Wikitravel Press Paris with OpenStreetMaps

Mike Linksvayer, April 22nd, 2008

There’s a whole lot that’s cool about Wikitravel Press from business, community and licensing angles — follow links from our previous post about it.

Their new Paris title adds to the coolness by incorporating maps from OpenStreetMap, also under a CC Attribution-ShareAlike license.

Also, this is a good time to mention that anyone thinking of similarly building a business around collaboratively built content is strongly recommended to absorb Wikitravel and Wikitravel Press cofounder Evan Prodromou’s Commercialization of Wikis presentation.

ccLearn—Features in Open Education

Jane Park, April 22nd, 2008

Lately, a virtual whirlwind of projects and people and organizations have blown our way, and we don’t expect the dust to settle any time soon. To keep track of some of the progress and collaboration within open education, we’ve started to host bi-monthly features ranging from individual interviews to project spotlights. We hope to open your eyes and ears to what these voices in the movement have to say.

This month’s feature is on “Attribution Only” as Default Policy—Otago Polytechnic on the How and Why of CC BY; this and all subsequent features will be on our home page. You can join our listserv for automatic updates on these and other ccLearn issues. And for those who like to compartmentalize, you can even sign up for a separate feed of our news blog.

ccLearn Workshop at Stanford’s Open Source Lab Tomorrow

Jane Park, April 22nd, 2008

ccLearn’s Executive Director, Ahrash Bissell, will give a talk at Open Source Lab’s fourth official workshop, a series that features various speakers promoting openness across a variety of fields. The Open Source Lab at Stanford was founded just last November, and already hosts video content from three past workshops on their site. The ccLearn workshop will be held tomorrow, April 23rd, at 3pm in the Learning Theater on campus. Ahrash will speak on:

“Open source, open content, open practices. What is “open”, why is it compelling, and where is all of this heading? I will focus on recent developments in the open education movement, including the hopes, challenges, and promising advances in this international effort. We can discuss any number of things, including: the establishment of and current work at ccLearn (including a federated search project, best-practices in (CC) licensing, etc.), the Cape Town Open Education Declaration, key barriers to the implementation of open educational resources (OER) in both higher education and K-12, international efforts and coordination, technical platforms for enabling participation (OER creation, use, and adaptation), and more.”

In homage to its content, the event is also open to the public—here are the details. But don’t worry if you can’t make it; according to co-founder Henrik Bennetsen, a video of the workshop will be available on their site later.  

This month, it’s all about being open

Melissa Reeder, April 22nd, 2008

Interested in learning more about what it means to be open these days? Come hear it from the experts at the next San Francisco CC Salon on May 14th from 7-9 at the Shine bar. You’ll hear from Erik Moeller, Wikimedia Foundation’s Deputy Director, about all things Wikipedia. Alexis Rossi, Internet Archive’s Manager of Collections will be presenting on the Open Library Project. Hannes Gassert and Girogio Pauletto will close the night, teaming up to present on Swiss Open Systems User Group and the State of Geneva’s vision for open standards, open source and open data. How can you go wrong with a line up like that? We look forward to seeing you there!

Update: Check out the SF Salon on our Upcoming page as well.

“Attribution Only” as Default Policy—Otago Polytechnic on the How and Why of CC BY

Jane Park, April 22nd, 2008

A month ago, I blogged about CC’s Role in Open Access at Otago Polytechnic; specifically, on their adoption of CC BY as their default IP policy. For those who don’t already know, Otago Polytechnic made a novel decision last year to essentially reverse the standard policy of most educational institutions. While other university staff must obtain permissions to release their work under a license different from “all rights reserved” copyright, Otago Polytechnic staff must explain why they don’t want material published openly under CC BY, should they desire standard (restrictive) copyright or another license. Not only does this eliminate all the red tape before getting your work out in the open, it sets open access as an educational imperative. (And by open, they mean really open–free to copy, distribute, adapt and derive the work for both commercial or non-commercial purposes.)

Because of this inversion in standard IP policy, ccLearn was curious to learn how and why and what exactly Otago Polytechnic did and thought to arrive at this decision. While most institutions, especially educational ones, slap on the non-commercial term, Otago seemed to think differently about doing so; in fact, they never even considered it.

Read on for an interview with Leigh Blackall, from the Educational Development Center at Otago Polytechnic. Some things about Leigh: he lives in beautiful Dunedin, New Zealand, develops his own educational resources with his wife Sunshine and dog Mira, and judging from this photo, is a forward thinker who will climb most any mountain.

