board of directors
Report from the 2011 Annual Creative Commons board meeting
The Creative Commons Board of Directors held its annual board meeting on 9 December 2011. Board members appointed for additional terms were Glenn Brown (Director, Business Development, Media at Twitter), Prof. Michael Carroll (Director, Program on Information Justice and Intellectual Property, Washington College of Law, American University), Davis Guggenheim (film director and producer), Esther Wojcicki (journalist and educator), and Annette Thomas (CEO of Macmillian Publishing). Officers for the coming year were also appointed: Catherine M. Casserly (President and CEO), Mike Linksvayer (Vice President), Diane Cabell (Secretary), Ted Rose (Treasurer), and Diane Peters (General Counsel).
Due to the expansion and geographical distribution of the Board members, it has become increasingly difficult to schedule meetings; therefore, a smaller Executive Committee has been established to convene on a more frequent basis and the quorum for full Board meetings was reduced. One of the Executive Committee’s first agenda items will be a review of CC’s new strategic plan.
To bring more expertise to the Board’s activities, an Executive Advisory Council has also been formed that will be chaired by the CEO. The Council will include both Board members and non-Board members in order to acquire the strongest possible input for CC decision-making. The Council will also be able to establish Task Forces that can tap into the wider CC community to help address issues of specific interest.
The 2012 preliminary budget was also approved.
No Comments »Report from the Creative Commons board meeting in Warsaw
CC’s Board of Directors met during the first day of the Global Summit on September 16, 2011 at the Primate’s Palace in Warsaw, Poland. Prof. Brian Fitzgerald was appointed as a Director of the corporation and to its Audit Committee. The Board also expressed its grateful appreciation to Alek Tarkowski and the CC Poland team for their excellent preparation of the Global Summit and to departing Vice President John Wilbanks for his outstanding accomplishments at Science Commons. Prof. Carroll reported on the success of the recent Global Congress on Intellectual Property and the Public Interest noting that CC affiliates formed a significant portion of leading thinkers and activists in this field and pointed to the resulting Washington Declaration on Intellectual Property and the Public Interest. The Audit Committee’s conflict of interest reviews were also ratified. The remainder of the meeting was dedicated to discussion of improvements to the board structure, fundraising, and strategic objectives.
This was the first time in six years that a CC Board meeting has been held in conjunction with an affiliate Summit event. It was a unique and immensely helpful opportunity for the Directors to make personal contacts with CC supporters and to share directly in the rich expertise and insightful perspective of the affiliate community.
1 Comment »Announcing new CC Board Member Brian Fitzgerald
Creative Commons is delighted to announce the appointment of Prof. Brian Fitzgerald as a new Director of the corporation and member of the Board.
Brian Fitzgerald by Joi Ito / CC BY
Many of you may be familiar with Brian, who has been the legal lead of CC Australia since 2004 and has made an outstanding contribution to the CC and broader open access communities. The adoption of CC licenses by the Australian government, in which he was critically involved, continues to be a leading example of CC implementation, particularly as data management becomes a more and more prominent issue in open access debates.
Brian is Professor of Intellectual Property and Innovation at Queensland University of Technology (QUT) in Brisbane, Australia. He holds postgraduate qualifications in law from Oxford University and Harvard University and is acknowledged as a leading scholar in the areas of Intellectual Property and Internet Law. From 1998-2002 he was Head of the School of Law and Justice at Southern Cross University in New South Wales, Australia and from January 2002 – January 2007 was appointed as Head of the School of Law at QUT in Brisbane, Australia. Brian is currently a specialist Research Professor at QUT and a Chief Investigator in the ARC Centre of Excellence for Creative Industries and Innovation.
Brian’s appointment is a product of the first Affiliate Recommendation Process for Board Candidates, which petitioned members of its Affiliate network to recommend new members of the Board of Directors. Having supervised law students from over 30 different countries in his role as director of the Intellectual Property and Technology Law Clinic at Queensland University of Technology and beyond, Brian brings to the Board not only his own formidable expertise but also that of a significant international network.
