# articles

feed_id: http://creativecommons.org/?p=39173
title: Nordic CC Film Festival program announced
uri: Nordic-CC-Film-Festival-program-announced
url: http://creativecommons.org/weblog/entry/39173
content:
<p align="center"><a href="http://www.nordicfilmfestival.cc/"><img src="media/a96e7226.nordic-blog.jpg" data-original-source="http://creativecommons.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/07/nordic-blog.jpg" width=436 height=464 border=0 /></a></p>
<p>You&#8217;ve already heard us talk about the <a href="http://www.nordicfilmfestival.cc/">the Nordic Creative Commons Film Festival</a> the latest in a <a href="/weblog/entry/36917">growing movement of CC filmmakers and festival organizers</a> changing how films are funded, produced, and distributed. Last week, festival organizer Mar&#xed;a Ib&#xe1;&#xf1;ez emailed me to let me know that <a href="http://www.nordicfilmfestival.cc/?page_id=290">the list of CC-licensed films featured in the festival</a> has been announced.</p>
<p>One thing that makes NCCFF interesting is that anyone can host a screening. Last week, the organizers also launched a <a href="http://events.nordicfilmfestival.cc/">cool signup platform</a> where you can select which films you&#8217;d like to screen and add your screening to the official calendar. <a href="http://www.nordicfilmfestival.cc/?page_id=90">More information here</a>.</p>
<p align="center"><iframe width="560" height="315" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/2iPtwUcWoVY" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe></p>


feed_id: http://creativecommons.org/?p=39184
title: Autodesk invites users to remix its content
uri: Autodesk-invites-users-to-remix-its-content
url: http://creativecommons.org/weblog/entry/39184
content:
<p><a href="http://www.autodesk.com/"><img src="media/0888062b.autodesk-250.png" data-original-source="http://creativecommons.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/07/autodesk-250.png" width=250 height=42 align="right" border=0 /></a>This morning, <a href="http://www.autodesk.com/">Autodesk</a> announced that its Media &#038; Entertainment (M&#038;E) support and learning content for its 2014 product line is now available under Creative Commons licenses; that&#8217;s 20,000 pages of documentation, 70 videos, and 140 downloadable 3D asset files under <a href="http://usa.autodesk.com/adsk/servlet/item?siteID=123112&#038;id=21794375">CC BY-NC-SA and CC BY-NC-ND licenses</a>.</p>
<blockquote><p>&#8220;Autodesk embracing Creative Commons licensing is a big win for Creative Commons, but more importantly, it&#8217;s a big win for the design community online. The power of the internet lies in how easy it is for people to share and build on each other&#8217;s work. CC licenses make that kind of sharing possible without the law getting in the way. In opening its resources, Autodesk is demonstrating that it understands the capacity for creativity and collaboration among its community of users.&#8221; &#8211;&#160;Creative Commons CEO Cathy Casserly</p></blockquote>
<p>According to a <a href="http://area.autodesk.com/anaheim2013/press">press release that Autodesk released this morning</a>, the Open Learning Initiative was actually a direct response to demands from the community of users of Autodesk products. Paul Duguay, a 3D and multimedia studies instructor at the Collège Communautaire du Nouveau-Brunswick in Canada, discovered a series of videos on the <a href="http://area.autodesk.com/creativecommons">Autodesk 3ds Max Learning Channel</a> that perfectly fit his curriculum needs. Duguay wanted to be able translate the audio into French and publish the videos on the college&#8217;s website. Autodesk started licensing its content under CC so that community members like Duguay could use the material to its full potential.</p>
<p>It&#8217;s fantastic to see an industry leader in design software choosing to open its documentation and training content to its community. Autodesk has also demonstrated its commitment to open by <a href="/supporters">donating to Creative Commons</a> at the Innovator level. Thank you to Autodesk for making an investment in a more creative, collaborative internet.</p>
<p><a href="http://area.autodesk.com/anaheim2013/press">Read the full press release</a>.</p>
<p><strong>Update:</strong> <a href="http://www.sfchronicle.com/technology/dotcommentary/article/Autodesk-invites-users-to-remix-training-materials-4681145.php?t=a6d7cb9cb347b02379">Here&#8217;s some nice coverage</a> by San Francisco Chronicle&#8217;s James Temple:</p>
<blockquote><p>&#8220;For a company as prominent as Autodesk to do this, it sends an important signal to other major players: We think that&#8217;s a service to our customers we want to provide,&#8221; said Corynne McSherry, intellectual property director at the Electronic Frontier Foundation. &#8220;Hopefully other companies will then take a look and say, &#8216;Maybe we should do that too.&#8217;&#8221;</p></blockquote>


feed_id: http://creativecommons.org/?p=39207
title: Join Team Open! CC seeks operations engineer
uri: Join-Team-Open-CC-seeks-operations-engineer
url: http://creativecommons.org/weblog/entry/39207
content:
<div style="float:right; padding:10px" xmlns:dc="http://purl.org/dc/terms/" xmlns:cc="/ns#" about="http://www.flickr.com/photos/seattlemunicipalarchives/4818952324/"><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/seattlemunicipalarchives/4818952324/"><img width="320" height="250" src="media/7ce3c404.4818952324_a2cce9be1b_n.jpg" data-original-source="http://farm5.staticflickr.com/4120/4818952324_a2cce9be1b_n.jpg" alt="Engineering Department employees, 1962" /></a>
<p><small><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/seattlemunicipalarchives/4818952324/"><span property="dc:title">Engineering Department employees, 1962</span></a><br /><span property="cc:attributionName">Seattle Municipal Archives</span> / <a rel="license" href="/licenses/by/2.0/">CC BY</a></small></p>
</div>
<p>We&#8217;re looking for an operations (DevOps) engineer to join us in creating next generation products and services that enable sharing, curating, remixing, and collaborating on open content.</p>
<p>The operations engineer is a full-time position reporting to the director of product strategy, and is a unique role which provides hands-on technical engineering of our server and application environments we use to provide rock-solid, scalable services to the public, while at the same time also working within the community to recruit and create trusted groups of DevOps volunteers. As such, the operations engineer works closely with the rest of the Products &#038; Technology team, including other developers and user experience designers, as well as Creative Commons staff and particularly with community volunteers.</p>
<p><a href="http://creativecommons.org/opportunities#opsengineer">Read the full job description and instructions for applying</a>.</p>


feed_id: http://creativecommons.org/?p=39201
title: CC News: The School of Open Is Back!
uri: CC-News-The-School-of-Open-Is-Back
url: http://creativecommons.org/weblog/entry/39201
content:
<p align="center">
		<a href="/weblog/entry/39201?utm_campaign=newsletter_1307&#038;utm_medium=blog&#038;utm_source=newsletter"><img alt="Creative Commons" border="0" src="media/cfc4fd92.cclogo-450.png" data-original-source="http://creativecommons.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/09/cclogo-450.png" width=450 height=108 /></a></p>
<p align="center">
		<em>Stay up to date with CC news by <a href="https://creativecommons.net/civicrm/mailing/subscribe">subscribing to our newsletter</a> and following us on <a href="http://twitter.com/creativecommons">Twitter</a>.</em></p>
<p>
	<strong>Top stories:</strong></p>
<table cellpadding="10" width="700">
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<p about="http://www.flickr.com/photos/ioerror/335161549" style="text-align:center">
					<small><a href="/weblog/entry/39060?utm_campaign=newsletter_1307&#038;utm_medium=blog&#038;utm_source=newsletter"><img alt="School of Open" height="160" src="media/d6b16d3c.201210-soo.png" data-original-source="http://creativecommons.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/10/201210-soo.png" width="250" /></a></small></p>
<p>
<strong><a href="/weblog/entry/39060?utm_campaign=newsletter_1307&#038;utm_medium=blog&#038;utm_source=newsletter">Round 2 of the School of Open starts August 5!</a></strong> Sign up for courses on copyright for educators, open science, and much more.</p>
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<p about="http://www.flickr.com/photos/joi/4670781482/" style="text-align:center" xmlns:cc="/ns#" xmlns:dc="http://purl.org/dc/terms/">
					<small><a href="/weblog/entry/38371?utm_campaign=newsletter_1307&#038;utm_medium=blog&#038;utm_source=newsletter"><img alt="The Future of Creative Commons" height="160" src="media/625f0d5a.201307-futureofcc.png" data-original-source="http://creativecommons.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/07/201307-futureofcc.png" width="250" /></a><br /></small></p>
<p>
The first decade of CC is over; what&#8217;s next? In our new publication <em>The Future of Creative Commons</em>, <a href="/weblog/entry/38371?utm_campaign=newsletter_1307&#038;utm_medium=blog&#038;utm_source=newsletter"><strong>we lay out the top priorities in all the areas where we work.</strong></a></p>
</td>
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<p about="http://www.openeducationweek.org/" style="text-align:center">
					<small><a href="/weblog/entry/39047?utm_campaign=newsletter_1307&#038;utm_medium=blog&#038;utm_source=newsletter"><img alt="Free! Music! Contest" height="160" src="media/3774f0d7.201307-fmc.jpg" data-original-source="http://creativecommons.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/07/201307-fmc.jpg" width="250" /></a></small></p>
<p>
Hey, CC musicians! You have only one more week to <strong><a href="/weblog/entry/39047?utm_campaign=newsletter_1307&#038;utm_medium=blog&#038;utm_source=newsletter">enter the Free! Music! Contest!</a></strong></p>
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<p about="/weblog/entry/39184" style="text-align:center" xmlns:cc="/ns#" xmlns:dc="http://purl.org/dc/terms/">
					<small><a href="/weblog/entry/39184?utm_campaign=newsletter_1307&#038;utm_medium=blog&#038;utm_source=newsletter"><img alt="Autodesk logo" height="160" src="media/476a3717.201307-autodesk.png" data-original-source="http://creativecommons.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/07/201307-autodesk.png" width="250" /></a><br /></small></p>
<p>
Autodesk announced that its support and learning content for its 2014 product line is <strong><a href="/weblog/entry/39184?utm_campaign=newsletter_1307&#038;utm_medium=blog&#038;utm_source=newsletter">now available under Creative Commons licenses</a></strong>.</p>
</td>
</tr>
</table>
<p>
		<strong>In other news:</strong></p>
<ul>
<li>
Join Team Open! <strong><a href="/weblog/entry/39207?utm_campaign=newsletter_1307&#038;utm_medium=blog&#038;utm_source=newsletter">Creative Commons is looking for an operations engineer</a></strong>.
	</li>
<p></p>
<li>
The featured films have been announced for the first-ever <strong><a href="/weblog/entry/39173?utm_campaign=newsletter_1307&#038;utm_medium=blog&#038;utm_source=newsletter">Nordic Creative Commons Film Festival</a></strong>. Schedule your own NCCFF screening!
	</li>
<p></p>
<li>
The Saylor Foundation recently launched a new set of <strong><a href="/weblog/entry/38900?utm_campaign=newsletter_1307&#038;utm_medium=blog&#038;utm_source=newsletter">free, CC-licensed, K-12 courses in language arts and mathematics</a></strong>.
	</li>
<p></p>
<li>
Indie videogame designer Nick Liow wants to <strong><a href="/weblog/entry/38768?utm_campaign=newsletter_1307&#038;utm_medium=blog&#038;utm_source=newsletter">change the way you think about the public domain</a></strong>.
	</li>
<p></p>
<li>
Myanmar&#8217;s New Education Highway is a nonprofit project that <strong><a href="/weblog/entry/38971?utm_campaign=newsletter_1307&#038;utm_medium=blog&#038;utm_source=newsletter">could not exist without open educational resources</a></strong>.
	</li>
<p></p>
<li>
Learn about <strong><a href="/weblog/entry/38785?utm_campaign=newsletter_1307&#038;utm_medium=blog&#038;utm_source=newsletter">UC Irvine&#8217;s OpenChem project</a></strong>, a set of openly licensed chemistry lectures equivalent to four years&#8217; worth of classes.
	</li>
<p>
</ul>
<p>If news like this is important to you, <strong><a href="https://creativecommons.net/?utm_campaign=newsletter_1307&#038;utm_medium=blog&#038;utm_source=newsletter">consider making a donation to Creative Commons</a></strong>.</p>


feed_id: http://creativecommons.org/?p=39246
title: University of California adopts system-wide open access policy
uri: University-of-California-adopts-system-wide-open-access-policy
url: http://creativecommons.org/weblog/entry/39246
content:
<p>Today the University of California (UC) Academic Senate announced the adoption of a <a href="http://osc.universityofcalifornia.edu/openaccesspolicy/">system-wide open access policy</a> for future research articles generated by UC faculty. The articles will be made publicly available for free via UC&#8217;s <a href="http://www.escholarship.org/">eScholarship</a> repository. </p>
<p>According to the <a href="media/ed2c096b.open_access_press_release_2013.pdf" data-original-source="http://senate.universityofcalifornia.edu/open_access_press_release_2013.pdf">press release</a>, the University of California open access policy will cover 8,000 faculty who author approximately 40,000 articles each year. From the UC statement:</p>
<blockquote><p>By granting a license to the University of California prior to any contractual arrangement with publishers, faculty members can now make their research widely and publicly available, re-use it for various purposes, or modify it for future research publications. Previously, publishers had sole control of the distribution of these articles.
</p></blockquote>
<p>It appears that authors will have the option of depositing their articles under open licenses, such as Creative Commons licenses. The <a href="http://osc.universityofcalifornia.edu/openaccesspolicy/2013_uc_oa_policy_faq.html#q17">FAQ</a> says, </p>
<blockquote><p>Uses of the article are governed by the copyright license under which it is distributed, and faculty authors choose which license to use at the point of deposit. Faculty members may choose to restrict commercial re-use by choosing a Creative Commons license with a &#8220;Non Commercial&#8221; (NC) restriction when they deposit their article; or they may choose to allow it by choosing a license like the &#8220;Attribution only&#8221; license (CC BY). If no license is specified, a non-commercial license will be used by default.
</p></blockquote>
<p>Faculty are also able to <a href="http://osc.universityofcalifornia.edu/openaccesspolicy/2013_uc_oa_policy_faq.html#q7">opt-out</a> of the policy on a per-article basis, which may <a href="http://www.michaeleisen.org/blog/?p=1413">limit the effectiveness</a> of the policy overall if opt-outs become commonplace.    </p>
<p>The UC policy builds on existing open access policies in California, such as the one at <a href="http://www.library.ucsf.edu/services/scholpub/oa/policy">UCSF</a>. Here&#8217;s a <a href="media/fbc50a62.OpenAccess_adopted_072413.pdf" data-original-source="http://osc.universityofcalifornia.edu/openaccesspolicy/OpenAccess_adopted_072413.pdf">link</a> the full text of the policy. Congratulations to UC for passing this policy, and we hope that faculty will embrace sharing research articles under open licenses. </p>


feed_id: http://creativecommons.org/?p=39283
title: Change Will Come, and ManyLabs Will Play An Important Part
uri: Change-Will-Come-and-ManyLabs-Will-Play-An-Important-Part
url: http://creativecommons.org/weblog/entry/39283
content:
<p>I met Peter Sand a few months ago at a <a href="http://www.meetup.com/Sensored/" title="#Sensored Meetup" target="_blank">#Sensored</a> meetup in SoMa. The setting was exactly like the hardware labs from my <a href="http://www.iitd.ac.in" title="Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi" target="_blank">undergraduate engineering days</a>, and Peter was there exactly like one of my buddies showing kits and circuits cobbled together to do science (except, Peter is quieter and more polite than most of my buddies). Peter founded <a href="https://www.manylabs.org" title="ManyLabs" target="_blank">ManyLabs</a>, a San Francisco-based nonprofit that wants:</p>
<blockquote><p>students of any age to become comfortable with data, scientific processes, and mathematical representations of the world. We want people to learn about the strengths and limitations of using math and data to address real-world problems.</p></blockquote>
<p>Hmmmm&#8230; think about that for a minute. Peter is thinking really long-term. He wants to invest in kids today (although ManyLabs kits are suitable for and to be enjoyed by anyone of any age) so they become good at using math and data in the future. Now, that is my kind of guy.</p>
<div id="attachment_39284" class="wp-caption alignleft" style="width: 730px"><a href="media/6f728114.screen-2.png" data-original-source="http://creativecommons.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/08/screen-2.png"><img src="media/6f728114.screen-2.png" data-original-source="http://creativecommons.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/08/screen-2.png" alt="Temp and Humidity Time Series. Image courtesy ManyLabs, used under terms of CC BY-SA 3.0" width="720" height="600" class="size-full wp-image-39284" /></a><p class="wp-caption-text">Temp and Humidity Time Series. Image courtesy ManyLabs, used under terms of <a href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/" title="CC BY-SA" target="_blank">Creative Commons BY-SA</a> license</p></div>
<p>ManyLabs has released a collection of interactive science activities and projects under the <a href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/" title="CC BY-SA" target="_blank">Creative Commons BY-SA</a> license. Many of these activities and projects are based on <a href="http://arduino.cc/en/Main/Software" title="Arduino" target="_blank">Arduino</a>, an open-source microcontroller board. While most Arduino-based education projects are focused on electronics, programming, or robotics, ManyLabs is instead aiming for compatibility with the existing curricula of <a href="https://www.manylabs.org/hub/biology/" title="ManyLabs biology hub" target="_blank">biology</a>, <a href="https://www.manylabs.org/hub/physics/" title="ManyLabs physics hub" target="_blank">physics</a>, <a href="https://www.manylabs.org/hub/math/" title="ManyLabs math hub" target="_blank">math</a>, <a href="https://www.manylabs.org/hub/data/" title="ManyLabs data hub" target="_blank">data</a>, and my favorite, <a href="https://www.manylabs.org/hub/environment/" title="ManyLabs environment hub" target="_blank">environment</a> classrooms.</p>
<p>Previously ManyLabs was using a CC BY-NC-SA license. &#8220;We moved away from a non-commercial license because we want to make usage of the content more flexible. We want the materials to make the widest possible contribution to education,&#8221; explained Peter.</p>
<p>While the initial content has been seeded by a small group of contributors, ManyLabs hopes to make the site more community-driven by releasing authoring tools that will allow anyone to create, share, and modify interactive lessons. They also plan to release a platform for CC-licensed data that will allow students, teachers, and others in the community to share data gathered from sensors and manual observations. Together these tools aim to promote scientific reasoning and data literacy, both in schools and in the world at-large.</p>
<div id="attachment_39286" class="wp-caption alignleft" style="width: 763px"><a href="http://www.manylabs.org"><img src="media/001d21d6.manylabs_banner.png" data-original-source="http://creativecommons.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/08/manylabs_banner.png" alt="ManyLabs" width="753" height="64" class="size-full wp-image-39286" /></a><p class="wp-caption-text">ManyLabs</p></div>
<p>We are fully behind Peter and his mission. So, go ahead, share, sign in or sign up, and create a lesson. What better way to make the world more open than by teaching kids today about Open to ensure that tomorrow&#8217;s world will be full of young people who would have known nothing else.</p>


feed_id: http://creativecommons.org/?p=39271
title: Frank Warmerdam–Leading Open Geospatial Community By Action
uri: Frank-Warmerdam-Leading-Open-Geospatial-Community-By-Action
url: http://creativecommons.org/weblog/entry/39271
content:
<div id="attachment_39272" class="wp-caption alignleft" style="width: 970px"><img src="media/8411a196.frank_at_cc2.jpg" data-original-source="http://creativecommons.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/08/frank_at_cc2.jpg" alt="Frank Warmerdam at CC HQ" width="960" height="540" class="size-full wp-image-39272" /><p class="wp-caption-text">Frank Warmerdam at CC HQ</p></div>
<p>What do you get when you write software that becomes <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frank_Warmerdam#Software_that_uses_GDAL.2FOGR" title="Software that uses GDAL and OGR" target="_blank">the basis of just about every geospatial application out there</a>? You get perspective. <a href="http://home.gdal.org/~warmerda/" title="Frank Warmerdam" target="_blank">Frank Warmerdam</a> has been authoring, improving, supporting, and shepherding <a href="http://shapelib.maptools.org" title="Shapefile C Library" target="_blank">Shapelib</a>, libtiff, <a href="http://www.gdal.org" title="Geospatial Data Abstraction Library" target="_blank">GDAL and OGR</a> for the past 15 years. Frank believes that by sharing effort, by adopting open, cooperatively developed standards, and avoiding proprietary licenses, adoption of open technologies could be supercharged. And lucky for us, he is right. To paraphrase him, open standards facilitate communication, capture common practice, and externalize arbitrary decisions.</p>
<p>Frank has done it all &#8212; worked as an independent consultant, for a proprietary remote sensing company, for a large search engine and mapping company, and  now for a small, innovative space hardware maker. But most importantly, he has been a leader in the open geospatial world, at the helm of the <a href="http://www.osgeo.org" title="The Open Source Geospatial Foundation" target="_blank">Open GeoSpatial Foundation (OSGeo)</a> that I myself have been involved with as long as I have personally known Frank, that is, for a good part of the past decade.</p>
<p>While OSGeo has faced a number of challenges, it has also enjoyed tremendous success through growing number of projects and chapters, local conferences, being perceived as a legitimate player, and recently, getting representation in its Charter Membership from 37 countries.<br />
<div id="attachment_39277" class="wp-caption alignleft" style="width: 567px"><a href="media/46d7968a.global-distribution-of-charter-members_0.png" data-original-source="http://www.osgeo.org/sites/osgeo.org/files/Page/global-distribution-of-charter-members_0.png"><img src="media/dd7165e1.global-distribution-of-charter-members_0.png" data-original-source="http://creativecommons.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/08/global-distribution-of-charter-members_0.png" alt="Global distribution of OSGeo Charter Members" width="557" height="306" class="size-full wp-image-39277" /></a><p class="wp-caption-text">Global distribution of OSGeo Charter Members. Chart courtesy OSGeo.</p></div>  </p>
<p>Frank says working on data libraries is a grungy job. Everyone wants &#8216;em but no one wants to work on &#8216;em. We relate to that as licenses are kinda like that, an essential infrastructure play that require getting the legal and technical details right, yet are most effective when they recede in the background and make us enjoy the content to the fullest.</p>
<p>Per Frank, the next set of challenges revolve around getting open geodata with easy to understand, interoperable license terms. As micro-satellite imagery becomes ubiquitous with frequent imagery collects, the resulting flood of imagery may lead to more ready adoption of open terms, perhaps even a current, live, or almost-live global, medium resolution basemap for OpenStreetMap. We can dream, and with my friend Frank to lead us with his quiet actions and measured wisdom, our dreams will come true.</p>


feed_id: http://creativecommons.org/?p=38932
title: How Boundless uses CC licenses
uri: How-Boundless-uses-CC-licenses
url: http://creativecommons.org/weblog/entry/38932
content:
<p><a href="http://boundless.com/"><img src="media/f7e41614.boundless-700.png" data-original-source="http://creativecommons.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/08/boundless-700.png" alt="Boundless_Logo_TextSide" width="700" height="157" /></a></p>
<p>As the open educational resources (<a href="/education#OER">OER</a>) movement continues to grow, students and educators alike can benefit from openly licensed content. The use of <a href="/licenses">Creative Commons licenses</a> in education has allowed learning resources to travel farther, reach more people, and be repurposed to meet local needs. </p>
<p>I recently spoke with Ariel Diaz, CEO of <a href="http://boundless.com/">Boundless</a> learning about how his company utilizes Creative Commons CC licenses. This is a summary of our conversation.</p>
<h3>So how does Boundless use Creative Commons licenses?</h3>
<p>&#8220;Creating high quality textbooks is no easy task. It would have been impossible for Boundless to create close to 20 subjects worth of open textbooks without the availability of openly licensed content. While we can also use information that is in the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Public_domain">public domain</a>, the license on the content we predominantly use is called <a href="/licenses/by-sa/3.0/">Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike (CC BY-SA)</a>. CC BY-SA allows us to tweak and build upon the work of others, even for commercial purposes, and we are required to license our derivative works under the same license terms. To maintain a connection to the original author, we give attribution/credit and mark our content with the same license.   </p>
<p>&#8220;To create our <a href="http://boundless.com/textbooks/">open textbooks</a> and study tools, our team of expert &#8220;Edcurators&#8221; find the best content that is openly licensed. They revise and remix the best parts of the best content so that it is aligned with the key concepts of a corresponding traditional textbook for subjects like <a href="https://www.boundless.com/marketing/">Marketing</a>, <a href="https://www.boundless.com/chemistry/">Chemistry</a>, and <a href="https://www.boundless.com/writing/">Writing</a>. In other words, we take openly licensed content and add our own layer of pedagogy (important because our audience is students) and copy editing (important because students deserve to have materials written in a consistent voice that is fit for their grade level). Once the curating process is finished, we&#8217;ve officially crafted a resource that <a href="http://blog.boundless.com/2013/01/boundless-open-textbook-revolution-takes-off/">helps students at over half the colleges in the U.S. excel</a>. Our educational content is <a href="https://www.boundless.com/oer/">openly available</a> to all students anywhere in the world.&#8221;</p>
<h4>Why are Creative Commons licenses important to Boundless?</h4>
<p>&#8220;Creative Commons has revolutionized the process of sharing information. Open resources available under a CC license broadens the distribution of knowledge, allowing people of different ages, socioeconomic statuses, and geographic locations to share and benefit from high quality content. It&#8217;s amazing to be part of this revolution.</p>
<p>&#8220;In addition to helping us find, curate, and remix high-quality educational content, the CC license helps us stand up for an important belief core to our mission: educational resources should be free and openly licensed.</p>
<p>&#8220;We make good on this belief by freely posting our <a href="https://www.boundless.com/textbooks/">open textbooks</a> on the web, without any registration required. Any student, educator, or self-learner can access, quote, and remix our textbooks for their own purposes thanks to the CC BY-SA license. Openly licensed educational resources means that digital textbooks like ours will continue to improve over time, <a href="http://blog.boundless.com/2012/06/bridging-the-gap-between-oer-and-students/">allowing students the chance to unlock the knowledge they deserve</a>.&#8221;</p>
<h4>Where can I access Boundless textbooks?</h4>
<p>&#8220;In addition to the <a href="https://www.boundless.com/textbooks/">web</a>, Boundless is has released these books for free in one of the world&#8217;s most popular ebook stores: the iBookstore (with Kindle support coming soon). The company&#8217;s iBooks include titles like Boundless Introduction to Marketing, Introduction to Statistics, and Introduction to Writing. Students can now access Boundless&#8217; high-quality, college-level content online, offline, on any device, at anytime. The <a href="https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/boundless-textbooks/id661340407?ls=1&#038;mt=8">Boundless App</a> is available for free from the App Store on iPhone and iPod touch.&#8221;</p>


