Free Culture Forum is October 29th – November 1st in Barcelona!

Fred Benenson, October 26th, 2009

If you’re anywhere near Barcelona this coming weekend, you should seriously consider attending the Free Culture Forum:

Across the planet, people are recognizing the need for an international space to build and coordinate a global framework and common agenda for issues surrounding free culture and access to knowledge. The Free Culture Forum of Barcelona aims to create such a space. Bringing together under the same roof the key organizations and active voices in the free culture and knowledge space, the Forum will be a meeting point to sit and put together the answers to the pressing questions behind the present paradigm shift.

Representatives from Creative Commons Spain, Students for Free Culture and Wikimedia will be in attendance (among many others), so it’ll be a great opportunity to meet plenty of people in our community. Registration is free and open to the public, but there are more details on how to get involved here.

Two great SF Bay Area events this Thursday! (10/15/09)

Allison Domicone, October 12th, 2009

Hey Bay Area friends – we’ve got two great CC events lined up this Thursday, one in Mountain View and one in San Francisco. Plus, a third event on Friday that is sure to be equally as great. We hope you can make it to one of them!

Science Commons Salon: Creative Commons and LinkedIn are pleased to present an evening of thought-provoking discussions about Science 2.0 and strategies for faster, more efficient web-enabled scientific research. The evening will start with Pecha Kucha style talks. Following the opening talks, John Wilbanks will be moderating a discussion between Reid Hoffman and Joi Ito on Innovation in Open Systems.

When: Thursday, October 15th, 6pm
Where: LinkedIn Campus, Mountain View. (map and directions).

ccSalon SF : Creative Commons, KALW, and Chicago Public Radio’s Sound Opinions are pleased to present Chicago Tribune music critic and author Greg Kot in conversation with music journalist David Downs . Kot’s new book, Ripped: How the Wired Generation Revolutionized Music, explores the changing face of the music industry. Downs and Kot will discuss the book, as well as how digital sharing and participatory culture are shaping how music is created and consumed. Audience questions and discussion will follow the conversation.

When: Thursday, October 15, 7-9pm
Where: PariSoMa, 1436 Howard St. (map and directions). Plenty of street parking available. (Please note, the space is located up two steep flights of stairs, with no elevator access.)

Light refreshments will be provided, and since we rely on the generosity of our community to keep us afloat, we’ll be accepting donations for CC at the door.

Check out the event posting on Upcoming and let us know you’re coming on Facebook. We hope to see you there!

On Friday, Greg Kot will also be doing a reading, talk, and book signing at the Booksmith on Haight St. in San Francisco. If you’ll be missing the salon with Greg on Thursday, we encourage you to check out Friday’s reading! A handful of CC staff will be at the event, so be sure to say hi! Friday, October 16th, 7:30 pm.

Wikis Take Manhattan III is this Saturday!

Fred Benenson, October 5th, 2009

Wikis Take Manhattan is a scavenger hunt and free content photography contest aimed at illustrating Wikipedia and StreetsWiki articles covering sites and street features in Manhattan and across the five boroughs of New York City.

Scheduled for Saturday, October 10, 2009, this event will be a sequel to the spring 2008 Wikipedia Takes Manhattan (WTM-1) and last fall’s Wikis Take Manhattan (WTM-2) event. Check out the hoppin’ Wikipedia page for full details.

The day will be sponsored by Free Culture @ Columbia, the Columbia University chapter of Students for Free Culture, in cooperation with Free Culture @ NYU, The Open Planning Project, Wikimedia New York City and Wikipedia volunteers.

If you’re attending, make sure to register online here.

All Wikipedians and non-Wikipedians are invited to participate in teams of up to three (no special knowledge is required at all, just a digital camera and a love of the city).

REMINDER: CC Salon NYC is Monday October 5th

Fred Benenson, October 1st, 2009

Just a quick reminder that October’s CC Salon NYC is Monday night!

We’ve got a brand new home for the Salons – the Open Planning Project has generously offered their incredible penthouse.

So come out to have some beers with the CC community watch some cool presentations, and meet some new faces in the free culture space.

October’s Salon will feature short presentations from Adam Clark Estes, director of citizen journalism at the Huffington Post Investigative Fund talking about how the HuffPo is using CC to fuel the future of journalism, Shelley Bernstein, Chief Technology Officer of the Brooklyn Museum discussing their amazing community and commons efforts, and myself discussing some current CC projects, achievements, and a sneak peak at what I’ve been working on for the Creative Commons Network.

Here are the details:

Monday, October 5th, from 7-10pm
The Open Planning Project
148 Lafayette St
Between Grand & Howard
New York, NY

We’ll have free (as in beer) beer. If you’ve didn’t make it to any past CC Salons, don’t miss this one, and if you did, you’ll know to come early as space is limited.

RSVP to the event via Facebook or by e-mailing me: fred [at] creativecommons.org.

Announcing October’s ccSalon SF! (10/15/09)

Allison Domicone, September 28th, 2009

Creative Commons, KALW, and Chicago Public Radio’s Sound Opinions are pleased to present Chicago Tribune music critic and author Greg Kot in conversation with music journalist David Downs. Kot’s new book, Ripped: How the Wired Generation Revolutionized Music, explores the changing face of the music industry. Downs and Kot will discuss the book, as well as how digital sharing and participatory culture are shaping how music is created and consumed. Audience questions and discussion will follow the conversation.

