Berkman Center for Internet & Society in San Francisco

Melissa Reeder, September 11th, 2008

If you’re around the San Francisco Bay Area on Monday Sept. 15th, definitely check out this event:
Harvard University’s Berkman Center for Internet & Society is hosting a book talk and reception in honor of their newest publication Born Digital: Understanding the First Generation of Digital Natives by John Palfrey and Urs Gasser. We hope to see you there!

Special thanks to these sponsors: David Hornik of August Capital, the Berkeley Center for Law and Technology, Creative Commons, Tod Cohen of eBay Inc., the Electronic Frontier Foundation, Stanford’s Center for Internet & Society, and Meg Garlinghouse of Yahoo! Inc.

Late October in Amsterdam, Stockholm, and Gothenburg

Mike Linksvayer, September 8th, 2008

Three excellent commons themed events will occur in northern Europe October 20-26 with no days between them! Each has a significantly different focus. All are highly recommended and will feature participants, speakers, and organizers from Creative Commons’ network throughout Europe and the U.S.

First comes the 3rd COMMUNIA Workshop, October 20-21 in Amsterdam. A workshop, this is probably the most specialized of the three events, titled Marking the public domain: relinquishment & certification. For an update on one part of CC’s work related to this, see the announcement of CC0 beta/discussion draft 3.

Next is the Nordic Cultural Commons Conference 2008, held October 22-23 at the Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm. Bringing together all Nordic Creative Commons scholars and practitioners, the conference explores open content licensing and its implications for law and policy, business, culture, and the public sector. This may be the event of the year to learn about open content licensing. Early bird registration ends September 21.

Wrapping up the week is the Free Society Conference and Nordic Summit 2008, held October 24-26 in Gothenburg. Co-organized by Creative Commons Sweden, Free Software Foundation Europe and Wikimedia Sverige, FSCONS aims to be a landmark event in bringing the different movements working for digital freedom together, including free culture, free software, and developments that further both. Early bird registration ends September 15.

See you at one, two, or all three!

Free Culture Conference 2008

Fred Benenson, September 8th, 2008

Just after I graduated from NYU, I went to work as the ‘free culture’ intern at Creative Commons during the summer of 2005. I had started the Free Culture @ NYU chapter that year and CC felt like a great fit, and still does. But one of the things that puzzled me that summer was that there weren’t more free culture student activists in the bay area at the time. Clearly, things have changed.

Through the help of Berkeley’s budding Free Culture chapter, Students for Free Culture been able to organize a great conference for Fall break.

We’ll have keynotes by CC founder Lawrence Lessig, copyright legend Pam Samuelson, and John Lilly of Mozilla.

Day 1 will be open to the public and consist of panels and presentations in conjunction with the keynotes, and Day 2 will be workshops, team building, and learning about effective activism.

We’re doing a pay-what-you-feel system reminiscent of the one made famous by Radiohead and Girl Talk, but with one extra twist: ours also shows publicly what the average amount paid is, and right now it is around $27.

Finally, we have raised money in order to fly students in active chapters out to Berkeley for the conference, so if you’re interested in attending and have registered your chapter with Students for Free Culture, please book your flights now and visit our Travel page for more information.

If you’re looking to get involved in the Free Culture movement, I couldn’t suggest a better way of getting involved in our community.

And for what its worth — when considering interns CC has been known to look favorably upon candidates who have demonstrated involvement in Free Culture chapters.

Registration opens today, so sign up now!

SF Salon – CC & Citizen Media – Open Request for Presenters!

Allison Domicone, September 4th, 2008

Attention citizen media advocates and organizers! Our next CC Salon in San Francisco will focus on CC in the realm of citizen media, and this time, we’re trying something a little different: we’re making an open request for presenters! With so many organizations and projects currently tapping into a more democratic and open approach to information sharing, we feel this is a perfect time to spotlight such innovative approaches to media.

The Salon will be held on Wednesday evening, November 12, just post-election, a fitting time to explore the ways in which Creative Commons can help facilitate the exchange of ideas (political or otherwise) through citizen journalism and other forms of media. Presentations should be 10 to 15 minutes long, allowing time for questions and discussion at the end, and may include a variety of media (including film, sound bytes, power point, etc.). We will accept presentation requests until September 30, at which time we will choose two that we feel best exemplify a spirit of open and shared culture.

Be sure to spread the word to citizen media organizations and projects that are either located in the Bay Area or have representation there.

For more information and to submit a presentation request, please send an email to salon@creativecommons.org.

CC Salon LA TONIGHT! Xeni Jardin and GOOD Magazine

Cameron Parkins, September 3rd, 2008

One last reminder that we are hosting the latest CC Salon LA tonight (9/3/08). Details below:

• WHO: Xeni Jardin, Tech Culture Journalist + co-editor at Boing Boing, Casey Caplowe, Creative Director at GOOD Magazine
• WHAT: Discussions of openness in journalism with live music provided by Vosotros
• WHEN: Tonight, 7:30PM – 9:30PM
• WHERE: FOUND Gallery in Silverlake (Google map)
• PRICE: Free entry and free drinks
• NETWORK:Upcoming // Facebook

Looking forward to seeing you all there!

First Roundtable Creative Commons Russia

Catharina Maracke, September 3rd, 2008

We are very pleased to announce that the ‘First Roundtable on the Introduction of Creative Commons licenses in the Russian Federation’ will be organized on Tuesday, September 9, 2008 between 16:30 and 19:00 in central Moscow. The roundtable will be chaired by Anton Nossik (SUP) and Syb Groeneveld (Creative Commons Russia).

