CEO Joi Ito gives an update on how Creative Commons has hit the ground running in 2010, with big plans for expanding our efforts in education and open educational resources (OER). You’ll also read about new jurisdictions, government adoption of CC licenses, how CC licenses have played a role in the Haiti earthquake relief effort, and more. Happy reading! This quarterly version of the newsletter is in beautifully-designed PDF format (download), designed for your reading pleasure by the CC Philippines team!

Subscribe to receive our monthly e-news updates and quarterly PDF newsletters by email, and stay on top of the inspiring stories coming out of the Commons.

Creative Commons will soon be turning 7 (Help us celebrate!), and we’re in the midst of our 5th annual fundraising campaign, our yearly effort to raise public awareness and support of our mission to promote free and legal sharing of creative works. This newsletter, from September-December 2009, is a testament to how important our work is, and includes all of the highlights from the past couple months, including stories of new jurisdiction launches, a Nobel Prize for work concerning “the Commons,” CC-licensed feature-length films, and much more. This quarterly version of the newsletter is in beautifully-designed PDF format (download), designed for your reading pleasure by the CC Philippines team!

Subscribe to receive our monthly e-news updates and quarterly PDF newsletters by email, and stay on top of the inspiring stories coming out of the Commons.

Check out the latest ccNewsletter, available to download in PDF format for your reading pleasure as you catch up on the latest CC news. Note that from here out, the format of our newsletter will be changing slightly. We’ll send brief monthly e-news updates of the latest CC news, and on a quarterly basis, starting in September, we’ll produce a more comprehensive newsletter including a CEO update from Joi Ito, which will also be available in PDF format. We’ve got a lot of exciting things happening all the time, and we want to be sure to bring all of our big news to you in the most convenient way possible!

As always, thank you to our CC Philippines team for the beautiful PDF version of the newsletter. Check out all the past issues.

Stay in touch with us! Sign up to receive the newsletter via email and subscribe to our events list.

Spring is a time for new beginnings, and April’s newsletter will catch you up on all of CC’s many exciting new projects in addition to several milestones marking our continued growth and development as a leader of openness in the realms of science, education and culture, as well as internationally. This newsletter is chock full of interesting items, including the launch of CC Zero; updates from several international jurisdictions; GreenXchange, a project of CC, Nike and Best Buy; a new site for OpenEd that will provide valuable resources for the open education movement; and even a CC-licensed animated feature film.

As always, thank you to our CC Philippines team for the beautiful PDF version. Check out all the past issues.

Stay in touch with us! Sign up to receive the newsletter via email and subscribe to our events list.

We’re at a very exciting time in the life of CC. We had a great year last year, and as you’ll read in this newsletter, CC is poised for even more growth and success in 2009 — in the realms of education, science, culture, internationally, and more.

February also marks the one-year anniversary since the CC Philippines team first began designing the stunning PDF versions of the newsletter. As always, many thanks to CC Philippines for the lovely work!

Stay in touch with us: sign up to receive the newsletter via email and subscribe to our events list.

CC Birthday Party in Manila

The globe lit up last week to celebrate the birthday of a community and organization now in its sixth year. Creative Commons, as demonstrated by these events, is about more than just free legal tools — it’s a powerful idea that has spread the world over.

In Chennai the CC Birthday Party merged with the launch of the Wikipedia Academy on Dec. 12, coinciding with a visit from Jimmy Wales and Sue Gardener from the Wikimedia Foundation. Chennai’s Free Culture House, a co-working space founded by party planner Kiruba Shankar, hosted the celebration. Seoul joined in with a Birthday Party on the same day, organized by CC Korea.

An award ceremony for the second CC photography contest impressed guests at the Beijing party on Dec. 14, featuring a live remix of the photos. The next day Belgrade conducted a panel on the legal framework of Free Culture with presentations by CC Serbia, Wikimedia Serbia, and Free Software groups.

Entry for 2nd CC Photography Contest in Mainland China

On Dec. 16, seven cities held CC Birthday Parties. In Guatemala writers released a special gift: 10 Christmas stories compiled in Aguinaldo Narrable, which will be illustrated by six award-winning photographs from CC Guatemala‘s Fiesta Callejera Contest.

Ann Arbor, Michigan organized a CC Birthday Happy Hour at a local bar, and guests at the party in Washington, D.C. contributed to a CC multimedia potluck coordinated by Public Knowledge.