When: Thursday, October 15, 7-9pm
Where: PariSoMa, 1436 Howard St. (map and directions). Plenty of street parking available. (Please note, the space is located up two steep flights of stairs, and unfortunately does not currently have elevator access.)

Light refreshments will be provided, and since we rely on the generosity of our community to keep us afloat, we’ll be accepting donations for CC at the door.

Check out the event posting on Upcoming and let us know you’re coming on Facebook. We hope to see you there!

If you can’t make it to the salon on Thursday (or even if you can!), we’re excited to also announce that the following evening, Greg will be doing a reading, talk, and book signing at the Booksmith on Haight St. in San Francisco. Come out to one of San Francisco’s premier independent bookstores for a more intimate evening with Greg. Friday, October 16th, 7:30 pm.

Announcing October’s CC Salon NYC

Fred Benenson, September 21st, 2009

CC Salon NYC is back with a brand new home! The Open Planning Project has generously offered their incredible penthouse for the October salon.

So come out to have some beers with the CC community watch some cool presentations, and meet some new faces in the free culture space.

October’s Salon will feature short presentations from Adam Clark Estes, director of citizen journalism at the Huffington Post Investigative Fund talking about how the HuffPo is using CC to fuel the future of journalism, Shelley Bernstein, Chief Technology Officer of the Brooklyn Museum discussing their amazing community and commons efforts, and one more special guest TBA.

Here are the details:

Monday, October 5th, from 7-10pm
The Open Planning Project
148 Lafayette St
Between Grand & Howard
New York, NY

We’ll have free (as in beer) beer. If you’ve didn’t make it to any past CC Salons, don’t miss this one, and if you did, you’ll know to come early as space is limited.

RSVP to the event via Facebook or by e-mailing me: fred [at] creativecommons.org.

Software Freedom Day is September 19th

Fred Benenson, September 17th, 2009

It should be no surprise that here at CC, we’re huge fans of Free Software. Every bit we release, from our JS Widget to the code running the CC Network itself to our Facebook Application is free software. That’s why we think its important to celebrate Software Freedom Day on Saturday, September 19th. There are numerous celebrations happening around the world, but I”ll be attending the one in NYC:

6pm to 10pm.
148 Lafayette St, 12th Floor.
New York, NY

If you’d like to attend the NYC event, please RSVP required to joshlevy.ny AT gmail. Have a great Software Freedom Day!

Join Creative Commons for Mozilla Service Week September 14-21

Nathan Yergler, September 2nd, 2009

Mozilla Service Week is happening September 14-21, 2009, and during that week Mozilla is trying to bring people together to help teach one another about the web. Creative Commons is answering Mozilla’s call for participation by hosting an online help desk via our IRC channel. Our IRC channel (#cc on the Freenode network) is typically a place where our developers and people interested in the technology of CC hang out. During Service Week we’re inviting everyone to join us there for a virtual CC help desk.

The CC help desk is a place for experienced CC-ers (staff, Jurisdiction partners, and community members), to come together to share their collective expertise with those that are new to CC and need a little, or a lot, of guidance.

The CC community will be providing help with the following topics:

• General CC help
• CC technology (ccREL and software projects)
• Where and how to publish CC works
• Where and how to find CC works
• CC in education and science

If you’d like to help out, add your name to our Mozilla Service Week wiki page and pledge your hours at mozillaservice.org. If you have questions, join the channel during Service Week and ask a volunteer.

More information can be found on the wiki page,

OneWebDay 2009 is September 22nd

Fred Benenson, September 1st, 2009

It is September again, and that means OneWebDay is just around the corner on September 22nd. One Web Day is a once-a-year celebration of all that is good about the Web, and was launched in 2006 by Susan Crawford. You might recognize Susan’s name as President Obama’s Special Assistant for Science, Technology, and Innovation Policy. While Susan is now at the White House, dozens of teams around the world are preparing ready for the festivities, so check out OneWebdDay’s map or sign up to start your own team here.

One Web. For All.

This year’s One Web Day theme is “One Web. For All.” And while that might seem like an obvious theme for a day celebrating the Web, it’s an unfortunate reality that the Web isn’t yet available to everyone everywhere. Though this fact is changing as more of the world gets online, we’ve still got a ways to go. Making sure the web is for everyone is also a goal shared by Creative Commons. We’ve designed our tools and licenses to work internationally, regardless of jurisdiction or language. But it also means we’ve translated our licenses into the languages of dozens of different jurisdictions. For more information on our international efforts, check out our international page.

Making sure the web is for everyone is also about making sure everyone can participate. And that means open standards, low transaction costs, and transparent policies. Efforts like the push for network neutrality amongst ISPs are crucial components to maintaining that the web remains open for all.

So on September 22nd, celebrate OneWebDay by taking some time to think about how important it is that we can all participate in the web and how that fact has fundamentally changed our society.

3rd CC Community Call (8/18/09) recording now online

Allison Domicone, August 25th, 2009

We hosted our third community conference call last Tuesday, August 18. Donors were invited to join members of CC’s staff and board, including CEO Joi Ito and new Board Member Glenn Otis Brown, to hear updates from CC’s most recent board meeting, which included an overview of the steps we are taking to develop CC as a global organization, as well as progress on consolidating around the core Creative Commons brand. We also took questions and comments from participants. The call was a great success and a valuable opportunity to reach out to and connect with our supporters; we will continue to host community conference calls on a quarterly basis, and anyone giving $300 or more will be invited to take part.

An audio recording of the call is now available online. Thanks to everyone who participated, and as always, we would like to extend a big thank you to all members of our community for your continued support!