cape point (panorama) by André van Rooyen, CC BY-NC-ND 2.0

In September we announced that Creative Commons and the Open Policy Network are hosting a second Institute for Open Leadership. We’ve seen a significant increase in the number and diversity of policies that require that publicly funded resources should be widely shared under liberal open licenses so that the public can access and reuse the materials. These resources range from scientific research to digital textbooks to workforce training curricula, and more. Philanthropic foundations have been stepping up too–requiring their grant-funded works to be made freely available under Creative Commons licenses. We want to see more of these open licensing policies flourish, which will feed the commons, promote cross-discipline collaboration, and even increase the transparency of government and philanthropic investments.

The Institute brings together mentors who work with the fellows to develop a open licensing policy for their government, university, or project. We received many applications, and our review committee has invited the following group to join us in Cape Town in March 2016.

• Jane-Frances Agbu – National Open University of Nigeria – Lagos, Nigeria
• Rim Azib – British Council, Tunis – Bizerta, Tunisia
• Steve Cairns – Greenpeace International – Amsterdam, Netherlands
• Amanda Coolidge – BCcampus – Vancouver, BC, Canada
• Daniel DeMarte – Tidewater Community College – Norfolk, VA, United States
• Paula Eskett – CORE Education – Christchurch, New Zealand
• Mostafa Azad Kamal – Bangladesh Open University – Gazipur, Bangladesh
• Roshan Kumar Karn – Tribhuvan University Teaching Hospital – Kathmandu, Nepal
• Vincent Kizza – Open Learning Exchange Uganda – Kampala, Uganda
• Fiona MacAllister – University of the Witwatersrand – Johannesburg, South Africa
• Katja Mayer – University of Vienna – Vienna, Austria
• Caroline Mbogo – The World Agroforestry Centre – Nairobi, Kenya
• Niall McNulty – Cambridge University Press – Cape Town, South Africa
• Juliana Monteiro – Museu da Imigração do Estado de São Paulo – São Paulo, Brazil
• Jacques Murinda – Great Lakes School of Open – Kigali, Rwanda
• Alessandro Sarretta – Institute of Marine Sciences – Venezia, Italy

None of this would be possible without the assistance of the Open Policy Network and ongoing support from the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation and the Open Society Foundations. Thank you.