Read More…

Final reminder: First Interdisciplinary Research Workshop on Free Culture CFP

Mike Linksvayer, April 21st, 2008

Submissions due April 26. Head on over to the complete CFP.

The program chairs are Jonathan Zittrain, Oxford University, UK, Tyng-Ruey Chuang, Academia Sinica, Taiwan, and Giorgos Cheliotis, Singapore Management University, Singapore.

This is a fantastic opportunity for researchers studying the commons to share with peers in this highly interdisciplinary field.

Free 3GB CC-licensed Sample Library Released

Cameron Parkins, April 21st, 2008

Matthew Davidson, self-proclaimed sound-designer/graphic artist/hobby photographer/computer fanatic, recently released an amazing 3GB sample pack, “Total Harmonic Distortion”, under a CC BY license. This pack has popped up in numerous places, including the massive OLPC sample fest we discussed earlier, but is in itself is a thing of electronic sample beauty. You can download it for free at LegalTorrents, an “an online community created to discover and distribute Creative Commons licensed digital media”.

Ecuador encourages learning, research, and creativity with localized CC licenses

Patricia Escalera, April 21st, 2008

Open education and Creative Commons projects very often go hand-in-hand, just as the talented folks at ccLearn are demonstrating with the Universal education search, Cape Town Open Education Declaration, and ODEPO Project.

A Creative Commons jurisdiction that has really taken to pursuing the goals of open education and related learning initiatives is CC Ecuador, the forty-fifth jurisdiction worldwide to port the Creative Commons licensing suite.

CC Ecuador will celebrate its involvement in the license porting process on Tuesday at 6:00pm at the Universidad Técnica Particular de Loja (UTPL) as one of the highlights of the annual Congress for Quality Assurance and Main Challenges in Distance Learning, a 3-day conference focusing on issues in education within Latin America. Creative Commons Board Member Michael Carroll will join the event as a keynote speaker.

CC Ecuador will also be unveiling the university’s open courseware initiative, “Open UTPL,” a project that will offer entire courses, books, study guides, and multimedia content under a CC BY-NC-SA 3.0 Ecuador license.

Our warmest congratulations to the CC Ecuador team, Dr. Juan José Puertas Ortega and Carlos Correa Loyola, with team members Dra. Patricia Pacheco Montoya, Abg. Verónica Granda González, and Abg. Gabriela Armijos Maurad.

The localized Ecuadorian licenses will be the second CC licensing suite to be released at Version 3.0 in Spanish, following CC Puerto Rico’s launch this past February. Also, for the first time, we will be publishing our press release in two languages.

Image: Flyer by CC Ecuador. CC BY-NC-SA 3.0

Remix Dolla on Jamglue

Cameron Parkins, April 18th, 2008

Featured Commoners Jamglue are at it again with yet another amazing remix contest, this time giving users the ability to remix Dolla’s “Who the F*** Is That”. Entries are due by May 11th and the winner will receive an autographed poster, their remix on Dolla’s MySpace, and a phone call from Dolla himself.

Adding to their already deep and successful contest history, Jamglue has made a real case for CC-fueled remix contests as a positive means for artists to engage with the ingenuity of their fans while retaining commercial interests. Artists are able keep hold of their ability to negotiate licensing deals and explore commercial avenues while fans are able to engage with the music in a more interactive way, promoting a positive discourse that blurs the lines between creator and consumer.

Panel 4/29: Who Owns This Image?: Art, Access, and the Public Domain after Bridgeman v. Corel

Cameron Parkins, April 18th, 2008

On Tuesday, April 29, Creative Commons, the Art Law Committee of the New York City Bar Association, the College Art Association, and ARTstor are cosponsoring “Who Owns This Image?: Art, Access, and the Public Domain after Bridgeman v. Corel”, a public panel discussion on the issues surrounding the reproduction of public domain works.

Virginia Rutledge, CC’s Vice President and General Counsel, will be moderating the panel, which aims to better understand the legal ramifications and cultural repercussions of Bridgeman Art Library Ltd. v. Corel Corp. (S.D.N.Y. 1999). Joining Virginia will be a group of seriously credentialed panelists (see list below) for what is bound to be a vibrant and illuminating discussion that touches on issues of “art, publishing, and the law.”

This will all be taking place on Tuesday, April 29, 6:30 – 8:00 pm at The Great Hall, New York City Bar Association, 42 W. 44th Street, New York City (Google Map). The program is free and open to the public and no reservation is required. With this said, seating is limited and a panel of such caliber will undoubtedly fill up quickly so be sure to arrive early! See all the details after the jump: Read More…