Brian was formally elected to the Board on Friday, September 16, and his appointment was announced publicly at the Creative Commons Global Summit.
We thank the Affiliates and especially the nominees for their willingness to undertake the recommendation process and to contribute even further to the future of Creative Commons.
No Comments »Report from the first Creative Commons board meeting of 2011
On January 8, 2011, Creative Commons held a board meeting in the San Francisco headquarters.
We discussed the CEO transition plan. I reiterated my commitment to continue working with Creative Commons in my new role as Chair of the Board focusing on international and in particular, the Middle East.
Our current plan is for the transition work to begin immediately, but for Cathy to come on board starting March 1. While the timing and the exact location are to be determined, we will be moving the headquarters from San Francisco to Silicon Valley to be closer to some of our funders and many of our core adopters coinciding with Cathy joining full time.
We reviewed and discussed the strategic plan and the board was supportive of the new structure and the objectives and metrics driven format. There was a discussion about the importance of developing the science and education sections of the vision and strategy more. We discussed the importance of involving the stakeholders and community in the conversation as well and looked to other successful models such as Wikimedia.
The board approved the budget which linked to the strategic plan and its objectives with the understanding that Cathy and I will be working on fund raising over the next few months and that certain costs such as the move and the global meeting were still only estimates. We agreed to return to the board with additional updates as they became available.
We discussed the commitment of the board to add additional board members from the international community and committed to publish the criteria within weeks. The board found no reason why board members couldn’t be added as soon as qualified board members were identified through this process. We hope to add two new non-US board members as soon as possible.
We discussed the global meeting and the board reiterated its support for the meeting.
The board discussed the website redesign. “Phase 0” the initial redesign was viewed as an improvement to the old design. (Data about the performance metrics support this.) The board supported the continuation of the website redesign, but asked staff to be prudent about the budget, interview stakeholders for feedback and input, and use internal resource where this made sense and were available.
1 Comment »Esther Wojcicki becomes CC’s Vice Chair, focused on learning and education
We’re excited to announce that Esther Wojcicki, current Chair of the Creative Commons board, esteemed and award-winning teacher, and leader at the nexus of education and technology, will become CC’s Vice Chair focused on learning and education. CC’s current CEO, Joi Ito, will step into the role of both Chair and CEO.
“Creative Commons continues to make tremendous strides in enabling openness and innovation in learning,” Wojcicki said. “I’m very happy to focus my experience and expertise on ensuring that high-quality educational materials are made easily and freely available to everyone in the world.”
Creative Commons benefits from a diverse board comprised of thought leaders, education experts, technologists, legal scholars, investors, entrepreneurs and philanthropists, all sharing a keen interest in improving quality and access in the learning sector. As a result, we anticipate that CC will be able to assist innovators, educators and policy makers in sharing the yet untapped potential of this revolution.
No Comments »Welcoming Annette Thomas and Melanie Cornwell to CC
We are thrilled to announce today that Annette Thomas, CEO of Macmillan Publishers Ltd, has joined the Creative Commons Board of Directors, and that Melanie Cornwell, former Editorial Projects Director of Wired magazine, has joined CC staff as Vice President of Strategy.
Annette comes to the Creative Commons Board with many years of experience in publishing. She is the CEO of Macmillan Publishers, which deals with a wide range of science, education, and consumer fiction and nonfiction publishing. Prior to becoming CEO, Annette was the Managing Director of the Nature Publishing Group’s Nature Reviews series, which she helped establish as a major scholarly publisher. Annette is a member of the Verlagsgruppe von Holtzbrinck board of directors and a Governor of the Stephen Perse Foundation (Perse School for Girls) in Cambridge, UK. Annette received a B.S. in Biochemicaland Biophysical Sciences from Harvard University and a Ph.D. in Cell Biology from Yale University.
