Reports are pouring in from ACIA: the International Workshop on Asia and Commons in the Information Age, held on January 19-20 in Taipei, Taiwan. The resounding conclusion: it was a phenomenal success!

The workshop, organized by CC Taiwan and hosted at Academica Sinica, focused on bringing together members of the “Asia Commons” to meet and discuss regional strategies and initiatives. The program opened with a keynote by Terry Fischer on “Solutions to the copyright crisis,” in which he sought to combine legal reforms and business models with digital technologies that compensate creators while enabling cultural and economic benefits. Both Ts’ui-jung Liu, VP of Academia Sinica, and Der Tsai Lee, director of the Institute of Information Science, Academia Sinica, were at the opening ceremonies and delivered greetings to the workshop participants.

CC Vice President Mike Linksvayer chaired a session featuring plans for “The Making a Totally Open Phone”, Sony’s integration of CC licensing for their eyeVio video sharing service, techniques in musical collaboration with “Jamming with Machines”, and “Making Creative Commons Common in Asia” by CC’s Jon Phillips (slides).

Later in the day, CC Australia Project Manager Jessica Coates presented open licensing compatibility in “Playing Well With Others” at a panel with Chunyan Wang from CC China Mainland and Alina Ng from CC Malaysia. The CC Team from Australia and the Creative Commons Clinic also announced the release of the Asia and the Commons case studies booklet, a fantastic collection of reports on individuals and organizations engaged in the commons in the Asia-Pacific region.

Their work was followed by Lawrence Liang and his debate about concepts, “How Does An Asian Commons Mean.” The ACIA workshop drew to an close with Chu-Cheng Huang’s final remarks on the changing phases of property in “From res nullius to res communis,” a session chaired by the event’s organizer, Tyng-Ruey Chuang from CC Taiwan.

The social program picked up as the sun set with the CC Asia Mega Mix Concert featuring acts by Monbaza; Pig Head Skin; MoShang (video), Kuo Chou Ching, Chang Jui-chuan, and André van Rensburg, Bust This, Sudev Bangah, and Lisa Diy.

There are plenty of pictures here and here. Formal proceedings from ACIA are available for download, and of course the case studies and discussion summary are well worth a read.

Asia and the Commons Case Studies 2008, presented at the ACIA workshop. The project, initiated by CCau and the Creative Commons Clinic, represents an effort to uncover exemplary individuals and organizations engaged in the commons in the Asia-Pacific region.