interested in the idea of what a record label is, and in many ways I think that the best record labels are like communities. Think of the acts that were on Motown, the acts that were on Blue Note — they were more like subsets of a broader, loosely structured community that the audience was able to get a taste of through the release of the music. Musicians and songwriters would move between albums, between groups. A backup singer or instrumentalist would later be a headlining musician, and the audience was along for the ride. Whereas record labels now are more like marketing firms that find the act and then obtain the rights, so it&#8217;s more like licensing products. Sure, there are collaborations. Elektra, ECM, Ghostly, and Warp are great examples of record labels where artists still intermingle in interesting ways. </p>
<p>I am really interested in: What should a record label be like today? How has the Internet changed things. If you were to reverse-engineer a record label, then I feel like the Junto is closer to what a record label might try to be than an actual record label is today. I think it&#8217;s always important to ask, when you import something to the digital world, when you port a pre-digital system to a digital system: How does it change, and what pre-Internet assumptions have come along as baggage?</p>
<p>And in saying that, it&#8217;s important to clarify that when I talk about Creative Commons licenses, I&#8217;m essentially always thinking of it in terms of a particular license, which is the one that gives the ability to remix, the one that allows for &#8220;derivative&#8221; works. And I&#8217;m troubled by the fact that a lot of Creative Commons use does not actually employ that. For example, I&#8217;ve written a lot about the netlabel community. There are about 600 netlabels at this point that actively release music by musicians with the permission for that music to be downloadable for free. And that&#8217;s an incredible world of music. But an oddly small percentage of those netlabels employs the license that allows for creative reuse, which I find disappointing. So I&#8217;m always pushing for people to think beyond the non-commercial download, and to think about the creative re-use. I&#8217;m also wrestling with the word &#8220;derivative.&#8221; It seems to have a negative cast to it. There may be a better word, a word that makes the benefits more self-evident.</p>
<p><strong>What interests you about creative re-use? Why do you think it is important, for yourself as well as others, and how did your view of it impact the prompt you created for the #FreeBassel Disquiet Junto?</strong></p>
<p>I don&#8217;t take much stock in fixed cultural objects as ends unto themselves. For example, I don&#8217;t really have favorite movies or books — I love Citizen Kane, Dawn of the Dead, and Playtime, but I especially love them in the context of their creators&#8217; other work. I have favorite authors, favorite directors, favorite actors, and I enjoy work in that context. When I read a Don DeLillo novel, or a Mira Grant novel, or a Richard Stark novel, or a Michael Brodsky novel, or a Joanna Scott novel, or one among many types of things — novels, comics, essays, tweets, Instagram captions — by Warren Ellis, I enjoy it in the context of their broader work. Same for musicians and architects, even journalists and politicians. And that&#8217;s just speaking of the individuals&#8217; own &#8220;careers,&#8221; for lack of a more nuanced term.</p>
<p>An original piece of work is also part of a broader community, part of various ongoing continuities — it&#8217;s about the type of work that it is, how it fits into the broader scope of that work. You don&#8217;t just write a sonnet from scratch. It is always informed by and reflects back on previous sonnets. You always draw material and references, often subconsciously. </p>
<p>So, I started thinking about the work that Bassel hasn&#8217;t finished due to his ongoing imprisonment, such as his Palmyra project, which involves mapping an ancient architectural site using computer graphics. And I thought: this is something that we can help to keep alive, while he&#8217;s not around. And not only can we keep his projects going, but we can do so in new and unexpected ways. We aren&#8217;t taking his CGI architectural endeavor and completing it. We are, in the course of the Junto project, creating sound and music to accompany his work. This is something he might not have even considered. There&#8217;s something, also, metaphoric about how adding sound to his CGI work brings that work to live. This idea of keeping something alive, of keeping his ideas alive, is part of the reason the idea struck me as worth pursuing.</p>
<p><strong>What did you think of the resulting works? In reading through the comments people wrote about the story behind each of their compositions, I was really interested in how many people researched the history of Syrian music and integrated some of these sounds/ideas into their works. This adds a lot of depth and also brings it away from being political, approaching it more from an angle of cultural history.</strong></p>
<p>I&#8217;m always anxious when I do anything related to social or political issues in the context of a work like the Disquiet Junto. I generally steer away from it. It&#8217;s amazing how a turn of phrase can turn something from a collaborative project into a heated side conversation, so I am always trying to create a situation that is warm and inviting. In this case, that meant something that came from a place of mutual concern and caring about this person, about Bassel, about creative work that has been cut off. For the Junto members, I think the idea of the unfinished artistic project was what they related to in particular. I didn&#8217;t want people to be put off by it in the sense of thinking their compositions needed to address the political situation, necessarily. It was important to me that the Bassel project wasn&#8217;t &#8220;special,&#8221; that it was just another project in an ongoing string of projects. It could only work if we treated it as business-as-usual. Part of business-as-usual is asking people to, when posting their tracks, describe their creative process. That&#8217;s where a lot of the communication between the participants occurs — that and them commenting on each other&#8217;s tracks. And this isn&#8217;t to say all my projects are pacifist, but the ones with a strong unified opinion, like Despite the Downturn and Lowlands: A Sigh Collective, are focused on art as their primary subject.</p>
<p><strong>You make reference to Oulipo as an influence behind Disquiet Junto. Could you say more about this? What relation do you see between Oulipo and creative reuse, especially in the digital age?</strong></p>
<p>The most concise way to get into that is to compare it with another popular form of creative reuse: fan fiction. Fan fiction often works within the universe created by and defined by the source material, whereas Oulipo tends to walk up to the edges of that universe and say, &#8220;Oh, there&#8217;s a wall here, so let&#8217;s break through it or paint on it&#8221; or something like that. The difference isn&#8217;t a binary one. Lots of fan fiction actively flips the source material, changing gender, setting, plotlines. Oulipo is a little less of a collective, communal effort, and often works with material that isn&#8217;t as hallowed as the subjects of fan fiction, but the parallel is clear. I think Oulipo — along with Fluxus — exists as a keen pre-digital premonition of the collective consciousness that seems at work within, that seems alive within, communal creative activity.</p>


feed_id: http://creativecommons.org/?p=40760
title: Creative Commons’ Foundation Engagement Project
uri: Creative-Commons-Foundation-Engagement-Project
url: http://creativecommons.org/weblog/entry/40760
content:
<p>Creative Commons received a grant from the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation to survey the licensing policies of private foundations, and to work toward increasing the free availability of foundation-supported works.  We are still pursuing this objective, but here’s where we are at the moment.</p>
<p>Tax-exempt private foundations are non-profit institutions exclusively devoted to benefitting the public, by grant-making or direct activities designed to achieve charitable, scientific, educational or similar purposes.  Because there is a limit to the funds available to even the largest private foundations, most try to use their resources in a way that will have the greatest impact on the problems they hope to solve.  Thus, they make grants to organizations that have shown themselves to be particularly effective in achieving their social goals.</p>
<p>One avenue to greater impact that has not been followed as often as it could be is requiring, or at least encouraging, grantees to make any grant-funded works freely available for broad uses by others, so that those works can not only be distributed for education and research, but readily improved and built upon to create new works in a potentially unlimited trajectory.  Even assuring public access just to read the works is important.  To take one example, foundations often fund research that is relevant to the welfare of the world’s poorest people – who often live in countries where their own researchers can’t afford to subscribe to the journals in which the work is published.  Making articles on advances in medicine available through the internet can speed the transfer of knowledge to places where it is urgently needed – often by years.  Licenses that give people the right to download, print and distribute those articles, and to translate or otherwise adapt them to local needs, multiply the already-great value of simple access.</p>
<p>Increasingly, government agencies and intergovernmental organizations are adopting open policies for copyrightable works and data they create or commission.  For example, all grants under the U.S. Department of Labor’s Trade Adjustment Assistance Community College and Career Training Program require that copyrightable materials produced be licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution license, so that those materials may be freely used by all, eliminating the need for costly replication of effort as community colleges put together courses to train workers for new jobs.  Foundations have typically made the same requirement for works produced under grants to develop open educational resources, but only a few have extended the requirement to grants for other purposes.</p>
<p>We believe that in almost all cases, the copyrightable works produced with grant funding, as well as works concerning the problems the foundation seeks to address that are created by expert staff or commissioned by the foundation from external experts, will have more impact on those problems if they are published under an open license.  In speaking with foundations, we have learned that most of them agree with this in principle – and it’s on their list; but limited time and unlimited demands mean that the issue usually doesn’t get to the top of the list.</p>
<p>There are, of course, grants a part of whose purpose is to provide the grantee with a source of income; in some (but not all) such cases, the income can only be realized by selling copies of the grant-funded work rather than by providing ancillary services.  Obviously, it would not be rational to insist on the work’s being openly published in those few cases.  We believe that it is appropriate and desirable for a foundation to adopt principles that cover the large majority of its grants, not to invite requests for exceptions, but to be prepared to relax its policy when it furthers the grant purpose to do so.</p>
<p>We have accordingly drafted a <a href="https://docs.google.com/a/creativecommons.org/document/d/1FbwRphBYehYeAzNYit0gbgeGjQQq1ptVUH8Z0xkkF6Y/edit">model intellectual property licensing policy for foundations</a>, covering their own works as well as grant-funded works.  The draft has been vetted by a dozen or more foundations, and has changed significantly as a result of their input.  The current version includes a set of alternative provisions to fit some of the variations some of the foundations have told us they would prefer.  It remains a draft in the sense that any foundation should feel free to edit it to suit its own needs, and we have accordingly dedicated the current version to the public domain so that not even attribution is required.  Of course, we’d love to hear from any organization that adopts it in any form, and comments will always be welcome.</p>
<p>Check out the <a href="http://wiki.creativecommons.org/Foundation_IP_Policy">wiki page</a> where we have several pieces of information, including:</p>
<ul>
<li><a href="http://wiki.creativecommons.org/Foundation_IP_Policy#Existing_Foundation_IP_Policies">a chart of existing foundation IP policies</a> </li>
<li><a href="http://wiki.creativecommons.org/Foundation_IP_Policy#Model_IP_policy_for_foundations">the model IP policy</a> </li>
<li><a href="http://wiki.creativecommons.org/Foundation_IP_Policy#Resources">additional resources</a> </li>
</ul>


feed_id: http://creativecommons.org/?p=42446
title: CC BY 4.0 required on U.S. Department of Labor $150M grant
uri: CC-BY-4-0-required-on-U-S-Department-of-Labor-150M-grant
url: https://creativecommons.org/weblog/entry/42446
content:
<div style="float:right; padding:10px"><a href="media/21c7f958.480px-US-DeptOfLabor-Seal.svg_.png" data-original-source="http://creativecommons.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/480px-US-DeptOfLabor-Seal.svg_.png"><img src="media/21c7f958.480px-US-DeptOfLabor-Seal.svg_.png" data-original-source="http://creativecommons.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/480px-US-DeptOfLabor-Seal.svg_.png" alt="US Department of Labor Logo" width="200" height="200" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-42468" /></a></div>
<p>Creative Commons actively works to support <a href="http://creativecommons.org/weblog/entry/40760">foundations</a>, <a href="https://creativecommons.org/weblog/entry/36081">governments</a>, <a href="https://creativecommons.org/weblog/entry/41265">IGOs</a> and other <a href="https://creativecommons.org/weblog/entry/39457">funders</a> who create, adopt and implement open <a href="http://wiki.creativecommons.org/OER_Policy_Registry">policies</a>. We <a href="https://creativecommons.org/weblog/entry/39707"> believe</a> publicly funded resources should be openly licensed resources.</p>
<p>To support these and other emerging open policy efforts, CC is about to launch, with multiple global open organizations, an <a href="https://creativecommons.org/weblog/entry/41633">Open Policy Network and Institute for Open Leadership</a>.</p>
<p>The U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) has led the way in using open policy requirements in solicitations for grant requirements first with its Career Pathways Innovation Fund Grants Program (<a href="media/fd06aae6.SGA-DFA-PY-10-06.pdf" data-original-source="http://www.doleta.gov/grants/pdf/SGA-DFA-PY-10-06.pdf">http://www.doleta.gov/grants/pdf/SGA-DFA-PY-10-06.pdf</a>), then with its Trade Adjustment Assistance and Community College Career Training grant program (<a href="http://doleta.gov/taaccct/">doleta.gov/taaccct</a>). Now they are once again requiring the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license on all content created with the grant funds and modifications made to pre-existing, grantee-owned content using grant funds in their Ready to Work Partnership grant program. Bravo!</p>
<blockquote><p>The U.S. Department of Labor has announced the availability of approximately $150 million in funds for the H-1B Ready to Work Partnership grant program. DOL expects to fund approximately 20-30 grants with individual grant amounts ranging from $3 million to $10 million. This grant program is designed to provide long-term unemployed workers with individualized counseling, training and supportive and specialized services leading to rapid employment in occupations and industries for which employers use H-1B visas to hire foreign workers. <a href="media/82b2a198.SGA_DFA_PY_13_07.pdf" data-original-source="http://www.doleta.gov/grants/pdf/SGA_DFA_PY_13_07.pdf">http://www.doleta.gov/grants/pdf/SGA_DFA_PY_13_07.pdf</a></p></blockquote>
<p>Here is the open policy text in the grant solicitation:<br />
<em>
<ul>
<li>To ensure that the Federal investment of these funds has as broad an impact as possible and to encourage innovation in the development of new learning materials, as a condition of the receipt of a Ready to Work grant, the grantee will be required to license to the public all work (except for computer software source code, discussed below) created with the support of the grant under a <a href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">Creative Commons Attribution 4.0</a> (CC BY) license. Work that must be licensed under the CC BY includes both new content created with the grant funds and modifications made to pre-existing, grantee-owned content using grant funds.</li>
<p></p>
<li>This license allows subsequent users to copy, distribute, transmit and adapt the copyrighted Work and requires such users to attribute the Work in the manner specified by the grantee. Notice of the license shall be affixed to the Work. For general information on CC BY, please visit <a href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0">http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0</a>. Instructions for marking your work with CC BY can be found at <a href="http://wiki.creativecommons.org/Marking_your_work_with_a_CC_license">http://wiki.creativecommons.org/Marking_your_work_with_a_CC_license</a>. </li>
<p></p>
<li>Questions about CC BY as it applies to specific Ready to Work grant applications should be submitted to DOL to the Grants Management Specialist specified in Section VII.</li>
<p></p>
<li>Only work that is developed by the grantee with the grant funds is required to be licensed under the CC BY license. Pre-existing copyrighted materials licensed to, or purchased by the grantee from third parties, including modifications of such materials, remain subject to the intellectual property rights the grantee receives under the terms of the particular license or purchase. In addition, works created by the grantee without grant funds do not fall under the CC BY license requirement.</li>
<p></p>
<li>The purpose of the CC BY licensing requirement is to ensure that materials developed with funds provided by these grants result in Work that can be freely reused and improved by others. When purchasing or licensing consumable or reusable materials, grantees are expected to respect all applicable Federal laws and regulations, including those pertaining to the copyright and accessibility provisions of the Federal Rehabilitation Act.</li>
<p></p>
<li>Further, the Department requires that all computer software source code developed or created with Ready to Work grant funds will be released under an intellectual property license that allows others to use and build upon them. Specifically, the grantee will release all new source code developed or created with grant funds under an open license acceptable to either the Free Software Foundation and/or the Open Source Initiative.</li>
<p></p>
<li>Separate from the CC BY license to the public, the Federal Government reserves a paid-up, nonexclusive and irrevocable license to reproduce, publish, or otherwise use, and to authorize others to use for Federal purposes: the copyright in all products developed under the grant, including a purchases ownership under an award (including, but not limited to, curricula, training models, technical assistance products, and any related materials).</li>
<p>
</ul>
<p></em></p>
<p><strong>Well done U.S. Department of Labor for once again demonstrating how to properly implement an open policy.</strong></p>
<p><em>The <a href="media/97d18f0c.FileUS-DeptOfLabor-Seal.svg" data-original-source="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:US-DeptOfLabor-Seal.svg">U.S. Department of Labor seal</a> is in the public domain.</em></p>


