Carmen and Camille Launch “Mix. Promote. Sell.” Remix Campaign on Indaba

Eric Steuer, July 1st, 2009

Twin sister pop-rock act Carmen and Camille recently launched a very cool CC remix project with Indaba Music. They’ve made the audio stems from their previously unreleased song “Shine 4U” available under a Creative Commons Attribution license, and are encouraging people to use them in new songs. Since the stems are under CC’s most permissive license, you’re free to not only share but also sell and commercially license your remix, as long as you give the duo credit for supplying the source material.

The sisters, whose music has been featured on MTV’s TRL and who have licensed many of their tracks to shows such as The Hills, worked closely with Indaba on the project. Says vocalist/guitarist Camille, in the project’s press release:

“I think what makes us most excited about the outcome of this campaign is getting to hear our song redone in many different ways. We can’t wait to hear what people can add to the track. And the new versions of the song may bring us new fans that it would have taken us a long time to reach, which is great.”

We think these two have the right idea!

Upload your remix to Indaba Music through July 21st, 2009. Winners will be announced on August 14th; prizes include Camel Audio software, Sennheiser headphones, and pro memberships to Indaba Music.

Indaba tells us that entries are currently at the rate of about 1,000 per week, which means there’s a huge amount of music being created that will be available for all kinds of uses under the CC license that Cameron and Camille chose. We’d love to hear from anyone who ends up selling or commercially licensing their remix – if this applies to you, please shoot us a note at press@creativecommons.org.

GOOD: “We Like to Share” interview series

Eric Steuer, July 1st, 2009

This past December, I conducted a series of interviews with people about the value of sharing information and resources in their respective fields of work. The interviews were edited into a podcast for GOOD entitled “We Like to Share” that was made available to people who attended the GOOD December series of events in Los Angeles. Last week, GOOD began posting CC BY-licensed text versions of the interviews on its website and will roll out one a week over the next few months. The first interview is with Chris Hughes, one of the co-founders of Facebook, who was the online strategist for the Barack Obama campaign. Check back at “We Like to Share” each Thursday (starting tomorrow) to read interviews with iconic sharers like Jimmy Wales, Chris Dibona, Frances Pinter, Jesse Dylan, and Curt Smith.

Open Governance at Tomorrow’s Open Everything Berlin

Michelle Thorne, June 24th, 2009

It’s here again. Our monthly CC Salon + Open Everything Berlin event is on for this Thursday, June 25, and this time we’re talking about Open Governance.

How do open concepts translate into the political sphere? To what extent is democracy fueled by values such as transparency, access, and participation? What do open source projects teach us about other fields of governance?

The fifth CC Salon + Open Everything Berlin takes place within Seitensprünge, a Berliner event series about political communication. Speaking at the salon is CC Germany’s Public Project Lead Markus Beckedahl, whose seasoned blog coverage is keeping the public abreast of Germany’s dawning internet censorship and other pressing political topics. Also joining us is Klas Roggenkamp from the German political discussion forum Wahl.de and media expert Ute Pannen, who will share commentary on open strategies used during the Obama’s campaign. We’ll also be hearing from Sebastian Sooth, who is reporting on open.nysenate.gov, a project with the New York State to give users direct access to its government data through APIs and original software.

Looks like we’ve got a lot of good topics ahead. Hope to see you there!

When: Thursday, 25.06.09, 20:00h

Where: newthinking store, Tucholskystr. 48, 10117 Berlin Mitte

Our OVC Wrapup

Fred Benenson, June 23rd, 2009

We wanted to give big thanks to Ben, Dean, Elizabeth, Adi, and all the volunteers to helped make the fantastic Open Video Conference happen. Myself, Jane and Alex K were all in attendance on behalf of CC and we figured we’d post a wrap up about our experience at the conference.

At the CC Salon NYC / OVC Pre-party, I was able to record my conversation with Brett Gaylor, the director and creator of RiP! A Remix Manifesto which also screened at OVC. You can download our interview in ogg here, or mp3 here, available under a our Attribution license. Fans of Adam McHeffey will be happy to watch a YouTube video of his performance here. And last but not least, thanks to Erik Möller from the Wikimedia Foundation for guiding us through Wikipedia’s switch to CC-BY-SA.

