Like the rest of the internet, it seems, the EU’s General Data Protection Regulation (“GDPR”) that comes into effect today has given us a good opportunity to pause and do a comprehensive review of the ways in which Creative Commons collects and uses the personal information of its community. As an organization, our data processing activities are pretty minimal. But given our event planning, fundraising, and other core functions, we do collect and use some data on a regular basis. We have rewritten our privacy policy to make it easier to understand how, when, and why that data collection happens.

The full new policy is here. We have strived to make it simpler and more human-readable, all while ensuring it is as precise and legally robust as possible. (Just like our legal tools!) Substantively, the most significant changes are:

• We rewrote our privacy principles to better reflect the ideals that motivate CC’s current practices.
• We provided a more detailed explanation of our analytics tools and the instances in which the information they gather may be tied to your other personal information.
• We described our retention practices, which reflect CC’s recent effort to begin to streamline and centralize data storage practices internally.
• We added a simple process for you to request to access the data CC holds about you.

Most of CC’s data collection happens when you voluntarily and knowingly provide CC with data, for example, by signing up to join the CC Global Network or donating money to our programs. There are, however, three ways in which CC collects and uses some data indirectly: Google Analytics, fundraising analytics, and email analytics. Our privacy policy describes those processes and how to opt out if you choose to do so.

If you are already on our mailing list, we are not requiring you to opt back in to continue to receive CC email updates. We decided that measure was not necessary given that CC has been consistently strengthening its mailing list sign-up procedures over the years, up to the double opt-in mechanism we use now. As always, you should feel free to update your preferences or unsubscribe entirely at any time by going to this link.

CC will continue to monitor privacy regulations around the world and look for ways to improve our privacy practices.

The post Update to our Privacy Policy appeared first on Creative Commons.

Happy Africa Day 2018!

Every year on 25th May, Africans join together to remember the launch of the Organisation for African Unity (now rebranded to African Union) on May 25, 1963 in Ethiopia.

For years, many CC members across the African continent have expressed interest in collaborating on African Creative Commons initiatives.

On the sidelines of the recent CC Global Summit in Toronto, the African participants gathered, proposed and discussed areas of collaboration. We agreed to develop and complete projects by December 2018 in the following four categories:

1. Open Policy – Led by Elizabeth Oyange (CC Kenya) and Seble Baraki (CC Ethiopia)
2. Open Education Resources – Led by Aristarik Maro (CC Tanzania) and Hildah Nyakwaka (CC Kenya)
3. Arts & Culture – Led by Mohamed Rahmo (CC Morocco) and Asma Al-Amin (CC Kenya)
4. Open Access – Led by Kamel Belhamel (CC Algeria) and Helen Chuma-Okoro (CC Nigeria)

Some of these groups have already began working on their ideas:

1. The Open Policy group is targeting a project at the African Union. Details here.
2. The Open Access group project details are here.

In addition to these categories, Raphael Berchie (CC Ghana) and Simeon Oriko (CC HQ) will help to lead the creation of chapters across the continent. Obianuju Mollel (CC Tanzania/Canada) will coordinate follow up work across the four categories.

We welcome you to join us and contribute your skills and knowledge towards realizing the potential of these projects.

How do you join in?

Join the CC Africa WhatsApp group where many discussions on these and other topics are taking place. Also, join the CC Africa Slack Channel.

Not on CC Slack yet? Sign up here to join: https://slack-signup.creativecommons.org/

The post CC Africa Community Collaborates on Continental Projects appeared first on Creative Commons.

For those of you who missed it in the flurry of the 2018 CC Summit announcements, we opened registration for the official CC Certificate last month. The CC Certificate is a training course on Creative Commons licenses, open practices and the ethos of the Commons. We launched the CC Certificate as a way to invest in advocates in open movements – to build and strengthen their open licensing expertise. Find out more here. Our first round of classes in July are already sold out, but we still have space in our October classes. We’re working on outreach, translation, scholarships, and Certificate Instructor training courses, so watch for more announcements!

While these updates and advancements are exciting, we recognize the need for this program to grow quickly to meet demand. We plan to iterate on the Certificate offerings, regularly assessing content and process to better meet your priorities. We welcome your input!

If you are interested in any of the following opportunities to get involved, please sign up below.

• CC Certificate information listserv sign up: here
• Interest in beta testing additional CC Certificate tracks, such as GLAM, or the CC Instructor Training course: here
• Interest in hosting an in-person Certificate “bootcamp” training: here

Thanks for being a part of this process! We look forward to working with you.

The post CC Certificate Updates: Let us know what you think! appeared first on Creative Commons.

From our Humans of the Commons Series: SooHyun Pae on listening to the network, the beauty of translation, and knowledge as a human right. Based in South Korea, SooHyun Pae is a translator and the Asia Pacific Regional Coordinator for Creative Commons.

When the Creative Commons community began discussing how to better engage with the world, my role changed – especially when we decided to restructure the CC Global Network last year. I assisted in the transition process from the old, obsolete program to the new global network structure. We conducted interviews with members of our network as part of our “Faces of the Commons” report, and I helped conduct the interviews in my region.