feed_id: http://creativecommons.org/?p=42518
title: Project Gooseberry: Full-length CC BY animated film
uri: Project-Gooseberry-Full-length-CC-BY-animated-film
url: http://creativecommons.org/weblog/entry/42518
content:
<p>Here at CC, we&#8217;re big fans of the <a href="http://www.blender.org/">Blender Foundation</a>, which supports the open-source Blender 3D animation suite and produces beautiful animated films. The films are built entirely with open technologies and are licensed under <a href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a>. <a href="http://www.bigbuckbunny.org/"><em>Big Buck Bunny</em></a>, one of the early Blender films, raised a lot of awareness about Creative Commons licenses among animators and helped fuel the <a href="/weblog/entry/36917">Creative Commons film movement</a>.</p>
<p>Today, Blender is crowdfunding its most ambitious project yet, <a href="http://gooseberry.blender.org/wp-content/themes/gooseberry/">a full-length animated film codenamed Project Gooseberry</a>. The enigmatic trailer definitely sparked my curiosity:</p>
<p><iframe width="560" height="315" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/XfezG5M2ICg" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe></p>
<p><a href="http://www.blender.org/press/project-gooseberry-why-it-matters/">In this blog post</a>, Blender Foundation chair Ton Roosendaal lays out his ambitious goal for Gooseberry and projects like it:</p>
<blockquote><p>There&#8217;s a real growing unrest out there about how a few greedy people control this business &#8211;  making their billions &#8211; while others lose jobs in the same week their company has won an Oscar. Yep, Mark Z. buys another toy for billions, which he makes by selling our digital lives. And we nerds just line up for yet another Marvel super hero movie again. Meanwhile the powers that be prepare for a separated internet – with fast and &#8220;free&#8221; commercial channels – and a slow, expensive one for the remains of the open internet we love.</p></blockquote>
<blockquote><p>I&#8217;m not fit for politics, nor do I feel much like protesting or mud slinging. I&#8217;m a maker – I&#8217;m interested in finding solutions together and doing experiments with taking back control over our digital lives, our media, and especially get back ownership as creative people again – and make a decent living with it.</p></blockquote>
<p>The crowdfunding campaign ends this week. <a href="http://gooseberry.blender.org/wp-content/themes/gooseberry/">Check it out!</a></p>


feed_id: http://creativecommons.org/?p=42527
title: Report from India: Relicensing books under CC
uri: Report-from-India-Relicensing-books-under-CC
url: http://creativecommons.org/weblog/entry/42527
content:
<p style="text-align:center" xmlns:dc="http://purl.org/dc/terms/" xmlns:cc="/ns#" about="//commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Release_of_DVD_containing_Odia_font,_open_source_tools_and_Offline_Odia_Wikipedia.jpg"><a href="media/6a6ef708.ining_Odia_font_open_source_tools_and_Offline_Odia_Wikipedia.jpg" data-original-source="http://creativecommons.org//commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Release_of_DVD_containing_Odia_font,_open_source_tools_and_Offline_Odia_Wikipedia.jpg"><img src="media/a0f5be1b.odia-launch.jpg" data-original-source="http://creativecommons.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/04/odia-launch.jpg" alt="Jellyfish Madness" width="500" height="331" border=0 /><br /><small><a href="media/6a6ef708.ining_Odia_font_open_source_tools_and_Offline_Odia_Wikipedia.jpg" data-original-source="http://creativecommons.org//commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Release_of_DVD_containing_Odia_font,_open_source_tools_and_Offline_Odia_Wikipedia.jpg"><span property="dc:title">Release of DVD containing Odia font, open source tools and Offline Odia Wikipedia</span></a><br /><a href="http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/User:Ahemadullahsk"><span property="cc:attributionName">Ahemadullah Shaikh</span></a> / <a rel="license" href="/licenses/by-sa/3.0/">CC BY-SA</a></small></a></p>
<p><em>This guest blog post was written by Subhashish Panigrahi of <a href="http://cis-india.org/">The Center for Internet and Society</a>, a <a href="//wiki.creativecommons.org/India">Creative Commons affiliate in India</a>.</p>
<p>My name is <a href="http://www.linkedin.com/in/psubhashish">Subhashish Panigrahi</a>. I am an educator currently working in the community and communication front at <a href="http://cis-india.org/">The Centre for Internet and Society</a>&#8217;s <a href="https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/India_Access_To_Knowledge">Access To Knowledge program</a> (CIS-A2K), an India-based catalyst program to grow Indic language communities for Wikipedia and its sister projects. Prior to my work at CIS, I worked for the <a href="http://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/Home">Wikimedia Foundation</a>&#8217;s India Program, a predecessor to the current CIS-A2K project.</p>
<p>While building ties with higher education and research organizations, I also try to get educational and encyclopedic resources licensed under Creative Commons licenses so that communities can use them to enrich Wikimedia projects. Currently, there is a low level of content available across all the Indic languages and the need for Unicode-based content is extremely crucial.</p>
<div style="float:left; padding:10px" xmlns:dc="http://purl.org/dc/terms/" xmlns:cc="/ns#" about="//www.flickr.com/photos/rudiriet/3920920016/"><a href="//www.flickr.com/photos/rudiriet/3920920016/"><img width="320" height="240" src="media/296a0623.3920920016_db88925005_n.jpg" data-original-source="http://farm4.staticflickr.com/3530/3920920016_db88925005_n.jpg" alt="Free books" /></a>
<p><small><a href="//www.flickr.com/photos/rudiriet/3920920016/"><span property="dc:title">Free books</span></a> / <a href="//www.flickr.com/photos/rudiriet/"><span property="cc:attributionName">Rudi Riet</span></a> / <a rel="license" href="/licenses/by-sa/2.0/">CC BY-SA</a></small></p>
</div>
<p>While negotiating with authors for relicensing their books in Creative Commons license, I started identifying certain motivation areas for any author for such free content donation. Some of the authors, publishers, and copyright holders have started learning about open access to scholarly publications. However, the readers who are likely to buy a hard copy of a book are likely to buy it even when a free, virtual version is available &#8211; that&#8217;s the idea authors who are skeptical about CC licenses need to understand.</p>
<p>Open source book publishing in India has gained much interest and focus, primarily because of the lack of foresight of the possibilities that are tied to the release of books. It was <a href="http://prathambooks.org/">Pratham Books</a> that first came up with the brilliant idea of &#8220;One book book in every child&#8217;s hand.&#8221; <a href="/weblog/entry/35538">The subsequent release of multilingual books under free licenses</a> was the beginning of a new era in Indian publication.</p>
<p>Book publishers should also think of the target readers of print and web media. Releasing content in free licenses doesn&#8217;t affect the mainstream print publications. When it comes to books, there is always a scope for reprinting and making money. After negotiations with two authors and getting 13 books about children&#8217;s literature, travelogues, popular science, and linguistic and historical research, I am sure the publishing community has not been educated in the right way about providing free access to content.</p>
<p>It generally takes a long time and effort to negotiate with the copyright holders to get the books out with a CC-BY-SA tag. But it is a permanent and a significant value addition for the open knowledge movement. I believe with more online readers and reviewers getting complete access to books, authors gain more respect in the society and popularity which in turn helps them to sell more of the reprints. Two prime fears are keeping many publishers away from releasing their books online for free: the fear of going out of business and the fear of losing ownership of content. But at the same time, some of the publishers are becoming aware of the mass media outreach and winning hearts of many readers by releasing content for free without copyright restrictions.</p>
<h3>Case studies:</h3>
<div style="float:right; padding:10px" xmlns:dc="http://purl.org/dc/terms/" xmlns:cc="/ns#" about="//commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Konkani_Vishwakosh_Digitization_Project_08.JPG"><a href="media/ab94fdd9.FileKonkani_Vishwakosh_Digitization_Project_08.JPG" data-original-source="http://creativecommons.org//commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Konkani_Vishwakosh_Digitization_Project_08.JPG"><img width="300" height="225" src="media/b42acf51.Konkani_Vishwakosh_Digitization.jpg" data-original-source="http://creativecommons.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/04/Konkani_Vishwakosh_Digitization.jpg" alt="Konkani Vishwakosh Digitization Project" /></a>
<p><small><a href="media/ab94fdd9.FileKonkani_Vishwakosh_Digitization_Project_08.JPG" data-original-source="http://creativecommons.org//commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Konkani_Vishwakosh_Digitization_Project_08.JPG"><span property="dc:title">Konkani Vishwakosh Digitization Project</span></a><br /><a href="//commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/User:Nitika.t"><span property="cc:attributionName">Nikita.t</span></a> / <a rel="license" href="/licenses/by-sa/3.0/">CC BY-SA</a></small></p>
</div>
<h4>1. <a href="https://blog.wikimedia.org/2013/11/26/konkani-vishkawosh-free-license/">Release of a four-volume encyclopedia in Konkani</a></h4>
<p>In 2013, Goa University released Konkani Vishwakosh, a Konkani-language encyclopedia in  <a href="/licenses/by-sa/3.0/">CC-BY-SA 3.0</a> license that they had published. This is the largest encyclopedia compiled in the language. The book is being digitized on Konkani WikiSource and content from it is being used to enrich the Konkani version of Wikipedia. <a href="https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/India_Access_To_Knowledge/Events/Konkani_Vishwakosh_Digitization">The project additionally brought about 20 active contributors for digitization</a>.</p>
<h4>2. Release of 11 Odia language books</h4>
<p>11 books from Odia author and academic Dr. Jagannath Mohanty were re-released under the <a href="/licenses/by-sa/3.0/">CC BY-SA 3.0 license</a> by the &#8220;Manik-Biswanath Smrutinyasa,&#8221; a trust founded by Dr. Mohanty for literary discussions and upbringing new writers. His wife and trust&#8217;s current chairman Allhadmohini Mohanty formally gave <a href="media/07afc3a7.FileRelicensing_of_books_by_Jagannath_Mohanty_in_CC_license.jpg" data-original-source="http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Relicensing_of_books_by_Jagannath_Mohanty_in_CC_license.jpg">written permission</a> to release and digitize these books. The Odia Wikimedia community is planning to involve undergraduate students of an indigenous educational institution, Kalinga Institute of Social Sciences, to digitize these books. The trust is also reaching out to publishers who published more than 150 of the author&#8217;s books to give permission for re-releasing them under a CC license.</p>
<h4>3. <a href="https://blog.wikimedia.org/2014/04/08/odisha-dibasa-2014-14-books-released-under-cc-license/">Relicensing &#8220;Classical Odia&#8221; under a free license</a></h4>
<p>The book is heavy and expensive for any normal reader. Enormous copies were sold after Odia was declared as the sixth Indian classical language; however, this did not stop the authors Dr. Debiprasanna Pattanayak and Subrat Prusty from changing the license term from All Rights Reserved to <a href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/">CC-BY-SA 3.0</a>. 600-plus pages full of historical documents and manuscripts along with many undiscovered areas of Odia language&#8217;s literary heritage of more than 2500 years are now going to go on WikiSource and enrich Wikipedia articles apart from being great resource for language researchers.</p>
<h4>4. Relicensing books and conversion of ISCII to Unicode font</h4>
<p>Two Odia language books by linguist Subrat Prusty, &#8220;Jati, Jagruti O Pragati&#8221; and &#8220;Bhasa O Jatiyata,&#8221; have been relicensed. These are few of those thousand books in those the text are typed with fonts with ISCII standard and not Unicode. ISCII standard fonts have glyphs with Indic characters that are actually replacements of the Latin characters by Indic characters. So, a computer with one particular font not installed will display absurd characters. The publication and printing industries still use these fonts as the desktop publishing software package they use for typeset do not have Unicode engine to render the fonts properly. The conversion from these ISCII fonts to Unicode is a way that is going to be used for digitizaing these books to convert the entire book with searchable Unicode content.</p>
<p></em></p>


feed_id: http://creativecommons.org/?p=42560
title: ShareAlike compatibility process and criteria discussion opens
uri: ShareAlike-compatibility-process-and-criteria-discussion-opens
url: http://creativecommons.org/weblog/entry/42560
content:
<div style="float:right; padding:10px"><img width="200" src="media/c3f417a6.compatiblekit.jpg" data-original-source="http://creativecommons.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/04/compatiblekit.jpg" alt="compatibility adapters from the free universal construction kit" />
<p><small>Photo: <a href="https://secure.flickr.com/photos/golanlevin/6645026183/in/photostream/">Golan Levin</a>, <a href="https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/">CC-BY 2.0</a></small></p>
</div>
<p>We are now opening the discussion for our compatibility process and criteria for the ShareAlike licenses. As established in the drafting process, 4.0 <a href="http://wiki.creativecommons.org/4.0/Compatibility">includes a compatibility mechanism</a> that allows for other licenses to be compatible with the ShareAlike licenses, allowing for greater interoperability of freely-licensed content, but no other licenses have been approved as compatible yet. We are looking to the CC community to help us develop the criteria and process before formally evaluating licenses as candidates for ShareAlike compatibility, and to kick off this discussion, we now have a draft posted for feedback: <a href="http://wiki.creativecommons.org/ShareAlike_compatibility_process_and_criteria">ShareAlike compatibility process and criteria</a>.</p>
<p>We want this to be a process that the CC community trusts, and so this is a first draft, not a final document. We invite everyone to participate in the discussion on the <a href="http://lists.ibiblio.org/mailman/listinfo/cc-licenses">license development list</a>; it will end on May 28.</p>