Melanie brings over 15 years of management, production and strategy experience to Creative Commons. While Editorial Projects Director at Wired magazine, she was the Executive Producer of Wired Science, a primetime PBS science series; daily Wired news reports on CBS Radio; and three documentaries about “WIRED NextFest” for the Discovery Channel. She produced the CC-licensed music video Keep on Dancing to Spoon’s “Don’t You Evah” and The WIRED CD: Rip. Sample. Mash. Share., a landmark 2004 CC CD featuring 16 artists such as the Beastie Boys, David Byrne, Gilberto Gil, My Morning Jacket and Danger Mouse. She also produced live events related to open issues, including “Who Owns Culture” with Jeff Tweedy and Lawrence Lessig and “The Battle Over Books: Authors and Publishers Take On Google Book Search.”
Creative Commons is very excited to work with Annette and Melanie on making knowledge easily, freely, and legally available to everyone.
No Comments »Welcoming Cathy Casserly to the Creative Commons board of directors
I’m pleased to announce that today the Creative Commons board of directors has elected Cathy Casserly as a new member. Cathy has been a foremost champion of the Open Educational Resources (OER) movement for a decade and of Creative Commons since its inception.
She served as Director of Open Educational Resources Initiative at the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation. A year ago she joined The Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching as Senior Partner.
Cathy has become a great personal friend and invaluable mentor as I ramp up my involvement in CC’s open education strategy. It is a great honor for me to welcome Cathy to the Creative Commons board of directors.
Addendum: CC board chair Esther Wojcicki on her Huffington Post blog writes Open Education Resources Get a Big Boost: Cathy Casserly Joins Creative Commons Board.
No Comments »Glenn Otis Brown Returns to Creative Commons as Board Member
We are thrilled to announce that Glenn Otis Brown has joined the Creative Commons board of directors.
Brown was CC’s executive director from 2002-2005; as one of the core members of the CC team in our early days, he was critical in developing projects that provide the groundwork for the work we do today. Brown is currently YouTube’s music business development manager and works with major and independent labels, publishers, and artists to build new business opportunities. In the press release we issued today to publicize this news, Creative Commons CEO Joi Ito says this of Brown:
4 Comments »“We couldn’t be more thrilled to have Glenn join the board. As Executive Director of the organization in its early days, Glenn established many of the critical ideas and relationships that CC is built upon today. That background, combined with his experience in developing creative projects and partnerships at YouTube, gives him particularly valuable insight into the opportunities for Creative Commons in the worlds of business, media, and culture at large.”
2nd CC Community Call (5/27/09) recording now online
We hosted our second community conference call last Wednesday, May 27. Donors were invited to join members of CC’s staff and board, including CEO Joi Ito and new Board Chair Esther Wojcicki, to discuss organizational updates, including CC Zero, GreenXchange, the future of the CC Network, and an update on the Wikipedia migration to CC BY-SA. 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 $250 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!
2 Comments »Esther Wojcicki, new CC board chair
We’re very pleased to announce that effective today, noted educator, education innovator and journalist Esther Wojcicki is the new chair of the Creative Commons board of directors. From the press release:
“I am thrilled to take on this new role,” said Wojcicki. “I strongly believe that the Creative Commons approach to sharing, reuse, and innovation has the power to totally reshape the worlds of education, science, technology, and culture at large. My main goal as chair is to make average Internet users worldwide aware of Creative Commons and to continue building the organization’s governance and financial resources. I am also very eager to help CC’s education push at high school and college journalism programs worldwide.”
Read the whole release for more.
Also see outgoing chair James Boyle’s CC BY(e bye) post — finely crafted writing down to the title, as we have come to expect. As you’ll read, Boyle, a founder of the modern movement for the intellectual commons (and CC itself), will remain deeply engaged in the movement. There remains no better in depth explanation of the intellectual commons than Boyle’s book, The Public Domain.
Thank you and congratulations to both Wojcicki and Boyle!
CC board members Hal Abelson and Esther Wojcicki. Photo by CC CEO Joi Ito / CC BY. Note that our celebratory offer of Joi’s Free Souls book for a donation to CC is still on.