feed_id: http://creativecommons.org/?p=39229
title: Welcome CC United States affiliate team
uri: Welcome-CC-United-States-affiliate-team
url: http://creativecommons.org/weblog/entry/39229
content:
<p><a title="By U.S. Navy photo by Photographer&#039;s Mate 2nd Class Dennis Cantrell [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons" href="media/562f89d5._the_World_Patriot_Tour_performance_at_Hickam_Air_Force_Base.jpg" data-original-source="http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File%3AUS_Navy_060417-N-8157C-162_The_American_flag_flies_prominently_during_the_World_Patriot_Tour_performance_at_Hickam_Air_Force_Base.jpg"><img width="512" alt="US Navy 060417-N-8157C-162 The American flag flies prominently during the World Patriot Tour performance at Hickam Air Force Base" src="media/0daa3527._the_World_Patriot_Tour_performance_at_Hickam_Air_Force_Base.jpg" data-original-source="http://creativecommons.org//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/1/19/US_Navy_060417-N-8157C-162_The_American_flag_flies_prominently_during_the_World_Patriot_Tour_performance_at_Hickam_Air_Force_Base.jpg/512px-US_Navy_060417-N-8157C-162_The_American_flag_flies_prominently_during_the_World_Patriot_Tour_performance_at_Hickam_Air_Force_Base.jpg"/><br />
<small>By U.S. Navy photo by Photographer&#8217;s Mate 2nd Class Dennis Cantrell [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons.</small></a></p>
<p>We’re happy to welcome the <a href="http://us.creativecommons.org">CC United States</a> (CC US) affiliate to the Creative Commons family. The hub for CC US will be located at the American University Washington College of Law’s <a href="https://www.wcl.american.edu/pijip/">Program on Information Justice and Intellectual Property</a> in Washington, D.C. </p>
<p>CC US <a href="http://us.creativecommons.org/people">team members</a> bring considerable legal and policy expertise to the table. CC US has initial plans to focus on education and outreach on CC licensing for open educational resources at the K-12 and community college levels. This area has seen significant activity in the United States over the last several years, most notably with the <a href="https://creativecommons.org/weblog/entry/26100">Department of Labor’s $2 billion grant program</a> for the creation of worker retraining materials under open licenses. In addition, CC US will help improve the understanding of limitations and exceptions to copyright, including the US-specific concept of fair use. For more information, check out the <a href="http://wiki.creativecommons.org/United_States">CC US roadmap</a>. </p>
<p>You might be asking, isn’t Creative Commons already active in the United States? The answer is yes.  At the same time, there’s never been a formal CC US affiliate team like there is for the rest of the <a href="http://wiki.creativecommons.org/CC_Affiliate_Network">CC community</a>. Creative Commons was established as a U.S.-based 501(c)(3) nonprofit corporation in 2001, and the headquarters office has historically served the de facto US affiliate. During the 3.0 license development process, Creative Commons relied on a temporary relationship with the <a href="https://cyber.law.harvard.edu/">Berkman Center for Internet &#038; Society</a> to provide legal support for the 3.0 release, at which time the generic licenses were reworked to more adequately align with international treaties as opposed to United States copyright law. It’s become increasingly apparent over the last few years that interest in Creative Commons in the United States &#8212; whether in the cultural, education, government, data and other sectors &#8212; has grown beyond the organizational capacity of the headquarters staff. So, by formalizing CC US, we can empower the growth of advocates working on U.S.-centric issues around CC and copyright while simultaneously freeing up capacity for the headquarters office to focus on organization-wide activities and strategic opportunities. </p>
<p>CC US will host a <a href="http://creativecommonsus.org/launch">launch party</a> on October 17, 2013. The event will run from 6:00 – 9:00 p.m. at the <a href="http://carnegiescience.edu/">Carnegie Institution for Science</a> in Washington, D.C. Welcome aboard CC US!</p>


feed_id: http://creativecommons.org/?p=39342
title: India launches National Repository of Open Educational Resources
uri: India-launches-National-Repository-of-Open-Educational-Resources
url: http://creativecommons.org/weblog/entry/39342
content:
<p><a href="http://nroer.in/home/"><img src="media/1d4b21bc.nroerlogo.png" data-original-source="http://creativecommons.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/08/nroerlogo.png" alt="nroerlogo" width="278" height="115" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-39354" /></a></p>
<p>India has launched a new learning repository for open educational resources (OER). India&#8217;s Department of School Education and Literacy, Ministry of Human Resource Development, Government of India, and the Central Institute of Educational Technology, National Council of Educational Research and Training have collaboratively developed the <a href="http://nroer.in/home/">National Repository of Open Educational Resources</a> (NROER). Dr. Pallam Raju, India&#8217;s Minister for Human Resource Development, <a href="http://articles.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/2013-08-13/news/41371845_1_school-education-m-m-pallam-raju-school-system">launched</a> the repository on Tuesday, and Dr. Shashi Tharoor, India&#8217;s Minister of State for Human Resource Development, <a href="http://tharoor.in/speeches/launch-of-national-repository-of-open-education-resources-nroer/">announced</a> the repository&#8217;s default license for all resources &#8212; Creative Commons Attributions-ShareAlike (<a href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/">CC BY-SA</a>). </p>
<p>The repository currently includes videos, audio, interactive media, images, and documents, and aims to &#8220;bring together all digital and digitisable resources for the [Indian] school system – for all classes, for all subjects and in all languages.&#8221; </p>
<p>From Dr. Tharoor&#8217;s <a href="http://tharoor.in/speeches/launch-of-national-repository-of-open-education-resources-nroer/">announcement</a>,</p>
<blockquote><p>This initiative is also a significant step towards inclusive education. Opening access to all requires a debate on the issue of ownership, copyright, licensing and a balancing of reach with legitimate commercial interests. This is particularly important for public institutions and public funded projects. I am glad that the NCERT has taken the initiative of declaring that the NROER will carry the CC-BY-SA license&#8230; This decision by NCERT is in tune with UNESCO’s Paris Declaration on Open Education Resources and will ensure that all the resources are freely accessible to all. To put it in the language of the Creative Commons — to reuse, revise, remix and redistribute. </p></blockquote>
<p>To contribute to the repository, one must ensure that they are &#8220;agreeing to host the resources under a Creative Commons license&#8221; (<a href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/">CC BY-SA</a>) and &#8220;that the documents uploaded are encoded using non-proprietary, open standards.&#8221; To learn more about contributing your OER, visit <a href="http://nroer.in/Contribute/">http://nroer.in/Contribute/</a>.</p>


feed_id: http://creativecommons.org/?p=39057
title: News from CC China: eXtreme Learning Process
uri: News-from-CC-China-eXtreme-Learning-Process
url: http://creativecommons.org/weblog/entry/39057
content:
<p><em>Earlier this year, <a href="http://wiki.creativecommons.org/China_Mainland">CC China Mainland</a> volunteers helped organize an educational event to promote open licensing. The CC China Mainland team recaps the event in this guest blog post, which originally appeared on the <a href="http://creativecommons.net.cn/2013/01/27/a-32/">CC China Mainland blog</a>.</em></p>
<p>CC China Mainland volunteers recently helped organize the <strong>Trans-disciplinary System Integration Design Challenge</strong>, a program of the eXtreme Learning Process (XLP) initiative at Tsinghua University. Volunteers designed IP rules for the course, educated participants about Creative Commons, and handed out the Spirit of CC Award during the closing ceremony of the course.</p>
<p style="text-align:center" xmlns:dc="http://purl.org/dc/terms/" xmlns:cc="http://creativecommons.org/ns#" about="http://creativecommons.net.cn/2013/01/27/a-32/"><a href="http://creativecommons.net.cn/2013/01/27/a-32/"><img src="media/4bc6a44e.xlp1.jpg" data-original-source="http://creativecommons.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/08/xlp1.jpg" alt="Students and teachers of the XLP course with musician Yibing Zhu" width="600" height="404" border=0 /></a><br /><small><em><span property="dc:title">Students and teachers of the XLP course with musician Yibing Zhu</span></em> (<span property="cc:attributionName">Cheng Hu</span> / <a rel="license" href="/licenses/by/3.0/cn">CC BY</a>)</small></p>
<p>The Trans-disciplinary System Integration Design Challenge lasted for four days at the Fundamental Industry Training Center&#8217;s Electromechanical Innovation Lab. The course attracted 126 participants from Tsinghua University, Renmin University, Huazhong University of Science &#038; Technology, and Beijing Jiaotong University, including undergraduates, Master&#8217;s candidates, and Ph.D. candidates. Participants were divided into &#8220;Challengers&#8221; and &#8220;Actors.&#8221; The 51 students and teachers who comprised the Challengers  helped design the scenarios and problems, while 75 students made up the Actors, who were divided into eight groups to carry out the tasks and find solutions to the problems.</p>
<div style="float:right; width: 350px; padding-left:10px" xmlns:dc="http://purl.org/dc/terms/" xmlns:cc="/ns#" about="http://creativecommons.net.cn/2013/01/27/a-32/"><a href="http://creativecommons.net.cn/2013/01/27/a-32/"><img width="350" height="228" src="media/c8d783c7.xlp2.jpg" data-original-source="http://creativecommons.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/08/xlp2.jpg" alt="CC volunteer Zhaowen Wang kept track of the open-source technology released under CC licenses by each team." /></a>
<p><small><em><span property="dc:title">CC volunteer Zhaowen Wang kept track of the open-source technology released under CC licenses by each team.</span></em> (<span property="cc:attributionName">Cheng Hu</span> / <a rel="license" href="/licenses/by/3.0/cn">CC BY</a>)</small></p>
</div>
<p>Here&#8217;s the challenge: &#8220;A plate shifting in South China Sea was caused by a sudden earthquake. As a consequence, a new unmanned island, A, appeared. Your task is to win the offer from the venture capitalist to exploit it into an offshore oil city by building a material delivery system and writing a business plan.&#8221;</p>
<p>The teams had 80 hours to complete the challenge. In the course, students are required to work on their own to learn certain technologies, such as the programming software NXT, the project management tool <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Projectlibre">Projectlibre</a>, and so on. Having managed that hardware and software, students were able to build an automatic material delivery system and make virtual functions perform in the sand plate. The course not only trained the problem-solving skill of the students, but also innovative thinking, teamwork, dynamic project control, and time management. This course was covered by Xinhua News Agency, China News Agency, People’s Daily, Beijing Evening News and many other news agencies.</p>
<p>In order to assure the technology development process to flow in orderliness and openness, CC volunteers designed the IP rules for this course, by integrating real-life IP law and regulations with the scenarios of the course. In the copyright rules, students were directed on how to claim their copyright in their slides, photos, and business plans, as well as to effectively share their works by using CC licenses.</p>
<div style="float:left; width: 350px; padding-right:10px" xmlns:dc="http://purl.org/dc/terms/" xmlns:cc="/ns#" about="http://creativecommons.net.cn/2013/01/27/a-32/"><a href="http://creativecommons.net.cn/2013/01/27/a-32/"><img width="350" height="228" src="media/eaba80a2.xlp3.jpg" data-original-source="http://creativecommons.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/08/xlp3.jpg" alt="CC volunteers issue the Spirit of CC Award to the most open and creative team." /></a>
<p><small><em><span property="dc:title">CC volunteers issue the Spirit of CC Award to the most open and creative team.</span></em> (<span property="cc:attributionName">Han Jin</span> / <a rel="license" href="/licenses/by/3.0/cn">CC BY</a>)</small></p>
</div>
<p>The patent and open source rules instructed the students on how to apply and exploit patents, and how to make their technical solutions open source technology and cooperate with other developers by using CC licenses. CC volunteers served as officials in XLP Patent Office and judges in XLP Court to make the course more real and competitive. With the help of CC volunteers, four contracts of technology cooperation were signed, the students learned the concept and benefit of sharing directly, and they accomplished their work with much more efficiency using CC licenses.</p>
<p>On the last afternoon of the course, all eight groups carried out their automatic material delivery systems on the sand plate and performed a virtual commercial bid. Students labeled their works with CC marks and published their business plans and videos using CC licenses, as they hoped their works can be delivered further and give inspiration to people who are also fascinated by extreme learning. During the following ceremony, CC volunteers handed out the Spirit of CC Award and CC souvenirs to the most open and creative team. Members of the team expressed their delight of receiving the award, and wished CC would make a bigger difference in open-source technology.</p>
<p>The Trans-disciplinary System Integration Design Challenge found a new path to attenuate the limits of teaching-learning roles, space and time. The novel way in which the course was taught aroused students&#8217; interest and motivation. The role of CC is crucial and inspiring for learners to explore a far more efficient and cooperative world.</p>


feed_id: http://creativecommons.org/?p=39383
title: CC Global Summit is underway!
uri: CC-Global-Summit-is-underway
url: http://creativecommons.org/weblog/entry/39383
content:
<p align="center"><a href="http://www.creativecommons.org.ar/article/cc-saloon-el-miercoles-en-ultra-bar/"><img src="media/4e09807d.ccsaloon.jpg" data-original-source="http://creativecommons.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/08/ccsaloon.jpg" width=450 height=637 border=0 /></a></p>
<p>The Creative Commons Global Summit is almost here! If you&#8217;re not joining us in Buenos Aires, there are several ways you can follow the summit this week:</p>
<ul>
<li><a href="http://summit2013.creativecommons.org/">Visit the Summit portal</a></li>
<li>Follow the <a href="https://twitter.com/search?q=%23ccsum">#ccsum hashtag on Twitter</a> and the <a href="http://www.flickr.com/groups/2264024@N21/">Summit group on Flickr</a>.</li>
<li>Read updates in English <a href="http://creativecommons.org/tag/global-summit-2013">here on the CC blog</a> and in Spanish <a href="http://www.creativecommons.org.ar/">on the CC Argentina blog</a>.</li>
</ul>


feed_id: http://creativecommons.org/?p=39390
title: Where’s 4.0? A Post-Summit Update
uri: Where-s-4-0-A-Post-Summit-Update
url: http://creativecommons.org/weblog/entry/39390
content:
<div style="float:right; padding:10px" xmlns:dc="http://purl.org/dc/terms/" xmlns:cc="/ns#" about="http://www.flickr.com/photos/jayneandd/4450623309/"><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/jayneandd/4450623309/"><img width="320" height="213" src="media/5374252b.4450623309_5a01157463_n.jpg" data-original-source="http://farm3.staticflickr.com/2798/4450623309_5a01157463_n.jpg" alt="Finish Line" /></a>
<p><small><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/jayneandd/4450623309/"><span property="dc:title">Finish Line</span></a> / <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/jayneandd/"><span property="cc:attributionName">jayneandd</span></a> / <a rel="license" href="/licenses/by/2.0/">CC BY</a></small></p>
</div>
<p>When we published <a href="http://wiki.creativecommons.org/4.0/Draft_3">Draft 3</a> of Version 4.0 of the CC license suite in <a href="http://creativecommons.org/weblog/entry/36713">February</a>, we reminded our community that the ensuing consultation period would be its final chance to comment on the licenses before publication. The publication of that draft and reminder caused some stakeholders and others in our affiliate network to take a final hard look at the legal code. This was also the trigger for us here at CC to conduct one last review as planned.  After all, one of our foremost <a href="http://creativecommons.org/weblog/entry/29639">goals</a> has been to develop a long-lasting suite of licenses that will carry us as far into the future as possible. If there are some improvements we can make now and that will avoid problems later, then we ought take the time to account for those when possible.</p>
<p>That our publication caused the legal code to undergo this final level of scrutiny is the good news. We were also able to have a concluding discussion with our affiliates face-to-face during the <a href="http://creativecommons.org/weblog/entry/39383">2013 Global Summit in Buenos Aires</a> last week. There, we received valuable input from those in attendance about the final draft of the licenses.</p>
<p>The unfortunate news is the ensuing delay. For those eager to move from 3.0 to 4.0&#160;&#8212; and there are many of you who have been waiting patiently&#160;&#8212; we recognize that the delay is a source of frustration. We are excited to say that the wait will pay dividends for everyone; however, the community identified a few important issues and we&#8217;re working together to address those issues in the upcoming draft. We&#8217;ll be expanding more on those when we publish the draft, slated for next week.</p>
<p>For those of you interested in commenting on the final draft, take note that the consultation period will be abbreviated, no longer than two weeks. The bulk of the changes are not substantive and do not involve a shift in policy. Instead, they involve further refinements and simplification in language when possible, consolidation of the <em>sui generis</em> database rights provisions into a single section for ease of reference, and similar improvements. The remainder will be concisely framed and explained, and we don&#8217;t expect them to be controversial.</p>
<p>Watch this space and our <a href="http://wiki.creativecommons.org/4.0">4.0 wiki</a> for the final drafts of the licenses next week. Thanks again for your patience and support. We&#8217;re close!</p>


feed_id: http://creativecommons.org/?p=39419
title: Vote for CC at SXSW!
uri: Vote-for-CC-at-SXSW
url: http://creativecommons.org/weblog/entry/39419
content:
<div style="float:right; padding:10px" xmlns:dc="http://purl.org/dc/terms/" xmlns:cc="/ns#" about="http://www.flickr.com/photos/johnmcnicholas/8590454181/"><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/johnmcnicholas/8590454181/"><img width="320" height="213" src="media/63bb9a1e.8590454181_937d571421_n.jpg" data-original-source="http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8229/8590454181_937d571421_n.jpg" alt="SXSW" /></a>
<p><small><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/johnmcnicholas/8590454181/"><span property="dc:title">SXSW</span></a> / <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/johnmcnicholas/"><span property="cc:attributionName">nickmickolas</span></a> / <a rel="license" href="/licenses/by-nc-sa/2.0/">CC BY-NC-SA</a></small></p>
</div>
<p>Are you planning to go to South by Southwest next year? CC has two pending sessions at <a href="http://sxsw.com/interactive">SXSW Interactive</a> and one at <a href="http://sxswedu.com/">SXSWedu</a>.</p>
<p>If you&#8217;d like to see these sessions happen next year, then please cast your vote. <strong>Voting ends this week</strong>, so please show your support now!</p>
<h3><a href="http://panelpicker.sxsw.com/vote/19494">Open Education: The Business &#038; Policy Case for OER</a></p>
<p>The Internet, increasingly affordable computing, open licensing, open access journals and open educational resources provide the foundation for a world in which a quality education can be a basic human right. Yet before we break the &#8220;iron triangle&#8221; of access, cost and quality with new models, we need to develop sustainable open business models with open policies: public access to publicly funded resources.</p>
</h3>
<h3><a href="http://panelpicker.sxsw.com/vote/22367">How Open Licensing Is Transforming Design</a></p>
<p>When designers share their work under an open license, they invite others to build upon and transform their designs without asking for permission, sometimes even using them commercially. A few years ago, the idea of letting non-clients steal your work was crazy; today, it’s a big part of how designers network, collaborate, and create professional opportunities for themselves and each other.</p>
</h3>
<h3><a href="http://panelpicker.sxsw.com/vote/23974">How Creative Commons Is Changing Artists&#8217; Careers</a></p>
<p>When creators share their art under a Creative Commons license, they invite others to build upon and transform their work without asking for permission. Everyone has heard the stories of big names like Amanda Palmer and Cory Doctorow licensing their work under CC, but what about artists who don’t already have a massive following? Does open licensing open doors for developing creators, or does it close off potential revenue streams?</p>
</h3>


feed_id: http://creativecommons.org/?p=39416
title: Global Summit Wrap Up
uri: Global-Summit-Wrap-Up
url: http://creativecommons.org/weblog/entry/39416
content:
<p align="center"><a title="GS2013 Final Day in Hall" href="media/bd3c174a.DSC_2346-50kb1.jpg" data-original-source="http://creativecommons.org//creativecommons.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/09/DSC_2346-50kb1.jpg"><img width="600" alt="GS2013 Final Day in Hall" src="media/470a4f50.DSC_2346-50kb1.jpg" data-original-source="http://creativecommons.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/09/DSC_2346-50kb1.jpg"/><br /><small>GS2013 Final Day in Hall</small></a> (<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/ibtihel_zaatouri/">Ibtihel Zaatouri</a> / <a href=<http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0>CC BY SA</a>).</p>
<p>And so we have it &#8211; we just came back from the Global Summit, CC&#8217;s bi-annual meeting of our global community, for another two years.</p>
<p>And the <a href="https://twitter.com/search?q=%23ccsum&#038;src=hash">resounding opinion</a> seems to be that this year&#8217;s Summit was a huge success. With over 300 attendees from over 50 countries and 5 days worth of events, it was our biggest meet up yet, and our first to have simultaneous language translation for most of the sessions. It had side events, keynotes, unconferencing, casual meet ups, and a rocking CC Salon. </p>
<p>Some highlights:</p>
<div style="float:right; width: 350px; padding-left:10px"><a href="media/3607e213.GS2013-copyright-reform.jpg" data-original-source="http://creativecommons.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/09/GS2013-copyright-reform.jpg"><img width="350" height="228" src="media/3607e213.GS2013-copyright-reform.jpg" data-original-source="http://creativecommons.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/09/GS2013-copyright-reform.jpg" alt="Paul Keller addresses the crowd at the Copyright Reform Miniconference" /></a>
<p><small><em><span property="dc:title">Paul Keller addresses the crowd at the Copyright Reform Miniconference</span></em> (<span property="cc:attributionName">Lupa</span> / <a rel="license" href="/licenses/by-sa/3.0/">CC BY SA</a>)</small></p>
</div>
<ul>
<li> the opening night CC Salon, featuring CC-licensing Argentinian musicians <a href="http://pilaresdelacreacion.com.ar/">Shaman y Los Pilares de la Creación</a>, <a href="http://villadiamante.bandcamp.com/">Villa Diamante</a>, and <a href="http://sarahebe.bandcamp.com/ ">Sara Hebe and Ramiro Jota</a>. Visuals were provided by vijay <a href="http://valentinotettamanti.com.ar/">Valentino Tettamanti</a>;</li>
<li>the plenary panel on CC in the Real World, with inspirational projects such as Daniel Reetz&#8217;s <a href="http://www.diybookscanner.org/">DIY Scanner</a> project and Valentín Basel&#8217;s educational robotics project, <a href="http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/User:Valentinbasel">Fedora</a>;</li>
<li>fruitful discussions about CC&#8217;s stance on copyright reform, both at the <a href="https://docs.google.com/a/creativecommons.org/document/d/1AyPs4RNgjG3yk1AnNKnKrVEExgjcKe8N6euStWpbZMs/edit">pre-event miniconference</a> and throughout the Summit. Watch the CC blog for more news on the resulting statement soon.</li>
<li>the keynote by Lawrence Lessig at the <a href="http://www.derecho.uba.ar/">University of Buenos Aires&#8217; School of Law</a>, during which he announced that he was teaming up with <a href="https://www.eff.org/">EFF</a> to launch a <a href="https://www.eff.org/press/releases/lawrence-lessig-strikes-back-against-bogus-copyright-takedown">landmark lawsuit</a> against Liberation Music, who alleged copyright infringement when Lessig used part of one of its songs in a lecture he posted to Youtube. The suit could be an important precedent in defending fair use and setting limits on the overzealous copyright threats that to often occur on the internet.</li>
</ul>
<p>If you missed out, you can find materials, including presentations and notes, on the <a href="http://wiki.creativecommons.org/Global_Summit_2013#Presentations">Summit website</a>. Watch for videos, which will be put up over the next few weeks.</p>
<p>The Summit couldn&#8217;t have happened without a lot of people. CC would like to thank the Summit Sponsors, the <a href="http://www.buenosaires.gob.ar/">City of Buenos Aires</a>, <a href="http://www.bancocredicoop.coop/">Banco Credicoop</a>, <a href="http://www.google.com.ar/">Google</a>, the <a href="http://www.macfound.org/">Macarthur Foundation</a> and <a href="http://www.dotspin.com/">Dotspin</a>. We would also like to thank our venue, <a href="http://centroculturalsanmartin.com/">Cultural San Martin</a>, and our side event organisers, <a href="media/fd1c1b8a.LogoFlacsoArgentinahorizontal-1.jpg" data-original-source="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-FAMTGH00k1E/Td_AAdI3bvI/AAAAAAAABSw/rKHipMDq2UY/s1600/Logo+Flacso+Argentina+horizontal-1.jpg">FLACSO Argentina</a>, <a href="http://conceptocero.com/">Concepto Cero</a>, and the Faculty of Law of <a href="media/24ddc31e.FileDerecho_uba.jpg" data-original-source="http://wiki.creativecommons.org/File:Derecho_uba.jpg">Buenos Aires Unviversity</a>. But most of all, we&#8217;d like to thank our coorganizers &#8211; our <a href="http://www.creativecommons.org.ar/">CC Argentina</a> affiliates <a href="http://www.vialibre.org.ar/">Foundacion Via Libre</a> and <a href="http://www.wikimedia.org.ar/">Wikimedia Argentina</a>. They did a fabulous job!</p>


feed_id: http://creativecommons.org/?p=39457
uri: California-Community-Colleges-require-Creative-Commons-Attribution-for
url: http://creativecommons.org/weblog/entry/39457
title:
California Community Colleges require Creative Commons Attribution for Chancellor’s Office Grants & Contracts