feed_id: http://creativecommons.org/?p=42585
title: Lawrence Lessig to receive Lifetime Achievement Webby Award
uri: Lawrence-Lessig-to-receive-Lifetime-Achievement-Webby-Award
url: http://creativecommons.org/weblog/entry/42585
content:
<p style="text-align:center" xmlns:dc="http://purl.org/dc/terms/" xmlns:cc="http://creativecommons.org/ns#" about="https://www.flickr.com/photos/joi/2235721396/"><a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/joi/2235721396/"><img src="media/7a080822.2235721396_c6f761f416_z.jpg" data-original-source="http://farm3.staticflickr.com/2324/2235721396_c6f761f416_z.jpg" alt="Lawrence Lessig" width="640" height="431" border=0 /><br /><small><a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/joi/2235721396/"><span property="dc:title">Lawrence Lessig</span></a> / <a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/joi/"><span property="cc:attributionName">Joi Ito</span></a> / <a rel="license" href="/licenses/by/2.0/">CC BY</a></small></a></p>
<p>The Webby Awards just announced that <a href="http://webbyawards.com/winners/2014/">Lawrence Lessig will receive a Lifetime Achievement award</a> for his work as cofounder of Creative Commons. From the announcement:</p>
<blockquote><p>The Webby Awards is proud to honor Lawrence Lessig with a Lifetime Achievement Award in 2014 for his groundbreaking work as cofounder of Creative Commons. Creativity based on collaboration is absolutely fundamental to everything that makes the Web successful and wonderful &#8211; but none of that would be possible without the ability (and encouragement) to share, mix, and match creative works. Lessig has spent his life and career standing up for collaboration (and standing up to those who seek to inhibit creative cooperation), as well as defending Net Neutrality and the free and open software movement&#8230; in other words, all things essential to the Web&#8217;s awesomeness. As we celebrate the 25th Anniversary of the Web this year, there is no one more fitting to accept this year&#8217;s Lifetime Achievement Award than Lawrence Lessig &#8211; a true hero of the open, collaborative Web, and an all around fantastic human being.</p></blockquote>
<p>The awards will take place <a href="https://www.webbyawards.com/about/webbyfact.php">Monday, May 19, in New York City</a>, and available online the next day. Congratulations, Larry!</p>


feed_id: http://creativecommons.org/?p=42590
title: Welcoming new CC Arab world affiliate coordinators
uri: Welcoming-new-CC-Arab-world-affiliate-coordinators
url: http://creativecommons.org/weblog/entry/42590
content:
<div style="float:right; padding:10px"><img src="media/592f9ca9.naeemazarif.jpg" data-original-source="http://creativecommons.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/04/naeemazarif.jpg" alt="Naeema Zarif" width="123" height="200" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-42592"/>
<p><small>Naeema Zarif, <a href="https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY 4.0</a></small></p>
</div>
<p>In February we said <a href="https://creativecommons.org/weblog/entry/42052">goodbye to Donatella Della Ratta</a>, CC’s longtime coordinator for the Arab world. Today we’re pleased to announce that Naeema Zarif and Sami Ben Gharbia have joined Creative Commons as the regional coordinators for the region. Naeema and Sami join CC’s other <a href="http://wiki.creativecommons.org/Regional_Coordinators">regional team leaders</a>, who are key in organizing the Creative Commons <a href="http://wiki.creativecommons.org/CC_Affiliate_Network">Affiliate Network</a> around the world. </p>
<p>After 8 years in advertising, Naeema Zarif took a leap into social enterprise offering expertise on conceptualization and producing both offline and online integrated media initiatives, including print, social web, audio, and film. She is an enthusiastic supporter of open culture, speaking and lecturing frequently at conferences and educational institutes, and contributing visual and digital strategic consultancy and training to various governmental, not-for-profit, and for-profit initiatives around the MENA region.</p>
<div style="float:left; padding:10px" xmlns:dc="http://purl.org/dc/terms/" xmlns:cc="/ns#" about="//www.flickr.com/photos/globalvoices/7465675130/"><a href="//www.flickr.com/photos/globalvoices/7465675130/"><img width="150" height="200" src="media/237154ae.samibengharbiacroppedsmall1.jpg" data-original-source="http://creativecommons.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/05/samibengharbiacroppedsmall1.jpg" alt="Sami ben Gharbia" /></a>
<p><small><a href="//www.flickr.com/photos/rudiriet/3920920016/"><span property="dc:title">Sami ben Gharbia</span></a><br />by Laura Schneider<br />via <a href="//www.flickr.com/photos/globalvoices/"><span property="cc:attributionName">Global Voices</span></a><br /><a rel="license" href="/licenses/by-nc-sa/2.0/">CC BY-NC-SA</a></small></p>
</div>
<p>Sami is a Tunisian campaigner, blogger, writer, and freedom of expression advocate. He was a political refugee living in the Netherlands between 1998 and 2011. Sami is founding director of the advocacy arm of Global Voices, co-founder of the award-winning collective blog Nawaat, and author of the first Tunisian e-book (in French), Borj Erroumi XL. He co-founded The Arab Techies Collective and co-organized the The Arab Bloggers Conferences for several years. Foreign Policy named Sami a major world influence in promoting government transparency. Sami received a Prince Claus Award in 2012 for his cyber-activism work. Yahoo! named Sami Ben Gharbia as a person of the year during the 2010 World Press Freedom for his work focused on Internet censorship. Electronic Frontier Foundation awarded Sami and his fellow Nawaat co-founders with their 2011 Pioneer Award.</p>
<p>We <a href="https://creativecommons.org/weblog/entry/42208">recently highlighted</a> some of the ongoing affiliate project grants in the Arab world region, and we look forward to more great developments with Naeema and Sami on board. </p>


feed_id: http://creativecommons.org/?p=42643
title: White House supports CC0 for federal government datasets
uri: White-House-supports-CC0-for-federal-government-datasets
url: http://creativecommons.org/weblog/entry/42643
content:
<div style="float:right; padding:10px"> <a href="media/b2cad71f.us_open_data_action_plan.pdf" data-original-source="http://www.whitehouse.gov/sites/default/files/microsites/ostp/us_open_data_action_plan.pdf"><img src="media/17b4d9f9.us-open-data-action-plan.png" data-original-source="https://creativecommons.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/05/us-open-data-action-plan.png" alt="us open data action plan" width="200" height="258" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-42644" /></a></div>
<p>Today the White House released the <a href="http://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/2014/05/09/continued-progress-and-plans-open-government-data">U.S. Open Data Action Plan</a>, reaffirming their belief that “freely available data from the U.S. Government is an important national resource… [and] making information about government operations more readily available and useful is also core to the promise of a more efficient and transparent government.” The <a href="media/b2cad71f.us_open_data_action_plan.pdf" data-original-source="http://www.whitehouse.gov/sites/default/files/microsites/ostp/us_open_data_action_plan.pdf">report</a> (PDF) outlines the commitments to making government data more accessible and useful, and documents how U.S. federal agencies are sharing government information. From a legal standpoint, some agencies have decided to place their datasets into the worldwide <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Public_domain">public domain</a> using the <a href="https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/">CC0 Public Domain Dedication</a>. This means that all copyright and related rights to the data are waived, so it may be used by anyone&#8211;for any purpose&#8211;anywhere in the world&#8211;without having to ask permission in advance&#8211;and even without needing to give attribution to the author of the data. </p>
<p>Use of CC0 for U.S. government works has always been a challenging topic for federal agencies. This is due to the hybrid nature of copyright for government works under <a href="http://www.copyright.gov/title17/92chap1.html#105">Section 105</a> of U.S. copyright law. That statute guarantees that U.S. government works do not receive copyright protection&#8211;they are in the public domain. However, while these works are not granted copyright protection inside the U.S., the <a href="https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Page:H.R._Rep._No._94-1476_(1976)_Page_059.djvu">legislative history</a> of the law notes that the works may receive copyright protection outside of U.S. borders: </p>
<blockquote><p>The prohibition on copyright protection for United States Government works is not intended to have any effect on protection of these works abroad. Works of the governments of most other countries are copyrighted. There are no valid policy reasons for denying such protection to United States Government works in foreign countries, or for precluding the Government from making licenses for the use of its works abroad.
</p></blockquote>
<p>Historically, the U.S. government has been apprehensive to apply CC0 to federal government works, because the CC0 Public Domain Dedication is a tool to waive copyright and neighboring rights <em>globally</em>. At the same time, it’s clear that many high-value U.S. government datasets, such as the weather data produced by the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), are being widely (and freely) used by meteorological and research organizations around the world. It seems that in the vast majority of cases, the U.S. federal government doesn’t wish to leverage its copyrights abroad. So perhaps it makes sense to simply clarify that these works will be made available in the worldwide public domain using a standard tool such as CC0. While we had some <a href="https://creativecommons.org/weblog/entry/38316">initial questions</a> about acceptable licenses for federal government information, it seems that agencies are moving in the right direction in utilizing the public domain dedication, as opposed to the other copyright licensing tools that were laid out in <a href="https://project-open-data.github.io/license-examples/">Project Open Data</a>. </p>
<p>In addition to showcasing federal agencies that are using CC0 on some of the datasets it’s releasing, the U.S. Open Data Action Plan document itself is also published under CC0. </p>
<blockquote><p>As a work of the United States Government, this document is in the public domain within the United States. Additionally, the United States Government waives copyright and related rights in this work worldwide through the CC0 1.0 Universal Public Domain Dedication.
</p></blockquote>
<p>Over the last several years, many have called upon the federal government to adopt CC0 for U.S. government works. Most recently, a  group of advocates drafted <a href="http://theunitedstates.io/licensing/">recommendations</a> urging federal agencies to release federal government works, contractor-produced works, and primary legal materials into the into the worldwide public domain under CC0. Today’s announcement is a move in the right direction for data re-users in the United States and beyond.</p>


feed_id: http://creativecommons.org/?p=42693
title: Why I joined Creative Commons
uri: Why-I-joined-Creative-Commons
url: http://creativecommons.org/weblog/entry/42693
content:
<div style="float:left; padding:10px" xmlns:dc="http://purl.org/dc/terms/" xmlns:cc="/ns#" about="/weblog/entry/42693"><img width="300" height="450" src="media/cea5e92b.ryanmerkley2-300.jpg" data-original-source="http://creativecommons.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/05/ryanmerkley2-300.jpg" alt="Ryan Merkley" />
<p><small><span property="dc:title">Ryan Merkley</span> / <span property="cc:attributionName">Rannie Turingan</span> / <a rel="license" href="/publicdomain/zero/1.0/">CC0</a></small></p>
</div>
<p>I&#8217;m honored to be <a href="/weblog/entry/42684">chosen as CEO of Creative Commons</a>. CC is a giant of the open web, and it&#8217;s an organization that I have always believed in and truly admire. I appreciate the confidence shown by the board, and support I have already received from staff and community members has been fantastic.</p>
<p>My path to CC has been unorthodox, but feels logical in retrospect. My commitment to public service and the public good; my deep belief in the power of technology; and my work to support the open Web as a place for everyone to create, share, and connect. Those are common threads that run through my work at the City of Toronto, at Mozilla, and now with Creative Commons.</p>
<p>Why am I joining CC? Because its success is so vital, and I want to ensure we succeed. Creativity, knowledge, and innovation need a public commons&#160;&#8212; a collection of works that are free to use, re-use, and build upon&#160;&#8212; the shared resources of our society. The restrictions we place on copyright, like fair use and the public domain, are an acknowledgement that all creativity and knowledge owe something to what came before.</p>
<p>Without a robust and constantly growing collection of works available for use and reuse, we lose the kind of innovation and creative inspiration that gave us Disney classics, hip-hop, and the interoperable Web. The consequences of failing to grow and protect the public commons present themselves as lost opportunities: discoveries not made, innovations left undeveloped, and creativity unrealized. It&#8217;s complex and hard to quantify, but also dangerous to ignore.</p>
<p>A public commons is a driving force to advance human knowledge, and is essential infrastructure for the global economy.</p>
<p>In today&#8217;s legal environment, the commons is increasingly under threat. New works are restricted by copyright from the moment they are created until long after their creators are dead, and stricter copyright rules are almost always demanded by large rights-holders who benefited from the commons in the first place. It&#8217;s like running across a rope bridge only to cut it loose once you get to the other side. And today&#8217;s battles over copyright often ignore the fact that the Web has dramatically shifted the motivations for creators: it&#8217;s no longer only about money. Many do it just for the love of their craft, or just to be seen in the world, and still more are finding ways to share their work and get paid at the same time.</p>
<p>There needs to be a balance that allows business models to thrive, and allows shared work to proliferate.</p>
<p>In the modern copyright environment, each one of us has to make a conscious decision to share our work. It can be complicated, confusing, and expensive. But we need creators to be inspired to do it anyway. We need governments, nonprofits, and institutions to give the public permission to use their works. We need an organization that makes the case, creates solutions so that sharing is easy even when the legal frameworks make it difficult, and that champions the benefits&#160;&#8212; both to individual creators, and to society.</p>
<p>That&#8217;s where Creative Commons has to lead.</p>
<p>A lot has changed since the first Creative Commons licenses were released in 2002. While the organization has been by many measures incredibly successful&#160;&#8212; enabling hundreds of millions of works to become part of a public commons&#160;&#8212; it has also struggled to adapt to new technology and the massive expansion of content created online.</p>
<p>Half a billion licensed works is an impressive achievement, but today&#8217;s Facebook users upload 350 million photos a day, and YouTube users upload over 100 hours of video a minute (yes, some of it CC-licensed). I want to drive more licensed works into the commons by breaking down the barriers&#160;&#8212; legal and technical&#160;&#8212; for individual creators. And we need tools to help those who would reuse their work to find it quickly and easily.</p>
<p>In his 2008 book, <em>The Public Domain: Enclosing the Commons of the Mind</em>, James Boyle (also a former CC board member) makes an impassioned plea to build a global movement that will fight for the public commons&#160;&#8212; one modeled after the environment movement, which took something complex and hard to quantify and drew people to its cause. I believe Creative Commons must lead this movement.</p>
<p>We need to rally people to our cause, and ask for their creativity, their time, and their financial support.</p>
<p>We begin with a global network of 70 affiliates around the world who already form a vibrant, opinionated, and brilliant community of legal experts and advocates. The seeds of our movement already have roots.</p>
<p>We have a strong suite of free licenses that enable sharing in an increasingly restrictive legal framework.</p>
<p>And we have a powerful, recognizable brand that is respected the world over.</p>
<p>Not a bad place to start. I&#8217;m excited to step into this role, to defend and champion the public commons, and to join this global community and movement.</p>