I had clear expectations about what I would hear from the interviewees; I’ve worked with the Creative Commons affiliate team for many years, and I thought I knew them very well. But I was completely wrong. All of them had different perspectives about the CC movement and its value. There were some common challenges they were struggling with, but they often varied widely by country.

I got to see the diversity of the CC community and the beautiful individuals within it.

What was also very striking was that they all have a deep appreciation for this wonderful community. While they face a lot of challenges, and some had complaints about how we were doing the work, they really cherish the relationships and friendships they’ve made in the community.

These experiences allowed me to see the diversity of the community itself and, at the same time, the value of the beautiful individuals within it. It was an exciting and inspirational experience. It’s so important to highlight individual contributions. We always wanted to do that, but before the “Faces of the Commons” report, we didn’t have enough concrete examples to show people why it was so important. I think the report can be the basis for future endeavors towards that goal.

Translating knowledge and creativity

I became involved in the CC Korea community after watching Lawrence Lessig’s TED Talk. I was fascinated by it. I didn’t know anything about Creative Commons at the time, but I began to do research and learned there were many people doing the same thing in Korea. That’s how I became involved in the Creative Commons Korea community.

At the time I was working as a full-time translator. I was so in love with languages and translation – I love meeting people from different places and learning about new cultures. I realize that translation is a derivative form of work, and I struggled to understand why certain content should be inaccessible to someone just because it has been copyrighted by someone else. Even if the author wanted to share the work, it’s still copyrighted and at risk of being potentially illegal in certain hands if shared. I didn’t know which approach to take when I used someone’s work in my translations.

Creative Commons made it clear that knowledge and creativity should not be restricted by a legal system that doesn’t make sense.

I realized that it’s important to make knowledge and creativity accessible to as many people as possible if you want others to benefit from your work. It makes me feel less restricted and less limited when I do translation work and share a creative work with others.

I try to translate books with Creative Commons licensing because it shows the value of the licenses, and helps me collaborate with others. It also allows me to reach out to traditional publishers and give them information about alternative licensing options.

This year I’m translating the book “Made with Creative Commons” by Paul Stacey and Sarah Pearson. It’s about open business models, and contains interviews and analyses by Creative Commons staff. I’m interested in this project because I want to experiment with a new model. Instead of working with traditional publishers, I wanted to team up with people interested in publishing online, under Creative Commons licenses, doing independent publishing. My hope is to develop this into other projects in other languages.

Knowledge as a human right

When I think about what a vibrant Commons means, I like to use the analogy of a river. Keeping the Commons vibrant is like keeping the river in your neighborhood safe and clean, so that anyone can drink and make use of it. Everyone understands that access to safe water is vital to the health of the community.

In this digital era, access to information and knowledge is becoming critical to survival and the well-being of society.

To me, supporting the Commons is like protecting the environment and protecting human rights. Restrictive copyright systems, capitalism, and monetization of knowledge and information have increasingly become threats. Building a vibrant and sustainable Commons-based ecosystem is directly related to the sustainability and well-being of individuals in the world. It creates the foundation for more knowledge and creativity that others can be inspired by and build upon.

The post Access to knowledge is crucial to our well-being and survival appeared first on Creative Commons.

Today Creative Commons is joining dozens of organisations in the Red Alert for Net Neutrality. The action calls on individuals to contact Congress with phone calls, emails, and tweets in support of the upcoming Senate vote on a Congressional Review Act resolution to block the FCC’s repeal of net neutrality.

The open internet protections must be restored.  Contact Congress now!

The Congressional Review Act (CRA) is a mechanism that gives Congress the power to reverse federal regulation by passing a resolution of disapproval. The CRA action must be taken within 60 legislative days of enactment of the regulation, and must meet a simple majority. Today Senator Ed Markey (D-MA) submitted a petition to force action on the measure, and a Senate vote could be taken as early as next week.

There are already 50 Senators lined up in favor of blocking the FCC’s repeal of net neutrality, but 51 votes are needed for the resolution to pass. Winning the Senate vote on the CRA will be essential for building momentum for the fight in the House. And advocates want to put net neutrality front and center with Congress and make them weigh in on this critical issue, especially considering the upcoming 2018 midterm elections. According to a December 2017 poll, 83% of respondents supported keeping the net neutrality rules, including 75% of Republicans, 89% of Democrats, and 86% of independents. Thousands of businesses already signed a letter to support the CRA to save net neutrality.

There are over 1.4 billion CC-licensed works online, shared freely with anyone with access to the internet. We advocate for a strong digital commons of creativity and knowledge, but open content is only one piece of the puzzle. The open internet is central to so many aspects of everyday life—from accessing education and news, communicating with friends and family, enjoying diverse entertainment like movies and music, and collaborating on global projects like Wikipedia.

Several lawsuits are making their way through the courts, and states have been introducing their own bills to protect net neutrality. But now is the time to reach out to your Senators and tell them to support the upcoming CRA resolution to block the FCC’s repeal of net neutrality.

It’s important to act now to save net neutrality. The Senate vote could happen soon. 

The FCC’s repeal of net neutrality is opposite of what the public wants. Instead of dismantling the rules, we should be protecting and extending reasonable consumer protections that kickstart creativity, fuel innovation, and improve access to information online.

 

The post Red Alert for Net Neutrality appeared first on Creative Commons.