content:
<p align="center"><a href="http://extranet.cccco.edu/"><img src="media/b7979ef7.CCC_logo_2color-300x300.jpg" data-original-source="http://creativecommons.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/09/CCC_logo_2color-300x300.jpg" alt="CCC_logo_2color-300x300" width="300" height="300" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-39463" /></a></p>
<p>At <a href="http://extranet.cccco.edu/SystemOperations/BoardofGovernors/Meetings/September2013Agenda.aspx">today&#8217;s meeting</a> of the Board of Governors of the California Community Colleges, the Board voted unanimously to require open licensing on publicly funded materials resulting from all <a href="http://extranet.cccco.edu/">Chancellor&#8217;s Office</a> contracts and grants.  </p>
<p>The previous policy for these grants maintained &#8216;all rights reserved&#8217; copyright over grant materials by the Chancellor&#8217;s Office; the <a href="media/323b0857.2_1_p_and_s_changes.pdf" data-original-source="http://extranet.cccco.edu/Portals/1/ExecutiveOffice/Board/2013_agendas/september/2_1_p_and_s_changes.pdf">exact language</a> (PDF) reading, &#8220;The copyright for all materials first produced as a result of this Work for Hire agreement shall belong to the Chancellor&#8217;s Office.&#8221; </p>
<p>Upon reviewing the existing policy, and discussing the benefits of open licensing for publicly funded materials, the Board of Governors voted to adjust its policy so that any works created under contracts or grants funded by the California Community Colleges Chancellor’s Office will be made available under the <a href="/licenses/by/3.0/">Creative Commons Attribution license</a> (CC BY) license. </p>
<p>The Chancellor&#8217;s Office will maintain its copyright over grant and contract funded materials, while enabling wide dissemination, reuse, and adaptation of those materials under the CC BY license. With 72 districts and 112 colleges, the California Community Colleges is the largest system of higher education in world to now require a CC BY license on its publicly funded grant materials.</p>
<p>According to the <a href="media/5723a80c.PRESS_RELEASE_CreativeCommonsBY_090913_FINAL.pdf" data-original-source="http://www.californiacommunitycolleges.cccco.edu/Portals/0/DocDownloads/PressReleases/SEP2013/PRESS_RELEASE_CreativeCommonsBY_090913_FINAL.pdf">press release</a> (PDF),</p>
<blockquote><p>
Using a CC BY license also saves taxpayers money by not funding duplicate work that may only be accessible on the local level. For instance, under the old grant requirements a community college staff may have produced a report under contract from the Chancellor’s Office but was not required to openly license or share that report with other colleges. This made it difficult for other colleges to access and reuse the report, but with the new CC BY requirement, other colleges can both view the report and reuse, share, and improve upon it with updated information and data.<br />
<br />
&#8220;The Chancellor&#8217;s Office already held copyrights to all materials that had been contracted,&#8221; California Community Colleges Chancellor Brice W. Harris said. &#8220;But the great thing about the action taken by the board of governors this afternoon is that those materials will now be available to a world-wide audience. Also, the tax-paying public shouldn&#8217;t be required to pay twice or more to access and use educational materials, first via the funding of the research and development of educational resources and then again when they purchase materials like textbooks they helped fund. So, ultimately this decision to change the board&#8217;s regulations will save taxpayers money over time. That&#8217;s always a good thing.&#8221;</p></blockquote>
<p>Dean Florez, President and CEO of the 20 Million Minds Foundation added:</p>
<blockquote><p>&#8220;These are exciting times as the California Community Colleges takes the lead in advancing higher education. Creative Commons licensing saves families and taxpayers money and the advancement of Open Educational Resources further expands access to materials for faculty members and their students.&#8221;</p></blockquote>
<p>The <a href="http://www.3cmediasolutions.org/node/2554?start=1670">video</a> of the open policy discussion from the September 9th meeting is now available. Learn more at the <a href="media/5723a80c.PRESS_RELEASE_CreativeCommonsBY_090913_FINAL.pdf" data-original-source="http://www.californiacommunitycolleges.cccco.edu/Portals/0/DocDownloads/PressReleases/SEP2013/PRESS_RELEASE_CreativeCommonsBY_090913_FINAL.pdf">press release</a> (PDF) and the <a href="media/323b0857.2_1_p_and_s_changes.pdf" data-original-source="http://extranet.cccco.edu/Portals/1/ExecutiveOffice/Board/2013_agendas/september/2_1_p_and_s_changes.pdf">presentation and analysis of the agenda item</a> (PDF) from the meeting. Creative Commons is thrilled with this recent development and hopes this new policy by the California Community Colleges inspires other college systems to also implement open policies for their grants and contracts.</p>
<p>Thank you, California Community Colleges for ensuring publicly funded educational resources are openly licensed.</p>
<p>Related: <a href="https://chronicle.com/blogs/wiredcampus/californias-community-colleges-shift-to-creative-commons-licenses">California’s Community Colleges Shift to Creative Commons Licenses</a> by The Chronicle of Higher Education</p>


feed_id: http://creativecommons.org/?p=39505
title: Congratulations! Announcing Affiliate Project Grant Recipients
uri: Congratulations-Announcing-Affiliate-Project-Grant-Recipients
url: http://creativecommons.org/weblog/entry/39505
content:
<p><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/62365517@N00/9661792090"><img src="media/193da9b7.3mtCwEt.jpg" data-original-source="http://i.imgur.com/3mtCwEt.jpg"/></a><small><br />
Creative Commons Global Summit 2013 (<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/62365517@N00/9661792090" title="Creative Commons Global Summit 2013">cckorea</a> / <a href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/" title="CC BY">CC BY</a>)</small></p>
<p>You might remember a few months ago when CC announced the <a href="https://creativecommons.org/weblog/entry/38602">start of an affiliate project grant program</a> to support and expand the work of CC’s global volunteer network.</p>
<p>Today, we are thrilled to announce the recipients of those grants. With a pool of over 70 applications from our community, 16 have been selected to receive grants that support and further open policies and practices in their region. From an open source platform for expression led by a Palestinian rap group, to an online copyright course for Latin american librarians, to a revived CC WordPress plug-in from Finland, we are more than excited to watch these projects unfold in the coming months.</p>
<p>We want to thank everyone for the thoughtful and varied submissions we received from our global affiliate community. In selecting the recipients, we based our decisions on a number of criteria, including the relevance to our mission, benefit to the CC community, significance of outcome, impact, feasibility, partners, and cost effectiveness.</p>
<p>Please join me in congratulating the recipients of the <a href="http://wiki.creativecommons.org/Affiliate_Project_Grants">CC Affiliate Project Grants</a>:</p>
<p><strong>AFRICA</strong><br />
<a href="http://wiki.creativecommons.org/Kenya" title="CC Kenya">Kenya</a> &#8211; School of Open Kenya Initiative<br />
<a href="http://wiki.creativecommons.org/South_Africa" title="CC South Africa">South Africa</a> &#8211; Creative Commons for Kids<br />
<a href="http://wiki.creativecommons.org/Tanzania" title="CC Tanzania">Tanzania</a> &#8211; Tanzania CC Salon<br />
<a href="http://wiki.creativecommons.org/Uganda" title="CC Uganda">Uganda</a>  &#8211; Promoting Creative Commons Initiatives in Uganda<br />
Cross Regional &#8211; Activate Africa</p>
<p><strong>ARAB WORLD</strong><br />
Algeria &#8211; Arabic Icons<br />
<a href="http://wiki.creativecommons.org/Lebanon" title="CC Lebanon">Lebanon</a> &#8211; CC Simply Explained in Arabic<br />
Morocco &#8211; Creative BookSprint<br />
Palestine, <a href="http://wiki.creativecommons.org/Lebanon" title="CC Lebanon">Lebanon</a> &#8211; Hope Spoken/Broken: Change in the Eyes of Palestinian Refugees</p>
<p><strong>ASIA &#8211; PACIFIC</strong><br />
<a href="http://wiki.creativecommons.org/Japan" title="CC Japan">Japan</a> &#8211; Workshops and Symposium for Open Data in Japan<br />
<a href="http://wiki.creativecommons.org/New_Zealand" title="CC New Zealand">New Zealand</a> &#8211; Media Text Hack<br />
<a href="http://wiki.creativecommons.org/Taiwan" title="CC Taiwan">Taiwan</a> &#8211; Practices and Depositories for The Public Domain</p>
<p><strong>EUROPE</strong><br />
<a href="http://wiki.creativecommons.org/Finland" title="CC Finland">Finland</a> &#8211; WpLicense Revived<br />
<a href="http://wiki.creativecommons.org/Ireland" title="CC Ireland">Ireland</a> &#8211; Awareness-raising Event in Dublin, November 2013<br />
<a href="http://wiki.creativecommons.org/Romania" title="CC Romania">Romania</a> &#8211; OER Awareness Activities for Librarians and Academics in Romania</p>
<p><strong>LATIN AMERICA</strong><br />
<a href="http://wiki.creativecommons.org/Chile" title="CC Chile">Chile</a> &#8211; Promotion of Open Knowledge in the Chilean Academia: Ways to Facilitate Adoption of Creative Commons in the Academic World<br />
<a href="http://wiki.creativecommons.org/Colombia" title="CC Colombia">Colombia</a>, El Salvador, Uruguay &#8211; An Online Course on Basic Copyright, including the open concept that will be totally developed in Spanish for Latinamerican librarians<br />
<a href="http://wiki.creativecommons.org/Guatemala" title="CC Guatemala">Guatemala</a>, Uruguay &#8211; Promoting Free Music in Central and South America</p>


feed_id: http://creativecommons.org/?p=39587
title: 4.0 draft 4 ready for comment — final consultation before publication
uri: 4-0-draft-4-ready-for-comment-final-consultation-before-publicati
url: http://creativecommons.org/weblog/entry/39587
content:
<div style="float:right; padding:10px" xmlns:dc="http://purl.org/dc/terms/" xmlns:cc="/ns#" about="http://www.flickr.com/photos/jamescridland/2374301209/"><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/jamescridland/2374301209/"><img width="320" height="240" src="media/ecdf1591.2374301209_05285221c5_n.jpg" data-original-source="http://farm4.staticflickr.com/3235/2374301209_05285221c5_n.jpg" alt="International arrivals" /></a>
<p><small><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/jamescridland/2374301209/"><span property="dc:title">International arrivals</span></a> / <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/jamescridland/"><span property="cc:attributionName">James Cridland</span></a> / <a rel="license" href="/licenses/by/2.0/">CC BY</a></small></p>
</div>
<p>We are delighted to finally publish the fourth and <a href="http://wiki.creativecommons.org/4.0/Draft_4">final draft of the 4.0 license suite</a> for public comment. We are publishing draft 4 of <a href="http://staging.creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/legalcode">BY-NC-SA</a> today, and will publish the other five licenses over the course of the next few days.</p>
<p>The prior public comment period – lengthy as it was – netted important input from the community, stakeholders, and our affiliate community. It was also the signal for CC to pause and consider one final time what more we might do to make the license suite as long-lasting, international, and easy to use as possible.  We have introduced changes in this draft that we feel accomplish these goals more completely. A few highlights follow – read more on our <a href="http://wiki.creativecommons.org/4.0/Draft_4">4.0 wiki</a>.</p>
<p><strong>ShareAlike</strong> – In discussions with our community (including our affiliate network), it has become evident that there exist several different understandings about how ShareAlike operates &#8212; in particular, whether and how the licenses &#8220;stack&#8221; when different SA licenses are applied (such as ports and later versions), like they stack for adaptations of BY and BY-NC works. We also know that in practice, many (perhaps even most) users of those remixes look only to the last SA license applied as the source of their obligations as to all copyright holders.</p>
<p>Given the expected longevity of the 4.0 suite, we are taking the opportunity now to insert a provision <a href="http://staging.creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/legalcode">(see Section 2(a)5))</a> that brings the legal code fully in line with what we believe is the prevailing practice and expectation. Thus, while the original license continues to apply to the original, all copyrights in remixes of 4.0 SA-licensed works will be under a unified set of terms and conditions (those of the last SA license applied), even when a later version of the SA license is applied by a downstream remixer. We welcome input on this important revision.</p>
<p><strong>Effective Technological Measures</strong> – While we are retaining the prohibition on these measures, we are taking the opportunity to clarify within the license what has been long-standing confusion over what is and is not prohibited. We introduce in draft 4 a <a href="http://wiki.creativecommons.org/4.0/Technical_protection_measures">new defined term</a> that makes clear that the prohibition is limited to those technologies that have the <em>effect</em> of imposing legal restrictions on reuse, just as our licenses prohibit additional terms that restrict reuse.</p>
<p><strong>Attribution</strong> – Draft 4 improves <a href="http://wiki.creativecommons.org/4.0/Attribution_and_marking">inter-version compatibility</a> between 4.0 and prior license suites while retaining the new addition introduced earlier that subjects all requirements to a standard of reasonableness.</p>
<p>Other improvements include consolidation of provisions relating to <a href="http://wiki.creativecommons.org/4.0/Sui_generis_database_rights">sui generis databse rights</a> for ease of reference and to reduce confusion, eliminating an unnecessary (and confusing) <a href="http://wiki.creativecommons.org/4.0/Internationalization">license interpretation clause</a>, removal of a provision that would have allowed <a href="http://wiki.creativecommons.org/4.0/Disclaimer_of_warranties_and_related_issues">customized warranties</a> to form part of the license, and other language clean up and simplification. <a href="http://wiki.creativecommons.org/4.0/Draft_4">Read more</a> about the changes and improvements to <a href="http://staging.creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/legalcode">draft 4</a>, including a comparison of this draft to Draft 3 [<a href="media/6c181bbf.Comparison_draft_3_to_draft_4.pdf" data-original-source="http://wiki.creativecommons.org/images/0/02/Comparison_draft_3_to_draft_4.pdf">PDF</a>] and a chart summarizing changes to the attribution and marking requirements [<a href="media/9584d071.Attribution_chart_28v3_v_d429_.pdf" data-original-source="http://wiki.creativecommons.org/images/3/32/Attribution_chart_%28v3_v_d4%29_.pdf">PDF</a>]. More info on our <a href="http://wiki.creativecommons.org/4.0/Draft_4">4.0 wiki</a>.</p>
<p>Please note that this consultation period is <a href="http://creativecommons.org/weblog/entry/39390">abbreviated</a>. <strong>We will be drawing the comment period to a close sometime the week of September 23rd.</strong>  Please <a href="http://lists.ibiblio.org/mailman/listinfo/cc-licenses">participate</a>!</p>


feed_id: http://creativecommons.org/?p=39527
title: Welcoming David Wiley, CC’s new Education Fellow
uri: Welcoming-David-Wiley-CC-s-new-Education-Fellow
url: http://creativecommons.org/weblog/entry/39527
content:
<p><span style="float:right;padding:10px;" xmlns:cc="http://creativecommons.org/ns#" xmlns:dc="http://purl.org/dc/terms/" about="http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7264/7754795758_fc7af56605.jpg"><img alt="" src="media/6cd136ab.david-wiley3.jpg" data-original-source="http://creativecommons.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/09/david-wiley3.jpg" /><br /> <small><a rel="cc:attributionURL" href="https://secure.flickr.com/photos/davidwiley/7754795758/in/set-72157631006713964/" property="dc:title"></a> <a href="https://secure.flickr.com/photos/davidwiley/7754795758/in/set-72157631006713964/">In the McKay School of Education</a> / <span property="cc:attributionName">Mark A. Philbrick</span> / <a rel="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/">CC BY</a></small></span> </p>
<p>David Wiley, longtime open education leader, has joined Creative Commons as a <a href="http://staging.creativecommons.org/staff#davidwiley">CC Education Fellow</a>. Welcome David!</p>
<p>David is also currently a Shuttleworth Fellow, on leave from Brigham Young University, and leading <a href="http://www.lumenlearning.com/">Lumen Learning</a>, an organization dedicated to supporting and improving the adoption of open educational resources (OER) by middle schools, high schools, community and state colleges, and universities.</p>
<p>David will be promoting Creative Commons and its interests in open education activities and meetings and will:</p>
<ul>
<li>visit institutions of secondary and post-secondary education promoting OER and CC licenses;</li>
<li>continue to share his &#8220;<a href="https://p2pu.org/en/courses/140/intro-to-openness-in-education/">Intro to Openness in Education</a>&#8221; course with the <a href="http://schoolofopen.org/">School of Open</a>;</li>
<li>actively participate in the <a href="http://openpolicynetwork.org/">Open Policy Network</a>; and</li>
<li>create, CC license, and publish primers on OER and open textbook adoption at the secondary level and post-secondary level.</li>
</ul>
<p>To start, David addresses the problems with the &#8220;open&#8221; washing that is occurring with more frequency in education as OER gains popularity, over at his <a href="http://opencontent.org/blog/archives/2922">blog</a>. Welcome David!</p>


feed_id: http://creativecommons.org/?p=39521
title: 10 great moments from #ccsum
uri: 10-great-moments-from-ccsum
url: http://creativecommons.org/weblog/entry/39521
content:
<p>In case you missed it, <a href="/weblog/entry/39416">be sure to read Jessica&#8217;s recap</a> from the <a href="http://summit2013.creativecommons.org/">Creative Commons Global Summit</a> a few weeks ago in Buenos Aires. One of the most fun parts of an event like this is watching the <a href="http://twitter.com/search?q=%23ccsum">ongoing commentary on Twitter</a> and the <a href="http://www.flickr.com/groups/2264024@N21/pool/">stream of photos on Flickr</a>. Below, we&#8217;ve compiled ten of our favorite tweets from the summit.</p>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p><a href="https://twitter.com/paul_keller">@paul_keller</a> in <a href="https://twitter.com/ccpolska">@ccpolska</a> tshirt :) <a href="https://twitter.com/search?q=%23proud&amp;src=hash">#proud</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/search?q=%23ccsum&amp;src=hash">#ccsum</a> <a href="http://t.co/h7EiHvkEGo">pic.twitter.com/h7EiHvkEGo</a></p>
<p>&mdash; Kamil Śliwowski (@cienkamila) <a href="https://twitter.com/cienkamila/statuses/371315264069312512">August 24, 2013</a></p></blockquote>
<p><script async src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script></p>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p>Getting a chance to finally meet+drink with those people you&#39;ve admired from the Internet&#8230; Yea I hope that never gets old. <a href="https://twitter.com/search?q=%23ccsum&amp;src=hash">#ccsum</a></p>
<p>&mdash; Maira Sutton (@maira) <a href="https://twitter.com/maira/statuses/370404215237386240">August 22, 2013</a></p></blockquote>
<p><script async src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script></p>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p>re-create CC Summit emotions: re-listen CC Salon headliners, Shaman y Los Pilares de la Creacion <a href="https://twitter.com/search?q=%23ccsum&amp;src=hash">#ccsum</a> <a href="http://t.co/jqs5R3amSx">http://t.co/jqs5R3amSx</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/search?q=%23Grunwald1410&amp;src=hash">#Grunwald1410</a></p>
<p>&mdash; Alek Tarkowski (@atarkowski) <a href="https://twitter.com/atarkowski/statuses/372744234371018752">August 28, 2013</a></p></blockquote>
<p><script async src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script></p>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p>&quot;A strategy in the digital age will only last the blink of an eye.&quot; <a href="https://twitter.com/cathycasserly">@cathycasserly</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/search?q=%23ccsum&amp;src=hash">#ccsum</a></p>
<p>&mdash; creativecommons (@creativecommons) <a href="https://twitter.com/creativecommons/statuses/370522992901906432">August 22, 2013</a></p></blockquote>
<p><script async src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script></p>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p>Could we explain the difficult interactions of multiple CC licenses in a single work through a blood types metaphor? <a href="https://twitter.com/search?q=%23ccsum&amp;src=hash">#ccsum</a></p>
<p>&mdash; Alek Tarkowski (@atarkowski) <a href="https://twitter.com/atarkowski/statuses/370652023852498944">August 22, 2013</a></p></blockquote>
<p><script async src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script></p>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p>«Lawyers are people too&#8230; sort of.» <a href="https://twitter.com/search?q=%23ccsum&amp;src=hash">#ccsum</a></p>
<p>&mdash; J. Carlos Lara G. (@DonJC) <a href="https://twitter.com/DonJC/statuses/370565760390664194">August 22, 2013</a></p></blockquote>
<p><script async src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script></p>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p>Thanks <a href="https://twitter.com/creativecommons">@creativecommons</a> Legal Team for 4.0! You guys rock:) <a href="https://twitter.com/search?q=%23ccsum&amp;src=hash">#ccsum</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/search?q=%23CCQatar&amp;src=hash">#CCQatar</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/bilalr">@bilalr</a> <a href="http://t.co/DQRSVW7s9z">pic.twitter.com/DQRSVW7s9z</a></p>
<p>&mdash; CC Qatar (@ccqatar) <a href="https://twitter.com/ccqatar/statuses/370650241546350592">August 22, 2013</a></p></blockquote>
<p><script async src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script></p>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p>Realized cameras cost less than textbooks, so he jumped in a dumpster &amp; made a textbook scanner &#8211; &quot;CC in the real world&quot; session <a href="https://twitter.com/search?q=%23ccsum&amp;src=hash">#ccsum</a></p>
<p>&mdash; heidi (@ccheidi) <a href="https://twitter.com/ccheidi/statuses/370656552686202880">August 22, 2013</a></p></blockquote>
<p><script async src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script></p>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p>&#39;Fight the corruption, your role as a citizen&#39; &#8211; <a href="https://twitter.com/lessig">@lessig</a> remembers Aaron Swartz as a mentor, not a mentee at <a href="https://twitter.com/search?q=%23ccsum&amp;src=hash">#ccsum</a></p>
<p>&mdash; Mark Hahnel (@MarkHahnel) <a href="https://twitter.com/MarkHahnel/statuses/371037745826652160">August 23, 2013</a></p></blockquote>
<p><script async src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script></p>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p>We love this slogan from <a href="https://twitter.com/ginocingolani">@ginocingolani</a>: <a href="http://t.co/KlYReaAxcc">http://t.co/KlYReaAxcc</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/search?q=%23ccsum&amp;src=hash">#ccsum</a></p>
<p>&mdash; creativecommons (@creativecommons) <a href="https://twitter.com/creativecommons/statuses/371281199660290048">August 24, 2013</a></p></blockquote>
<p><script async src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script></p>
<p>Find much more at the <a href="http://summit2013.creativecommons.org/">summit homepage</a>.</p>