feed_id: http://creativecommons.org/?p=42705
title: A message from Larry: A new CEO and a challenge to the CC community
uri: A-message-from-Larry-A-new-CEO-and-a-challenge-to-the-CC-community
url: http://creativecommons.org/weblog/entry/42705
content:
<div style="float:right; padding:10px" xmlns:dc="http://purl.org/dc/terms/" xmlns:cc="/ns#" about="//www.flickr.com/photos/eschipul/2314927728"><img width="320" height="213" src="media/1f5d0877.2314927728_8530dc133b_n.jpg" data-original-source="http://creativecommons.org//farm3.staticflickr.com/2137/2314927728_8530dc133b_n.jpg" alt="Lawrence Lessig at ETech 2008" />
<p><small><a href="//www.flickr.com/photos/eschipul/2314927728"><span property="dc:title">Lawrence Lessig at ETech 2008</span></a> / <span property="cc:attributionName">Ed Schipul</span> / <a rel="license" href="/licenses/by-sa/2.0/">CC BY-SA</a></small></p>
</div>
<p>I am thrilled to <a href="/weblog/entry/42690">welcome Ryan Merkley</a> as the incoming CEO of Creative Commons.</p>
<p>This is an important moment in the history of the organization. After eleven years, CC licenses are globally recognized as the definitive tool for sharing creative works. Millions across the world use CC as a force for good in their communities. We are building universal access to knowledge and culture as we had hoped&#160;&#8212; within the freedoms we craft inside copyright.</p>
<p>But the web has changed, and its users with it. And CC must too. I am excited and incredibly pleased that Ryan has agreed to join CC as the leader to take CC into its next era.</p>
<p>Ryan is an outstanding and recognized voice among Mozilla&#8217;s global community. From his time there he has proven that he is a strong believer in the open web, open data, and open content, and he knows how to activate and motivate community members for change. He is a leader with a great technical vision informed by the right values. He has inspired all of us, and I am confident he will be the leader CC needs.</p>
<p>At the last Creative Commons Global Summit in Buenos Aires, someone asked me how I&#8217;d like to see the organization change.</p>
<p>My answer was simple: We celebrate the tremendous achievement of Version 4.0 of our Creative Commons licenses. But we are still at Version 2.0 of the technology that we use to deliver those licenses.</p>
<p>Ryan will fix that, and give CC another decade of incredible growth and remarkable success. We are grateful he has agreed to share his enormous talents with us.</p>


feed_id: http://creativecommons.org/?p=42690
title: Welcoming Creative Commons’ new CEO, Ryan Merkley
uri: Welcoming-Creative-Commons-new-CEO-Ryan-Merkley
url: http://creativecommons.org/weblog/entry/42690
content:
<div style="float:right; padding:10px" xmlns:dc="http://purl.org/dc/terms/" xmlns:cc="/ns#" about="/weblog/entry/42684"><a href="media/3caed03f.ryanmerkley1-full.jpg" data-original-source="http://creativecommons.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/05/ryanmerkley1-full.jpg"><img width="300" height="200" src="media/4db11e1d.ryanmerkley1-300.jpg" data-original-source="http://creativecommons.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/05/ryanmerkley1-300.jpg" alt="Ryan Merkley" /></a>
<p><small><a href="media/3caed03f.ryanmerkley1-full.jpg" data-original-source="http://creativecommons.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/05/ryanmerkley1-full.jpg"><span property="dc:title">Ryan Merkley</span></a> / <span property="cc:attributionName">Rannie Turingan</span> / <a rel="license" href="/publicdomain/zero/1.0/">CC0</a></small></p>
</div>
<p>After an extensive search, the Creative Commons board of directors is <a href="/weblog/entry/42684">pleased to announce that Ryan Merkley will be our new CEO</a>. He&#8217;ll start work on June 1, and we&#8217;re all looking forward to working with him.</p>
<p>Ryan joins us after a career working to advance social causes and public policy in nonprofits, technology, and government. As chief operating officer at the Mozilla Foundation, Ryan contributed to the development of Mozilla products and programs supporting the open web, including Lightbeam, Webmaker, and Popcorn, and also established Mozilla&#8217;s successful individual fundraising program. Ryan was most recently managing director and senior vice president of public affairs at Vision Critical, a Vancouver-based SaaS and market research firm. Before that he held leadership roles at Toronto&#8217;s City Hall, including senior advisor to Mayor David Miller, where he initiated Toronto&#8217;s open data project. Ryan also served as director of corporate communications for the City of Vancouver and the 2010 Winter Olympics. He has an impressive track record of leadership in civic-minded and technology-centered organizations&#160;&#8212; and I think he&#8217;ll make a great leader in the Creative Commons movement.</p>
<p>As the board has gotten to know Ryan after the past several weeks, he&#8217;s articulated a strong vision to us for the future of the organization. He understands that the internet has changed a lot since we first launched the CC licenses, and that our relevance requires an evolving technology strategy. Ryan speaks enthusiastically and eloquently about the future of Creative Commons. It is clear to me, and I think to anyone he meets, that he has been working in our world as an outspoken supporter of our mission for almost as long as Creative Commons has existed.</p>
<p>He also recognizes that this is a crucial moment for CC and its allies: we must work together to strengthen and protect the open web. As the web has become more stratified in a world of apps, and as new laws and court decisions stand to dramatically extend terms of copyright and make it more difficult for people to build upon the work of others, our role has never been more important.</p>
<p>Once again, the board would like to voice our appreciation for the work of outgoing CEO Cathy Casserly. She substantially advanced CC&#8217;s mission over the past three years. Under Cathy&#8217;s leadership, Creative Commons helped numerous governments around the world adopt open education policies, and we saw considerable growth and engagement in the CC Affiliate Network.</p>
<p>And finally, our sincere thanks to Lisa Grossman and staff at m/Oppenheim Associates for helping us conduct a swift and successful CEO search.</p>
<p>Please join me now in welcoming Ryan to Creative Commons.</p>


feed_id: http://creativecommons.org/?p=42684
title: Creative Commons Names Ryan Merkley as Chief Executive Officer
uri: Creative-Commons-Names-Ryan-Merkley-as-Chief-Executive-Officer
url: http://creativecommons.org/weblog/entry/42684
content:
<p style="text-align:center" xmlns:dc="http://purl.org/dc/terms/" xmlns:cc="http://creativecommons.org/ns#" about="/weblog/entry/42684"><a href="media/3caed03f.ryanmerkley1-full.jpg" data-original-source="http://creativecommons.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/05/ryanmerkley1-full.jpg"><img src="media/62b825a2.ryanmerkley1-600.jpg" data-original-source="http://creativecommons.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/05/ryanmerkley1-600.jpg" alt="Ryan Merkley" width="600" height="400" border=0 /><br /><small><a href="media/3caed03f.ryanmerkley1-full.jpg" data-original-source="http://creativecommons.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/05/ryanmerkley1-full.jpg"><span property="dc:title">Ryan Merkley</span></a> / <span property="cc:attributionName">Rannie Turingan</span> / <a rel="license" href="/publicdomain/zero/1.0/">CC0</a></small></a></p>
<ul>
<li><strong><a href="media/07003145.creative-commons-names-ryan-merkley-as-ceo.pdf" data-original-source="http://creativecommons.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/05/creative-commons-names-ryan-merkley-as-ceo.pdf">Download the press release</a></strong> (67 KB PDF)</li>
</ul>
<p><strong>Mountain View, CA May 14, 2014:</strong> The board of directors of Creative Commons is pleased to announce the appointment of Ryan Merkley to the position of chief executive officer. Ryan is an accomplished strategist, campaigner, and communicator in the nonprofit, technology, and government sectors. Ryan was recently chief operating officer of the Mozilla Foundation, the nonprofit parent of the Mozilla Corporation and creator of the world&#8217;s most recognizable open-source software project and internet browser, Firefox. At the Mozilla Foundation, Ryan led development of open-source projects like Webmaker, Lightbeam, and Popcorn, and also kicked off the Foundation&#8217;s major online fundraising effort, resulting in over $1.8 million USD in individual donations from over 44,000 new donors.</p>
<p>Ryan is a well-known and respected voice in the open source community, and recognized for his unwavering support to open government and open data initiatives.</p>
<p>&#8220;As the board has gotten to know Ryan after the past several weeks, he&#8217;s articulated a strong vision to us for the future of the organization,&#8221; board chair and interim CEO Paul Brest said. &#8220;He understands that the internet has changed a lot since we first launched the CC licenses, and that our relevance requires an evolving technology strategy. He also recognizes that this is a crucial moment for CC and its allies: we must work together to strengthen and protect the open web.&#8221;</p>
<p>&#8220;A public commons, enabled by the open web, is the most powerful force to foster creativity, inspire innovation, and enhance human knowledge around the world. Those who believe in its potential need to join together in a global movement to ensure its success,&#8221; said Ryan Merkley. &#8220;At Creative Commons we&#8217;re making that case, and supporting, inspiring, and connecting the various communities that are building the commons&#160;&#8212; from open education, to science, to film and photography&#160;&#8212; and working to provide tools, solutions, and policy on their behalf.&#8221;</p>
<p>Creative Commons provides a set of licenses that creators can use to grant permission to reuse their work. With over half a billion openly licensed works on the internet, Creative Commons is internationally recognized as the standard in open content licensing. Ryan will lead a global team of legal and technology professionals who manage and support the licenses, as well as experts who lead CC license adoption efforts in areas like education, culture, science, and public policy.</p>
<p>Ryan joins Creative Commons after a career working to advance social causes and public policy in nonprofits and government. Outside of his work at Mozilla Foundation, Ryan was senior advisor to Mayor David Miller in Toronto, where he initiated Toronto&#8217;s Open Data project. He was also seconded to the City of Vancouver as director of corporate communications for the 2010 Winter Games. Most recently, Ryan was managing director and senior vice president of public affairs at Vision Critical, a Vancouver-based SaaS company and market research firm.</p>
<p>Ryan will take up his new position on June 1, 2014. He will be based in Toronto, and will split his time between Toronto and the Bay Area.</p>
<p>Official biography and high-resolution images can be found at:<br /><a href="http://creativecommons.org/staff/ryan">http://creativecommons.org/staff/ryan</a></p>
<h3>Additional information</h3>
<p>Bios and photos of Creative Commons board and advisory council members<br /><a href="http://creativecommons.org/board">http://creativecommons.org/board</a></p>
<p>Creative Commons launches Version 4.0 of its license suite<br /><a href="http://creativecommons.org/weblog/entry/40935">http://creativecommons.org/weblog/entry/40935</a></p>
<h3>About Creative Commons</h3>
<p>Creative Commons (<a href="http://creativecommons.org/">http://creativecommons.org/</a>) is a globally-focused nonprofit organization dedicated to making it easier for people to share and build upon the work of others, consistent with the rules of copyright. Creative Commons provides free licenses and other legal tools to give everyone from individual creators to large companies and institutions a simple, standardized way to grant copyright permissions and get credit for their creative work while allowing others to copy, distribute, and make specific uses of it.</p>
<p>For more information contact:<br />Elliot Harmon<br />Communications Manager, Creative Commons<br />elliot@creativecommons.org</p>


feed_id: http://creativecommons.org/?p=42749
title: Attention game designers: Public Domain Jam!
uri: Attention-game-designers-Public-Domain-Jam
url: http://creativecommons.org/weblog/entry/42749
content:
<p>If you&#8217;re a videogame designer and you have nothing to do over the next week (or if making cool games is more fun than your day job), why not spend the week developing a public domain game?</p>
<p>The idea of <a href="http://itch.io/jam/the-public-domain-jam">The Public Domain Jam</a> is to encourage developers to create games based on public domain assets and stories, and optionally give the games themselves back to the public domain via the <a href="http://creativecommons.org/about/cc0">CC0 waiver</a>. The game trailer encourages designers to think about the amazing wealth of public domain source material: maybe in the next week, Ovid&#8217;s <i>Metamorphoses</i> will dethrone zombies as the most important source of game design inspiration in the public domain.</p>
<p align="center"><iframe width="560" height="315" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/0tmc56YBlCA" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe></p>
<p>The contest is being organized by game developer <a href="https://twitter.com/gritfish">Gritfish</a>, and fellow game developer <a href="https://twitter.com/ncasenmare">Nick Liow</a> is sponsoring a $1000 prize for the best CC0 game.</p>
<p>If you recognize Nick&#8217;s name, it might be because <a href="/weblog/entry/38768">I interviewed him last year</a> about his <a href="http://open.commonly.cc/">Open Game Art Bundle</a>. Since then, he&#8217;s released his own crowdfunded CC0 game, <a href="https://back.nothingtohide.cc/">Nothing to Hide</a>.</p>
<p>Hurry! <a href="http://itch.io/jam/the-public-domain-jam">The Public Domain Jam ends May 24</a>.</p>


feed_id: http://creativecommons.org/?p=42736
title: Launch of the Open Policy Network
uri: Launch-of-the-Open-Policy-Network
url: http://creativecommons.org/weblog/entry/42736
content:
<p align="center"><a href="http://openpolicynetwork.org"><img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-42739" src="media/228f7ce9.Open-Policy-Network-600.png" data-original-source="http://creativecommons.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/05/Open-Policy-Network-600.png" alt="Open Policy Network-600" width="600" height="155" /></a></p>
<p>Today we&#8217;re excited to announce the launch of the Open Policy Network. The Open Policy Network, or OPN for short, is a coalition of organizations and individuals working to support the creation, adoption, and implementation of policies that require that publicly funded resources are openly licensed resources. The website of the Open Policy Network is <a href="http://openpolicynetwork.org">http://openpolicynetwork.org</a>.</p>
<p>Increasingly, governments around the world are sharing huge amounts of publicly funded research, data, and educational materials. The key question is, do the policies governing the procurement and distribution of publicly funded materials ensure the maximum benefits to the citizens those policies are meant to serve? When open licenses are required for publicly funded resources, there is the potential to massively increase access to and reuse of a wide range of materials, from educational content like digital textbooks, to the results of scholarly research, to troves of valuable public sector data. The <a href="/weblog/entry/26100">$2 billion U.S. Department of Labor TAACCCT grant program</a> is an example of a policy whereby publicly funded education and training materials are being made available broadly under an open intellectual property license.</p>
<p>There is a pressing need for education, advocacy, and action to see a positive shift in supporting open licensing for publicly funded materials. The Open Policy Network will share information amongst its members, recruit new advocates, and engage with policymakers worldwide. The OPN <a href="http://openpolicynetwork.org/about/#members">members</a> are diverse in content area expertise and geographic location. Creative Commons is a part of the Open Policy Network because we believe that the public deserves free access and legal reuse to the the resources it funds. With simple policy changes — such as requiring publicly-funded works be openly licensed and properly marked with easy-to-understand licensing information — the public will be better able to take advantage of their rights to access and reuse the digital materials developed with taxpayer funds.</p>
<p>With today’s launch of the Open Policy Network, we’re announcing our first project, the <a href="http://openpolicynetwork.org/iol/">Institute for Open Leadership</a>. Through a weeklong summit with experts, accepted fellows will get hands-on guidance to develop a capstone project for implementation in their organization or institution. The Institute for Open Leadership will help train new leaders in education, science, and public policy fields on the values and implementation of openness in licensing, policies, and practices.</p>
<p>The Open Policy Network is free to join and anyone is <a href="http://openpolicynetwork.org/about/#join">welcome</a>! More information on the Open Policy Network is available at the <a href="http://openpolicynetwork.org">website</a>, <a href="https://groups.google.com/forum/#!forum/open-policy-network">Google Group</a>, <a href="https://twitter.com/openpolicynet">Twitter</a>, and <a href="https://www.facebook.com/OpenPolicyNetwork">Facebook</a>.</p>


