The COMMUNIA Project is planning its First International Conference on the Public Domain in the Digital Age, in Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium, on Monday 30 June and Tuesday 1 July 2008.

The event is co-organized by the COMMUNIA Thematic Network and the Global Information Commons for Science – EU activities (GICSI-EU).

The main theme is the assessment of economic and social impact of digital public domain open access initiatives throughout Europe, in particular by using the wealth of information on contract practices, successful and failed institutional experiments, and other activities developed within COMMUNIA network itself.

Some of the confirmed speakers are: Paul David (Senior Fellow, Oxford Internet Institute), Rishab Ghosh (Senior Researcher, UNU-Merit), Eric Brousseau (Université de Paris X), Karel De Vriend (European Commission, Directorate General for Informatics), Philippe Aigrain (Sopinspace, Society for Public Information Spaces).

The event is free and open to the public, and the registration deadline is 15 June 2008. For more information, full program, and registration, please visit: http://communia-project.eu/conf2008/