feed_id: http://creativecommons.org/?p=38534
title: New CC Kenya Hosts CC Salon in Sub-Sahara Africa
uri: Kenya-Hosts-First-CC-Salon-in-Sub-Sahara-Africa
url: http://creativecommons.org/weblog/entry/38534
content:
<p style="text-align:center" xmlns:dc="http://purl.org/dc/terms/" xmlns:cc="/ns#" about="http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Pt_Thomson_Batian_Nelion_Mt_Kenya.JPG"><a href="media/6c900572.FilePt_Thomson_Batian_Nelion_Mt_Kenya.JPG" data-original-source="http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Pt_Thomson_Batian_Nelion_Mt_Kenya.JPG"><img src="media/d7879c21.640px-Pt_Thomson_Batian_Nelion_Mt_Kenya.JPG" data-original-source="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/7/73/Pt_Thomson_Batian_Nelion_Mt_Kenya.JPG/640px-Pt_Thomson_Batian_Nelion_Mt_Kenya.JPG" alt="Mt. Kenya" width="640" height="480" border=0 /><br /><small><a href="media/6c900572.FilePt_Thomson_Batian_Nelion_Mt_Kenya.JPG" data-original-source="http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Pt_Thomson_Batian_Nelion_Mt_Kenya.JPG"><span property="dc:title">Mt. Kenya</span></a> / <a href="http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/User:Chris_73"><span property="cc:attributionName">Chris 73</span></a> / <a rel="license" href="/licenses/by-sa/3.0/">CC BY-SA</a></small></a></p>
<p><em>Guest post by Elizabeth Kiragu Wanjugu and Tobias Schonwetter</em></p>
<p>As we were busy getting ready for our community Global Summit a few weeks ago, we nearly missed the announcement of <a href="/weblog/entry/39229">another</a> very important addition to that community &#8211; our new CC Kenya affiliate.</p>
<p>Our new Kenyan team is based around two Nairobi-based affiliate institutions: <a href="http://www.strathmore.edu/en/">Strathmore University</a>&#8216;s <a href="http://www.cipit.org/">Centre for Intellectual Property and Information Technology</a> (CIPIT) and the <a href="http://www.kenyalaw.org/klr/index.php">National Council for Law Reports</a> (NCLR). CIPIT &#8211; led by Dr. Isaac Rutenberg &#8211; is Kenya&#8217;s Public Lead, while the NCLR &#8211; led by Michael Murungi &#8211; serves as CC Kenya&#8217;s Legal Lead institution.</p>
<div style="float:right; width: 350px; padding-left:10px"><a href="media/fa5e1ad1.CC-Kenya-Logo-small.jpg" data-original-source="http://creativecommons.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/09/CC-Kenya-Logo-small.jpg"><img src="media/7f7224b4.CC-Kenya-Logo-small-300x63.jpg" data-original-source="http://creativecommons.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/09/CC-Kenya-Logo-small-300x63.jpg" alt="CC Kenya Logo" width="300" height="63" class="size-medium wp-image-39634" /></a></div>
<p>The Kenyan team is supported by a large existing CC community in the country, which has been active for quite some time. Unsurprisingly, therefore, a number of projects and activities are already under way. The NCLR&#8217;s <a href="http://www.kenyalaw.org/klr/index.php">Kenya Law Report</a> already uses CC&#8217;s Public Domain Mark for its content, the team has been a major contributor to <a href="/weblog/entry/37424">bringing the School of Open</a> to the region, and there is an exciting initiative to translate some of CC&#8217;s licence tools into Kiswahili. According to the new team, Kenya&#8217;s thriving cultural industry requires access to shareable resources that facilitate remixing, and CC Kenya also strives to support newly realisable democratic freedoms by enabling widespread access to knowledge and information. CC Kenya makes East Africa now one of the most active regions for CC in Africa with affiliate teams in Rwanda, Tanzania, Uganda and Kenya.</p>
<p>One of the first major activities of the new team, even before they had formally launched, was Kenya&#8217;s inaugural Creative Commons Salon. Held on 6 June, 2013 at Nairobi&#8217;s iHub and themed, &#8220;using technology as a democratizing tool, especially one that will level the playing field for education and opportunity in Kenya,&#8221; the event drew approximately 50 participants from different backgrounds.</p>
<p>Organised by <a href="http://www.akilidada.org/">Akili Dada</a> in partnership with newly established team, the <a href="http://www.cipit.org/">Center for Intellectual Property and Information Technology</a> (CIPIT) and <a href="http://jamlab.co.ke/">Jamlab</a>.</p>
<p>Akili Dada is a leadership incubator investing in high-achieving young African women from underprivileged backgrounds who are passionate about social change. CIPIT is CC Kenya&#8217;s Public Lead while Jamlab drives the <a href="/weblog/entry/37424">School of Open in Kenya</a>.</p>
<p>In her opening remarks Allison Domicone, Akili Dada&#8217;s Director of Development (and who incidentally ran CC Salons from late 2008 through early 2011 and helped grow them significantly while working with Creative Commons in San Francisco, California) welcomed the attendees then asked <a href="https://creativecommons.org/staff#alexgakuru">Alex Gakuru</a>, Creative Commons Africa Regional Coordinator, to say a few words.</p>
<p>Expressing optimism for continued growth, Alex reflected on the positive reception thus far accorded to Creative Commons in Kenya and across Africa.</p>
<p>The panelists comprised Michael Muringi, CEO/Editor National Council for Law Reports; CC Kenya Legal Lead, Judith Owigar, President of Akirachix; Paul Kihwelo, Public Lead of Creative Commons Tanzania; and Simeon Oriko, Co-Founder of Jamlab. Akili Dada founder Wanjiru Kamau Rutenberg moderated the session.</p>
<p>Discussions on how technology can be harnessed as democratizing tool delved into how it can be made more accessible to all people with a special attention to girls and women given local statistics that they constitute only 15 percent of a technology field dominated by men. Discussion around access was extended to include access to online resources, empowering instruments and digital tools such as the mobile phone.</p>
<p>Discussants established among major barriers to access included: Inequitable financial access; Lack of knowledge; Absent or unpredictable electricity; Resultant societal stereotyping; to name but just a few. Probing, &#8220;What exactly is a level playing field?&#8221; was asked at the question session, with panelists responding as follows:</p>
<blockquote><p>Jamlab &#8211; &#8220;A level playing field enables a person to achieve goals that s/he has set for own self.&#8221;</p></blockquote>
<blockquote><p>Creative Commons Tanzania – &#8220;A level playing field is where a person can have a balance between retaining ownership and encouraging open access to shared creative works.&#8221;</p></blockquote>
<blockquote><p>National Council for Law Reporting – &#8220;A level playing field is where any citizen gains access to justice without having to relying on costly representation through legal intermediaries.&#8221;</p></blockquote>
<blockquote><p>Akirachix – &#8220;A level playing field is where information is provided to enable girls to make informed career choices.&#8221;</p></blockquote>
<p>Noted challenges included socialization in technology that favoured men over women, parents preferring to take the girl child to secretarial colleges to study languages and at best computer packages rather than encouraging them to venture into computer programming/coding and website development.</p>
<blockquote><p>&#8220;Fortunately,  the challenge is slowly being conquered by educating parents on importance of technology to the economy,&#8221; said Judith Owigar.</p></blockquote>
<p>In Tanzania, librarians are championing the cause of Open Educational Resources (OER) due to their background and understanding of the importance of equitable access to knowledge.</p>
<p>Thereafter, the moderator invited audience participation with a reaction that children between 3 and 7 years were most impressionable urging stakeholders to focus their girlhood education and empowerment efforts on that age group.</p>
<p>Responding, Simeon Oriko said at that age the children were best under their parents care learning everything from parents. Jamlab chose to target high school students where youth peer influence, including what they see on social media, have the most impact on their adult character.</p>
<p>Professor Suki Mwendwa cautioned that technology, per se, should not be viewed as the solution to all access problems:</p>
<blockquote><p>&#8220;Reading should be encouraged and technology used as a tool to increase access to knowledge. Technology having a seductive nature should also be regulated at home so that the children can be well rounded.&#8221;</p></blockquote>
<p>The event ended with the moderator narrating inspiring stories of successful women providing role models for the younger generation &#8212; and encouraging others to do the same. She called upon more women to step forward to rally behind a solid community of mentors to change the world as we know it today.</p>
<p>It was a very informative interaction and well acknowledged. The audience later engaged and networked while enjoying the refreshments and food courtesy of NCLR sponsorship.</p>
<p>I thank Akili Dada, Creative Commons, Akirachix and Jamlab for taking the time to collect and relay information on matters of access and also women in technology. We look forward to the next CC Salon, perhaps in Tanzania, considering that CC Tanzania expressed their interest in replicating the event back home.</p>
<blockquote><p>
<strong>Correction:</strong> The original article incorrectly listed Kenya&#8217;s Salon as the first CC Salon held in Sub-Sahara Africa. The <a href="http://wiki.creativecommons.org/Johannesburg_Salon">first</a> was actually held in Johannesburg, South Africa, in August 2006.</p></blockquote>


feed_id: http://creativecommons.org/?p=39685
title: Cathy in Index on Censorship Dialogue with Philip Pullman
uri: Cathy-in-Index-on-Censorship-Dialogue-with-Philip-Pullman
url: http://creativecommons.org/weblog/entry/39685
content:
<table align="center" border=0>
<tr>
<td width="255" xmlns:dc="http://purl.org/dc/terms/" xmlns:cc="/ns#" about="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Philip_Pullman_2005-04-16.png"><a href="media/a77ef3fc.FilePhilip_Pullman_2005-04-16.png" data-original-source="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Philip_Pullman_2005-04-16.png"><img width="250" height="350" src="media/ddcd9068.pullman.jpg" data-original-source="http://creativecommons.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/09/pullman.jpg" alt="Philip Pullman" /></a>
<p><small><a href="media/a77ef3fc.FilePhilip_Pullman_2005-04-16.png" data-original-source="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Philip_Pullman_2005-04-16.png"><span property="dc:title">Philip Pullman</span></a> / <span property="cc:attributionName">Adrian Hon</span> / <a rel="license" href="/licenses/by-sa/3.0/">CC BY-SA</a></small></p>
</td>
<td width="255" xmlns:dc="http://purl.org/dc/terms/" xmlns:cc="/ns#" about="http://www.flickr.com/photos/joi/6155106860/"><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/joi/6155106860/"><img width="250" height="350" src="media/7e708ebe.cathy-250.jpg" data-original-source="http://creativecommons.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/09/cathy-250.jpg" alt="Catherine Casserly" /></a>
<p><small><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/joi/6155106860/"><span property="dc:title">Catherine Casserly</span></a> / <span property="cc:attributionName">Joi Ito</span> / <a rel="license" href="/licenses/by/2.0/">CC BY</a></small></p>
</td>
</tr>
</table>
<p>The Index on Censorship <a href="http://www.indexoncensorship.org/2013/09/future-copyright-pullman/">just published a dialogue on the future of copyright between Creative Commons CEO Cathy Casserly and British writer and Society of Authors president Philip Pullman</a>. Pullman writes that internet piracy has made it harder for creators to make money:</p>
<blockquote><p>It is outrageous that anyone can steal an artist&#8217;s else&#8217;s work and get away with it. It is theft, as surely as reaching into someone&#8217;s pocket and taking their wallet is theft. Writers and musicians work in poverty and obscurity for years in order to bring their work to a pitch of skill and imaginative depth that gives delight to their audiences, and as soon as they achieve that, the possibility of making a living from it is taken away from them. There are some who are lucky enough to do well despite the theft and the piracy that goes on all around them; there are many more who are not. The principle is simple, and unaltered by technology, science, or magic: if we want to enjoy the work that someone does, we should pay for it.</p></blockquote>
<p>Cathy argues that Internet distribution &#8211; and even creators <em>allowing</em> others to reuse their work under an open license &#8211; has had a transformative effect on artists&#8217; careers.</p>
<blockquote><p>Copyright was created in an analog age. By default, copyright closes the door on countless ways that people can share, build upon, and remix each other&#8217;s work, possibilities that were unimaginable when those laws were established. For [science fiction author Cory Doctorow] and artists like him, people sharing and creatively reusing their work literally translates into new fans and new revenue streams. That&#8217;s the problem with the all-or-nothing approach to copyright. The All Rights Reserved default doesn&#8217;t just restrict the kinds of reuse that eat into your sales; it also restricts the kinds of reuse that can help you build a following in the first place.</p></blockquote>
<p><strong><a href="http://www.indexoncensorship.org/2013/09/future-copyright-pullman/">Read the full article.</a></strong></p>


feed_id: http://creativecommons.org/?p=39725
title: Happy Software Freedom Day!
uri: Happy-Software-Freedom-Day
url: http://creativecommons.org/weblog/entry/39725
content:
<p><a href="http://softwarefreedomday.org/"><img src="media/f200230b.web-banner-chat-participating-h.png" data-original-source="http://creativecommons.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/09/web-banner-chat-participating-h.png" width=200 height=103 border=0 /></a></p>
<p>It&#8217;s <a href="http://softwarefreedomday.org">Software Freedom Day!</a> All over the world today, hackers, designers, and free software enthusiasts are participating in meetups, hackathons, cultural events, and more. <a href="http://softwarefreedomday.org/map/index.php?year=2013">Check out the map</a> to find out if there&#8217;s an event near you.</p>


feed_id: http://creativecommons.org/?p=39870
title: European Commission launches “Opening Up Education” initiative
uri: European-Commission-launches-Opening-Up-Education-initiative
url: http://creativecommons.org/weblog/entry/39870
content:
<p>European Commission Vice President Neelie Kroes and Commission Member Androulla Vassiliou today announced <a href="http://europa.eu/rapid/press-release_IP-13-859_en.htm"><em>Opening Up Education</em></a>, an initiative that looks to increase the use of digital technologies for learning and spur the development of Open Educational Resources and policies across the European Union. </p>
<p>The <em>Opening Up Education</em> <a href="media/72cbc914.openingcom_en.pdf" data-original-source="http://ec.europa.eu/education/news/doc/openingcom_en.pdf">communication</a> (PDF) indicates a strong support for Open Educational Resources. On the subject of OER, the Commission will:</p>
<ul>
<li>Ensure that all educational materials supported by Erasmus+ are available to the public under open licenses and promote similar practices under EU programmes;</li>
<li>Use the new programmes Erasmus+ and Horizon 2020 to encourage partnerships between creators of educational content (e.g. teachers, publishers, ICT companies), to increase the supply of quality OER and other digital educational materials in different languages, to develop new business models and to develop technical solutions which provide<br />
transparent information on copyrights and open licenses to users of digital educational resources;</li>
<li>Launch with this Communication the Open Education Europa portal linking it to existing OER repositories in different languages and bringing learners, teachers and researchers together, so to improve the attractiveness and visibility of quality OERs produced in the EU.</li>
</ul>
<p>The communication also urged Member States and education institutions to: </p>
<ul>
<li>Stimulate open access policies for publicly-funded educational materials;</li>
<li>Encourage formal education and training institutions to include digital content, including OERs, among the recommended educational materials for learners at all educational levels and encourage the production, including through public procurement, of high-quality educational materials whose copyrights would belong to public authorities.</li>
</ul>
<p><a href="http://www.openeducationeuropa.eu/"><img src="media/94dd3cc4.portal-small1.jpg" data-original-source="http://creativecommons.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/09/portal-small1.jpg" alt="portal small" width="700" height="432" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-39888" /></a></p>
<p>Kroes and Vassiliou also introduced <a href="http://www.openeducationeuropa.eu/">Open Education Europa</a>, a portal for high quality OER available in a variety of languages. The default licensing for the resources in the portal is <a href="https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/">CC BY</a>.</p>
<p>The communication document defined OER as &#8220;learning resources that are usable, adaptable to specific learning needs, and shareable freely.&#8221; We think that it would be better for the Commission to adopt the longstanding and well-understood OER definition <a href="http://wiki.creativecommons.org/What_is_OER%3F">promoted by the Hewlett Foundation</a>, which defines OER as &#8220;teaching, learning, and research materials in any medium that reside in the public domain or have been released under an open license that permits their free use and re-purposing by others.&#8221;  </p>
<p>Creative Commons <a href="http://wiki.creativecommons.org/EC_Consultation_Opening_Up_Education">provided feedback</a> last year when the Commission was gathering information from stakeholders on how to proceed around the issues of ICT and OER. Congratulations to the EC on what looks like a promising initiative that will increase access to and reuse of open educational resources and technologies for a wide range of learners in Europe.  </p>


feed_id: http://creativecommons.org/?p=39874
title: Catherine Casserly to step down as Creative Commons CEO
uri: Catherine-Casserly-to-step-down-as-Creative-Commons-CEO
url: http://creativecommons.org/weblog/entry/39874
content:
<p align="center"><a href="media/53a6c8ca.FileCatherine_Casserly.jpg" data-original-source="http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Catherine_Casserly.jpg"><img src="media/4d5f9419.cathy-500.jpg" data-original-source="http://creativecommons.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/09/cathy-500.jpg" width=500 height=333 border=0 /></a></p>
<p><strong><a href="media/af8dfb53.catherine-casserly-to-step-down-as-cc-ceo.pdf" data-original-source="http://creativecommons.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/10/catherine-casserly-to-step-down-as-cc-ceo.pdf">Download the press release.</a></strong> (63 KB PDF)</p>
<p><strong>Mountain View, CA, September 25, 2013:</strong> Catherine Casserly announced that she will transition out of her role as CEO of Creative Commons in early 2014. Creative Commons, a Silicon Valley nonprofit that provides legal and technological tools for sharing and collaboration, was launched in 2002. Casserly became the organization&#8217;s first full-time CEO in 2011 after serving on the board of directors. Casserly helped to secure the organization&#8217;s considerable gains from its first decade and to lay a foundation for its second. She worked with the board and staff to integrate and grow existing programs, increase public impact, articulate key priorities and outcomes, and strengthen core operations.</p>
<p>One of Casserly&#8217;s significant accomplishments was Creative Commons&#8217; role in the development of open education policies, both in the United States and around the world. In 2012 alone, the governments of Poland and California passed major legislation in support of open educational resources (OER) and others, like British Columbia, provided major public funding for OER. Similarly, the US Department of Labor is currently awarding $2 billion in grants for OER development through the Trade Adjustment Assistance Community College and Career Training (TAACCCT) grant program.</p>
<p>In an email to Creative Commons&#8217; global network of volunteers, Casserly expressed pride in three years of growth as a movement and optimism about the possibilities for the organization&#8217;s new leadership. &#8220;Together, we&#8217;ve grown our community and movement tremendously&#160;&#8212; both in size and in our ability to impact the world. For me and for the organization, the three-year mark is the right time to usher in a new generation of leadership.&#8221;</p>
<p>Creative Commons board chair Paul Brest noted that Cathy&#8217;s tenure as CEO has brought major changes to the organization. &#8220;The focus that we&#8217;ve seen over the past three years is remarkable, and what&#8217;s even more impressive is the clarity of mission and priorities that Cathy has brought to the organization. Under her leadership, the growth in the use of CC licenses generally, in the field of OER, and particularly in government-adopted OER mandates, has brought us substantially closer to our vision&#160;&#8212; universal access to knowledge and culture&#160;&#8212; than ever before.&#8221;</p>
<p>Casserly agreed, and predicted that the next CEO will play a major role in scaling Creative Commons&#8217; achievements. &#8220;We&#8217;re currently developing products and tools with the potential to transform how sharing and collaboration work on the internet. Realizing that potential will require a CEO who deeply understands both our mission and the broader technology landscape.&#8221; The Creative Commons Board of Directors plans to formally begin the search for a new CEO in October.</p>
<p><em>Edited October 2: Previous version incorrectly listed British Columbia as a government that had passed OER legislation. <a href="/weblog/entry/34566">Read this article for information on British Columbia&#8217;s support for OER</a>.</em></p>


feed_id: http://creativecommons.org/?p=39707
title: Public Access to Publicly Funded Materials: What Could Be
uri: Public-Access-to-Publicly-Funded-Materials-What-Could-Be
url: http://creativecommons.org/weblog/entry/39707
content:
<p><em>This blog post was written by Teresa Sempere García, CC&#8217;s Community Support Intern June-August, 2013. The cycle graphics below were designed by Timothy Vollmer and Teresa Sempere García.</em></p>
<p>The current system for public access to research articles and educational materials is broken: ownership is often unclear, and the reuse of knowledge is limited by policies that do not maximize the impact of public funding. The following graphics will try to simplify and compare two alternative funding cycles for research publications and educational resources that emphasize the positive impacts of open policies on publicly-funded grants.  More information and links to a current directory of current and proposed OER open policies can be found in the <a href="http://wiki.creativecommons.org/OER_Policy_Registry">OER Policy Registry</a> on the Creative Commons Wiki.</p>
<h3>Cycles for Research Articles</h3>
<p>The existing system for producing and distributing publicly funded research articles is expensive and doesn&#8217;t take advantage of the possibilities of innovations like open licensing.  Without a free-flowing system, access to the results of scientific research is limited to institutions that are able to commit to hefty journal subscriptions &#8212; paid for year after year &#8212; which don&#8217;t allow for broad redistribution, or repurposing for activities such as text and data mining without additional permissions from the rightsholder. This closed system limits the impact on the scientific and scholarly community and progress is slowed significantly.</p>
<h4 style="text-align: center;">A Closed Research Model</h4>
<p><center><a href="media/e70f1dee.FileResearch_articles_cycles.jpg" data-original-source="http://wiki.creativecommons.org/File:Research_articles_cycles.jpg"><img src="media/39c3900b.closed_research.png" data-original-source="http://creativecommons.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/09/closed_research.png" alt="closed funding cycle for research" width="640" height="401" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-39786" /></a></center></p>
<p>When funding cycles for research include open license requirements for publications, increased access and opportunities for reuse extends the value of research funding. As an example, the US National Institutes of Health (NIH) Public Access Policy requires the published results of all <a href="http://publicaccess.nih.gov/">NIH-funded research</a> to be deposited in PubMed Central&#8217;s repository, the peer-reviewed manuscript immediately, and the final journal article within twelve months of publication. Similarly, the recent <a href="/weblog/entry/35267" title="White House issues directive supporting public access to publicly funded research">directive</a> issued by the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy mandates that federal agencies with more than $100 million in research expenditures must make the results of their research publicly available within one year of publication, and better manage the resultant data supporting their results. These policies utilize aspects of the optimized cycle below, and are a step in the right direction for making better use of public funding for research articles.</p>
<h4 style="text-align: center;">An Open Research Model</h4>
<p><center><a href="media/e70f1dee.FileResearch_articles_cycles.jpg" data-original-source="http://wiki.creativecommons.org/File:Research_articles_cycles.jpg"><img src="media/0c796eb1.optimised_research.png" data-original-source="http://creativecommons.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/09/optimised_research.png" alt="optimised funding cycle for research" width="640" height="476"  class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-39788" /></a></center></p>
<h3>Cycles for Educational Resources</h3>
<p>The incumbent system for developing and sharing publicly funded educational resources doesn&#8217;t guarantee materials are accessible and reusable by the public that paid for their creation.</p>
<p></p>
<h4 style="text-align: center;">A Closed Education Model</h4>
<p><center><a href="media/6b356c68.FileEducational_resources_cycles.jpg" data-original-source="http://wiki.creativecommons.org/File:Educational_resources_cycles.jpg"><img src="media/00d97849.optimised_education.png" data-original-source="http://creativecommons.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/09/optimised_education.png" alt="closed funding cycle for educational resources" width="640" height="401" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-39787" /></a></center></p>
<p>If policies are put in place that mandate open licenses on publicly funded educational resources, knowledge can flow more freely because the public is clear about how they may reuse educational content, and the funders can realize a more impactful return on their investments.  An example of better use of public funding for the production of educational resources, the US <a href="/weblog/entry/26100" title="New federal education fund makes available $2 billion to create OER resources in community colleges">DOL TAACCCT Program</a> mandates that all content created or modified using grant funds are openly-licensed (CC BY) and deposited in a public repository upon completion of the project. Being conducted in four waves, the TAACCCT program is making better use of a large (US$2 billion) investment of US taxpayer money by ensuring the public will have access the educational resources created during the four-year term, and is able to reuse and adapt them beyond what automatic copyright allows. The following graphic demonstrates an open funding model, with licensing and access recommendations to remove barriers to sharing and help speed access and reuse of publicly funded educational content.</p>
<h4 style="text-align: center;">An Open Education Model</h4>
<p><center><a href="media/6b356c68.FileEducational_resources_cycles.jpg" data-original-source="http://wiki.creativecommons.org/File:Educational_resources_cycles.jpg"><img src="media/e0af91ed.optimised_education2.png" data-original-source="http://creativecommons.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/09/optimised_education2.png" alt="optimised funding cycle for educational resources" width="640" height="473" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-39795" /></a></center><br />
</p>
<h3>Summary</h3>
<p>Open policy &#8212; specifically, the idea that publicly funded materials should be openly licensed materials &#8212; is a sensible solution that ensures the public&#8217;s right to reuse the materials it paid for, and improves the efficiency of government grant funding. Open licensing is a sensible requirement for publicly funded grant programs.</p>


feed_id: http://creativecommons.org/?p=39773
title: Join School of Open, OKFN, and FLOSS for an evening in London
uri: Join-School-of-Open-OKFN-and-FLOSS-for-an-evening-in-London
url: http://creativecommons.org/weblog/entry/39773
content:
<p>Join us for a fun evening event on <strong>24 October</strong> in London! The School of Open community along with members of the Open Knowledge Foundation and FLOSS Manuals Foundation is holding a meetup at the Large Common Room in the William Goodenough House (yes, that&#8217;s a real name!). Details at the <a href="https://openedtimeline.eventbrite.com/">Eventbrite</a> and below.</p>
<p style="text-align:center" xmlns:dc="http://purl.org/dc/terms/" xmlns:cc="http://creativecommons.org/ns#" about="http://farm3.staticflickr.com/2346/2162922839_14cd5d833a.jpg"><a href="https://secure.flickr.com/photos/library_of_congress/2162922839/in/photostream/"><img src="media/e9104aab.2162922839_14cd5d833a.jpg" data-original-source="http://creativecommons.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/09/2162922839_14cd5d833a.jpg" alt="Sport (?) 1911 (LOC)" border=0 /></a><br /><small><span property="dc:title"><a href="https://secure.flickr.com/photos/library_of_congress/2162922839/in/photostream/">Sport (?) 1911 (LOC)</a> /</span> <span property="cc:attributionName">Bain News Service,, publisher</span> / <a href="https://secure.flickr.com/commons/usage/">No known copyright restrictions</a><br /></small></p>
<h3><a href="http://openedtimeline.eventbrite.com/">Hit the Road Map: A Human Timeline of the Open Education Space</a></h3>
<p>Join the <a href="http://schoolofopen.org/">School of Open</a> (Creative Commons &#038; P2PU), the <a href="http://okfn.org/">Open Knowledge Foundation</a>, and <a href="http://www.flossmanuals.org/">FLOSS Manuals Foundation</a> for a fun evening to connect with your peers in the open education space! So many efforts exist to &#8220;open&#8221; up education around the world. How can we help connect these efforts? We&#8217;d like to start by collaboratively building a human timeline of open education &#8212; Do you remember when and where you first became aware of open education? When did you first become passionate about &#8220;open&#8221; or participate in an &#8220;open&#8221; event or job? Where and what was it? What else in this area has most inspired you? We will share experiences and manually place ourselves along a real world timeline (think rolls of butcher paper, markers, glitter is optional). Then we&#8217;ll start fleshing out the timeline with key events and persons that we think brought the open education and knowledge movement to where it is today. We&#8217;ll stop whenever we get tired, make merry with refreshments and snacks, and digitize whatever we have by the end of the evening for further contributions from everyone and anyone on the web. We&#8217;ll make the resulting timeline available openly (either via CC0, CC BY, or CC BY-SA), and feature it in a chapter of the <a href="http://education.okfn.org/open-education-handbook-booksprint/">Open Education Handbook</a>!</p>
<p>Due to the awesome, but limited space, this event will be first come, first serve, capping registrations at 30 participants. Please update your registration if you <em>cannot</em> make it to make room for those on the waiting list!</p>
<div style="width:100%; text-align:left;" ><iframe src="http://www.eventbrite.com/tickets-external?eid=8326313227&#038;ref=etckt&#038;v=2" frameborder="0" height="214" width="100%" vspace="0" hspace="0" marginheight="5" marginwidth="5" scrolling="auto" allowtransparency="true"></iframe>
<div style="font-family:Helvetica, Arial; font-size:10px; padding:5px 0 5px; margin:2px; width:100%; text-align:left;" ><a style="color:#ddd; text-decoration:none;" target="_blank" href="http://www.eventbrite.com/r/etckt">Online Ticketing</a><span style="color:#ddd;"> for </span><a style="color:#ddd; text-decoration:none;" target="_blank" href="https://openedtimeline.eventbrite.com?ref=etckt">Hit the Road Map: A Human Timeline of the Open Education Space</a> <span style="color:#ddd;">powered by</span> <a style="color:#ddd; text-decoration:none;" target="_blank" href="http://www.eventbrite.com?ref=etckt">Eventbrite</a></div>
</div>