feed_id: http://creativecommons.org/?p=42812
title: French Ministry of Culture and Communication embraces CC licenses (and makes a cool video)
uri: French-Ministry-of-Culture-and-Communication-embraces-CC-licenses-(and
url: http://creativecommons.org/weblog/entry/42812
content:
<p style="text-align:center" xmlns:dc="http://purl.org/dc/terms/" xmlns:cc="http://creativecommons.org/ns#" about="//www.flickr.com/photos/actualitte/13377805435"><a href="//www.flickr.com/photos/actualitte/13377805435"><img src="media/fd76d95b.13377805435_bd3b89177b.jpg" data-original-source="http://creativecommons.org//farm8.staticflickr.com/7143/13377805435_bd3b89177b.jpg" alt="Aurélie Filippetti - Salon du Livre 2014" width="500" height="333" border=0 /><br /><small><a href="//www.flickr.com/photos/actualitte/13377805435"><span property="dc:title">Aurélie Filippetti &#8211; Salon du Livre 2014</span></a> / <a href="//www.flickr.com/photos/actualitte/"><span property="cc:attributionName">ActuaLitté</span></a> / <a rel="license" href="/licenses/by-sa/2.0/">CC BY-SA</a></small></a></p>
<p>In late 2013, <a href="/weblog/entry/40544">we blogged about a set of initiatives</a> that French minister of culture and communications Aurélie Filippetti had unveiled. Together, the initiatives represented a commitment to a more creative, more open France. And they also represented a strong commitment to helping students, cultural creators, and society as a whole understand and use Creative Commons licenses, in partnership with <a href="http://wiki.creativecommons.org/France">CC France</a>.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.culturecommunication.gouv.fr/Presse/Communiques-de-presse/Le-ministere-de-la-Culture-et-de-la-Communication-s-engage-en-faveur-des-licences-ouvertes">Last week, the ministry announced</a> that it was sharing its two flagships websites under <a href="/licenses/by-sa/3.0/fr/">CC BY-SA</a>, <a href="http://www.culturecommunication.gouv.fr/">culturecommunication.gouv.fr</a> and <a href="http://www.culture.fr/">culture.fr</a>.</p>
<p>To help educate French-speaking populations on how to use CC licenses and find CC-licensed works, the Ministry and CC France produced this video. Watch it even if you don&#8217;t speak French: the excellent design and flow really speak for themselves.</p>
<p align="center"><iframe frameborder="0" width="480" height="270" src="//www.dailymotion.com/embed/video/x1tg4gv" allowfullscreen></iframe><br /><a href="http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x1tg4gv_les-licences-creative-commons_webcam" target="_blank">Les licences Creative Commons</a> <i>by <a href="http://www.dailymotion.com/culture-gouv" target="_blank">culture-gouv</a></i></p>


feed_id: http://creativecommons.org/?p=42765
title: FIRST Act moving ahead in US Congress
uri: FIRST-Act-moving-ahead-in-Congress
url: http://creativecommons.org/weblog/entry/42765
content:
<p><em><strong>Update: The amendment to Section 303 <a href="http://www.sparc.arl.org/advocacy/national/first/news/markup05-22">was adopted</a>.<br />
</strong></em></p>
<h4>Can it be salvaged to promote public access to federally funded research?</h4>
<p>In March <a href="https://creativecommons.org/weblog/entry/42314">we wrote</a> about the introduction of the <a href="https://www.govtrack.us/congress/bills/113/hr4186">Frontiers in Innovation, Research, Science and Technology Act of 2014 (FIRST Act)</a>. The aim of the FIRST Act is to promote the dissemination of publicly funded scientific research. But the contentious Section 303 of the bill rolls back some of the most common policies governing existing research investments.</p>
<p>If passed in its current state, the FIRST Act would extend embargoes to federally funded research articles to up to three years after initial publication. This means that commercial publishers would be able to control access to publicly funded research during this time, and the public would not have free public access to this research. Even the longstanding NIH Public Access Policy tolerates embargoes no longer than 12 months. We’ve said before that the public should be granted immediate access to the content of peer-reviewed scholarly publications resulting from federally funded research. Immediate access is the ideal method to optimize the scientific and commercial utility of the information contained in the articles.</p>
<p>The FIRST Act would allow grantees to fulfill access requirements by providing a link to a publisher’s site instead of requiring deposit in a federally-approved repository. Currently NIH research grantees must deposit in the PubMed Central repository. The reliance on publishers to make (and keep) the research available jeopardizes the long-term access and preservation of publicly-funded research in the absence of a requirement that those links be permanently preserved.</p>
<p>The FIRST Act would permit affected agencies to spend up to 18 additional months to develop plans to comply with the conditions of the law, thus further delaying the plans that are already being organized by federal agencies under the White House Public Access Directive and Omnibus Appropriations Act.</p>
<p>The bill was previously was discussed in the subcommittee of the House Committee on Science, Space, and Technology. The passage of the FIRST Act with the Section 303 language as-is would harm existing as well as proposed public access policies in the United States. Today during the <a href="http://science.house.gov/markup/full-committee-markup-s-1254-hr-4186">full committee markup</a> of the bill Representatives James Sensenbrenner (R-WI) and Zoe Lofgren (D-CA) will introduce <a href="media/df46f53b.Sensenbrenner-Lofgren-AmendmentHR4186.pdf" data-original-source="http://wiki.creativecommons.org/images/c/c5/Sensenbrenner-Lofgren-AmendmentHR4186.pdf">an amendment</a> that would improve Section 303.</p>
<p>The Sensenbrenner/Lofgren amendment would change the embargo to 12 months, with the possibility that under certain circumstances the embargo could be extended for an additional 6 months. The amendment still does not require that federally-funded research articles be deposited in an approved repository. But it would shorten the length of time agencies get to develop and implement their public access plans. Affected agencies would need to develop a public access plan and report to Congress within 90 days. And the plans would need to be implemented within a year. One interesting piece of the amended Section 303 is that after an initial three-month planning period, the agencies would be required to submit an analysis on whether covered works should be made available under an open license.</p>
<blockquote><p>Such report shall include an examination of whether covered works should include a royalty-free copyright license that is available to the public and that permits the reuse of those research papers, on the condition that attribution is given to the author or authors of the research and any others designated by the copyright owner.</p></blockquote>
<p><strong>There’s still time for you to <a href="http://sparc.arl.org/support-sensenbrennerlofgren-amendment-section-303">call</a> members of the House Science, Space and Technology Committee and tell them to support the Sensenbrenner/Lofgren Section 303 amendment</strong>. The amendment is a step in the right direction to truly supporting public access to publicly funded research in the United States.</p>


feed_id: http://creativecommons.org/?p=42771
title: Seeds of Change
uri: Seeds-of-Change
url: http://creativecommons.org/weblog/entry/42771
content:
<p><a href="media/9dcd08f9.IMG_5295.jpg" data-original-source="http://creativecommons.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/05/IMG_5295.jpg"><img src="media/9dcd08f9.IMG_5295.jpg" data-original-source="http://creativecommons.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/05/IMG_5295.jpg" alt="packet of seeds" width="600" height="337" class="alignleft size-full wp-image-42800" /></a></p>
<p>I received a fat packet in mail, full of seeds with unusual names—Magma Mustard; Flashy Lightning Lettuce; Lemon Pastel Calendula; Cherry Vanilla Quinoa—and an even more <a href="http://www.opensourceseedinitiative.org/ossi-pledge/">unusual but evocative note</a> stuck on the packets.</p>
<p><a href="media/15708e0a.IMG_5299.jpg" data-original-source="http://creativecommons.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/05/IMG_5299.jpg"><img src="media/15708e0a.IMG_5299.jpg" data-original-source="http://creativecommons.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/05/IMG_5299.jpg" alt="fancy seeds" width="700" height="255" class="alignleft size-full wp-image-42803" /></a></p>
<blockquote><p>This Open Source Seed pledge is intended to ensure your freedom to use the seed contained herein in any way you choose, and to make sure those freedoms are enjoyed by all subsequent users. By opening this packet, you pledge that you will not restrict others’ use of these seeds and their derivatives by patents, licenses, or any other means. You pledge that if you transfer these seeds or their derivatives they will also be accompanied by this pledge.</p></blockquote>
<p><a href="media/958e3d67.IMG_5298.jpg" data-original-source="http://creativecommons.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/05/IMG_5298.jpg"><img src="media/958e3d67.IMG_5298.jpg" data-original-source="http://creativecommons.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/05/IMG_5298.jpg" alt="pledge" width="700" height="243" class="alignleft size-full wp-image-42802" /></a></p>
<p>Welcome to the <a href="http://www.opensourceseedinitiative.org/">Open Source Seed Initiative</a>, a group that includes scientists, citizens, plant breeders, farmers, seed companies, and gardeners, and has its origins in both the open source software movement and in the realization among plant breeders and social scientists that continued restrictions on seed may hinder our ability to improve our crops and provide access to genetic resources.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.dces.wisc.edu/faculty/kloppenburg/index.php">Jack Kloppenburg, Professor, Department of Community and Environmental Sociology</a>, and one of the founders of OSSI, contacted me a couple of years ago, just around the time I joined CC full-time. He was hoping for a CC-type license for the seeds. CC&#8217;s focus, however, is restricted to copyright. And, at least for now, copyright is an area that keeps our hands full. However, OSSI&#8217;s goals are very much in line with CC&#8217;s mission, to free information, to make it flow from those who create it to those who want to use it, with least impedance. And, what better example of information than a seed in which the very blueprint of life is embedded.</p>
<p><a href="media/1c41c6db.IMG_5296.jpg" data-original-source="http://creativecommons.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/05/IMG_5296.jpg"><img src="media/1c41c6db.IMG_5296.jpg" data-original-source="http://creativecommons.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/05/IMG_5296.jpg" alt="note from Jack" width="700" height="293" class="alignleft size-full wp-image-42801" /></a></p>
<p>Jack&#8217;s email signature reads, <em>&#8220;Well,&#8221; she said, &#8220;you have a high tolerance for lunatics, don&#8217;t you?&#8221;</em> Knowing Jack, that sounds about right. You&#8217;ve <em>got to</em> be crazy to be able to change the world. </p>
<p>Yes Jack, let&#8217;s talk, heck, let&#8217;s not just talk, but let&#8217;s actually collaborate and spread the seeds of change.</p>


feed_id: http://creativecommons.org/?p=42819
title: Show your support for imprisoned CC community leader Bassel Khartabil
uri: Show-your-support-for-imprisoned-CC-community-leader-Bassel-Khartabil
url: http://creativecommons.org/weblog/entry/42819
content:
<p style="text-align:center" xmlns:dc="http://purl.org/dc/terms/" xmlns:cc="http://creativecommons.org/ns#" about="https://drive.google.com/folderview?id=0B-J5qReuYKjxTnhuLWFsZHFyX0U&#038;usp=sharing"><a href="media/5a0e5111.bassel-arabic.jpg" data-original-source="http://creativecommons.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/05/bassel-arabic.jpg"><img src="media/3010681c.bassel-arabic-small.jpg" data-original-source="http://creativecommons.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/05/bassel-arabic-small.jpg" alt="Bassel" width=500 height=505 border=0 /></a><br /><small><span property="cc:attributionName">Kalie Taylor</span> / <a rel="license" href="/publicdomain/zero/1.0/">CC0</a> / <a href="https://drive.google.com/folderview?id=0B-J5qReuYKjxTnhuLWFsZHFyX0U&#038;usp=sharing">Download all posters</a></small></p>
<p>If you follow this blog with any regularity, you&#8217;re likely already familiar with <a href="http://creativecommons.org/tag/freebassel">Bassel Khartabil</a>, the Syrian CC community leader who has been in imprisoned since March 2012 without having had any charges brought against him. Thursday, May 22, is Bassel&#8217;s birthday, and the third birthday he&#8217;ll be spending in prison. This Saturday, he will have been in prison for 800 days.</p>
<p align="center"><iframe width="560" height="315" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/iCryvkgBUfo" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe></p>
<p>Today, join CC and the open community in honoring our friend Bassel:</p>
<ul>
<li>Post a message for Bassel on Twitter with the hashtags <a href="https://twitter.com/search?q=%23freebassel">#freebassel</a> and <a href="https://twitter.com/search?q=%23itsaboutallofus">#itsaboutallofus</a>. In particular, <a href="http://advocacy.globalvoicesonline.org/2014/05/21/on-may-22-say-happy-birthday-to-bassel/">people are encouraged to tweet between 13:00 and 16:00 GMT</a>.</li>
<li>Submit a photo or message of support to the <a href="http://freebassel.tumblr.com/">#freebassel Tumblr</a>.</li>
<li><a href="https://drive.google.com/folderview?id=0B-J5qReuYKjxTnhuLWFsZHFyX0U&#038;usp=sharing">Print one of these beautiful posters by artist Kalie Taylor</a> (<a href="/publicdomain/zero/1.0/">CC0</a>), or <a href="http://openclipart.org/user-detail/freebassel">create your own</a>, and distribute it in your community.</li>
</ul>
<p><strong>Read more</strong></p>
<ul>
<li><a href="http://advocacy.globalvoicesonline.org/2014/05/21/on-may-22-say-happy-birthday-to-bassel/">On May 22, Say Happy Birthday To Bassel</a> (Global Voices)</li>
<li><a href="/weblog/entry/41768">Letters for Bassel</a></li>
<li><a href="/weblog/entry/37612">Imprisoned internet pioneer Bassel Khartabil wins Index on Censorship Digital Freedom Award</a></li>
<li><a href="/weblog/entry/37414">Free Bassel, Free Culture</a></li>
</ul>