And of course, we couldn’t forget about Blip.tv for supplying the beer at the salon, For Your Imagination Studios for the space, and Parker and Wesley for helping out with setup and breakdown. We couldn’t have done it without you guys!

As for the OVC itself, we were blown away with the focus and intensity in every panel and session. I repeatedly heard from attendees how nice it was to have 100% of a conference focused on an issue that typically receives only 10% of the attention. One of my favorite presentations was by Chris Blizzard from Mozilla showing of Firefox’s 3.5 Ogg Theora capabilities. Here’s a quick screen cast some of the capabilities Chris showed off at the conference:

On Saturday afternoon I gave a well packed luncheon presentation on Open Video, Metadata, and Creative Commons. You can download the slides from my presentation here.

Here’s a brief summary from Jane and Alex who attended on behalf of ccLearn:

OVC by Alex Kozak / ccLearn

ccLearn also attended the first ever Open Video Conference and had a blast. We think much of the OVC’s success is due to the fact that so much of it was relevant to openness in general that education naturally fit the bill. “Open Video in Education” especially blew us away by the diversity of forward thinking present in the room by both open education advocates and those with little to no experience with open educational resources (OER). Most everyone in the room, including the audience, were in agreement that open video and open technologies are essential to the future of education. The expressed concerns were more about how to convince the higher-ups at their institutions to see the light.

To reiterate, the session was not lacking in representation. Someone remarked how the variety of perspectives yielded a kind of “transformer panel.” From Bjoern Hassler (Cambridge University’s Centre for Applied Research in Educational Technologies) who set the tone in the beginning by assuming that it is (or should be) apparent to everyone that CC BY is the best license for OER, Tiffiny Cheng (Participatory Culture Foundation) who highlighted Miro, the open source free high definition video player, to UC Berkeley’s webcast.berkeley, the panel was diverse but consistent in their view that open video for education is essential, that CC licenses for that video is a given, and that—to quote an audience member’s words—”You have to do more than just tape lectures.”

Finally, you can also watch most of the main hall sessions on the Livestream feed page for the OVC, though Flash is required. We’re assured these will be available in Theora in short order.

Great job OVC, we’re looking forward to the next one!

ccSalon SF next Wednesday (6/24/09)

Allison Domicone, June 18th, 2009

We hope you can join us next Wednesday for June’s ccSalon SF! We’ll be exploring the digital intersection of art, history, and culture, and how CC can play a defining role in enriching all three. Our presenters for the evening:

* Francesco Spagnolo, Director of Research and Collections at the Magnes Museum in Berkeley.
* Dave Toole, CEO and Founder, Outhink Media.
* Nancy Van House, Professor, UC Berkeley School of Information.

When: Wednesday, June 24, 7-9pm
Location: PariSoMa, 1436 Howard St. (map and directions).
The event is free and open to the public, and light refreshments will be served! More information at the ccSalon SF page of our Wiki.

Check it out on Upcoming and Facebook. We hope to see you there!

Remember, ccSalons are global events, and anyone can start one, no matter where you live. We encourage you to check out our resources for starting your own salon in your area.

REMINDER: CC Salon NYC / OVC Pre-party is Thursday Night (+music & beer)

Fred Benenson, June 16th, 2009

Just a reminder that the Creative Commons Salon NYC / Official Open Video Conference Pre-party is happening Thursday night!

I’m also excited to announce that we’ve added a live acoustic set from CC musician Adam McHeffey (of FrostClick fame) as well as lots of cold beer sponsored by blip.tv!

Here’s all the info:

June’s Salon will feature an in depth chat with Brett Gaylor, writer and director of RiP! A Remix Manifesto, a presentation by Erik Moeller, Deputy Director of the Wikimedia Foundation WMF on Wikipedia’s switch to Creative Commons licenses, and a live acoustic set from singer song writer Adam McHeffey.

Thursday, June 18th, from 7-10pm
For Your Imagination Loft
22 W. 27th St., 6th Floor
Between Broadway & 6th Ave.
New York, NY

We’ll have free (as in beer) beer for the reception afterward. 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.