feed_id: http://creativecommons.org/?p=39781
title: Open curriculum alternatives to MPAA’s new anti-piracy campaign for kids
url: http://creativecommons.org/weblog/entry/39781
content:
<p style="text-align:center" xmlns:cc="http://creativecommons.org/ns#" xmlns:dc="http://farm6.staticflickr.com/5055/5392982171_a8f0272ace_z.jpg"><img alt="" src="media/655e7062.opensource-body.jpg" data-original-source="http://creativecommons.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/09/opensource-body.jpg" /><br /> <small><a rel="cc:attributionURL" href="https://secure.flickr.com/photos/opensourceway/5392982171/in/photostream/" property="dc:title"></a> <a href="https://secure.flickr.com/photos/opensourceway/5392982171/in/photostream/">Adventures in copyright</a> / <span property="cc:attributionName">opensourceway</span> / <a rel="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0/">CC BY-SA</a></small></p>
<p>It has come to our attention that the Motion Picture Association of America, the Recording Industry Association of America, and top internet service providers are drafting curriculum to teach kids in California elementary schools that copying is wrong, or as <a href="http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/2013/09/mpaa-school-propaganda/">Wired.com puts it</a>, &#8220;Downloading is Mean!&#8221;</p>
<p>This message is way too simple. In this digital age, the most important thing we should be teaching kids is to be creative and take full advantage of all the web has to offer. Copyright, asking permission, open licensing, and all the other legal nuances, should be seen as secondary (and even complementary) to this purpose. We should be starting with the things kids <em>can</em> do versus what they <em>can&#8217;t</em> do.</p>
<p>In addition to the campaign&#8217;s overly simple and negative approach, other issues include the complete absence of fair use from the curriculum &#8212; exceptions and limitations to copyright that allow various uses of copyrighted materials for educational, journalistic and other purposes. Wired.com <a href="http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/2013/09/mpaa-school-propaganda/">reports</a>, &#8220;Its president, Marsali Hancock, says fair use is not a part of the teaching material because K-6 graders don’t have the ability to grasp it.&#8221;</p>
<p>Assuming the net generation and their younger counterparts are as dumb as assumed in the above statement, the curriculum still leaves out a crucial and growing part of the Internet landscape &#8212; the commons of free and open materials in the public domain and/or released under open licenses that actually <em>encourage</em> copying, redistribution, revision, and remix! In short, everything this simplified anti-piracy campaign is conveniently leaving out in its copyright curriculum for kids.</p>
<p>There is a more balanced approach to educating kids about copyright that includes the alternatives, and here are some organizations and experienced educators who have developed copyright curricula. The following list of resources are <a href="/education#OER">open educational resources</a> (OER), licensed under a CC license that enables free and legal reuse, redistribution and remix. In short, stuff that is free and just fine and even great to copy!</p>
<h3>Copyright curriculum for kids</h3>
<h4>Common Sense Media&#8217;s K-12 Digital Literacy &#038; Citizenship Curriculum</h4>
<p>Common Sense Media has developed a comprehensive <a href="http://www.commonsensemedia.org/educators/curriculum">K-12 Digital Literacy &#038; Citizenship Curriculum</a> for educators to use in their classrooms. Part of the curriculum focuses on Creative Credit &#038; Copyright, which you can navigate easily via their <a href="http://www.commonsensemedia.org/educators/scope-and-sequence">Scope &#038; Sequence tool</a>. The resources are aligned to <a href="http://www.google.com/url?sa=t&#038;rct=j&#038;q=&#038;esrc=s&#038;source=web&#038;cd=1&#038;cad=rja&#038;ved=0CCwQFjAA&#038;url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.corestandards.org%2F&#038;ei=6_hBUtrRB6GwiQLA0oCoBA&#038;usg=AFQjCNEd3gd4CDtksdiwps1xuKrnp3iD5g&#038;bvm=bv.53077864,d.cGE">Common Core standards</a> and licensed under <a href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0/">CC BY-NC-SA</a>.</p>
<h4>New Media Rights Copyright FAQ Videos</h4>
<p>New Media Rights has developed a series of short <a href="https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLD1071E5E4FD66B73&#038;feature=plcp">Copyright FAQ YouTube videos</a> (because what better way to interact with youth but through YouTube?) answering common questions about copyright and the public domain. These videos are drafted by lawyers and read by students and are licensed under <a href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/">CC BY</a>.</p>
<h4>Electronic Frontier Foundation&#8217;s Teaching Copyright Curriculum</h4>
<p>EFF developed this <a href="http://www.teachingcopyright.org/">copyright curriculum</a> for teachers to use in the classroom several years ago to counter campaigns like the one above, proving that topics like fair use can be taught! <a href="http://www.teachingcopyright.org/">Teachingcopyright.org</a> is available under <a href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/">CC BY</a>.</p>
<h4>Australia&#8217;s Smartcopying Guide for Schools and Interactive Resource for Kids</h4>
<p>Australia has an official website for its schools regarding copyright for educators and students. However, this website, called <a href="http://www.smartcopying.edu.au/">Smartcopying</a>, doesn&#8217;t just cover Australian copyright law &#8212; it also covers open educational resources and Creative Commons licenses. It&#8217;s quite the comprehensive resource with lesson plans, info sheets, videos, and more, and is licensed under <a href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/au/">CC BY-SA</a>. This includes <a href="http://www.smartcopying.edu.au/educational-resources/copyright-teaching-resources/-all-right-to-copy-an-interactive-teaching-and-learning-resource-for-primary-secondary-students">All Right to Copy</a>, an interactive web activity &#8220;designed to teach students about copyright, and how it impacts them as both users and creators.&#8221; These resources are useful even if you&#8217;re not Australian, so check it out at <a href="http://www.smartcopying.edu.au/">http://www.smartcopying.edu.au/</a> and navigate using the horizontal menu to the topic of your choice.</p>
<h4>National Library of New Zealand&#8217;s Free to Mix Guide for Educators</h4>
<p>The National Library of New Zealand takes a different approach to copyright education; instead of focusing on what students <em>can&#8217;t</em> do, it focuses on what teachers and students <em>can</em> do with its <a href="http://schools.natlib.govt.nz/supporting-learners/inquiry/free-mix-educators-guide-reusing-digital-content">Free to Mix guide</a>. The guide was popular enough to spin off its own <a href="media/6c323c21.Free-to-Mix.pdf" data-original-source="http://www.creativecommons.org.nz/wp-content/uploads/2013/03/Free-to-Mix.pdf">remix by CC New Zealand</a> (pdf) with beautifully done graphics. Both versions are licensed under <a href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/nz/">CC BY</a>.</p>
<h4>Shared Creations: Making Use of Creative Commons</h4>
<p>Emily Puckett Rogers and Kristin Fontichiaro with the University of Michigan created this short and colorful lesson plan book for elementary school teachers that covers copyright, the public domain (even trademarks and patents!), and Creative Commons. This book is short and sweet with age-appropriate activities (that are even fun for adults). You can <a href="http://cherrylakepublishing.com/excerpts/1592/read">browse the book</a> for free online or purchase a hard copy at the <a href="http://cherrylakepublishing.com/shop/show/10747">publisher&#8217;s website</a>. The book is licensed <a href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0/">CC BY-NC-SA</a>.</p>
<h4>School of Open&#8217;s Copyright 4 Educators</h4>
<p>The School of Open, a community of volunteers around the world providing free education opportunities on the meaning and impact of openness in the digital age, offers an online course called <a href="https://p2pu.org/en/courses/667/copyright-for-educators-us/">Copyright 4 Educators</a>. While this course (offered as adapted to both <a href="https://p2pu.org/en/courses/667/copyright-for-educators-us/">US</a> and <a href="https://p2pu.org/en/courses/632/copyright-4-educators-aus/">AUS</a> law, but open to anyone) is primarily designed for educators and not kids, teachers can take what they&#8217;ve learned and then relay it to their students. The School of Open also offers more kid-friendly resources such as <a href="https://p2pu.org/en/groups/get-cc-savvy/">Get CC Savvy</a>, <a href="https://p2pu.org/en/groups/teach-someone-something-with-open-content/">Teach someone something with open content</a>, and numerous lesson plans and activities integrated in <a href="https://p2pu.org/en/courses/620/creative-commons-for-k-12-educators/">CC for K-12 Educators</a>. All School of Open courses on the P2PU platform are licensed under <a href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/">CC BY-SA</a>; others hosted elsewhere may be licensed under <a href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/">CC BY</a>.</p>
<p>This list is not exhaustive; if you know of other copyright education resources, please share them below! And if you would like to contribute to providing free copyright, OER, or CC education opportunities for kids (or adults), please join the <a href="https://groups.google.com/group/school-of-open">School of Open community</a> in its efforts! Visit <a href="http://schoolofopen.org/">http://schoolofopen.org/</a> to get started.</p>


feed_id: http://creativecommons.org/?p=39737
title: Open Science Course — a cool connected science experience!
uri: Open-Science-Course-a-cool-connected-science-experience
url: http://creativecommons.org/weblog/entry/39737
content:
<p><em>This past August, I facilitated an online peer-learning course in the School of Open introducing open science to newcomers, and <a href="https://twitter.com/michellesidler">Michelle Sidler</a> worked behind the scenes to keep things glued together. This guest post was written by Michelle, and gives a look at how things went teaching an entirely free course on open science over the web.  It&#8217;s pretty cool.</em></p>
<h3>Guiding Students through the Course</h3>
<p>During last month’s round of <a href="http://schoolofopen.org">School of Open</a> courses, I helped out with a facilitated version of the Open Science course supported by Creative Commons, the <a href="http://okfn.org/">Open Knowledge Foundation</a>, and <a href="http://www.plos.org/">PLOS</a>. On four Tuesdays in August, Billy Meinke hosted online discussions with a handful of well-known members of the open science community while participants from around the world completed course modules and blogged about their experiences. Here’s how things went down.</p>
<p><center><a href="https://p2pu.org/en/courses/5/content/1370/"><img src="media/81356b8d.opensciencecourse_home_640.png" data-original-source="http://creativecommons.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/09/opensciencecourse_home_640.png" alt="Screen Shot of P2PU Online Course" width="640" height="373" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-39817" /></a></center></p>
<p><em>Note: The course materials and online discussions are available on the <a href="https://p2pu.org/en/courses/5/open-science-an-introduction/">Open Science P2PU course</a> page, and will continue to grow over the next few weeks as participants share blog about their experiences working with aspects of science that are either open or not.</em></p>
<h3>Participant Blogs</h3>
<p>While completing course units, participants blogged their experiences, offering reflections and insights about open science and sharing online resources they found. Participants were researchers and scientists from around the world, including biologists, climatologists, librarians, and even musicians.</p>
<p>Though we are still working through much of the blog posts, here are some examples of people learning about open access, open data, and open research for free through the School of Open:</p>
<p>The first of three modules introduced the topic of open access (OA), and after browsing through content about OA, learners were to report on the openness of published research articles they found on the web.  A learner named Peter Desmet provided a fine overview of the history of open access and the different &#8220;flavours&#8221; of open access in an <a href="http://peterdesmet.com/posts/oa-1.html">entry on his blog</a>.   The second module led folks to the topic of open data for science, where a peer by the name Odon shared her process of learning through her blog, <a href="https://odonlife.wordpress.com/">Odonlife</a>. Her writings offered definitions and descriptions of open data and assessed the openness of datasets she found online. Drawing from these lessons, she also described her experiences contributing to open data crowdsourcing projects and how they inspired her to start a similar project. For the third unit on open research, a peer in the course named Nicki Clarkson described the work of <a href="https://twitter.com/Protohedgehog">Jon Tennant</a>, a paleontologist and open science advocate who deposited the data from his PhD research into the Paleontology Database, a repository for similar data. Jon even commented on <a href="http://uniteandstrike.blogspot.co.uk/2013/08/p2pu-open-research-or-2-whos-working-on.html">her post</a>, thanking her for the shout-out—another example of the ways in which open information brings researchers together!</p>
<p><center><a href="https://odonlife.wordpress.com/2013/08/19/open-data-as-i-understand-it-now/"><img src="media/717986a8.odonlife_blog_screenshot.png" data-original-source="http://creativecommons.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/09/odonlife_blog_screenshot.png" alt="odonlife blog screenshot" width="640" height="214" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-39824" /></a></center></p>
<h3>Featured Speakers</h3>
<p>In addition to supporting the online course participants, Billy Meinke hosted online discussions with many open science friends and advocates from many locales and types of involvement with science around the world. Guests from a variety of organizations joined open, broadcasted Google Hangouts and shared their experiences in open science with dozens of learners watching each stream. Thanks to all the guests who took the time to chat with us about open science! Links to the video and etherpad notes (taken during the live sessions) can be found on the <a href="https://p2pu.org/en/courses/5/content/1370/">Open Science course page</a>.</p>
<p><center><a href="https://p2pu.org/en/courses/5/content/1370/"><img src="media/27f9e2bd.Screen-Shot-2013-08-29-at-11.27.21-AM.png" data-original-source="http://creativecommons.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/09/Screen-Shot-2013-08-29-at-11.27.21-AM.png" alt="Screen Shot of P2PU Online Course" width="596" height="561" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-39742" /></a></center></p>
<h3>Taking the Open Science course further</h3>
<p>The Open Science course doesn’t end when we complete the units and assignments. Continue the conversation by spreading the word to other scientists about this resource and encouraging them to participate. There has been interest in volunteer translation efforts and other adaptations of the material. Anyone is free to do so, in compliance with the <a href="/licenses/by-sa/3.0/">CC BY-SA</a> license on the course.  Much of the material is licensed <a href="/licenses/by/3.0/">CC BY</a> or <a href="/about/cc0">CC0</a>, which give even more open reuse rights!</p>
<p><a href="https://schoolofopen.org"><img src="media/72879227.school-of-open-logo.png" data-original-source="http://creativecommons.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/07/school-of-open-logo.png" alt="school of open logo" width="135" height="106" class="alignleft size-full wp-image-39074" /></a></p>
<p>If you’d like to find out more about what’s happening with this course and others in the School of Open, head on over to the <a href="https://groups.google.com/forum/#!forum/school-of-open">School of Open Google Group</a> and join the discussion! You can also sign up to be notified when the next facilitated course launches, likely in Spring 2014.</p>


feed_id: http://creativecommons.org/?p=39929
title: CC Science on the Road
uri: CC-Science-on-the-Road
url: http://creativecommons.org/weblog/entry/39929
content:
<p>This has been a busy Fall on the road for CC Science. The road trip started with a joint OKF/OpenUCT/IDRC workshop titled <a href="http://openscidev.com" title="Towards a Southern-led Research Agenda on Open and Collaborative Science for Development">Towards a Southern-led Research Agenda on Open and Collaborative Science for Development</a> at the University of Cape Town, South Africa. The objectives were to forge stronger community links and explore potential areas of open science for development which merit further research or action. Scientists from Latin America, Africa and Asia attended the workshop.</p>
<p>The Cape Town workshop was followed by a presentation at the <a href="http://okcon.org" title="OKCon">OKCon</a> in Geneva where we presented our plans for developing a CC Science Affiliates Network with particular focus on scientists in developing countries. The new network, which was introduced to our existing affiliates at the recently concluded CC Global Summit in Buenos Aires and whose details are under development, will augment the existing Affiliates Network with practicing scientists. These new Science Affiliates will serve as a two-way conduit between CC HQ and regional and disciplinary scientific concerns.</p>
<p>Finally, CC Science is helping organize a couple of science focused events in India. The two events will serve to bring together Indian science and technology community focused on Open Science and Data and identify potential CC Science Affiliates.</p>
<p>The first event titled <strong><a href="http://wiki.creativecommons.org/Workshop_on_Open_Science_for_Higher_Education_and_Research">Workshop on Open science for higher education and research</a></strong> is on Oct 3, 2013, at the Delhi University South Campus, led by CC community member Dr. Savithri Singh of <a href="http://andcollege.du.ac.in/" title="Acharya Narendra Dev College, Delhi University">Acharya Narendra Dev College</a>. We have confirmed participation from:</p>
<ul>
<li><a href="http://lab.gnowledge.org" title="Gnowledge Lab">Gnowledge Lab</a> of the <a href="http://www.hbcse.tifr.res.in" title="Homi Bhaba Centre for Science Education">Homi Bhabha Centre for Science Education</a> (HBCSE) at the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research (TIFR) in Mumbai</li>
<li><a href="http://www.osdd.net" title="Open Source Drug Discovery">Open Source Drug Discovery</a> (OSDD) group from the Coucil of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) in New Delhi</li>
<li>The Sarai Programme, CSDS, New Delhi and HasGeek Media LLP, Bangalore</li>
</ul>
<p>The second event titled <a href="http://wiki.creativecommons.org/Workshop_on_Open_Science_and_Open_Data"><b>Workshop on Open Science and Open Data</b></a> (<a href="http://drtc.isibang.ac.in/osod/" title="Workshop on Open Science and Open Data">workshop link</a>) is organized by Dr. Devika Madalli of the <a href="http://drtc.isibang.ac.in/DRTC/" title="Documentation Research and Training Centre, Indian Statistical Institute">Documentation and Training Centre of the Indian Statistical Institute</a> (ISI) in Bangalore. It will be held on ISI campus on the outskirts of Bangalore on Oct 7, 2013. Confirmed participants include: </p>
<ul>
<li><a href="http://cis-india.org" title="Centre for Internet and Society, India">Centre for Internet and Society, India</a></li>
<li><a href="http://opengovernanceindia.org" title="Open Governance India">Open Governance India</a></li>
<li><a href="http://arghyam.org" title="Arghyam">Arghyam, a grants making NGO focusing on groundwater and sanitation</a></li>
<li><a href="http://hackteria.org" title="Hackteria">Hackteria</a></li>
<li><a href="http://indiabiodiversity.org" title="Inda Biodiversity Portal">India Biodiversity Portal</a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.iipa.org.in" title="Indian Institute of Public Administration">Indian Institute of Public Administration</a></li>
</ul>


feed_id: http://creativecommons.org/?p=39913
title: Arab CC community hosts Iftars, celebrates sharing
uri: Arab-CC-community-hosts-Iftars-celebrates-sharing
url: http://creativecommons.org/weblog/entry/39913
content:
<p align="center"><a href="//www.flickr.com/photos/dohatweetups/9344061315/"><img src="media/121e95e7.9344061315_cc19d4dfb6.jpg" data-original-source="http://farm3.staticflickr.com/2830/9344061315_cc19d4dfb6.jpg" width=500 height=333 border=0 /></a></p>
<p><a href="/weblog/entry/33815">For the fourth consecutive year</a>, Creative Commons communities in the Arab world have self-organized and hosted CC Iftars to celebrate the Muslim holy month of Ramadan in the spirit of sharing.</p>
<p>Back in 2010, CC Iftars were created as community-organized gatherings where CC members and people interested in the sharing culture would meet up to celebrate together the breaking of the fast, and share food and creative ideas. During the past four years, CC communities in Egypt, Jordan, the UAE, Syria, Morocco, Iraq, Lebanon, Qatar, and Tunisia have actively contributed to the iftar project by hosting community events, screening movies, featuring talks, charity marathons, and remixing competitions.</p>
<p>This Ramadan 2013, CC Iftars where organized in Qatar, Iraq, Lebanon, and Jordan. <a href="http://www.creativecommons.qa/a-season-for-sharing-cc-qatar-doha-tweetups-and-st-regis-doha-celebrate-iftar">CC Iftar Doha kicked off</a> in the Qatari capital on 23 July in a magnificent Ramadan tent at the St. Regis hotel. A very diverse community made up of <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/dohatweetups">technologists, graphic designers,  entrepreneurs and photographers</a>, who all share an interest in growing digital Arabic content, attended the gathering and donated the proceeds of the evening to the orphans in Qatar.</p>
<p>Despite the deteriorating security situation, the CC community in Iraq was able to celebrate CC Iftars for the second year. This time, the event was not only hosted in the capital Baghdad, but also in Kirkuk, Dhi Qar, Sulaymaniyah, and al-Diwaniyyah. The lively and brave group behind the Iraqi Network for Social Media – who are very active in organizing open-culture&#8211;related activities – has managed to put together around a hundred people in these five cities all across the country, and celebrate the spirit of sharing by screening movies and hosting a brainstorming session about new ideas and projects as well as a ceremony to remember Iraqi orphans. The events were simultaneously held on 27 July and they were attended by people with a wide range of professional backgrounds, spanning from bloggers and journalists to photographers and artists.</p>
<p>On 31 July, it was Lebanon&#8217;s turn to host its CC Iftar for the second time. The event was held in the <a href="//www.facebook.com/events/324326494367325/">brand new multi-purpose space of Alt City in Hamra district, Beirut</a>. The community gathered to celebrate the accomplishments of CC Lebanon – which has been a formal affiliate since 2010 – and discuss new ideas to improve the culture of sharing in the country through artistic and creative projects.</p>
<div style="float:right; padding:10px" xmlns:dc="http://purl.org/dc/terms/" xmlns:cc="/ns#" about="//www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=390151991087009&#038;set=a.390151811087027.1073741826.108381029264108"><a href="//www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=390151991087009&#038;set=a.390151811087027.1073741826.108381029264108"><img width="350" height="233" src="media/e08dc1bf.ccjordaniftar.jpg" data-original-source="http://creativecommons.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/09/ccjordaniftar.jpg" alt="CC Iftar Jordan" /></a>
<p><small><a href="//www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=390151991087009&#038;set=a.390151811087027.1073741826.108381029264108"><span property="cc:attributionName">Bedouin Addy/Jordan Open Source Association</span> / </a><a rel="license" href="/licenses/by-sa/3.0/">CC BY-SA</a></small></p>
</div>
<p>Last but not least, CC Jordan, one of the oldest CC affiliates in the Arab region, celebrated on 6 August its second CC Iftar in Amman. The gathering was hosted  in the <a href="//www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.390151811087027.1073741826.108381029264108&#038;type=1 ">beautiful location of Fann wa Chai in the historical district of Jabal Lweibdeh</a>. Jordan Open Source Association, who has been an active promoter of CC and the sharing culture, was behind the organization of the CC Iftar which gathered <a href="//www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.389598537809021.1073741825.108381029264108&#038;type=3<br />
">open-source lovers, geeks, bloggers, and digital activists</a>.</p>
<p>As in  previous years, CC Iftars have proven to be a great opportunity to host community-driven discussions and feature new ideas and projects. They have also showed the enthusiasm and self-organization skills of CC Arab communities, even in such difficult times of political and social unrest.</p>
<p>This year, too, our thoughts go to <a href="http://freebassel.org/">Bassel Khartabil aka Bassel Safadi</a>, CC Syria public lead, who has been detained without trial by Syrian authorities since 15 March 2012. Bassel was behind the idea of launching CC Iftars in the Arab world and he is greatly missed by his family, friends, and the entire CC community.</p>
<p><strong>Related:</strong></p>
<ul>
<li><a href="/weblog/entry/33815">The Arab CC Community Celebrates with CC Iftars</a> (2012)</li>
<li><a href="/weblog/entry/37414">Free Bassel, Free Culture</a></li>
</ul>