feed_id: http://creativecommons.org/?p=42754
title: The beginning of the Authors Alliance
uri: The-beginning-of-the-Authors-Alliance
url: http://creativecommons.org/weblog/entry/42754
content:
<div style="float:right; padding:10px"> <a href="https://authorsalliance.org/"><img src="media/200aeee1.authorsalliancesmall.png" data-original-source="http://creativecommons.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/05/authorsalliancesmall.png" alt="authorsalliancesmall" width="300" height="150" class="alignright size-full wp-image-42836" /></a></div>
<p>Yesterday marked the launch of the <a href="https://authorsalliance.org">Authors Alliance</a>, a nonprofit organization that supports authors who want “to harness the potential of digital networks to share their creations more broadly in order to serve the public good.”</p>
<p>In an interview with Publisher’s Weekly, Authors Alliance founder Pamela Samuelson <a href="http://www.publishersweekly.com/pw/by-topic/industry-news/publisher-news/article/62270-founder-of-just-launched-authors-alliance-talks-to-pw.html">explained</a> that the Authors Alliance will have a few different roles. Inwardly, the group will “provide authors with information about copyrights, licensing agreements, alternative contract terms,” and other practical legal information so that they can make their works widely and openly available. And externally, the Alliance will “represent the interests of authors who want to make their works more widely available in public policy debates,” and advocate for these reforms alongside like-minded public interest organizations.</p>
<p>The Authors Alliance was developed by Samuelson and several of her colleagues at the University of California Berkeley including Molly Van Houweling, Carla Hesse, and Thomas Leonard. The Alliance also has an <a href="http://www.authorsalliance.org/about/">advisory board</a> made up of pre-eminent scholars, writers, and public interest advocates, including several members of the Creative Commons board of directors. The Authors Alliance is <a href="https://www.authorsalliance.org/a2-join/">now accepting new members</a>. </p>
<p>The Alliance has already developed a set of <a href="http://www.authorsalliance.org/principles-and-proposals-for-copyright-reform/">copyright reform principles</a>, outlining its vision for changes to copyright law to support authors who write to be read.</p>
<blockquote><p>We have formed an Authors Alliance to represent authors who create to be read, to be seen, and to be heard. We believe that these authors have not been well served by misguided efforts to strengthen copyright. These efforts have failed to provide meaningful financial returns to most authors, while instead unacceptably compromising the preservation of our own intellectual legacies and our ability to tap our collective cultural heritage. We want to harness the potential of global digital networks to share knowledge and products of the imagination as broadly as possible. We aim to amplify the voices of authors and creators in all media who write and create not only for pay, but above all to make their discoveries, ideas, and creations accessible to the broadest possible audience.</p></blockquote>
<p>The principles include:</p>
<ol>
<li>Further empower authors to disseminate their works.</li>
<li>Improve information flows about copyright ownership.</li>
<li>Affirm the vitality of limits on copyright that enable us to do our work and reach our audiences.</li>
<li>Ensure that copyright’s remedies and enforcement mechanisms protect our interests.</li>
</ol>
<p>At the core, the Authors Alliance and Creative Commons share a similar goal: to provide useful resources and tools for creators who aren’t being served well by the existing copyright system. We’re excited to work with the Alliance on issues that support authors who write to be read&#8211;and the public interest for whom these authors create. </p>


feed_id: http://creativecommons.org/?p=42762
title: Apply now to participate in the Institute for Open Leadership
uri: Apply-now-to-participate-in-the-Institute-for-Open-Leadership
url: http://creativecommons.org/weblog/entry/42762
content:
<div style="float: right; padding: 5px;"><a href="http://openpolicynetwork.org/iol/"><img class="alignright size-full wp-image-42858" src="media/d2c7f62a.iol_small.png" data-original-source="http://creativecommons.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/05/iol_small.png" alt="iol_small" width="300" height="99" /></a></div>
<p>Earlier this week, we <a href="https://creativecommons.org/weblog/entry/42736">kicked off</a> the <a href="http://openpolicynetwork.org/">Open Policy Network</a>. We announced that the first project within the Network is the <a href="http://openpolicynetwork.org/iol/">Institute for Open Leadership</a>. The Institute for Open Leadership is a training program to develop new leaders in education, science, public policy, and other fields on the values and implementation of openness in licensing, policies, and practices. The Institute is looking for passionate public- and private-sector professionals interested in learning more about openness and wish to develop and implement an open policy in their field.</p>
<p>Interested applicants should review the <a href="http://openpolicynetwork.org/iol/#apply">application information</a> and submit an application by <strong>June 30, 2014</strong>. We plan to invite about 15 fellows to participate in the first round of the Institute for Open Leadership. The in-person portion of the Institute will be held in the San Francisco bay area in January 2015 (TBD: either January 12-16 or January 19-23). Applications are open to individuals anywhere in the world.</p>
<p>A central part of the Institute will require fellows to develop and implement a capstone open policy project. The point of this project is for the fellow to transform the concepts learned at the Institute into a practical, actionable, and sustainable initiative within her/his institution. Open policy projects can take a variety of forms depending on the interests of the fellow and the field where the project will be implemented.</p>
<p>Questions about the Institute for Open Leadership should be directed to <a href="mailto:opn@creativecommons.org">opn@creativecommons.org</a>. Our thanks to the <a href="http://www.hewlett.org/">William and Flora Hewlett Foundation</a> and the <a href="http://www.opensocietyfoundations.org/">Open Society Foundations</a> for funds to kickstart the Institute for Open Leadership.</p>


feed_id: http://creativecommons.org/?p=42869
title: NSF grantee opens up wind technology training materials for fellow grantees
uri: NSF-grantee-opens-up-wind-technology-training-materials-for-fellow-gr
url: http://creativecommons.org/weblog/entry/42869
content:
<p><iframe width="560" height="315" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/02wPSDOXMhc?list=UUaMBvAW2YMHYItb998nDbQw" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe></p>
<p><a href="http://www.windtechtv.org/">WindTech TV</a>, a collection of wind turbine technician training materials and simulation modules, is now available under a <a href="https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY license</a>. Developed as part of a National Science Foundation (NSF) Advanced Technological Education project, WindTech TV’s modules are aligned with industry standards and designed to be integrated into two-year college wind technology programs to sustain workforce development in the field of wind power.</p>
<p>Modules are currently being used by community colleges across the United States, and Principal Investigator Phil Pilcher wants to expand that impact through reuse by other grantees, including those part of the U.S. Department of Labor&#8217;s $2 billion <a href="http://open4us.org/">Trade Adjustment Assistance Community College &#038; Career Training (TAACCCT) grant program</a>.</p>
<blockquote><p>&#8220;WindTechTV has always been free, but we think that the CC BY license will increase usage. One of our project goals is to disseminate the materials nationwide. The CC license lets instructors and administrators know that they can use our videos as they wish when they are developing and delivering courses. Also, TAACCCT grantees who are working on alternative energy courses will now be able to reuse our video content, which should speed up development.&#8221;</p></blockquote>
<p>All modules are available at <a href="http://www.windtechtv.org">http://www.windtechtv.org</a> and videos are available from <a href="https://www.youtube.com/user/WindTechTv">WindTech TV&#8217;s YouTube channel</a>.</p>
<p><strong>Related</strong></p>
<ul>
<li><a href="/weblog/entry/34328">US Department of Labor Invests in Open Educational Resources</a></li>
</ul>


feed_id: http://creativecommons.org/?p=42884
title: CC News: Why Creative Commons must succeed
uri: CC-News-Why-Creative-Commons-must-succeed
url: http://creativecommons.org/weblog/entry/42884
content:
<p align="center"><em>Stay up to date with CC by <a href="https://donate.creativecommons.org/civicrm/mailing/subscribe?utm_campaign=newsletter_1405&#038;utm_medium=web&#038;utm_source=newsletter">subscribing to our newsletter</a> and <a href="http://twitter.com/creativecommons">following us on Twitter</a>.</em></p>
<p align="center"><small><a href="https://creativecommons.org/weblog/entry/42884?utm_campaign=newsletter_1405&#038;utm_medium=email&#038;utm_source=newsletter"><img src="media/37687eea.201405-ryan.jpg" data-original-source="http://creativecommons.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/05/201405-ryan.jpg" border=0 style="width: 100%; min-width: 300px; max-width: 600px; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; border-radius: 25px; " /></a><br /><a href="media/36b86072.FileRyan_Merkley_3.jpg" data-original-source="http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Ryan_Merkley_3.jpg">Ryan Merkley</a> / Rannie Turingan / <a href="https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/deed.en">CC0</a></small></p>
<p align="center"><strong><a href="/weblog/entry/42693">Why Creative Commons must succeed</a></strong></p>
<p>&#8220;<strong><a href="/weblog/entry/42693?utm_campaign=newsletter_1405&#038;utm_medium=web&#038;utm_source=newsletter">Why am I joining CC?</a></strong> Because its success is so vital, and I want to ensure we succeed. Creativity, knowledge, and innovation need a public commons&#160;&#8211; a collection of works that are free to use, re-use, and build upon&#160;&#8211; the shared resources of our society. The restrictions we place on copyright, like fair use and the public domain, are an acknowledgement that all creativity and knowledge owe something to what came before.&#8221;</p>
<p>CC is <strong><a href="/weblog/entry/42690?utm_campaign=newsletter_1405&#038;utm_medium=web&#038;utm_source=newsletter">proud to welcome its incoming CEO, Ryan Merkley</a></strong>.</p>
<table cellpadding="10" width="100%">
<tr>
<td style="border:1px solid gray" valign="top" width="50%">
<p about="http://www.flickr.com/photos/ioerror/335161549" style="text-align:center">
					<small><a href="/weblog/entry/42736?utm_campaign=newsletter_1405&#038;utm_medium=web&#038;utm_source=newsletter"><img alt="Open Policy Network" height="160" src="media/1216f132.201405-opn.jpg" data-original-source="http://creativecommons.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/05/201405-opn.jpg" width="250" /></a><br /><a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/tonythemisfit/3296797012/" rel="cc:attributionURL"><span property="dc:title">The Massachusetts State House</span></a><br /><a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/tonythemisfit/"><span property="cc:attributionName">Tony Fisher</span></a> / <a href="/licenses/by/2.0/" rel="license">CC BY</a><br />(cropped, color adjusted, OPN logo added)</small></p>
<p>We&#8217;re excited to announce the launch of the Open Policy Network, a coalition of organizations committed to advancing policies that require open licenses for publicly funded materials. <strong><a href="/weblog/entry/42736?utm_campaign=newsletter_1405&#038;utm_medium=web&#038;utm_source=newsletter">Find out how to get involved</a></strong>.</p>
</td>
<td style="border:1px solid gray" valign="top" width="350">
<p about="http://www.flickr.com/photos/joi/4670781482/" style="text-align:center" xmlns:cc="/ns#" xmlns:dc="http://purl.org/dc/terms/">
					<small><a href="/weblog/entry/42585?utm_campaign=newsletter_1405&#038;utm_medium=web&#038;utm_source=newsletter"><img alt="Lawrence Lessig, Webby Award" height="160" src="media/a35a33f9.201405-lessig.jpg" data-original-source="http://creativecommons.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/05/201405-lessig.jpg" width="250" /></a><br /><a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/joi/2235721396/" rel="cc:attributionURL"><span property="dc:title">Lawrence Lessig</span></a><br /><a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/joi/"><span property="cc:attributionName">Joi Ito</span></a> / <a href="/licenses/by/2.0/" rel="license">CC BY</a><br />(cropped, Webby logo added)</small></p>
<p>
Last week, Lawrence Lessig won a lifetime achievement Webby Award for his work as co-founder of Creative Commons. <strong><a href="/weblog/entry/42585?utm_campaign=newsletter_1405&#038;utm_medium=web&#038;utm_source=newsletter">Have you heard his five-word acceptance speech?</a></strong></p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td style="border:1px solid gray" valign="top" width="50%">
<p about="http://www.openeducationweek.org/" style="text-align:center">
					<small><a href="/weblog/entry/42812?utm_campaign=newsletter_1405&#038;utm_medium=web&#038;utm_source=newsletter"><img alt="Les licences Creative Commons" height="160" src="media/e7cdab9b.201405-ccfrance.png" data-original-source="http://creativecommons.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/05/201405-ccfrance.png" width="250" /></a><br /><a href="http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x1tg4gv_les-licences-creative-commons_webcam" rel="cc:attributionURL"><span property="dc:title">Les licences Creative Commons</span></a> (still)<br /><span property="cc:attributionName">Minist&#232;re de la Culture et de la Communication</span><br /><a href="/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" rel="license">CC BY-SA</a></small></p>
<p>
The French Ministry of Culture and Communications to embrace Creative Commons licenses. <strong><a href="/weblog/entry/42812?utm_campaign=newsletter_1405&#038;utm_medium=web&#038;utm_source=newsletter">Watch the beautiful new video it made with CC France to explain CC licenses</a></strong>.</p>
</td>
<td style="border:1px solid gray" valign="top" width="50%">
<p about="/weblog/entry/39184?utm_campaign=newsletter_1405&#038;utm_medium=web&#038;utm_source=newsletter" style="text-align:center" xmlns:cc="/ns#" xmlns:dc="http://purl.org/dc/terms/">
					<small><a href="/weblog/entry/42754?utm_campaign=newsletter_1405&#038;utm_medium=web&#038;utm_source=newsletter"><img alt="Authors Alliance logo" height="160" src="media/dd6ffd16.201405-authorsalliance.png" data-original-source="http://creativecommons.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/05/201405-authorsalliance.png" width="250" /></a><br />&#160;<br />&#160;<br />&#160;</small></p>
<p>
Who is speaking up for authors who <em>want</em> to see their works disseminated more freely? <strong><a href="/weblog/entry/42754?utm_campaign=newsletter_1405&#038;utm_medium=web&#038;utm_source=newsletter">Enter the Authors Alliance</a></strong>.</p>
</td>
</tr>
</table>
<ul>
<li>Australia&#8217;s premier public scientific research institute just released over 4000 photos under CC BY. <strong><a href="http://creativecommons.org.au/blog/2014/04/csiro-releases-scienceimage-archive-4000-cc-by-photos-free-for-reuse/">Check out the ScienceImage library</a></strong>.</li>
<p></p>
<li>The US White House&#8217;s new Open Data Action Plan <strong><a href="/weblog/entry/42643?utm_campaign=newsletter_1405&#038;utm_medium=web&#038;utm_source=newsletter">embraces CC0 for open data</a></strong>.</li>
<p></p>
<li>Are there too many video games about zombies? <strong><a href="/weblog/entry/42749?utm_campaign=newsletter_1405&#038;utm_medium=web&#038;utm_source=newsletter">The organizers of the Public Domain Jam think so</a></strong>.</li>
<p></p>
<li>Learn about <strong><a href="http://www.creativecommons.org.uk/redactor-automatically-find-cc-material-for-your-documents/">Redactor</a></strong>, a new tool to replace All Rights Reserved images with CC-licensed ones.</li>
</ul>