Creative Commons International has been working with almost 50 local Creative Commons jurisdiction projects to port the licenses to their respective Copyright legislation. However, the CC licenses have not yet been ported to the Russian Federation. With the support of Syb Groeneveld (CC Ambassador for the Russian Federation) and his initiative to revive the discussion by hosting a first roundtable with IT and IP experts, we hope to get the porting process in the Russian Federation started in the near future.

Details can be found here:

To date, the CC-licenses have not been ported to the Russian Federation. This does not mean there is no activity or interest in CC. The opportunity of introducing CC licenses in the Russian Federation has been studied. Various public and private institutes have organized well-visited lectures on the topic and the first companies, institutes and artists are planning to work with the Russian license. However not much progress has been made to start the adaptation and localization of the licenses to Russian law.

This Roundtable will therefore bring together a small group of legal, Internet and policy experts to set an agenda on the introduction of the licenses in the Russian Federation. The outcome should be a broadly supported six months roadmap towards introduction of the licenses and, where possible, a division of the tasks to be conducted in this process. Although places for the event are limited (max 12 people) please contact Syb Groeneveld and let him know if you are interested in the event by sending an email to syb at creativecommons dot org.

Berkman celebrates recent publication of Born Digital: Understanding The First Generation of Digital Natives in San Francisco

Melissa Reeder, September 2nd, 2008

Harvard University’s Berkman Center for Internet & Society (where the idea of CC originated) will be venturing out of Cambridge, MA in order to celebrate the release of their newest publication on Sept. 15th at Hotel Vitale, right here in San Francisco. Born Digital: Understanding the First Generation of Digital Natives by John Palfrey and Urs Gasser, explores many of the key issues at the intersection of new technology and young people, including privacy, safety, creativity, learning, civic engagement. Details are below and we hope to see you there!

Book Talk and Reception:
Monday, September 15th, 2008
6:00PM, to be followed by a cocktail reception.
Free and open to the public, no RSVP required

Location
Hotel Vitale
8 Mission St
San Francisco, CA 94105
(415) 278-3700
Directions and map

The book talk and reception is generously co-hosted by: David Hornik of August Capital, the Berkeley Center for Law and Technology, Creative Commons, Tod Cohen of eBay Inc., the Electronic Frontier Foundation, Stanford’s Center for Internet & Society, and Meg Garlinghouse of Yahoo! Inc.

CC Romania Promotes Creativity with Localized Licenses

Michelle Thorne, September 1st, 2008

Creators in Romania now have the option to license their creative works under one of the six Creative Commons licenses tailored to Romanian law. The Creative Commons team in Romania, led by Bogdan Manolea and Stefan Gavrilescu and supported by the Association for Technology and Internet, carried out the porting process and public discussion with local and international legal experts and in consultation with Creative Commons International.

“Romania” by robynejay with works from artists listed at http://www.flickr.com/photos/learnscope/2609671247/ | CC BY NC SA

The Romanian licenses will be launched in Bucharest on September 2 at 1600 during an event hosted by the Center for Independent Journalism. Speaking at the event are Razvan Rusu from Travka, the first Romanian band to license their entire album under a CC license; Ioana Avadani from the Center for Independent Journalism; and Florin Grozea from the popular Romanian band Hi-Q.

Read more in our press release (in English and Romanian).

REMINDER: CC Salon LA Next Week (9/3/08): Xeni Jardin and GOOD Magazine

Cameron Parkins, August 27th, 2008

A friendly reminder that we are hosting the latest CC Salon LA next week (9/3/08) at the FOUND Gallery in Silverlake (Google map) between 7:30PM-9:30PM. Joining us will be Xeni Jardin, Tech Culture Journalist and co-editor at Boing Boing, and Casey Caplowe, Creative Director of GOOD Magazine.

Both will discuss how CC, and ‘openness’ in general, has been employed in their respective undertakings, touching on the the successes they have had as well as obstacles they have had to overcome, specifically in regards to traditional and non-traditional journalism. Both will be available for Q&A after their presentations.

Follow the event on Upcoming, mark attending on Facebook, and make sure to come down and hear from two exemplary members of the CC community on their experiences with open licensing. As always, there will be free (as in beer) drinks for the entire night.

UPDATE: We are pleased to announce that the wonderful sounds of Vosotros will be heard at the Salon in between presenters, giving you yet another reason to attend!

Announcing September’s CC Salon NYC

Fred Benenson, August 20th, 2008

After the success of July’s CC Salon NYC, we’re even more excited about inviting you to September’s!

The Open Planning Project has once again generously allowed us to use their loft space in the West Village for the salon and a reception afterward.

September’s Salon will feature presentations from Rachel Sterne from GroundReport.com, Michael Galpert from A.viary.com, and a special screening / premier of two new shorts from the Meerkat Arts Media Collective.

Here are the details:

Tuesday, September 30th, from 7-10pm
The Open Planing Project
349 W. 12th St., 1st Floor

We’ll also have free (as in beer) beer for the reception afterward. If you didn’t make it to July’s salon, don’t miss this one, and if you did, you’ll know to come early as space is limited.

Follow the event via Upcoming.org and RSVP via the Facebook event or e-mailing me – fred [at] creativecommons.org