feed_id: http://creativecommons.org/?p=39956
title: Reflections on our OER policy workshop in Berlin
uri: Reflections-on-our-OER-policy-workshop-in-Berlin
url: http://creativecommons.org/weblog/entry/39956
content:
<p>This post was written by Alek Tarkowski and originally posted on the <a href="http://oerpolicy.eu/reflections-on-our-oer-policy-workshop-in-berlin/">European OER Policy Project site</a>. </p>
<p><em>A week ago, the European Commission <a href="http://europa.eu/rapid/press-release_IP-13-859_en.htm">launched the “Opening Up Education” initiative</a>, a proposal for modernizing the European educational system. The proposal contains a strong “open” component. We’re using this opportunity to strengthen open educational policies in Europe, and we started <a href="http://oerpolicy.eu/">our project</a> with a workshop in mid-September. Below you can learn about the outcomes of our workshop, including an overview of the OER landscape in Europe, concept for a policy brief, and ideas for policy-related activities.<br />
</em></p>
<p>The workshop took place 14-15 October as part of the <a href="http://www.wikimedia.de/wiki/OERde13">German “OERde13” conference</a>. The workshop marked the public launch of CC’s collaborative „Open Educational Resources Policy in Europe” project. Eleven OER experts from all over Europe met for two days to discuss the state of OER policies in Europe and ways in which CC can increase their reach. Participants included Lisette Kalshoven (<a href="http://kennisland.nl/">Kennisland</a>, Netherlands), Eneli Sutt (<a href="http://www.eitsa.ee/en/">HITSA</a>, Estonia), Teresa Nobre (Creative Commons Portugal), Valentina Pavel (<a href="http://apti.ro/">APTI</a>, Romania), Hans de Four (<a href="http://www.klascement.be/">KlasCement</a>, Belgium), Bardhyl Jashari (<a href="http://metamorphosis.mk/">Metamorphosis</a>, Macedonia), Ignasi Labastida y Juan (Universitat de Barcelona, Catalonia / Spain), Ivan Matejic (Creative Commons Serbia), Kamil Śliwowski (<a href="http://centrumcyfrowe.pl/">Centrum Cyfrowe</a>, Poland) and John Weitzmann (Creative Commons Germany). The workshop was led by Alek Tarkowski from Creative Commons Poland, open policy advisor to CC and lead of this project.</p>
<p><a href="media/4545999e.OER-Konferenz_Berlin_2013-6390.jpg" data-original-source="http://creativecommons.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/10/OER-Konferenz_Berlin_2013-6390.jpg"><img src="media/4545999e.OER-Konferenz_Berlin_2013-6390.jpg" data-original-source="http://creativecommons.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/10/OER-Konferenz_Berlin_2013-6390.jpg" alt="OER-Konferenz_Berlin_2013-6390" width="700" height="466" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-39958" /></a><br />
<small>OER workshop participants. Photo: <a href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/User:Raymond">Raimond Spekking</a> / WikiMedia Commons, <a href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/">CC BY-SA</a> (<a href="media/52e79bb3.FileOER-Konferenz_Berlin_2013-6390.jpg" data-original-source="http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:OER-Konferenz_Berlin_2013-6390.jpg">Source</a>)</small></p>
<h2>State of open education in Europe</h2>
<p></p>
<p>We started with a session presenting the state of OER developments in EU countries, focusing particularly on public policies for open education. The session gave a good overview of the range of approaches to increasing adoption of OER: public e-textbook programs running in <a href="http://creativecommons.pl/open-educational-resources-in-the-digital-school-program/">Poland</a> and Macedonia; OER repositories such as Belgian <a href="http://klascement.info/">Klascement</a>, Dutch <a href="http://www.wikiwijs.nl/">Wikiwijs</a>, and Norwegian <a href="http://ndla.no/">NDLA</a>; “1 on 1” computer in school schemes used as entry channels for open content in Portugal or Macedonia; bottom-up hubs for open education communities such as German <a href="http://wiki.zum.de/Hauptseite">ZUM Wiki</a> and the OER Champions project initiated in Macedonia.</p>
<p>We discussed the broader context for such initiatives, including national educational strategies and the specific shape of legal regulations–in particular copyright exceptions and limitations for educational use. In general, while there are very few functioning national-level policies supporting open education, there are multiple OER projects being implemented with public funding. Some are directly branded as “open education” projects, while others apply this philosophy without naming it that way.</p>
<p>Similarly, there are multiple initiatives at the European level, often funded by the European Union, that fit within the scope of the new initiative. The <a href="http://www.openeducationeuropa.eu/">Open Education Europa portal</a> has been developed on the basis of a previous e-learning portal. At the same time, projects that deal with ICTs in schools, e-learning, or quality of education are not necessarily aligned with OER issues. This means there might still be low awareness among key potential stakeholders. At the same time, there remains a great potential for gaining ICT allies in support of open education policy.</p>
<h2>What kind of open education policy?</h2>
<p></p>
<p>We spent part of the workshop discussing the concept of CC’s policy brief for open education in Europe. <strong>The basic policy position, achieved through a quick consensus among participants, can be summed up very easily: A free license like CC BY or CC BY-SA + (open formats, <a href="http://www.w3.org/WAI/intro/wcag.php">WCAG</a> accessibility standards and metadata) should be adopted for all publicly funded educational content.</strong> (In other words, of all the varied definitions, the <a href="http://www.hewlett.org/programs/education-program/open-educational-resources">Hewlett Foundation OER definition</a> is our definition of choice – and we’re happy that the new <a href="http://www.openeducationeuropa.eu/">Open Education Europa</a> portal sets a high standard by adopting <a href="https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/">CC BY</a> as a default).</p>
<p>So while the basic policy rule is simple, the challenge lies in providing the best arguments for its widespread adoption. The workshop participants discussed essential elements of a successful policy brief. These should include:</p>
<ul>
<li>A grounding both in rights issues, in particular the right to education and right to knowledge, but also in broader pedagogical theories, such as <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Connectivism">connectivism</a>;</li>
<li>Proof that open education works, especially in economic terms; everyone knows this is not easy, often due to lack of data, but basic arguments can be made, especially about cost savings for parents and schools;</li>
<li>Evidence of existing OER projects and their scale and usage, including those that are not directly framed as “open education”, but follow the general model.</li>
</ul>
<p>Finally, a challenge that any European educational policy faces is the limited scope in which the EU deals with educational issues, which are largely left in the hands of national governments and schooling systems. Other than a new Directive (which would be binding for EU member states, but also difficult to introduce), the EU could introduce an open education policy model to apply to its own funding of educational content. It could also work with national governments by promoting good examples and following best practices and standards. A policy brief needs to address the interdependence of EU- and national-level governmental bodies.</p>
<h2>How to promote open education policy?</h2>
<p></p>
<p>Policy matters are often difficult to understand beyond a narrow circle of policymakers, experts and stakeholders. During the workshops we discussed ways of making them easier to understand. We focused on three projects, two of which we’d like to work on in the coming months.</p>
<p>Teresa Nobre presented the concept of a study of European exceptions and limitations for education. These are rules defined in national copyright laws that allow for legal use of copyrighted content without permission under certain conditions for educational purposes. These vary greatly between countries and between K-12 and higher education. This “balkanization” of law is one of the reasons that open education, based of course on open licensing, is such an important policy alternative. We were initially considering conducting the necessary legal comparison, but we found out during the workshop that this has already been done by Prof. Raquel Xalabarder of Universitat Oberta de Catalunya (<a href="media/f519b81f.sccr_19_8.pdf" data-original-source="http://www.wipo.int/edocs/mdocs/copyright/en/sccr_19/sccr_19_8.pdf">see the WIPO-commissioned analysis</a>). Therefore, our work will build on this analysis and in particular “translate” it into an explanation that will apply to practical issues faced by educators in order to demonstrate the real-life application of policy decisions.</p>
<p>Kamil Śliwowski talked about a mythbusting approach, focusing on finding counter arguments for current criticisms of open education. Kamil described experiences we’ve had in Poland debating commercial educational publishers, who have been vocal critics of open education policy. These publishers often recite arguments against OER that are not based on evidence–hence, “myths”. The mythbusting approach began last year with a presentation at the UNESCO OER Congress in Paris, and continued with a workshop at the CC Summit in Buenos Aires. As part of this project, Kamil will organize in early 2014 a sprint-type workshop during which we’ll produce an OER mythbusting publication.</p>
<p>Bardhyl Jashari presented the idea of open education champions, which his organization, <a href="http://www.metamorphosis.org.mk/">Foundation Metamorphosis</a>, has been implementing in Macedonia. According to Bardhyl, leaders are crucial in promoting open education policy, since these issues are often difficult to understand for many on-the-ground educators. Empowering education champions to explain these topics makes the policies easier to understand. We agreed that it is a great idea, and in line with the recently appointed European “Digital Champions.” But these education champions will be difficult to implement without the Commission’s support.</p>
<h2>Next steps</h2>
<p></p>
<p>We are now starting work on our policy brief and related analyses and documents, and we’ll focus on developing these over the next few months. For early 2014, we are planning several events, culminating during <a href="http://www.openeducationweek.org/">Open Education Week</a> in March.</p>
<p>We’re all the time looking for partners, collaborators and allies. if you care about open educational policy and want to help, please <a href="mailto:alek@creativecommons.pl">get in touch</a>.</p>


feed_id: http://creativecommons.org/?p=39978
title: CC in design: expanding your team of collaborators
uri: CC-in-design-expanding-your-team-of-collaborators
url: http://creativecommons.org/weblog/entry/39978
content:
<p>I&#8217;m thrilled to be <a href="http://dxboston.com/events/hey-dont-steal-stuff-navigating-copyright-intellectual-property-open-source/">speaking at Design Exchange Boston tomorrow</a> along with Ben Einstein, Martha Buskirk, Asya Calixto, and Sofya Polyakov. I always love speaking with designers about Creative Commons because they intuitively understand the benefits of sharing their work openly. <a href="http://movingtofreedom.org/2006/08/31/ben-franklin-on-patents/">When Benjamin Franklin invited others to iterate on the Franklin Stove</a>, he wasn&#8217;t just creating a product; he was creating a community of collaborators. And that community is still actively building on Franklin&#8217;s ideas today.</p>
<p>A few months ago, <a href="https://www.id.iit.edu/conferences-and-events/2013-strategy-conference/">CC CEO Cathy Casserly spoke</a> at the IIT Institute of Design&#8217;s Design Strategy Conference. She began her talk by <a href="http://www.slideshare.net/elliotharmon/cathy-designkeynote">laying out the three assumptions she was making</a> about the designers in the room:</p>
<ul>
<li>You become designers because you want to <strong>change how things work</strong>.</li>
<li>You&#8217;re <strong>uniquely able</strong> to change how your employers and clients work.</li>
<li>You know the value of <strong>sharing ideas with others</strong>.</li>
</ul>
<p><iframe src="http://www.slideshare.net/slideshow/embed_code/24709118?startSlide=2" width="427" height="356" frameborder="0" marginwidth="0" marginheight="0" scrolling="no" style="border:1px solid #CCC;border-width:1px 1px 0;margin-bottom:5px" allowfullscreen> </iframe>
<div style="margin-bottom:5px"> <strong> <a href="https://www.slideshare.net/elliotharmon/cathy-designkeynote" title="Cathy Casserly keynote, IIT Design Strategy Conference" target="_blank">Cathy Casserly keynote, IIT Design Strategy Conference</a> </strong> from <strong><a href="http://www.slideshare.net/elliotharmon" target="_blank">elliotharmon</a></strong> </div>
<div style="float:left; padding:10px" xmlns:dc="http://purl.org/dc/terms/" xmlns:cc="/ns#" about="http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Account_of_the_new_invented_Pennsylvania_fire-places_by_Benjamin_Franklin.jpg"><a href="media/719202a9.e_new_invented_Pennsylvania_fire-places_by_Benjamin_Franklin.jpg" data-original-source="http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Account_of_the_new_invented_Pennsylvania_fire-places_by_Benjamin_Franklin.jpg"><img width="236" height="240" src="media/b8e662d4.e_new_invented_Pennsylvania_fire-places_by_Benjamin_Franklin.jpg" data-original-source="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/b/b2/Account_of_the_new_invented_Pennsylvania_fire-places_by_Benjamin_Franklin.jpg/236px-Account_of_the_new_invented_Pennsylvania_fire-places_by_Benjamin_Franklin.jpg" alt="Account of the new invented Pennsylvania fire-places" /></a>
<p><small><a href="media/719202a9.e_new_invented_Pennsylvania_fire-places_by_Benjamin_Franklin.jpg" data-original-source="http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Account_of_the_new_invented_Pennsylvania_fire-places_by_Benjamin_Franklin.jpg"><span property="dc:title">Account of the new invented<br />Pennsylvania fire-places</span></a><br /><span property="cc:attributionName">Benjamin Franklin</span> / <a rel="license" href="/publicdomain/mark/1.0/">Public Domain</a></small></p>
</div>
<p>Thinking about those three points &#8211; designers are good at effecting change, they&#8217;re well-positioned to effect change in their own companies and organizations, and they play well with others &#8211; an idea starts to emerge: designers can be the conduits through which their employers build better networks of collaborators. And one big way of achieving that is through open licensing.</p>
<p>Open licensing gives designers an opportunity to create communities of people iterating and building upon their work. These communities can be extremely valuable, both to a designer and to her clients.</p>
<p>But in opening your designs to be reused by others, aren&#8217;t you handing your revenue stream over to competitors? Maybe not. There&#8217;s a <a href="http://opendesignnow.org/index.php/case/designsmash-enlai-hooi/">great profile in <em>Open Design Now</em></a> of <a href="http://design-smash.com/">DesignSmash</a>, a design studio that develops products through highly collaborative hackathons. According to DesignSmash partner Enlai Hooi, &#8220;There should be no reason for preventing people with the resources to produce [our] objects from doing so. They tend to be the people most invested in how the processes of production relate to the quality of the object. They offer excellent and necessary critical feedback.&#8221;</p>
<p>I&#8217;d strongly recommend that anyone interested in open licensing (and open practices in general) in the design community check out <a href="http://opendesignnow.org/"><em>Open Design Now</em></a>. It&#8217;s a very fun read.</p>
<p>Here are some other great stories of Creative Commons in the design world:</p>
<h3><a href="/weblog/entry/39184">Autodesk invites users to remix its content</a></h3>
<p>Autodesk made big news back in July when it released <a href="http://usa.autodesk.com/adsk/servlet/item?siteID=123112&#038;id=21794375">all of its support and learning content</a> under CC licenses. As expected, the community of designers who use Autodesk products have been building upon that content and making it an even more valuable resource.</p>
<div style="float:right; padding:10px" xmlns:dc="http://purl.org/dc/terms/" xmlns:cc="/ns#" about="http://www.behance.net/gallery/Inspiration-Pad/430578"><a href="http://www.behance.net/gallery/Inspiration-Pad/430578"><img width="300" height="208" src="media/fae5ee5b.inspiration-pad-300.jpg" data-original-source="http://creativecommons.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/10/inspiration-pad-300.jpg" alt="Inspiration Pad" /></a>
<p><small><a href="http://www.behance.net/gallery/Inspiration-Pad/430578"><span property="dc:title">Inspiration Pad</span></a> / <span property="cc:attributionName">Marc Thomasset</span> / <a rel="license" href="/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/">CC BY-NC-ND</a></small></p>
</div>
<h3><a href="/weblog/entry/35882">Featured CC Platform: Behance</a></h3>
<p>Behance is a major hub for designers and clients to find each other online. It supports CC licensing, but unlike most content-sharing platforms, <em>CC licensing is the default</em>. In this interview, Behance founder Scott Belsky explained to me why CC is so important to Behance&#8217;s user community: &#8220;We want Behance to be the wind at the backs of creative careers, and CC has been a primary ingredient in the growth and values of Behance.&#8221;</p>
<h3><a href="http://www.inc.com/guides/201109/how-to-crowdsource-your-resarch-and-development.html">Fiat: The Case for Letting Your Customers Design Your Products</a></h3>
<p>We featured Fiat in <a href="http://thepowerofopen.org/">The Power of Open</a> when it put out a public call for design ideas and turned all of those ideas into a <a href="http://www.ideaconnection.com/open-innovation-success/Fiat-Mio-the-World's-First-Crowdsourced-Car-00273.html">concept car</a>.</p>
<p>I love this quote from Carl Esposti in the Inc. story: &#8220;You may have an R&#038;D department, but there are an awful lot of people that think about this differently or are better qualified. Tapping them as resources means that your company can come with up better ideas &#8211; and have more insight into how to exploit those ideas, test their viability, and put them into production.&#8221;</p>


feed_id: http://creativecommons.org/?p=40001
title: Innerviews’ Anil Prasad – Music Without Borders
uri: Innverviews-Anil-Prasad-Music-Without-Borders
url: http://creativecommons.org/weblog/entry/40001
content:
<p align="center"><a href="media/3d042891.anilprasad.jpg" data-original-source="http://creativecommons.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/10/anilprasad.jpg"><img src="media/8ab761b9.anilprasad-1024x682.jpg" data-original-source="http://creativecommons.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/10/anilprasad-1024x682.jpg" alt="Anil Prasad" width="600" height="399" class="aligncenter wp-image-40004" align="center" /></a><br />
<small>photo by: Jeremy Harris</small></p>
<p>&#8220;Could you please print out your website on company letterhead and mail it to me to process your request?&#8221; This is the kind of question Anil Prasad received from music industry professionals and publicists when he began <a href="http://www.innerviews.org/" title="Innerviews"><em>Innerviews</em></a> in 1994—the internet’s first and longest-running music magazine.</p>
<p>The internet has evolved since then, but the concept of <em>Innerviews</em> remains the same as it did 20 years ago: to share and bring attention to outstanding musicians. <em>Innerviews</em> is Prasad’s labor of love—a site dedicated to long-form, in-depth interviews of musicians. Coming up on its 20th anniversary, Prasad has interviewed 400+ artists to date, with the site averaging 1-1.5 million visitors a year. Despite this success, <em>Innerviews</em> remains a not-for-profit venture, allowing Prasad to spend weeks, and sometimes months ensuring pieces are meticulously researched and edited. </p>
<p>Coincidentally, Prasad is also the author of the best-selling book, <a href="http://www.innerviews.org/book.html" title="Innerviews: Music Without Borders"><em>Innerviews: Music Without Borders</em></a>, now available as an <a href="media/9f90563f.innerviews.pdf" data-original-source="http://www.innerviews.org/ebook/innerviews.pdf" title="Innerviews: Music Without Borders eBook">eBook</a> under a Creative Commons BY-ND license. </p>
<p>Below, Prasad shares his thoughts on his recent decision to adopt Creative Commons licenses for <em>Innerviews</em> and his eBook, and delves deeper into how musicians can incorporate Creative Commons into their work.<br />
</p>
<hr color="#A4A4A4"/>
<p><strong>Where do you hope <em>Innerviews</em> will be in the next 5 to 10 years? Are there any new directions for its immediate future?<br />
</strong></p>
<p>The ultra-long-form content format will remain the same, but the site&#8217;s ability to adapt to the new universe of devices and screens will radically alter. The next version of the site, going live in 2014 to coincide with <em>Innerviews</em>&#8216; 20th anniversary will be totally adaptive, meaning no matter what device you view it on, it will be the same experience. Having said that, the current site works well on mobile devices as is. But it will be significantly optimized in the near term. It&#8217;s interesting to contemplate the idea of <em>Innerviews</em> being 25- or 30-years old. The concept of the audience extending for a ride that long is very gratifying. If you had told me that this site, started as an experiment in 1994, would turn into a life&#8217;s work and legacy, I would never have believed you. The truth is, I would like this site to live forever in one form or another. It&#8217;s a key reason for why I adopted a Creative Commons license for the entirety of the site. It means the content can be mirrored anywhere, anytime, by anyone. I&#8217;d like the site&#8217;s content to remain as snapshots of these incredible musicians&#8217; thought processes 25, 30 or even 100 years from now. Creative Commons has created a way for that to happen.</p>
<p style="float:left; padding-right: 15px;"><a href="media/2ef5e447.innerviews-cover.jpg" data-original-source="http://creativecommons.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/10/innerviews-cover.jpg"><img src="media/4666d1ce.innerviews-cover-199x300.jpg" data-original-source="http://creativecommons.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/10/innerviews-cover-199x300.jpg" alt="Innerviews Book Cover" width="199" height="300" class="alignleft size-medium wp-image-40040" /></a></p>
<p><strong>You framed the adoption of Creative Commons licenses as a “major decision.” Why did you decide to adopt CC licenses for <em>Innerviews</em> as well as your eBook?<br />
</strong></p>
<p>It reflects a decision to totally let go of this content that I have slaved over across 25 years. It&#8217;s an acknowledgement that all of this work belongs not to me, but to the world at large. <em>Innerviews</em> has always been a not-for-profit endeavor, so why not formally codify it in the unique way that Creative Commons enables? Through the Creative Commons license, the content will go further than it ever has before. I had previously been rather protective of the content. I would police other sites that &#8220;ripped off&#8221; the work and get it removed, thinking <em>Innerviews</em> needed to be a little fortress that exclusively housed the writing. That view was misguided. Over the years, many people have asked permission to use the work in a wide variety of commercial, nonprofit, and academic environments. There are often a lot of those requests, so this decision also frees me from having to respond to each individual enquiry. Now, everyone can do whatever they want.<br />
It&#8217;s also a major decision because I used Creative Commons to transform the for-profit <em>Innerviews</em> book into a not-for-profit, Creative Commons—based entity, too. As my friend, the author Robin Slick, put it, &#8220;Books have the lifespan of a cup of yogurt.&#8221; It&#8217;s true. You get maybe a year, perhaps a couple, before things totally drop off, sales wise. So, why not just release it to the world in the same way? Perhaps it&#8217;s a new model for authors and artists to consider—sell your product for a year or two to recoup or make some money via people that want to support it and want it rapidly. Once the inevitable fall-off occurs, freely release it like a pigeon into the wind.</p>
<p><strong>Why did you pick a CC Attribution &#8211; No Derivatives license?<br />
</strong></p>
<p>I want people to be able to distribute my writing freely, even to the point of reprinting it for commercial purposes. However, I remain protective of the integrity of the content itself. I want the features to remain completely intact. The pieces cannot be pulled apart. They represent a conversational flow that is meticulously architected. They are the equivalent of a long-form concept album in that way. You can&#8217;t just take parts out of them and still have them make sense.</p>
<p><strong>Have you seen any financial or other benefits to making the switch to CC licenses for <em>Innerviews</em> and/or your eBook?<br />
</strong></p>
<p>I just made the switch a few weeks ago [in September 2013], but already I&#8217;ve approached to have content run in magazines all over the world, as far away as The Netherlands and Russia. I&#8217;ve also seen the number of downloads of the eBook jump 1,000-fold since the decision, which has given it a totally new life, which is fantastic. At the end of the day, the goal is to get the work in the hands of as many people as possible and Creative Commons helps make that a reality.</p>
<p style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; max-width: 565px; border-radius: 3px; padding: 1em; border: 3px solid #A4A4A4;"><em>&#8220;I&#8217;ll never have an idea of the totality of the penetration that will occur as a result of this decision, and that&#8217;s a great thing. More albums will be sold. More music will be listened to. More attendees will show up at gigs.&#8221;</em></p>
<p><strong>How does CC bring you closer to the goal you mentioned in a <a href="http://15questions.net/interview/interview-anil-prasad/page-1/" title="15 Questions Interview: Anil Prasad">15 Questions interview</a>: “A desire to share and bring attention to what I believe are outstanding musicians.”<br />
</strong></p>
<p>Creative Commons is the exact embodiment of that idea. Creative Commons licensing means many more people will find out about the artists I cover. It enables the content to propagate all over the world, working its way into nooks and crannies of the web and far beyond. I&#8217;ll never have an idea of the totality of the penetration that will occur as a result of this decision, and that&#8217;s a great thing. More albums will be sold. More music will be listened to. More attendees will show up at gigs. At the end of the day, what <em>Innerviews</em> does is about helping artists. By making this content available via a Creative Commons license, those artists get an even bigger potential, global boost.</p>
<p><strong>How do you feel about musicians putting their music under CC licenses?<br />
</strong></p>
<p>It&#8217;s one of many valuable ways a musician can release music in a way that can reap rewards, both immediate and long-term. These days, it&#8217;s next to impossible for artists to earn a living through recordings, either because of piracy or streaming services that pay in fractions of pennies. The important thing is that putting music under a Creative Commons license is a choice. It&#8217;s up to the musician whether or not they want to do it, as opposed to their music being unceremoniously ripped off legally via streaming services if they are signed to a label or illegally via piracy.<br />
A Creative Commons license is an invitation for the world to not only explore, but interact with music. Some Creative Commons licenses enable other musicians to take music and remix or build upon it. That means music becomes a conversation between musicians, as opposed to a fixed expression cemented in a moment in time. It&#8217;s a very exciting concept that many more musicians should examine. However, the question of monetization always looms large in these discussions. One approach is to put certain tracks, EPs or album chunks out via Creative Commons to create interest and intrigue as a roadmap towards an album that is available via more traditional means that encourage payment. There are endless permutations for how an artist could use Creative Commons to promote their work. As we have seen through services like PledgeMusic and Bandcamp, people are still willing to pay and support artists, even though they already often have full access to the music. It&#8217;s all about being creative, encouraging goodwill, and being open to the possibilities.</p>
<p style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; max-width: 565px; border-radius: 3px; padding: 1em; border: 3px solid #A4A4A4;"><em>&#8220;The choice to invoke a Creative Commons license is a choice to get your content or music to as many people as possible, without restrictions, filters or gatekeepers. It&#8217;s about taking your work directly to the people and experiencing and enjoying the unexpected connections that get created.&#8221;</em></p>
<p><strong>You mentioned in an interview with <a href="http://innerviews.org/reviews/radionewzealand.html" title="Radio New Zealand Interview: Anil Prasad">Radio New Zealand</a> that if an artist is not at the point of selling, maybe that&#8217;s where Spotify and Rdio can benefit you. How does that idea tie into musicians who choose to license their music under Creative Commons?<br />
</strong></p>
<p>Creative Commons offers another valuable option for musicians that are trying to crossover to the point where they can monetize their music. And unlike Spotify or Rdio, it enables them to do it entirely on their own terms, specifying how the music can be shared and made available. Jamendo, Freesound, and SoundCloud are just a handful of the many options that now exist for an emerging artist to distribute their Creative Commons-licensed music at scale, worldwide. Adopting a Creative Commons license can be a key tool in promoting work to an audience interested in reaching beyond the mainstream for new sounds.</p>
<p><strong>Can you explore the idea of CC licenses as a means of spreading knowledge, and how music works with that idea?<br />
</strong></p>
<p>Creative Commons is about treating the entire planet as a single global community, in which media is a shared resource that benefits the human race as a whole. This is in stark contrast to the siloed mentality and digital land grab approach the power players of the corporate media attempt to enforce on society. The choice to invoke a Creative Commons license is a choice to get your content or music to as many people as possible, without restrictions, filters or gatekeepers. It&#8217;s about taking your work directly to the people and experiencing and enjoying the unexpected connections that get created. As for music, in a way, it&#8217;s the purest manifestation of <em>Innerviews</em>&#8216; tagline: Music Without Borders.</p>