feed_id: http://creativecommons.org/?p=42902
title: Liberating the Haystack for the Needles
uri: Liberating-the-Haystack-for-the-Needles
url: http://creativecommons.org/weblog/entry/42902
content:
<p><b><i>This post with invaluable assistance from the CC legal and policy teams.</i></b></p>
<p>Text and data mining (TDM) is becoming an increasingly important scientific technique for analyzing large amounts of data. The technique is used to uncover both existing and new insights in unstructured data sets that typically are obtained programmatically from many different sources.</p>
<div style="border: 1px solid black;padding: 5px;margin-bottom: 10px">
<div id="attachment_42917" style="width: 685px" class="wp-caption alignleft"><img src="media/4bbb1f94.pbdb.png" data-original-source="http://creativecommons.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/05/pbdb.png" alt="pbdb" width="675" height="319" class="alignleft size-full wp-image-42923" /><p class="wp-caption-text"><a href="http://paleobiodb.org/navigator/">PBDB Navigator</a> screenshot released under a CC0 1.0 Public Domain Dedication</p></div>
</div>
<p>A few of the innovative examples include <a href="http://hazy.cs.wisc.edu/hazy/geodeepdive">GeoDeepDive</a>, a system that helps geoscientists discover information and knowledge buried in the text, tables, and figures of geology journal articles; <a href="http://www.niehs.nih.gov/research/supported/sep/2013/text-mining/index.cfm">improving human curation of chemical-gene-disease networks</a> for the <a href="http://ctdbase.org">Comparative Toxicogenomics Database</a>; and <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S8756328206009471">discovering a new link between genes and osteoporosis</a>.</p>
<h2>Legal Uncertainty</h2>
<p>While the science and technology of TDM are complex enough involving information retrieval (IR), optical character recognition (OCR), and natural language processing (NLP), the legal complications are, sadly, equally dizzying. The legal status of TDM is unclear at best, both because there are a multitude of techniques to engage in TDM, and because the implications of various techniques vary from jurisdiction to jurisdiction. This makes cross-national collaboration, integral to science,  difficult at best. For example, TDM is generally considered to not implicate copyright in the U.S. There are several theories as to why TDM falls outside copyright, but the most obvious is that it uses copyrighted material for a transformative purpose and is therefore a fair use. Judge Baer, writing in <a href="https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B_t-G30CZ3ZnX2FrbXRTeHFHR2M/edit?usp=sharing" target="_blank">Author&rsquo;s Guild, Inc., et. al. v. Hathi Trust, et. al. (Case 1:11-cv-06351-HB)</a></p>
<blockquote><p>
&ldquo;The use to which the works in the HDL are put is transformative because the copies serve an entirely different purpose than the original works: the purpose is superior search capabilities rather than actual access to copyrighted material. The search capabilities of the HDL have already given rise to new methods of academic inquiry such as text mining.&rdquo;
</p></blockquote>
<p>Judge Baer goes on to state:</p>
<blockquote><p>
&ldquo;I cannot imagine a definition of fair use that would not encompass the transformative uses made by Defendants&rsquo; MDP and would require that I terminate this invaluable contribution to the progress of science and cultivation of the arts.&rdquo;
</p></blockquote>
<p>The clarity, however, is far from universal as the situation outside the U.S. gets muddy. While there have been a <a href="http://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2014/1372/regulation/3/made" target="_blank">few welcome developments in the U.K.</a>, the copyright laws of many other countries have little to no clarity on whether TDM falls outside of the reach of copyright and related laws. Where TDM does implicate copyright, the license status of the original material can make automated access and analysis very complicated, requiring additional checks to ensure any material is only being used as permitted by the license. And, even where the relevant licenses are free and open, and conducive to TDM, contractual agreements between research institutions and publishers, who are often the gatekeepers of the corpora, can create significant hurdles.</p>
<h2>Public Sentiment</h2>
<p>In a comment on proposed U.K. exception for information mining, <a href="http://icommons.org/okf-and-icommons-comment-on-proposed-uk-exception-for-information-mining">both iCommons and the Open Knowledge Foundation (OKFN) supported the UK Government&rsquo;s opinion</a> that it is inappropriate for &ldquo;Certain activities of public benefit such as medical research obtained through text mining to be in effect subject to veto by the owners of copyrights in the reports of such research, where access to the reports was obtained lawfully.&rdquo; <a href="http://blogs.plos.org/opens/2014/03/09/best-practice-enabling-content-mining">PLOS opined</a>, &ldquo;Enabling content mining is a core part of the value offering for Open Access publication services.&rdquo; In its <a href="http://libereurope.eu/news/liber-responds-to-eu-copyright-review">response to EU copyright review</a>, LIBER stated, &ldquo;All exceptions related to education, learning and access to knowledge to be made mandatory. In particular, we would like to see a specific exception for text and data mining for all research purposes.&rdquo; OKFN&rsquo;s Working Group on Open Access <a href="http://blog.okfn.org/2012/06/01/the-right-to-read-is-the-right-to-mine">stated</a>:</p>
<blockquote><p>
&ldquo;We assert that there is no legal, ethical or moral reason to refuse to allow legitimate accessors of research content (OA or otherwise) to use machines to analyse the published output of the research community. Researchers expect to access and process the full content of the research literature with their computer programs and should be able to use their machines as they use their eyes.&rdquo;
</p></blockquote>
<p>Support for text and data mining under the guise of &ldquo;The right to read is the right to mine&rdquo; has been demonstrated by other organizations including the declarations by <a href="http://copyright4creativity.eu/project/c4c-4-july-declaration">Copyright for Creativity</a> (July 2013) and the <a href="http://www.ifla.org/publications/ifla-statement-on-text-and-data-mining-2013">International Federation of Library Associations and Organizations</a> (December 2013). If we as a society wish to realize the incredible potential for text and data mining, the practice should not be controlled through contractual terms or licensing.</p>
<p>Instead of relying on contractual restrictions or licensing to engage in text and data mining, non-consumptive uses of texts should be expressly eliminated from the reach of copyright and contract. The UK&rsquo;s <a href="media/16ae12ee.ipreview-finalreport.pdf" data-original-source="https://ipo.gov.uk/ipreview-finalreport.pdf">Hargreaves Report</a> (PDF, p. 47) suggested the adoption of an exception to copyright law for non-consumptive uses, which are &ldquo;uses of a work enabled by technology which does not trade on the underlying creative and expressive purpose of the work.&rdquo;</p>
<p>Most recently, the UK copyright reform legislation <a href="http://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2014/1372/regulation/3/made">introduced changes that makes it easier to engage in TDM</a> for non-commercial purposes, allows storing of the corpus locally as long as it remains protected from general public access, and perhaps most importantly, disallows contractual negotiations that would make it difficult to conduct TDM.</p>
<p>The above sentiments are laudable, and copyright reforms friendly to TDM are very important, and we support such efforts. However, we believe the more knowledgeable potential users of TDM are about the technology and related issues, the better they will be able to negotiate conditions that make their research easy and efficient. Hence, we want to push forward with education and awareness building as a bottom-up effort.</p>
<h2>Building Bottom-Up Support</h2>
<div style="border: 1px solid black;padding: 5px;margin-bottom: 10px">
<div id="attachment_42904" style="width: 685px" class="wp-caption alignleft"><img src="media/7e4a7e57.13541173743_38ba38fc96_b.jpg" data-original-source="http://creativecommons.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/05/13541173743_38ba38fc96_b.jpg" alt="Content Mine" width="675" height="105" class="size-full wp-image-42904" border="1" /><p class="wp-caption-text"><br /><a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/79472036@N07/13541173743/in/photostream/">Image by R. Mounce</a> extracted from: doi: 10.11646/phytotaxa.163.5.1 licensed under the <a href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0">Creative Commons Attribution Licence (CC-BY) 3.0 license</a></p></div>
</div>
<p>We are working with the <a href="http://contentmine.org/Who-we-are">ContentMine team</a> developing an agenda for a workshop that would provide training in TDM and educate the participants regarding the legal considerations through hands-on exercises. We will introduce the topic, the tools and techniques, tackle a specific problem, and then use that to expose researchers to the legal complications that they may encounter in conducting their research and the legal considerations they should keep in mind when choosing a license for their works. We have three objectives for this series of workshops&mdash;</p>
<ol start="1">
<li>Introduce participants to the basic tools and techniques of text and data mining (TDM);</li>
<li>Make participants aware of the legal intricacies of TDM and the implications of choosing the right licenses that enable TDM for downstream users;</li>
<li>Nurture a community of practice whose members may draw upon each other for continued help.</li>
</ol>
<p>To be clear, we are not intending the workshop to be a detailed and comprehensive training in TDM, and it is certainly not a replacement for expertise in this deep and comprehensive technique. Instead, the workshop is designed to be both an introduction to basic technical and legal concepts as well as an opportunity to get to network with experts as well as novices with interest in the field. We hope participants intending to use TDM for their work will be better informed when seeking collaboration with TDM experts.</p>
<div style="border: 1px solid black;padding: 5px;margin-bottom: 10px">
<div style="width: 685px" class="wp-caption alignleft"><img src="media/2a105d56.tdm-world-map.jpg" data-original-source="http://creativecommons.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/06/tdm-world-map.jpg" alt="TDM workshops" width="675" height="365" class="alignleft size-full wp-image-42936" /><p class="wp-caption-text">Original artwork by Puneet Kishor released under <a href="http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/legalcode">CC0 Public Domain Dedication</a></p></div>
</div>
<p>The first instance of this workshop will be held at <a href="http://science.creativecommons.org/tdm/workshops/2014okfest.html">the 2014 Open Knowledge Festival</a>. We hope to follow it with one <a href="http://www.codata-pastd.org">in Nairobi in Aug 2014 at the International Workshop on Open Data for Science and Sustainability in Developing Countries (OpenDataSSDC)</a> organized by the CODATA Task Group on Preservation of and Access to Scientific and Technical Data in Developing Countries (CODATA PASTD), and one possibly at SciDataCon in New Delhi in Nov 2014. We hope to make these workshops a recurring event, building a roster of interesting exercises and problems to solve, and constantly improving the content based on audience feedback and ongoing research.</p>
<p>In cooperation with computing, legal and library experts, we will adapt the workshop agenda to make it more suitable and relatable to the host institutions. Our aim is to reach communities of researchers in countries that are otherwise under-represented in the global conversation on open science and data. We have identified researchers, and will continue to identify more, both on the technical as well as legal side with whom we intend to start building a network. If you are working with TDM, intend to work with TDM, and have expertise either in its technology or in related legal issues specific to your jurisdiction, please contact us.</p>
<p>We also intend to develop a community of practice for TDM, either standalone or via existing platforms such as StackExchange, and will utilize online resources such as forums, mailing lists, and a roster of technical, legal and institutional experts available to provide assistance with TDM.</p>


feed_id: http://creativecommons.org/?p=42945
title: Compatibility process and criteria published
uri: Compatibility-process-and-criteria-published
url: http://creativecommons.org/weblog/entry/42945
content:
<div style="float:left; padding:10px"> <a href="https://secure.flickr.com/photos/marfis75/7155229007"><img src="media/bfa5cbe2.potatopowercrop.jpg" data-original-source="http://creativecommons.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/06/potatopowercrop.jpg" alt="&quot;Potato Power&quot; (cropped), by Martin Fisch, CC BY-SA 2.0." width="200" class="alignleft wp-image-42836" /></a><br />
<br /><small><center>Martin Fisch / <a href="https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0">CC BY-SA 2.0</a></center></small></div>
<p>Compatibility with the ShareAlike licenses is now one step closer. After a <a href="https://creativecommons.org/weblog/entry/42560" title="process and criteria public discussion opens">month-long consultation</a>, we have published <a href="http://wiki.creativecommons.org/ShareAlike_compatibility_process_and_criteria" title="ShareAlike compatibility process and criteria">our process and criteria</a> for ShareAlike compatibility and are ready to begin evaluating candidate licenses. Licenses named as compatible under this process will be interoperable with the CC ShareAlike licenses, allowing more remixing of ShareAlike-licensed materials with other copyleft materials in the commons.</p>
<p>In the new process, CC will evaluate licenses by publishing a preliminary analysis and then holding a public community discussion. Candidate licenses must have a few basic characteristics, including a copyleft mechanism and some way of handling attribution. Additional considerations to take into account include the license&#8217;s treatment of Effective Technological Measures, and any additional conditions that the license imposes. </p>
<p>It has long been a goal of Creative Commons to make our ShareAlike licenses interoperable with other copyleft licenses. Larry Lessig <a href="https://creativecommons.org/weblog/entry/5709" title="Lessig compatibility post">has been writing about the importance of compatibility</a> to the commons since before 3.0 was published, and a compatibility mechanism was <a href="http://https://creativecommons.org/weblog/entry/7234" title="3.0 compatibility mechanism">included in 3.0</a> but never used. </p>
<p>We will be looking at the first candidate license in the next few weeks. If you would like to be involved in the discussions, please follow the <a href="http://lists.ibiblio.org/mailman/listinfo/cc-licenses" title="cc-licenses list">cc-licenses list</a>. </p>


feed_id: http://creativecommons.org/?p=42977
title: Making the Case for Libraries in Latin America: A New School of Open Course
uri: Making-the-Case-for-Libraries-in-Latin-America-A-New-School-of-Open
url: http://creativecommons.org/weblog/entry/42977
content:
<p><a href="https://p2pu.org/en/courses/2178/abc-del-derecho-de-autor-para-bibliotecarios-de-am%C3%A9rica-latina/"><img src="media/7f2dea7b.abccopyright.jpg" data-original-source="http://creativecommons.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/06/abccopyright.jpg" alt="abccopyright" width="600" height="140" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-42981" /></a></p>
<p><em>Read about this course in Spanish on the <a href="http://www.creativecommons.uy/abc-del-derecho-de-autor-para-bibliotecarios-de-america-latina/">CC Uruguay blog</a>.</em></p>
<p><a href="https://p2pu.org/en/courses/2178/abc-del-derecho-de-autor-para-bibliotecarios-de-am%C3%A9rica-latina/">ABC of Copyright for Librarians in Latin America</a>, or <em>ABC del derecho de autor para bibliotecarios de América Latina</em>, is a free, online course that launches today as part of the <a href="http://schoolofopen.p2pu.org/">School of Open</a>. This Spanish language course seeks to help librarians and library users strengthen their knowledge of copyright laws in Latin America and the challenges that exist to access to information in the 21st century.</p>
<p>From the <a href="http://internetactiva.net/?p=268">launch announcement</a>:</p>
<blockquote><p>Public library seeks to provide equal opportunities in access to information, knowledge, recreation, culture, education, reading and writing for all their users. However, there are currently no minimum guarantees that allow libraries and archives carrying out activities related to their mission such as lending books or changing the format of a film (e.g. VHS to digital) for preservation purposes. For decades, protections for authors and/or rightsholders have been increased, while the guarantees of access and inclusion of copyright balances are at the mercy of political will.<br />
&#8230;<br />
This imbalance occurs especially in developing countries, as many developed countries have already generated standards seeking to better balance copyright.</p></blockquote>
<p>To address these challenges, CC affiliates from Colombia, El Salvador and Uruguay, in collaboration with the Karisma Foundation, have developed a course for librarians, archivists, educators, university researchers, and anyone else in the Latin American region interested in these issues. <a href="https://p2pu.org/en/courses/2178/abc-del-derecho-de-autor-para-bibliotecarios-de-am%C3%A9rica-latina/">ABC of copyright for librarians in Latin America</a> is designed to strengthen the understanding of basic copyright concepts through examples, analysis and open models based on Latin American cases and legislation.</p>
<p>The course officially launches online on <a href="http://internetactiva.net/?page_id=17">Internet Activa</a> at 5pm Colombia time today (UTC-5). You can join the launch by filling out <a href="https://docs.google.com/a/creativecommons.org/forms/d/1g4id2JO84KcT4mufJ5AVh7wbOek4QrslZyHuQ8K_EtA/viewform">this form</a> expressing your intent; however, registration to participate in the course is not required.</p>
<p>The course is also available as <a href="https://p2pu.org/en/courses/2178/abc-del-derecho-de-autor-para-bibliotecarios-de-am%C3%A9rica-latina/">part of the School of Open</a> as a self-paced course that can be taken at any time, licensed <a href="https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/deed.es">CC BY</a>.</p>
<h3>About the School of Open</h3>
<p><a href="http://schoolofopen.p2pu.org/"><img src="media/b4034b97.SOO-logo-100x100.png" data-original-source="http://creativecommons.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/06/SOO-logo-100x100.png" alt="SOO-logo-100x100" width="100" height="98" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-42986" /></a></p>
<p><em>The School of Open is a global community of volunteers focused on providing free education opportunities on the meaning, application, and impact of &#8220;openness&#8221; in the digital age and its benefit to creative endeavors, education, and research. Volunteers develop and run online courses, offline workshops, and real world training programs on topics such as Creative Commons licenses, open educational resources, and sharing creative works. The School of Open is coordinated by Creative Commons and P2PU, a peer learning community for developing and running free online courses.</em></p>


