Announcing the 2011 Creative Commons Global Summit!

We are thrilled to announce the 2011 Creative Commons Global Summit, now open for registration! The Creative Commons Global Summit will take place over three full days from September 16-18, and is generously hosted by our affiliates at CC Poland. The summit will bring together the CC community in Warsaw, Poland, to engage strategically on the future of our shared commons, to renew and further build CC’s vital community, to collaborate on mutual projects and initiatives, and to celebrate our successes as we head towards the end of our first decade together. For more information, and to register, head on over to the Global Summit wiki.

New Creative Commons Regional Managers

Instrumental in planning for the Global Summit are our new Regional Managers. New hires Jonas Öberg (Europe), Carolina Botero and Claudio Ruiz (Co-Managers, Latin America) will join existing CC staffers Chiaki Hayashi (Asia and the Pacific), Donatella della Ratta (Arab World), Aurelia J. Schultz (Africa), and our new Network Affiliate Coordinator, Jessica Coates, to form a new team dedicated to supporting our Affiliate Network worldwide. Adding staff support for our affiliates is part of a broader strategy CC is currently implementing to enhance the role and profile of the Affiliate Network. The Regional Managers will be dedicated to supporting and working with these local affiliates, while also working together to inform and shape CC’s ongoing development and policy making. Read more.

Design the winning poster for the Global Summit!

Some of our CC affiliates in Asia are hosting a poster design competition for the summit, based on the theme, “Powering an Open Future.” The winning designs (judged by an international panel and by popular vote) will be introduced at the Global Summit with people in attendance from all over the world, featured prominently at the venue and also as part of a CC visual arts exhibit. The designer will receive a gift of the printed poster from a professional publishing company in Warsaw. The deadline is August 22, Japan time, and in less than two weeks! For the complete submission rules and to enter, visit the competition site.

In other news:

• Support for Creative Commons is growing in Russia.
• Support for Creative Commons is growing everywhere! The Power of Open launched with seven successful events in Tokyo, Washington DC, Brussels, Rio de Janeiro, London, Paris, and Madrid.
• The 3rd Creative Commons Arab regional meeting in Tunis also proved to be extraordinary.
• We participated at the yearly SERCI (Society for Economic Research on Copyright Issues) Congress.
• We talked to Sir John Daniel from the Commonwealth of Learning. COL recently adopted CC BY-SA as part of its new OER policy.
• We added support for the Learning Resources Metadata Initiative (LRMI) with Greg Grossmeier as our new Education Technology & Policy Coordinator.
• And lastly, we are in the process of recruiting our next Chief Technology Officer, so do recommend colleagues and friends who seem well suited to be the next CC CTO!