feed_id: http://creativecommons.org/?p=39639
title: Supporting Copyright Reform
uri: Supporting-Copyright-Reform
url: http://creativecommons.org/weblog/entry/39639
content:
<p><a href="media/8b69147a.reform-graphic.png" data-original-source="http://creativecommons.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/09/reform-graphic.png"><img src="media/8b69147a.reform-graphic.png" data-original-source="http://creativecommons.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/09/reform-graphic.png" alt="reform graphic" width="700" height="320" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-39640" /></a></p>
<p>Today Creative Commons released a <a href="https://creativecommons.org/about/reform">policy statement</a> expressing its support for copyright reform efforts around the world.</p>
<div style="background-color: #bfceea; border-radius: 5px; padding: 1em; margin-bottom: 1em;">Creative Commons (CC) has enabled a new approach to copyright licensing over the last ten years. CC licenses facilitate novel social, educational, technological, and business practices, and support productive relationships around networked knowledge and culture.</p>
<p>We are dedicated stewards of our licenses and tools, and we educate users, institutions, and policymakers about the positive benefits of adopting CC licenses. Our licenses will always provide voluntary options for creators who wish to share their material on more open terms than current copyright systems allow. But the CC vision—universal access to research and education and full participation in culture—will not be realized through licensing alone.  </p>
<p>Around the world, numerous national governments are reviewing or revising their copyright law.  Some proposed revisions would broaden the scope of uses of copyrighted works permitted without the rightsholder’s permission. In response, it has been suggested that the very success of CC licenses means that copyright reform is unnecessary—that the licenses solve any problems for users that might otherwise exist. This is certainly not the case. CC licenses are a patch, not a fix, for the problems of the copyright system. They apply only to works whose creators make a conscious decision to affirmatively license the right for the public to exercise exclusive rights that the law automatically grants to them. The success of open licensing demonstrates the benefits that sharing and remixing can bring to individuals and society as a whole. However, CC operates within the frame of copyright law, and as a practical matter, only a small fraction of copyrighted works will ever be covered by our licenses.</p>
<p>Our experience has reinforced our belief that to ensure the maximum benefits to both culture and the economy in this digital age, the scope and shape of copyright law need to be reviewed. However well-crafted a public licensing model may be, it can never fully achieve what a change in the law would do, which means that law reform remains a pressing topic. The public would benefit from more extensive rights to use the full body of human culture and knowledge for the public benefit. CC licenses are not a substitute for users’ rights, and CC supports ongoing efforts to reform copyright law to strengthen users’ rights and expand the public domain.</p></div>
<p>At its core, Creative Commons is rooted in the broader work to reform copyright. The founders of Creative Commons believed that copyright law was out of sync with how people share content on the Internet, and they developed the CC licenses as one way to address that problem. But we&#8217;d like to see copyright law itself better aligned to its original purpose&#8211;to enable and reward creative participation in culture and society.</p>
<p>From time to time, people in our community bring up the question of whether Creative Commons should be only a steward of the CC licenses, or also a steward of the broader participatory culture that the licenses are meant to promote.</p>
<p>Creative Commons affiliates, board, and staff have worked together over the past year to develop the policy statement above. The need for a statement like this became apparent at the <a href="http://www.global-congress.org/">2012 Global Congress on Intellectual Property and the Public Interest</a> in Rio de Janeiro. Several CC affiliates attended, many who work on copyright reform initiatives alongside their CC outreach. In Rio, affiliates described the dual nature of their work, which they feel sometimes requires removing their “CC Affiliate hat” when involved with reform efforts. They argued that developing tools for sharing creative content and arguing that outdated copyright laws be changed to better support legal sharing were two different sides of the same coin. Affiliates asked for clarification of the organization&#8217;s policies on affiliates engaging directly in copyright law reform proposals. </p>
<p>Over the next several months, Creative Commons drafted a statement that re-emphasizes the many benefits that CC licenses bring to society. But it also acknowledges the limitations of CC and expresses the need for reform of the current copyright system. CC affiliates came together in <a href="http://wiki.creativecommons.org/Global_Summit_2013">Buenos Aires in August 2013</a> to discuss the position of Creative Commons in relation to copyright reform. Over 100 affiliates and supporters participated in a day-long pre-conference event. The policy position was drafted and reviewed by the board of directors, affiliates, and staff.</p>
<p>There are several reasons that we feel such a position is useful&#8211;and necessary. First, there have been several proposed laws (like SOPA/PIPA) and trade agreements (ACTA/TPP) that if enacted would be detrimental to user rights to access and use information. And, we’ve heard that in some policy discussions the success of CC as a voluntary licensing scheme is being used by incumbent interests as evidence that fundamental copyright reform is unnecessary. This is incorrect. As we <a href="https://creativecommons.org/weblog/entry/37576">wrote</a> in March, </p>
<blockquote><p>[The] existence of open copyright licenses shouldn’t be interpreted as a substitute for robust copyright reform. Quite the contrary. The decrease in transaction costs, increase in collaboration, and massive growth of the commons of legally reusable content spurred on by existence of public licenses should drastically reinforce the need for fundamental change, and not serve as a bandage for a broken copyright system.</p></blockquote>
<p>The passage of increasingly harsh copyright regulations has the potential to render CC licenses and tools ineffective. The aim of these laws are counter to CC’s mission and vision. Second, it’s clear there are some areas of copyright where open licensing won’t solve the problem. One example is increasing access to copyrighted works for the visually impaired. Paul Keller <a href="http://www.kennisland.nl/filter/nieuws/creative-commons-en-de-modernisering-van-het-auteursrecht">explains this well</a>: </p>
<blockquote><p>Take the WIPO treaty for the visually impaired: There had to be a treaty because a voluntary or market driven solution to end the book famine for visually impaired people in the developing world did not emerge even though the problem had been known for a long time. Quite clearly the problem cannot not be solved by encouraging publishers to license their works openly and, instead, it required a tailored legislative approach that builds on new limitation and exemptions that address this specific issue.</p></blockquote>
<p>Third, many CC affiliates are already deeply embedded in copyright reform activities  as a part of their broader legal, policy, and digital rights advocacy work. It makes sense for those affiliates engaged in reform efforts to be able to speak and engage wearing their “CC Affiliate hat,” instead of trying to maintain the ambiguous and sometimes arbitrary separation between their “CC work” and the work they do supporting user rights and the public interest. </p>
<p>While we think this policy statement is noncontroversial, we must proceed with care. Historically, our organization has not been heavily involved in copyright reform efforts. Instead, we’ve been focused on the development and stewardship of the licenses and public domain tools. And this will certainly continue to be the case. Direct advocacy supporting more fundamental copyright reform has taken a backseat, for several reasons. First, we recognize and appreciate the value of neutrality, and acting as a responsible and impartial steward of our licenses, no matter who wishes to use them. Making our tools the best they can be and educating about how to use them are our core tasks. Second, as a U.S. based 501(c)(3) nonprofit corporation, we are constrained in our ability to engage in <a href="http://wiki.creativecommons.org/Lobbying">lobbying activities</a>. Any lobbying conducted by CC headquarters staff will continue to be carefully tracked and reported. And lobbying by CC Affiliates will continue to be on behalf of the jurisdiction team in accordance with our <a href="http://wiki.creativecommons.org/MOU">MOU</a> and <a href="http://wiki.creativecommons.org/Policy_Advocacy_Guidelines#III._Guidelines_for_affiliates_engaging_in_advocacy_activities">established guidelines</a>. Finally, there are groups that are well-positioned for advocacy activities, such as the Electronic Frontier Foundation, Open Rights Group, Open Knowledge Foundation, and La Quadrature du Net. We support and promote the crucial, timely work of these and other groups. </p>
<p>We reaffirm that the mission of Creative Commons will sometimes call for our involvement in reform efforts. At the Creative Commons Global Summit in Buenos Aires, Lawrence Lessig gave a talk entitled, <a href="http://vimeo.com/73245765">“Laws that Choke Creativity”</a>. Lessig said he supports the fundamental freedom to remix. “We need to share more, and share more legally,” he said. “But in order to do so, the law must change.” He said that Creative Commons is not the complete solution. “We need real change in real law if these freedoms are to be secured.”</p>
<p><small><a href="http://thenounproject.com/noun/file-repair/#icon-No10069">File Repair</a> icon by <a href="http://thenounproject.com/iconoci">iconoci</a>, from The Noun Project. <a href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/">CC BY</a>.</small> </p>


feed_id: http://creativecommons.org/?p=40129
title: The past year in Open Access
uri: The-past-year-in-Open-Access
url: http://creativecommons.org/weblog/entry/40129
content:
<p><a href="media/87df13c4.OAlogo.jpg" data-original-source="http://creativecommons.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/10/OAlogo.jpg"><img src="media/87df13c4.OAlogo.jpg" data-original-source="http://creativecommons.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/10/OAlogo.jpg" alt="OAlogo" width="700" height="253" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-40131" /></a></p>
<p>Today marks the start of <a href="http://www.openaccessweek.org/">Open Access Week 2013</a>. Open Access Week is a global event for the academic and research community to continue to learn about the potential benefits of <a href="http://legacy.earlham.edu/~peters/fos/overview.htm">Open Access</a>, to share what they’ve learned with colleagues, and to help inspire wider participation in helping to make Open Access a new norm in scholarship and research. There are many <a href="http://www.openaccessweek.org/events">events</a> you can participate in this week, both in person and virtually. Now is a great time to take a look back at the last year in open access developments. Here’s a small sample.  </p>
<ul>
<li>The European Commission <a href="http://europa.eu/rapid/press-release_IP-13-786_en.htm">released a report</a> that said open access to research publications is reaching a tipping point. It noted that 40% of scientific peer reviewed articles published worldwide between 2004 and 2011 are now available online for free access. </li>
<li>CC developed a <a href="https://creativecommons.org/weblog/entry/39707">set of graphics</a> that help explain the the current commercial publishing situation and what an open access would do to promote increased access and reuse to research.</li>
<li>The Public Library of Science and Figshare <a href="https://creativecommons.org/weblog/entry/36504">announced a partnership</a> that will allow authors publishing in PLOS journals host their data on Figshare.</li>
<li>In the United States, the <a href="media/a7d6048a.20132002201420DOYLE20FASTR20FINAL.pdf" data-original-source="http://doyle.house.gov/sites/doyle.house.gov/files/documents/2013%2002%2014%20DOYLE%20FASTR%20FINAL.pdf">Fair Access to Science and Technology Research Act</a> (FASTR) was <a href="https://creativecommons.org/weblog/entry/36699">introduced</a> in both the House of Representatives and the Senate. FASTR requires federal agencies with annual extramural research budgets of $100 million or more to provide the public with online access to the research articles stemming from that funded research no later than six months after publication in a peer-reviewed journal.</li>
<li>The White House issued a <a href="https://creativecommons.org/weblog/entry/35267">directive on public access to research</a> produced by federal agencies. Each agency covered by the Directive must “Ensure that the public can read, download, and analyze in digital form final peer reviewed manuscripts or final published documents within a timeframe that is appropriate for each type of research conducted or sponsored by the agency.” The public is still waiting to see the details of the agency public access plans, which were due August 22, 2013. In addition, the White House announced an <a href="https://creativecommons.org/weblog/entry/38269">executive order in support of open data</a>, and launched <a href="http://project-open-data.github.io/">Project Open Data</a>, an open source initiative looking for input and collaboration on how the federal government should manage open data. There’s been some great work to-date on Project Open Data, but there’s still some <a href="https://creativecommons.org/weblog/entry/38316">unresolved questions</a> about licensing (or public domain tools) appropriate for data produced by the federal government. </li>
<li>Also in the United States, there’s been several <a href="https://creativecommons.org/weblog/entry/37830">state-level bills</a> introduced in support of public access to publicly funded research. Perhaps the most active is the legislation introduced in California&#8211;AB 609&#8211;the <a href="https://creativecommons.org/weblog/entry/37882">California Taxpayer Access to Publicly Funded Research Act</a>. If you live in California you can <a href="http://www.congressweb.com/SPARC/19">write to your representatives</a> today to tell them to support AB 609.</li>
<li>The University of California passed a <a href="https://creativecommons.org/weblog/entry/39246">system-wide open access policy</a>. The open access policy will cover 8,000 faculty who author approximately 40,000 articles each year.</li>
<li>The Research Councils UK passed an open access policy, but there’s been some <a href="https://creativecommons.org/weblog/entry/36572 ">confusion</a> about the open licensing provisions in the policy. And, the Business, Innovation, and Skills Committee <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/higher-education-network/blog/2013/sep/11/open-access-report-bis-committee">released a report</a> criticizing the policy and urged RCUK to reconsider several aspects of the policy, including the preference for gold open access publishing, acceptable embargo periods, and licensing options. </li>
<li>PLOS hosted the <a href="https://creativecommons.org/weblog/entry/38011 ">Accelerating Science Award Program</a> (ASAP). The high-profile award program seeked to highlight individuals who have used, applied, or remixed scientific research — published through open access — in order to realize innovations in science, medicine, and technology. The winners of the program will be <a href="http://live.worldbank.org/open-access-week-2013">announced today</a>!</li>
</ul>


feed_id: http://creativecommons.org/?p=40105
title: WikiProject Open launches “Collaboration of the Week” for Open Access Week
uri: WikiProject-Open-launches-Collaboration-of-the-Week-for-Open-Acc
url: http://creativecommons.org/weblog/entry/40105
content:
<p><em>Below is an invitation by members of <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:WikiProject_Open">WikiProject Open</a> to help improve two Wikipedia articles related to openness. Wikiproject Open is a collaboration with the <a href="http://schoolofopen.org/">School of Open</a>.</em></p>
<p><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:WikiProject_Open"><img src="media/1926b515.wikiproject-open.001.png" data-original-source="http://creativecommons.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/10/wikiproject-open.001.png" alt="wikiproject open.001" width="556" height="154" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-40109" /></a></p>
<p><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:WikiProject_Open">WikiProject Open</a> is a community of new and experienced Wikipedians, dedicated to improving Wikipedia&#8217;s coverage of all things &#8220;open,&#8221; and to using openly licensed content to improve Wikipedia articles in general. In celebration of Open Access Week, we <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:OPEN/COTW">invite you</a> to join us in improving two Wikipedia articles this week:</p>
<ul>
<li><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Open_Access_Week">Open Access Week</a>: We should have plenty of new news coverage to draw from in improving this article</li>
<li><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Creative_Commons_license">Creative Commons license</a>: Let&#8217;s make sure this central article is thorough and accurate; we will consider splitting off sub-articles, etc.</li>
</ul>
<p>For those new to Wikipedia, you&#8217;ll find some tips to get you started on our &#8220;<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:WikiProject_Open_welcome">welcome</a>&#8221; page.</p>
<p>Then, just get to work on the &#8220;<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Open_Access_Week">Open Access Week</a>&#8221; and &#8220;<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Creative_Commons_license">Creative Commons license</a>&#8221; articles! Be sure to check each article&#8217;s talk page (you&#8217;ll find the tab in the upper left), because we&#8217;ll surely be discussing what needs to be improved and how we want to approach it as <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:OPEN/COTW">WikiProject Open&#8217;s Collaboration of the Week</a> (COTW) gets underway.</p>
<p>Collaboration of the Week programs have been implemented by a number of wiki communities over the years. Academic studies have found them to be a highly effective way to keep people engaged and productive, in addition to building a sense of community. We hope you will join us as we launch this program, and help us improve Wikipedia&#8217;s coverage of important topics in the world of openness!</p>


feed_id: http://creativecommons.org/?p=40174
title: Pratham Books plans open-source story platform
uri: Pratham-Books-plans-open-source-story-platform
url: http://creativecommons.org/weblog/entry/40174
content:
<p>Our friend Gautam John of Indian children&#8217;s book publisher <a href="http://prathambooks.org/">Pratham Books</a> emailed us this morning to tell us that <a href="https://impactchallenge.withgoogle.com/india2013#/prathambooks">Pratham is a finalist for a Google Impact Award</a>. What&#8217;s even more exciting is what Gautam&#8217;s team wants to do with the award. I&#8217;ll let him explain:</p>
<div style="float:right; padding:10px" xmlns:dc="http://purl.org/dc/terms/" xmlns:cc="/ns#" about="http://www.flickr.com/photos/prathambooks/8431572429/"><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/prathambooks/8431572429/"><img width="320" height="263" src="media/9b3068ab.8431572429_0e823836d4_n.jpg" data-original-source="http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8498/8431572429_0e823836d4_n.jpg" alt="Page 15 (from Too Many Bananas)" /></a>
<p><small><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/prathambooks/8431572429/"><span property="dc:title">Page 15 (from <em>Too Many Bananas</em>)</span></a><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/prathambooks/"><span property="cc:attributionName">Pratham Books</span></a> / <a rel="license" href="/licenses/by-nc-sa/2.0/">CC BY-NC-SA</a></small></p>
</div>
<blockquote><p>Pratham Books will use this award to amplify its existing work by creating an open-source platform that will encourage the creation of new stories, remixing of our openly licensed content and translation of all these stories in local languages. Every creation, new or remixed, will be shared, resulting in a large repository of stories available in various digital formats for free use. All content will be released under Creative Commons licenses.</p></blockquote>
<blockquote><p>Pratham Books has been a front-runner in adopting a <a href="http://wiki.creativecommons.org/Case_Studies/Pratham_Books">Creative Commons licensing framework</a> and in the last 5 years we have released over <a href="http://www.scribd.com/collections/2300329/Creative-Commons-Originals">400 stories</a> and <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/prathambooks/collections/72157619814442224/">hundreds of illustrations</a> under a <a href="/licenses/by/3.0/">CC BY</a> or <a href="/licenses/by-sa/3.0/">CC BY-SA</a> license.</p></blockquote>
<blockquote><p>Pratham Books now hopes to build a collaborative platform which will scale our existing production of 1600 books across 12 languages to 20,000 books across 25 languages over 3 years! Millions of children across the globe will benefit from this platform.</p></blockquote>
<p>We&#8217;ve been fans of Pratham Books&#8217; work for a long time. The company was featured in <a href="http://thepowerofopen.org/"><em>The Power of Open</em></a> as a great example of how open licensing can play a crucial role in a sustainable business model. Last year, <a href="/weblog/entry/35538">Gautam wrote a guest blog for CC</a> about how sharing books under CC has led to the community creating numerous translations, audiobooks, DAISY and braille versions, and even smartphone apps, resulting in far greater reach than the company could have achieved without open licensing.</p>
<p>We&#8217;re excited to see Pratham Books undertaking this project. <a href="https://impactchallenge.withgoogle.com/india2013#/prathambooks%7Cvote">Vote for Pratham!</a></p>


feed_id: http://creativecommons.org/?p=40144
title: Followup: NonCommercial and NoDerivatives discussion
uri: Followup-NonCommercial-and-NoDerivatives-discussion
url: http://creativecommons.org/weblog/entry/40144
content:
<p><a href="media/6a1e8dda.ncnd.png" data-original-source="http://creativecommons.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/10/ncnd.png"><img src="media/6a1e8dda.ncnd.png" data-original-source="http://creativecommons.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/10/ncnd.png" alt="ncnd" width="650" height="330" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-40154" /></a></p>
<p>It’s <a href="https://creativecommons.org/weblog/entry/35773">been a long time</a> since we last wrote about the ongoing discussion of the NonCommercial and NoDerivatives licenses. Recall that last year <a href="https://creativecommons.org/weblog/entry/33874">CC heard suggestions</a> that it should stop offering NC and ND licenses in future versions of our license suite because these licenses do not create a true commons of open content that everyone is free to use, redistribute, remix, and repurpose. </p>
<p>The CC community <a href="http://wiki.creativecommons.org/NC_ND_discussion#Why_not_something_more_radical.3F">agreed</a> to not make such a radical change as to stop offering the NC or ND licenses in the soon-to-be-released <a href="http://wiki.creativecommons.org/4.0/Drafts#Draft_4_Details">4.0 licenses</a>, or to spin off those licenses to another host organization. However, as promised, we have been working on several projects to help explain and clarify these issues to license users.</p>
<ul>
<li>We’ve <a href="https://creativecommons.org/freeworks">improved information</a> about which CC licenses align with definitions of “Free licenses.”</li>
<p></p>
<li>We’ve reinstated a <a href="https://creativecommons.org/examples">color-coded license spectrum graphic</a> and provided <a href="https://creativecommons.org/examples#cc0">descriptive examples</a> of adopters of both Free and non-free licenses.</li>
<p></p>
<li>We <a href="http://wiki.creativecommons.org/Commercial_Rights_Reserved">gathered feedback</a> about changing the name of “NonCommercial” to “Commercial Rights Reserved” and <a href="https://creativecommons.org/weblog/entry/36725">decided</a> that the name will stay at “NonCommercial.”</li>
</ul>


feed_id: http://creativecommons.org/?p=40252
title: Audio remix competition from the Smithsonian and SoundCloud
uri: Audio-remix-competition-from-the-Smithsonian-and-SoundCloud
url: http://creativecommons.org/weblog/entry/40252
content:
<div style="float:right; padding:10px" xmlns:dc="http://purl.org/dc/terms/" xmlns:cc="/ns#" about="http://www.flickr.com/photos/smithsonian/2550219857/"><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/smithsonian/2550219857/"><img width="320" height="257" src="media/66aa6679.2550219857_49cb44732f_n.jpg" data-original-source="http://farm4.staticflickr.com/3272/2550219857_49cb44732f_n.jpg" alt="Kansas City Postal Band" /></a>
<p><small><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/smithsonian/2550219857/"><span property="dc:title">Kansas City Postal Band</span></a> / <span property="cc:attributionName">Unidentified photographer</span><br />(courtesy of the <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/smithsonian/">Smithsonian Institution</a>) / <a rel="license" href="/publicdomain/mark/1.0/">Public Domain</a></small></p>
</div>
<p>Our friends at <a href="//soundcloud.com/">SoundCloud</a> just told us about a contest they&#8217;re running with the Smithsonian Institution. The Smithsonian publishes <a href="https://soundcloud.com/smithsonian-remix">audio from its archives</a> on SoundCloud under <a href="/licenses/by-nc/3.0/">CC BY-NC</a>. Now, it wants to show off all the possibilities for remixing open content <a href="http://blog.soundcloud.com/2013/10/02/smithsonian-remix/">by holding a remix competition</a>:</p>
<blockquote><p>Now the Smithsonian is calling on you to sample, chop and remix selected recordings from their entire collection of sounds, including <a href="//soundcloud.com/smithsonian-remix/sets/encylopedia-of-life-sounds">recordings of frogs and insects from Encyclopedia of Life</a>, <a href="//soundcloud.com/smithsonian-remix/sets/smithsonian-astrophysical">Astrophysical Observatory sounds</a>, <a href="//soundcloud.com/smithsonian-remix/sets/smithsonian-jazz-masterworks">Smithsonian Jazz masterworks</a>, and <a href="//soundcloud.com/smithsonian-remix/sets/smithsonian-folkways-sounds">Smithsonian Folkways</a>.</p></blockquote>
<blockquote><p>The rules are simple. Submissions may be any length, but must incorporate at least two Smithsonian tracks.</p></blockquote>
<p>Prizes include free SoundCloud Pro accounts and tickets to a <a href="http://smithsonianassociates.org/smithsonianat8/default.aspx">special event at the Smithsonian in November</a>.</p>
<p><a href="http://blog.soundcloud.com/2013/10/02/smithsonian-remix/">Hurry!</a> Entries are due November 8.</p>


feed_id: http://creativecommons.org/?p=40274
title: First Arabic Language CC Licenses Launched!
uri: First-Arabic-Language-CC-Licenses-Launched
url: http://creativecommons.org/weblog/entry/40274
content:
<p><span style="float:right;padding:10px;" xmlns:cc="http://creativecommons.org/ns#" xmlns:dc="http://purl.org/dc/terms/" about="http://d3j5vwomefv46c.cloudfront.net/photos/large/182238772.jpg?1287936247"><img alt="Finally the Arabic translation for #creativecommons licenses" src="media/02538f50.1822387721.jpg" data-original-source="http://creativecommons.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/10/1822387721.jpg" /><br /> <small><a rel="cc:attributionURL" href="http://twitpic.com/30i0c4" property="dc:title"></a> <a href="http://twitpic.com/30i0c4">Finally the Arabic translation&#8230;</a> / <span property="cc:attributionName">Muhammad Basheer</span> / <a rel="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/">CC BY</a></small></span> </p>
<p>Following a multi-year process and the dedication of several Creative Commons Arab regional teams and communities, Creative Commons is very proud to announce that its <a href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/eg/">3.0 license suite</a> is now available in Arabic. The Egypt 3.0 licenses were completed by our CC Egypt team, hosted by the <a href="http://www.bibalex.org/a2k/home/home.aspx">Access To Knowledge initiative</a> at the Bibliotheca Alexandrina in Alexandria. The porting effort was led by copyright expert Hala Essalmawi, with the support of Hani Sawiress.</p>
<p>The process of porting the 3.0 licenses endured a lengthy and eventful journey spanning the changing cultural and political climate in the Arab world. Although CC is on the cusp of publishing the <a href="http://creativecommons.org/weblog/entry/39587">4.0 license suite</a>, an international suite that we do not expect to port but instead translate, the Egypt 3.0 licenses are being published to recognize and celebrate the tireless effort of all of the affiliates and community members in the Arab world who cooperated to make their publication a reality after more than half a decade of effort.</p>
<p>Localization efforts in the Arab world began in earnest more than six years ago with affiliates in Jordan and, thereafter, in Egypt. Jordanian copyright law experts Rami Olwan and Ziad Maraqa worked early on to raise awareness of CC licenses and their potential for bolstering the existing culture of sharing found throughout the Arab world. The CC Egypt porting team leveraged those drafting efforts as a starting point for the Egypt licenses. </p>
<p>One of the biggest challenges of the process involved translation. Arabic is the official language of the 22 members of the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Arab_League_countries_by_GDP_%28nominal%29">Arab League</a>, and is spoken by more than 300 million people in many different dialects. The Egyptian effort required attention to pan-regional considerations knowing that the licenses would be adopted by users outside of Egypt.  </p>
<p>The CC Egypt team partnered with many others to complete the licences, including a group of passionate lawyers and activists from other Arabic-speaking countries. Among other important work, this group considered options for translating CC’s English legal code into modern standard Arabic while ensuring that the license names and elements (Attribution, ShareAlike, NonCommercial, and NoDerivatives) would be understood by Arabic-speakers across the region and embraced by end-users, not just lawyers. An important milestone in the localization effort came during the <a href="http://wiki.creativecommons.org/Arab_World_Meeting_2010">2nd Arab Regional Meeting</a> in Doha, Qatar, in October 2010. There, legal experts and community members from Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon, Qatar, Syria, and UAE, together with CC HQ, <a href="http://wiki.creativecommons.org/Arab_World_Meeting_2010#FINAL_TRANSLATION_OF_KEY_CREATIVE_COMMON_TERMS_IN_ARABIC">forged agreement on those terms</a>. For those interested in more details, see the minutes (<a href="media/830efca4.MinutesCCArabRegionalMeeting2010.pdf" data-original-source="http://wiki.creativecommons.org/images/4/4c/MinutesCCArabRegionalMeeting2010.pdf">PDF</a>) and a <a href="http://wiki.creativecommons.org/Arab_World_Meeting_2010#Appendix_I:_Translation_Discussion_Summary">summary of the translation discussion in Arabic</a>.</p>
<p>Worth noting is the pivotal role played by <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bassel_Khartabil">Bassel Safadi aka Khartabil</a>, free internet pioneer and CC’s lead in Syria. Bassel has been one of the most active members of the CC Arab community, adeptly facilitating dialogue between the legal community and content creators community to produce outcomes useful to both. Bassel has been greatly missed by the Arab and global CC community since his <a href="http://freebassel.org/campaign/">detainment by Syrian authorities</a> in March 2012.</p>
<p>We also acknowledge the dedication of the CC Egypt team and the broader Arab CC community to concluding the licenses and advancing Creative Commons adoption and community building during the many recent turbulent years in the region. The dire political and economic situation of several countries in the Arab world and the uprisings since late 2010 have brought insecurity and challenges to people’s daily lives; yet, they have managed to push forward with a wealth of user-generated, youth-driven creativity. CC communities in the Arab world have paid a tribute to this phenomenon by dedicating the past two regional meetings (<a href="http://creativecommons.org/weblog/entry/28409">2011, Tunis</a>; <a href="http://creativecommons.org/weblog/entry/34417">2012, Cairo</a>) to supporting the creation of original content in Arabic, whether music or visual art or texts. </p>
<p>With all this in mind, the launch of the Egyptian licenses, our first set of licenses in the Arabic language, may be counted among one of the most significant recent achievements of the global CC community. Congratulations to Hala and her team at Bibliotheca Alexandrina for this masterful accomplishment during especially challenging times. Additionally, special thanks to <a href="http://lb.creativecommons.org/">CC Lebanon’s</a> Mohamed Darwish and Pierre el Khoury whose multi-year contributions to the licenses proved critical, the Egyptian community and the Arab communities who commented and discussed the licenses, and CC&#8217;s coordinator for the Arab Region, Donatella della Ratta, for her dedicated efforts coordinating and supporting the many convenings necessary to complete the licenses. </p>
<p>Hundreds more could be thanked for their participation in this long but fruitful effort, but above all, a warm and sincere expression of gratitude to the passionate Arab people who believe in a culture of openness, transparency and sharing, and fight for it, sometimes paying with their lives. <em>Shukran</em>.</p>


