The Berkman Center for Internet & Society, the wellspring of Creative Commons, is celebrating its tenth year with a public conference and awards.

Conference registration is open. A number of current and past CC staff and international project leads will be present.

Nominations for the first Berkman Awards due April 11:

The awards will be presented to people or institutions that have made a significant contribution to the Internet and its impact on society over the past decade.

The primary awardee will receive $50,000, and five smaller awards will be given in specific categories such as: human rights/global advocacy; academic and intellectual leadership; pro bono work; infrastructure/communications tools; arts/culture/media; and news/information/journalism.

Berkman is also highlighting media from its first ten years, including a classic Lessig v. Valenti debate from 2001.

Creative Commons launched December, 2002, a little over five years ago. Wikipedia is seven. Ten years ago Berkman and Mozilla were just getting started. The free software movement was just getting started 25 years ago, but widespread recognition of its potential is not much more than ten years old. What’s up for the next 5, 7, 10, and 25 years? Berkman@10 may be the best conference venue to obtain some insight. The conference, and the future of openness, are sure to be interesting.