The first anniversary of the ported 3.0 Licenses in the Philippines was commemorated in Manila, following a planning meeting for the upcoming CC Asia Pacific Conference. In Yuletide tradition and CC’s spirit of sharing, CC Philippines concluded the day by walking through Manila’s streets and sharing food and gifts to children.

CC Australia screened CC films and raised contributions for our annual fundraising campaign at the Brisbane CC Christmas Birthday Movie Night. New York City recounts that Happy Birthday may or may not have been sung at their Dec. 16 party in FYI, and Los Angeles teamed up LA’s Geek Dinner for an evening of free culture and internets in uWink.

Berlin‘s Content Sprint & Birthday Party invited guests to vie for a Goopymart T-shirt in a competition to document CC Case Studies in Germany.

California hosted the last CC Birthday Parties of the year, with co-housing and co-working community organizers initiating a round of discussions about Free Culture, free speech, and sustainable communities in Berkeley.

San Francisco wrapped up the global parties in 111 Minna Gallery with music by Ripley and Kid Kameleon and an improv performance from dublab as part of the Into Infinity installation.

With 14 host cities and a stellar range of events, the CC community is demonstrating tremendous support for Creative Commons. A heartfelt thank you to all the party planners and guests!

Please take a moment and help make another year of CC possible!

Images: (Ann Arbor) “Long table full of revellers” and “Garin, Ted, and CC swag” by mollyali under CC BY NC; (Chennai) “121220082360” and “121220082330” by Kiruba Shankar under CC NC SA; (Beijing) 舞在山乡 优秀奖 under 作者：秦启胜  CC BY ; (Manila) “CC-PH Technical/Documentation / AUSL-ITC“ and “Outreach / Sharing” by CC Philippines under CC BY NC; (DC) “CC 6th birthday party Washington DC” by tvol under CC BY; (Education Network Australia) “Sparklers and cake to celebrate“ by edna-photos under CC NC; (CC Cupcakes) “P1070155“ by creativecommoners under CC BY; (LA) “Happy 6th Birthday Creative Commons!“ posted by felicity redwell from netZoo/revolute under CC NC ND; (Guatemala) “MBosque” by Renata Avila under CC BY.

December’s newsletter features ccLearn, the education branch of Creative Commons which has grown substantially this year and has a lot of exciting plans lined up for its bright future as a leader in the open education movement. The newsletter also brings to you news highlights from each of CC’s other program areas.

As you’ll see in this newsletter, we have begun experimenting with a new format as a way to bring you the latest CC news in a more manageable way, so check out #10 and see what you think! As always, many thanks to the CC Philippines team for designing the PDF version.

Stay in touch with us: sign up to receive the newsletter via email and subscribe to our newly-formed events list.

Regional collaborations are strengthening CC projects worldwide. Regular conferences and outreach, coordinated on a regional level by CC Project Leads, are bringing visibility to local initiatives and promoting the ideals of sharing and free culture worldwide. Previous meetings have yielded clearer strategies and collaborations, as demonstrated by the recent Latam Commons, the growing COMMUNIA network, and last year’s successful ACIA workshop in Taipel.

CC Asia and Pacific community will be pleased to learn that another conference is in the works. From CC Philippines:

AN INVITATION TO PARTICIPATE

You are cordially invited to attend and participate in the regional conference of Creative Commons in Asia and the Pacific in the Philippines on 5-6 February 2009 to be hosted by the Arellano University School of Law, Lead Public Institution of Creative Commons – Philippines. The principal venue for the event will be at the Coral Ballroom of the Manila Pavillon Hotel situated at the heart of the City of Manila.

The conference aims (a) to showcase the various initiatives of Creative Commons in Asia and the Pacific and (b) for the stakeholders to get together in a forum to define the roadmap of Creative Commons in the region following the 2008 iCommons Summit in Sapporo, Japan.

We hope you will join us!

Image: “CC Asia” by Lairaja, available under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Philippines license.

This month’s newsletter focuses on CC’s newly launched annual fundraising initiative — the Build the Commons campaign. If CC is important to you, then I strongly encourage you to check out this edition of the ccNewsletter and to participate in the campaign. Thanks again to the CC Philippines team for designing the awesome PDF version.

Sign-up for this bi-monthly email newsletter here and the newly formed events list
here.

For all of you interested in what CC is currently doing in the culture space — check out this month’s edition of the ccNewsletter.

The ccNewsletter comes out every two months and is a great way to get up to speed on current CC news, whether you’re already familiar with CC or new to the scene. I encourage you to check it out and to sign up.

As always, a big shout-out to CC Philippines for designing the PDF version.