Cologne Commons: Festival for Free Music

Michelle Thorne, June 10th, 2009

We’re counting down the days until June 12, when the free music festival Cologne Commons kicks off in Germany’s metropolis on the Rhine. The festival invites netlabels, musicians, and business developers alike to the two-day conference and party in Cologne.

Sessions cover key topics in the free music scene, like mobile music, games, the legal backbone of running a netlabel, and successful case studies and business models for online distribution. And when the sun sets, the festival turns up the lights on new musical talent from across Europe.

Tickets for the June 12-13 event can be booked online, but if you can’t make it in person, follow the action on Twitter or listen to the CC Compilations.

From the Cologne Commons website:

Although netlabels play a central role in this year’s festival, it is by far not limited only to music. More generally the focus is on Creative Commons everything related to art and media – with the rise of a new cultural economy and perspectives for young artists in mind.

“Entertainment for the Braindead” by Christopher Pattberg / Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Germany license

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CC in Torino, June 26-30

Mike Linksvayer, June 10th, 2009

Photo by Chensiyuan / CC BY-SA

Two fantastic Creative Commons and related events happening in Turin, Italy late this month, with registration deadlines fast approaching.

June 26 is a one day CC Technology Summit. This is the place to be for learning how CC and others are using the Semantic Web to support open and interoperable rights information, decentralized copyright registries, machine-readable citation, and more. Unintentionally it is also a showcase of the global nature of CC technology innovation, with 13 presenters from 8 countries. The registration price is €75 or €50 for COMMUNIA attendees (see below) and CC Network members and the deadline is June 15. See video and slides from last year’s CC tech summits at Google in Mountain View, California and MIT in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

The Second COMMUNIA International Conference 2009 is scheduled for Sunday 28, Monday 29 & Tuesday 30 June 2009 in Torino, under the title Global Science and the Economics of Knowledge-Sharing Institutions. Among the exciting keynote addresses is John Wilbanks of Science Commons. Registration is €168 and closes June 12. See one of our past posts on COMMUNIA, the European Thematic Network for the Digital Public Domain.

Both events promise compelling, cutting-edge talks, and are also a fantastic opportunity to meet many of the leads of CC jurisdiction projects in Europe. A special mention and thanks must be given to Juan Carlos De Martin, project lead of CC Italy, organizer of COMMUNIA, and Co-director, NEXA Center for Internet & Society, Politecnico of Torino, speaker and host at both events!

I hope to see you in Torino.

Remix NYC: Get Your Face In The Opening NYC Screening of “Rip! A Remix Manifesto”

Cameron Parkins, June 8th, 2009

Times Square, J Gutierrez | CC BY

June is turning into quite the month for the NYC CC-community with both a CC Salon and the Open Video Conference taking place. For added enjoyment, Open Source Cinema just announced Remix NYC, a digital celebration to commemorate the theatrical opening of Rip! A Remix Manifesto at the Cinema Village in New York on June 19th.

The premise is simple – edit yourself in place of the advertisements that are abound in Javier Gutierrez’s Times Square (pictured above) and upload it back to OSC’s site for inclusion in the film. The final product will be an animated version of image where the billboards are slowly replaced by free culture activists.

Unbelievably cool but you have a short time to get your photos in as the deadline is June 14th – visit Remix NYC for all the details.

Announcing June’s CC Salon NYC / Official OVC Pre-party

Fred Benenson, June 8th, 2009

After taking a break for a bit (things have been busy at CC) I’m happy to announce our June Salon, which we’ll be partnering with the Open Video Conference on. Think of it as a Salon and the official OVC pre-party.

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.

June’s Salon will feature an in depth chat with Brett Gaylor, writer and director of RiP! A Remix Manifesto, a presentation by Erik Moeller, Deputy Director of the Wikimedia Foundation WMF on Wikipedia’s switch to Creative Commons licenses, and some more guests to be announced.

Here are the details:

Thursday, June 18th, from 7-10pm
For Your Imagination Loft
22 W. 27th St., 6th Floor
Between Broadway & 6th Ave.
New York, NY

We’ll have free (as in beer) beer for the reception afterward. 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.