feed_id: http://creativecommons.org/?p=43004
title: CC-licensed gifts for Dad (and an easy way to support CC)
uri: CC-licensed-gifts-for-Dad-(and-an-easy-way-to-support-CC)
url: http://creativecommons.org/weblog/entry/43004
content:
<p align="center"><img src="media/f44df3be.giveopen-fathersday-notext-400.png" data-original-source="http://creativecommons.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/06/giveopen-fathersday-notext-400.png" width=400 height=281 /></p>
<p>Have you gotten your favorite dad a gift for Father&#8217;s Day yet? We&#8217;ve collected a few of our favorites. There&#8217;s bound to be something in this list for every father in your life, no matter whether he&#8217;s into classical music or experimental poetry. Those are the two main things dads like, right?</p>
<p>If you buy these (or anything) at Amazon and you&#8217;re in the US, then <a href="http://smile.amazon.com/ch/04-3585301">consider supporting Creative Commons through AmazonSmile</a>. If you make a purchase between now and Sunday, then CC will receive $5, in addition to our cut of the purchase.</p>
<div style="float:right; padding:10px" xmlns:dc="http://purl.org/dc/terms/" xmlns:cc="/ns#" about="https://www.flickr.com/photos/robertdouglass/9482032202/"><a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/robertdouglass/9482032202/"><img width="320" height="240" src="media/22196baf.9482032202_dfe6be7d69_n.jpg" data-original-source="http://farm6.staticflickr.com/5541/9482032202_dfe6be7d69_n.jpg" alt="Kimiko Ishizaka at OHM2013" /></a>
<p><small><a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/robertdouglass/9482032202/"><span property="dc:title">Kimiko Ishizaka at OHM2013</span></a> / <a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/robertdouglass/"><span property="cc:attributionName">Robert Douglass</span></a> / <a rel="license" href="/licenses/by-sa/2.0/">CC BY-SA</a></small></p>
</div>
<h3><a href="http://smile.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/B008XGZZL2/creatcommo09-20/ref=nosim/">Kimiko Ishizaka, <em>The Goldberg Variations</em></a></h3>
<p><a href="/publicdomain/zero/1.0/">CC0</a></p>
<p>Ishizaka&#8217;s excellent performance showed up on numerous best-of-the-year lists in 2012. It&#8217;s also in the public domain under CC0, meaning that anyone can use it for any purpose, commercial or noncommercial, with or without attribution. <a href="http://teamopen.cc/thomas/">When we interviewed Thomas Bonte about his involvement with the Open Goldberg Variations project</a>, he said, &#8220;You either go all the way or you don&#8217;t do it. Kimiko wanted her work to be used by a lot of artists. And yeah, mission accomplished.&#8221;</p>
<h3><a href="http://smile.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0615612652/creatcommo09-20/ref=nosim/">Thomas Meyer, <em>Beowulf</em></a></h3>
<p><a href="/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/">CC BY-NC-ND 3.0</a></p>
<p>&#8220;<a href="https://jacket2.org/commentary/thomas-meyer-%E2%80%93-beowulf-translation-fit-nine">Every translation I&#8217;d read felt impenetrable to me</a> with its block after block of nearly uniform lines,&#8221; Meyer writes. His translation of the ancient epic is many things &#8211; a gorgeous reimagining of how works from an oral tradition can look and behave on paper, an idiosyncratic melding of epic and experimental poetry &#8211; but it is stubbornly <em>not</em> block after block of uniform lines.</p>
<h3><a href="http://smile.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0446576441/creatcommo09-20/ref=nosim/">Lawrence Lessig, <em>Republic, Lost: How Money Corrupts Congress &#8211; and a Plan to Stop It</em></a></h3>
<p><a href="/licenses/by-nc/3.0/">CC BY-NC 3.0</a></p>
<p>In the year and a half since its publication, the CC co-founder&#8217;s book on money in politics has sparked a major, national discussion on how wealthy contributors influence politicians and policies on both sides of the aisle. You could also consider making a donation in Dad&#8217;s honor to <a href="https://mayday.us/">MAYDAY.US</a>, Larry&#8217;s SuperPAC to end all SuperPACs.</p>
<h3><a href="http://smile.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0615314465/creatcommo09-20/ref=nosim/">Randall Munroe, <em>xkcd volume 0</em></a></h3>
<p><a href="/licenses/by-nc/2.5/">CC BY-NC 2.5</a></p>
<p>The first collection of the best geek comic out there. There&#8217;s something for everyone in this volume, whether they&#8217;re a lover, a gamer or a mathematician. There&#8217;s even something for us copyright geeks, with the complete adventures of Doctorow, Lessig, et al in their complete superhero garb. <em>Review by Jessica Coates</em></p>
<p>Add your favorite CC-licensed picks in the comments.</p>
<p><strong>Previously:</strong> <a href="/weblog/entry/40991">Give open: CC&#8217;s holiday shopping list</a></p>


feed_id: http://creativecommons.org/?p=43022
title: Open Policy Network featured in Shareable
uri: Open-Policy-Network-featured-in-Shareable
url: http://creativecommons.org/weblog/entry/43022
content:
<p align="center"><a href="http://openpolicynetwork.org"><img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-42739" src="media/228f7ce9.Open-Policy-Network-600.png" data-original-source="http://creativecommons.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/05/Open-Policy-Network-600.png" alt="Open Policy Network-600" width="600" height="155" /></a></p>
<p>Cat Johnson at Shareable wrote an <a href="http://www.shareable.net/blog/open-policy-network-to-give-governments-a-license-to-share">excellent interview with CC&#8217;s Timothy Vollmer</a> on the Open Policy Network, and the importance of open policy in general.</p>
<blockquote><p><strong>It seems logical that publicly-funded resources would be made available to the public, but I know this is not always the case. What stands in the way of these resource being made available and how does the OPN plan to address this?</strong></p></blockquote>
<blockquote><p>To most it does feel logical — ethical even — that the public should have access to the materials funded by its tax dollars. That&#8217;s why our mantra with regard to the Open Policy Network is &#8220;publicly funded resources should be openly licensed resources.&#8221;</p></blockquote>
<blockquote><p>Right now this is not the case. In fact, oftentimes the public has to pay for materials several times over before they are granted access to it. Take the example of scholarly publishing. Many university researchers receive grants from the federal government to conduct their work. The public pays for this. The researcher does their work and then publishes in a commercial journal. That journal then sells access back to universities through subscription fees to those publications. I think most people would see that this is not an efficient &#8211; or just &#8211; use of the public&#8217;s investments.</p></blockquote>
<blockquote><p>I think what&#8217;s standing in the way of systemic policy change right now is &#8220;business as usual&#8221;&#8211;incumbent interests want things to stay the same. They want their business models to endure forever, even with massive disruptions of digital information and the web, which have essentially pushed publishing and distribution costs to zero.</p></blockquote>
<p><a href="http://www.shareable.net/blog/open-policy-network-to-give-governments-a-license-to-share">Read the full interview</a>. And don&#8217;t forget, <a href="/weblog/entry/42762">applications for the Institute for Open Leadership are due June 30</a>.</p>


feed_id: http://creativecommons.org/?p=43030
title: School of Open gets a facelift, plus other news
uri: School-of-Open-gets-a-facelift-plus-other-news
url: http://creativecommons.org/weblog/entry/43030
content:
<p>Since our <a href="/weblog/entry/41423">last comprehensive update</a>, the School of Open has been creating new courses, planning continent-wide launches, conducting research, and making itself over. </p>
<p><a href="http://schoolofopen.org/"><img src="media/2e43f4e0.soo-webpage-sn1.jpg" data-original-source="http://creativecommons.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/06/soo-webpage-sn1.jpg" alt="soo webpage sn" width="730" height="691" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-43059" /></a></p>
<h3>New Web Space</h3>
<p>We have a new web space! Previously, communications about our major projects have been scattered throughout the <a href="/tag/school-of-open">blogosphere</a> and various wiki, Lernanta, and WordPress pages. But today we are happy to announce that there is one place you can visit to learn about and get involved with the School of Open, including newbies who just want to find a course to take. </p>
<p>Our web address hasn&#8217;t changed; it&#8217;s still <a href="http://schoolofopen.org/">http://schoolofopen.org</a>. We invite any and all feedback at our <a href="http://thepeople.p2pu.org/category/school-of-open">new discussion space</a>.</p>
<h3>New Courses</h3>
<p>After wrapping our first round of facilitated courses on <a href="/weblog/entry/42142">copyright, Creative Commons</a>, and <a href="/weblog/entry/41933">Wikipedia</a> earlier this year, we continued to develop courses for independent or group study. Here are the ones we recently launched, including a collaboration with Mozilla&#8217;s Webmaker initiative!</p>
<p>(Check out <a href="http://schoolofopen.p2pu.org/courses/#stand-alone-courses">all of our stand-alone courses</a> regardless of when they launched.)</p>
<h4>→ <a href="https://training.instructure.com/courses/1276118">How to use Open Educational Resources (OER)</a></h4>
<p>Developed by Boyoung Chae and co. over at the Washington State Board for Community and Technical Colleges (SBCTC), this course was initially designed to help onboard community college faculty and staff with the <a href="/licenses/by/3.0/">CC BY</a>&#8211;licensed textbooks coming out of WA&#8217;s <a href="http://opencourselibrary.org/">Open Course Library</a> project. We&#8217;ve since worked with them to adapt the course for the general public!</p>
<p>The self-paced modules walk you through how to incorporate open educational resources into your teaching practice, in addition to using open licenses and locating existing OER. One past participant <a href="http://www.quicktopic.com/50/H/76iHswxqYgvF">said</a>,</p>
<blockquote><p>&#8220;How to Use OER is a great introduction to this amazing development in education. This will establish a good foundation for understanding the various components of open resources or fill in gaps that you might have. I am grateful the course will remain open after completion so that the materials and discussions can be revisited.&#8221;</p></blockquote>
<h4>→ <a href="https://p2pu.org/en/courses/2178/abc-del-derecho-de-autor-para-bibliotecarios-de-am%C3%A9rica-latina/">ABC of Copyright for Librarians in Latin America</a></h4>
<p>This Spanish language course seeks to help librarians and library users strengthen their knowledge of copyright laws in Latin America and the challenges that exist to access to information in the 21st century. CC affiliates from Colombia, El Salvador and Uruguay, in collaboration with the Karisma Foundation, developed this course in response to increasingly restrictive copyright laws in Latin America and around the globe. The course contains examples, analysis and open models based on Latin American cases and legislation. Read more about the course launch <a href="/weblog/entry/42977">here</a>.</p>
<h4>→ <a href="https://training.webmakerprototypes.org/en/start-here/">Mozilla Webmaker Training for Teachers (and other web users)</a></h4>
<p>Mozilla Webmaker is all about transforming web users into web <em>makers</em>, aka citizens of the web who do more than just consume content, but also create it while leveraging open resources and tools. The new Mozilla Webmaker Training for Teachers embeds knowledge about open throughout its set of self-paced modules that will help you to:</p>
<ul>
<li>	&#8220;Integrate the mechanics, culture and citizenship of the web into your practice.&#8221;</li>
<li>	&#8220;Bring creativity to your teaching through open, participatory methods.&#8221;</li>
<li>	&#8220;Connect with fellow mentors and educators (especially those in your local area) to share knowledge and resources.&#8221;</li>
</ul>
<h3>New Survey</h3>
<p>In collaboration with the OER Research Hub, we&#8217;ve been <a href="/weblog/entry/40393">conducting research</a> on the impact of School of Open courses. As part of this project, we invite you to participate in a <a href="https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/School_Of_Open_ALL">survey</a> we created for participants of stand-alone courses.</p>
<p>If you haven&#8217;t taken a course yet but plan to, the survey is linked at the end of <a href="http://schoolofopen.p2pu.org/courses/#stand-alone-courses">every stand-alone course</a> so you can take it when you do complete it. The survey will remain open through the end of August. If you have ever gone through a School of Open course on your own, please:</p>
<p><a href="https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/School_Of_Open_ALL"><center><button type="button"><font size="4"><strong>Take the Survey</strong></font></button></center></a></p>
<h3>New Plans for a School of Open Africa</h3>
<p>Volunteers in Kenya, South Africa, Tanzania, and Nigeria are planning for a School of Open Africa launch in September. Each region will develop and run a training program or course on the use and application of open resources. Stay tuned for a guest post detailing plans, and check out the current programs running in Kenya and South Africa for now:</p>
<p>→ <a href="http://schoolofopen.p2pu.org/training-programs/#soo-kenya">School of Open Kenya Initiative</a><br />
→ <a href="http://schoolofopen.p2pu.org/training-programs/#cc4kids">Creative Commons for Kids (South Africa)</a><br />
→ <a href="http://schoolofopen.p2pu.org/training-programs/#activate">Activate Africa (South Africa)</a></p>
<hr />
Interested in any of the above activities? <strong><a href="http://schoolofopen.p2pu.org/get-involved/">Get Involved.</a></strong></p>
<p>To receive future updates like this one, sign up for <strong><a href="http://groups.google.com/group/school-of-open-announce">School of Open Announcements</a>.</strong></p>
<hr />
<h3>About the School of Open</h3>
<p><a href="http://schoolofopen.org/"><img src="media/b4034b97.SOO-logo-100x100.png" data-original-source="http://creativecommons.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/06/SOO-logo-100x100.png" alt="SOO-logo-100x100" width="100" height="98" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-42986" /></a></p>
<p><em>The School of Open is a global community of volunteers focused on providing free education opportunities on the meaning, application, and impact of &#8220;openness&#8221; in the digital age and its benefit to creative endeavors, education, and research. Volunteers develop and run online courses, offline workshops, and real world training programs on topics such as Creative Commons licenses, open educational resources, and sharing creative works. The School of Open is coordinated by Creative Commons and P2PU, a peer learning community for developing and running free online courses.</em></p>