feed_id: http://creativecommons.org/?p=40361
title: OERu Launches Worldwide
uri: OERu-Launches-Worldwide
url: http://creativecommons.org/weblog/entry/40361
content:
<p>Providing free learning with pathways to formal credit, the <a href="http://oeruniversity.org/" target="_blank">OERu</a> officially launched on Friday November 1, 2013 at Thompson Rivers University in Kamloops British Columbia. &#8220;In basing your learning and teaching on <a href="http://creativecommons.org/education#OER">OER</a>, you have an excellent opportunity to treat the minds of your students primarily as fires to be set alight rather than as vessels to be filled with the knowledge of just one teacher,&#8221; said Sir John Daniel, former UNESCO Assistant Director General of Education and open learning visionary.</p>
<p><a href="http://oeruniversity.org/"><img src="media/972bb39d.OERuLaunch-1024x586.png" data-original-source="http://creativecommons.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/11/OERuLaunch-1024x586.png" alt="OERu web site" width="512" height="293" class="alignnone wp-image-40362" /></a></p>
<p>Coordinated by the Open Education Resource Foundation, headquartered in New Zealand, the OERu is an independent, not-for-profit network that offers free online university courses for students worldwide using open educational resources (OER). As a designated project of the UNESCO-COL OER Chair network and with over thirty-two partners from five continents, the OERu is using OER to provide more affordable ways for learners to gain academic credit towards qualifications from recognized, accredited institutions. </p>
<p>“The OERu makes affordable education accessible to everyone,” said Open Education Resource Foundation Director Dr. Wayne Mackintosh. “All you need is an internet connection and you can study independently from home, with access to world-class courses from recognized institutions around the world. It’s about sharing knowledge and the sustainability of education.”</p>
<p>Research from the Commonwealth of Learning and UNESCO predicts that an additional one hundred million post-secondary learners will be entering into the tertiary education system over the next fifteen years. “The key challenge we are trying to address is how to provide spaces for the additional one hundred million students – that’s the equivalent of building four sizeable universities with roughly 30,000 students each, every week for the next 15 years,” said Mackintosh. The OERu aims to provide students excluded from the formal education sector with learning pathways to credible credentials.</p>
<p>Coming at a time of dramatically rising higher education cost and high youth unemployment, the OERu provides a parallel learning universe based solely on OER, quality assurance, and institutional accreditation. The OERu sees OER as a key means of expanding and sustaining higher education and aims to see OER and open education practices integrated into every institution in the world.</p>
<p>The <a href="/weblog/entry/36906">distinctively open</a> aspects of the OERu, including its use of open-source software, open peer review, open public input, open file formats and open educational resources are key differentiators from MOOCs. Another major difference is the OERu&#8217;s commitment to providing students with the option of getting formal credit for their study for a small fee. </p>
<p>“The OERu will reduce the cost of higher education dramatically,” says Sir John Daniel. “I believe that radical innovations in higher education must be accompanied by particularly robust frameworks of accreditation and credentialing in order to reassure the public. It&#8217;s all very well for evangelists to promote do-it-yourself accreditation from the personal safety of CVs replete with reputable qualifications, but ordinary people want the &#8216;beef&#8217; of proper recognition too.”</p>
<p>The OERu launch at Thompson Rivers University coincided with the second meeting of the OERu open network of partners including post-secondary institutions, nonprofits, government, and international agencies who all engaged in an intensive two-day implementation planning meeting. I was delighted to attend and contribute to the planning, including a <a href="http://bit.ly/OERuSummary">summary</a> of a two-week-long discussion exploring OERu&#8217;s unique differentiators, operations, micro-credentials, potential use of textbook zero, and quality assurance processes. Livestream recordings of the OERu launch and plenary meetings are available from the <a href="http://www.livestream.com/liveTRU">Thompson Rivers University live streaming channel</a>.</p>
<p>At the time of launch, the OERu is offering two credentials – one undergraduate and one post-graduate and is experimenting with micro Open Online Courses – mOOCs. As an open network the OERu is expanding the courses and credentials it is offering and its  partners. Organizations choose to join the OERu for three main reasons:</p>
<ol>
<li>to be part of a global network of “like-minded” institutions</li>
<li>to participate in the philanthropic mission of widening access to more affordable education, especially for learners excluded from the formal higher education sector</li>
<li>to learn new business models and retain a competitive advantage as open education approaches become more mainstream</li>
</ol>
<p>As Estrella Patrick Moller First Nations Elder for the Secwepemc Nation put it in her OERu launch blessing, &#8220;I thank all of you for having big dreams&#8230; Help us to reach hundreds and hundreds and millions of people so that mother earth will be covered with people on an equal footing with education.&#8221;</p>
<p>Related links:</p>
<ul>
<li><a href="http://www.cfjctv.com/story.php?id=16683">Free Open Learning University Launches at TRU</a>, CFJC TV, Kamloops, 1 November 2013.</li>
<li><a href="http://www.kamloopsnews.ca/article/20131101/KAMLOOPS0101/131109988/-1/kamloops0101/tru-joins-free-education-movement">TRU joins free education movement</a>. Online university combines resources from around the world. The Daily New, Kamloops, 1 November 2013.</li>
<li><a href="http://www.universityworldnews.com/article.php?story=20131101093532252">Open Educational Resource university is launched</a>, University World News, 1 November 2013.</li>
<li><a href="http://tvnz.co.nz/breakfast-news/free-university-launching-in-nz-video-5664752">The free university launching in NZ</a>. TVNZ Breakfast, 2013</li>
<li><a href="http://bccampus.ca/2013/10/31/the-launch-of-oeru-towards-free-learning-opportunities-for-all-students-worldwide/">The launch of OERu: Towards free learning opportunities for all students worldwide</a>, BCcampus, 31 October 2013.</li>
<li><a href="http://www.timeshighereducation.co.uk/news/mooc-rival-oeru-puts-accreditation-on-menu/2008571.article">Mooc rival OERu puts accreditation on menu</a>, Times Higher Education, 31 October 2013.</li>
<li><a href="http://www.odt.co.nz/campus/otago-polytechnic/278697/polytech-opens-door-world">Polytech opens a door to the world</a>, Otago Daily Times, 26 October 2013.</li>
<li><a href="http://wikieducator.org/Open_Educational_Resource_university_to_be_launched_worldwide">Open Educational Resource university to be launched worldwide</a>, 25 October, 2013.</li>
</ul>


feed_id: http://creativecommons.org/?p=40460
title: University of Mississippi to incorporate School of Open’s Wikipedia course
uri: 2013-11-06-
url: http://creativecommons.org/weblog/entry/40460
content:
<p><em>This is a guest post by <a href="http://wikistrategies.net/pete-forsyth/">Pete Forsyth</a>, organizer of the School of Open’s &#8220;Writing Wikipedia Articles: The Basics &#038; Beyond&#8221; course and member of WikiProject Open.</em></p>
<p style="text-align:center"><a href="media/fe809dc0.FileOleMissLogo.svg" data-original-source="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:OleMissLogo.svg"><img src="media/bec146e5.OleMissLogo.svg_.png" data-original-source="http://creativecommons.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/11/OleMissLogo.svg_.png" alt="OleMissLogo.svg" width="395" height="300" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-40473" /></a></p>
<p>The University of Mississippi’s Spring 2014 course &#8220;Open Educational Resources and Practices&#8221; will include the module &#8220;<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:School_of_Open_course">Writing Wikipedia Articles</a>&#8221; (aka WIKISOO), which I developed and taught through the <a href="http://schoolofopen.org/">School of Open</a>; as well as &#8220;<a href="http://oeruniversity.net/oeru-partners/otago-polytechnic/open-content-licensing-for-educators-/">Open Content Licensing for Educators</a>,&#8221; developed and taught by Wayne Mackintosh as part of the <a href="https://creativecommons.org/weblog/entry/40361">OER university</a> consortium. The new graduate level course (<a href="http://catalog.olemiss.edu/education/leadership-counselor-education/edhe-670">Edhe 670</a>), taught by Dr. Robert Cummings, will invite learners from around the world to take these two course modules alongside graduate students, free of charge. This is the first time a university has adopted a School of Open course as part of a formal university course.</p>
<p>In the new course, both online learners and University of Mississippi students will actively participate in open educational practices, even as they learn the theory and history of open education and related concepts. Online learners will enjoy university-level instruction free of charge and without the need to enroll in a degree program.</p>
<p>Noting the advantages of this first-of-its-kind course, Associate Professor Robert Cummings said,</p>
<blockquote><p>
&#8220;University of Mississippi graduate students in the School of Education will prepare for their careers with this unique opportunity to engage the emerging global field of Open Educational Resources. UM students will not only learn about OER, its origins, and its role in the classrooms of the future, but they will have the opportunity to work with developers and theorists—both as fellow students and emerging practitioners—in a synchronous, global classroom of enrolled students and un-enrolled learners.&#8221;</p></blockquote>
<p>The course’s subject matter should be of particular benefit to those interested in the future of education. Educators are embracing openness in education by using the increasingly interactive and ubiquitous Internet. In doing so, they aim to lower financial costs, reduce legal complexities, and otherwise eliminate barriers for learners worldwide.</p>
<blockquote><p>&#8220;Open education signals a return to the core values of the academy, namely, to share knowledge freely,&#8221; said OERu founder Wayne Mackintosh, who teaches the &#8220;Open Content Licensing for Educators&#8221; module. &#8220;Working together we achieve far more than working alone. This course is an exemplar of open collaboration widening learning opportunities for all.&#8221;</p></blockquote>
<p>The ability to engage and collaborate online and in real time, across geographical borders, presents opportunities that didn’t exist a few years ago. Wikipedia in particular has enabled hundreds of thousands of people around the world to connect in meaningful ways, united by a shared passion for freely sharing knowledge. As <a href="https://creativecommons.org/weblog/entry/27552">part of the team that created the Wikipedia Education Program</a>, Dr. Cummings, Dr. Mackintosh, and I have long worked to bring Wikipedia’s community and the world of formal education closer, so that each may learn from the experience of the other.</p>
<p style="text-align:center" xmlns:dc="http://purl.org/dc/terms/" xmlns:cc="http://creativecommons.org/ns#" about="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/1e/Pete_Forsyth_demonstrating_Wikipedia_use_by_Ellis_Christopher.jpg"><img alt="Pete_Forsyth_demonstrating_Wikipedia_use_by_Ellis_Christopher" src="media/33d72f4d.ete_Forsyth_demonstrating_Wikipedia_use_by_Ellis_Christopher.jpg" data-original-source="http://creativecommons.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/11/Pete_Forsyth_demonstrating_Wikipedia_use_by_Ellis_Christopher.jpg" /><br /> <small><a rel="cc:attributionURL" href="media/2d54d3e4.ete_Forsyth_demonstrating_Wikipedia_use_by_Ellis_Christopher.jpg" data-original-source="http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Pete_Forsyth_demonstrating_Wikipedia_use_by_Ellis_Christopher.jpg" property="dc:title">&#8230;demonstrating Wikipedia use</a> / <a rel="cc:attributionName" href="http://ellischristopher.com/" property="dc:creator">Ellis Christopher</a> / <a rel="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/">CC BY</a></small></p>
<p>Wikipedia is important not only as a publication, but also as a vibrant learning community, and as a collection of highly effective collaborative processes. Wikipedia offers many valuable <a href="https://outreach.wikimedia.org/wiki/Education/Case_Studies">case studies in effective online collaboration</a>, both in connection with and independent of formal academic study. I’m looking forward to this opportunity to work with UM students alongside learners around the world.</p>
<p>If you would like to take one or both of the open modules, sign up to receive updates today!</p>
<ul>
<li><a href="http://oeruniversity.net/oeru-partners/otago-polytechnic/open-content-licensing-for-educators-/">Open Content Licensing for Educators</a> (OER university; 2 weeks in February)</li>
<li><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:School_of_Open_course/February_2014">Writing Wikipedia Articles</a> (WIKISOO) (School of Open, 6 weeks, starting in February)</li>
</ul>


feed_id: http://creativecommons.org/?p=40228
title: Guest Post: Design Hackathon held in Buenos Aires to kick off the CC Toolkits Project
uri: Guest-Post-Design-Hackathon-held-in-Buenos-Aires-to-kick-off-the-CC-T
url: http://creativecommons.org/weblog/entry/40228
content:
<p><em>
<p>This is a guest post written by <a href="https://twitter.com/ginocingolani">Gino Cingolani</a>, a member on the design team for the CC Toolkit project. We&#8217;re making progress with the project, and wanted to share about a regional activity that helped launch the development of the CC Toolkits. Thanks to Gino, <a href="https://twitter.com/tereseta">Teresa Sempere Garcia</a>, and <a href="https://twitter.com/monofluor">Pablo Corbalan</a> for leading the organization of this event!</p>
</p>
<p></em></p>
<hr />
<div style="float:left; padding:10px" xmlns:dc="http://purl.org/dc/terms/" xmlns:cc="/ns#" "><a href="media/5f00271f.CC-TOOLKITS-HACKATHON-FLYERV2.png" data-original-source="http://creativecommons.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/10/CC-TOOLKITS-HACKATHON-FLYERV2.png"><img width="236" height="300" src="media/5f00271f.CC-TOOLKITS-HACKATHON-FLYERV2.png" data-original-source="http://creativecommons.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/10/CC-TOOLKITS-HACKATHON-FLYERV2.png" alt="CC Toolkits Design Hackathon Announcement Flyer"/></a></p>
<p><small><a href="media/5f00271f.CC-TOOLKITS-HACKATHON-FLYERV2.png" data-original-source="http://creativecommons.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/10/CC-TOOLKITS-HACKATHON-FLYERV2.png"></a><br /><span property="cc:attributionName">Gino Cingolani</span> / <a rel="license" href="creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/">CC BY 3.0</a></small></p>
</div>
<p>This past August’s celebration of the Creative Commons Global Summit in Buenos Aires impacted the free culture movement of this city. Only one month after the Summit, the first CC Argentina Hackathon was held with around 25 volunteers giving up their weekend to help. On a Sunday in October, programmers, translators, graphic designers, illustrators and people curious or interested in CC from all the country gathered around to work on the creation of template for the CC toolkits project.</p>
<p>During the event, we strategized content and drafted designs that would help spread the word and implement the CC licenses in cultural and scientific environments. The toolkits will exist in multiple formats (web, print) and will live online, each kit containing open content created by CC’s global community; the template includes video, narrative and fact sheet documents about CC licenses, and a set of cards with sentences for starting discussions around issues of copyright &#038; free licensing. Each kit will also feature case studies and success stories of people that have already implemented CC licenses.</p>
<p>The CC Toolkits global initiative was initially presented at the Global Summit by a team made up of Billy Meinke and Teresa Sempere, describing the overall goal for the toolkits to help explain how CC licenses can be used in places like education, government agencies, culture and science. From that moment on, the initiative passed on to different working groups that took care of making the content, translating it, and present in the different formats mentioned.</p>
<p><span style="float:right; padding:10px" xmlns:cc="http://creativecommons.org/ns#" xmlns:dc="http://purl.org/dc/terms/" about="http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7446/10284100934_3b0305cbfb.jpg"><img alt="CCToolkits Hackathon" src="media/faa3eff4.10284100934_3b0305cbfb.jpg" data-original-source="http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7446/10284100934_3b0305cbfb.jpg" /><br /><small><a rel="cc:attributionURL" href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/recortesirreales/10284100934/in/set-72157636569907214" property="dc:title"></a> <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/recortesirreales/10284100934/in/set-72157636569907214">&#8220;CCToolkits Hackathon&#8221;</a> / <span property="cc:attributionName">Gino Cingolani</span> / <a rel="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/2.0/">CC BY-NC-SA</a></small></span></p>
<p>The hackathon, organised by a working group established during the summit, was held at the Cultural Center Tierra Violeta in downtown Buenos Aires. Alongside hacking to build the toolkits, we also had the chance to work with a DIY book scanner, take part in a Wikipedia editathon, involving various members of the area’s local DIY/Open Hardware community. The event had the support of Wikimedia Argentina &#038; CC Argentina and we hope it will be only the first of many more similar events to come, that have the aim of sharing open principles like those of Creative Commons to more local communities of creators and artists.</p>
<p>For more information about the CC Toolkits project and how to get involved, see <a href="http://wiki.creativecommons.org/Toolkits">wiki.creativecommons.org/Toolkits</a>.</p>


feed_id: http://creativecommons.org/?p=40544
title: Minister of culture invests in an open France
uri: Minister-of-culture-invests-in-an-open-France
url: http://creativecommons.org/weblog/entry/40544
content:
<p style="text-align:center" xmlns:dc="http://purl.org/dc/terms/" xmlns:cc="http://creativecommons.org/ns#" about="http://blog.okfn.org/2013/11/08/new-partnership-to-map-the-public-domain-in-france/"><a href="http://blog.okfn.org/2013/11/08/new-partnership-to-map-the-public-domain-in-france/"><img src="media/7cdd8091.filipetti-500.jpg" data-original-source="http://creativecommons.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/11/filipetti-500.jpg" alt="French Minister for Culture and Communication Aur&#233;lie Filippetti announcing the partnership between the ministry and Open Knowledge Foundation France" width="500" height="375" border=0 /></a><br /><small>Aur&#233;lie Filippetti / <span property="cc:attributionName">Open Knowledge Foundation</span> / <a rel="license" href="/licenses/by/3.0/">CC BY</a></small></p>
<p>French minister of culture and communications Aur&#233;lie Filippetti launched a set of initiatives yesterday designed to promote a more creative, more open France. <a href="http://www.culturecommunication.gouv.fr/Espace-Presse/Communiques-de-presse/Aurelie-Filippetti-a-lance-le-5-octobre-dernier-l-Automne-numerique-un-evenement-destine-a-favoriser-la-creation-et-l-education-artistique-a-l-heure-du-numerique">The impressive announcement covers a lot of measures</a>, including an open data policy for cultural data, the launch of a new workspace designed to stimulate cultural innovation, and much more. But of particular interest to us are the new partnerships Filipetti announced with the Open Knowledge Foundation and Creative Commons France.</p>
<p>The ministry of culture and communication will work with CC France to educate students, cultural creators, and society in general on understanding and using Creative Commons licenses. According to the announcement, &#8220;These tools align with intellectual property law and fit perfectly within the minister&#8217;s policy of digital inclusion as a part of her great national project for arts and cultural education.&#8221;*</p>
<p>Meanwhile, the ministry will also <a href="http://blog.okfn.org/2013/11/08/new-partnership-to-map-the-public-domain-in-france/">work with the Open Knowledge Foundation France</a> to map the French public domain, making it easier for anyone to discern whether a work is in the public domain or not. This partnership is the next step in OKFN&#8217;s <a href="http://publicdomain.okfn.org/calculators/">Public Domain Calculators</a> project, and it&#8217;s great news for anyone who cares about a vibrant, living public domain.</p>
<p>We applaud Minister Fillipetti and congratulate both CC France and OKFN France on this exciting partnership.</p>
<p><em>*Rough translation from the French announcement.</em></p>


feed_id: http://creativecommons.org/?p=40455
title: Creative Commons in London: Open Ed Timeline and Mozfest
uri: Creative-Commons-in-London-Open-Ed-Timeline-and-Mozfest
url: http://creativecommons.org/weblog/entry/40455
content:
<p>A few weeks ago, CC co-hosted an <a href="https://creativecommons.org/weblog/entry/39773">open education meetup in London</a> with P2PU, the Open Knowledge Foundation (OKFN), and FLOSS Manuals Foundation. We also led or participated in sessions and tracks on <a href="/weblog/entry/40455#open science">open science</a>, <a href="/weblog/entry/40455#digital self">makes for cultural archives</a>, <a href="/weblog/entry/40455#collaborations">collaborations across the open space</a>, and <a href="/weblog/entry/40455#open ed data">open education data</a> at the Mozilla Festival immediately following the meetup. Several interesting projects have arisen from both the meetup and sessions, so we thought it worthwhile to mention here in case others would like to get involved.</p>
<h3>Hit the Road Map: A Human Timeline of the Open Education Space</h3>
<p></p>
<p style="text-align:center" xmlns:dc="http://purl.org/dc/terms/" xmlns:cc="http://creativecommons.org/ns#" about="http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7314/10730437374_2fb765084c_o.jpg"><img alt="A Human Timeline of Open Education" src="media/4c458acc.human-timeline.jpg" data-original-source="http://creativecommons.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/11/human-timeline.jpg" /><br /> <small><a rel="cc:attributionURL" href="https://secure.flickr.com/photos/creativecommons/10730437374/" property="dc:title">A Human Timeline of Open Education</a> / <a rel="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/">CC BY</a></small></p>
<p>In addition to networking and sharing our common open education interests, participants of the Open Ed Meetup at the William Goodenough house collectively built a timeline of events that they felt marked important (and personal) milestones in the open education space, from the beginning of the <a href="https://secure.flickr.com/photos/creativecommons/10730299195/">Open University in 1969</a> to <a href="https://secure.flickr.com/photos/creativecommons/10730340144/">Lessig&#8217;s countersuit against Liberation Music this year</a>. The timeline was a great collaborative exercise for the group, and one that we hope is only beginning. As Marieke from the OKFN writes in <a href="http://education.okfn.org/open-education-timeline-building/">her post</a>, </p>
<blockquote><p>&#8220;&#8230;the plan is to digitise what we have by moving all the ideas in to Google Docs and then create a TimeMapper of them. This may form part of the Open Education handbook. At that point we will be able to share the document with you so you can add more information, correct the date and add in your own ideas. We may even try to run more open education timeline events.&#8221;</p></blockquote>
<p>In fact, CC affiliates in Europe will be co-hosting the <a href="http://education.okfn.org/second-open-education-handbook-booksprint/">second Open Education Handbook booksprint</a> with the OKFN and Wikimedia in Berlin as a result!</p>
<p>To see photos from the meetup, see both <a href="https://secure.flickr.com/photos/creativecommons/">Creative Common&#8217;s</a> and <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/okfn/sets/72157636929046176/">OKFN&#8217;s</a> Flickr streams. Contribute to the timeline <a href="http://education.okfn.org/help-us-build-on-our-timeline/">here</a>.</p>
<h3>Mozilla Festival</h3>
<h5 id="open science">Getting hands-on with tools on the web for Open Science</h5>
<p> <small>by Billy Meinke</small></p>
<p style="text-align:center" xmlns:dc="http://purl.org/dc/terms/" xmlns:cc="http://creativecommons.org/ns#" about="http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8204/8217551973_63b9cea404_z.jpg"><img alt="old gauges from automobiles" src="media/2dff3f55.8217551973_63b9cea404_z.jpg" data-original-source="http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8204/8217551973_63b9cea404_z.jpg" /><br /> <small><a rel="cc:attributionURL" href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/zdepth/8217551973/" property="dc:title">Gauges</a> / <span property="cc:attributionName" property="dc:creator">Samuel Z.</span> / <a rel="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/">CC BY</a></small></p>
<p>In another team-up with the Open Knowledge Foundation (OKFN), we ran a session investigating tools on the web that help make science more open. Hinging on the theme of alternative ways to measure (<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Altmetrics">altmetrics</a>) scholarly impact, collaborators joined us in the session and got hands-on with tools that we can use to see how publications and other research outputs are talked about and shared on the web.  To help build content for lessons linked to the <a href="https://p2pu.org/en/courses/5/open-science-an-introduction/">Open Science course in the School of Open</a>, participants tested a handful of free tools to see what they were able to measure, how usable the tools were, and considered ways to share this with others who aren’t familiar with altmetrics. We will be organizing the content over the next few weeks, and offering the altmetrics <a href="https://p2pu.org/en/courses/965/get-hands-on-using-tools-for-altmetrics-on-the-web/">lesson</a> as a standalone exercise once it’s complete. For more information about how the session went, see this blog <a href="http://billymeinke.wordpress.com/2013/10/27/looking-at-tools-to-make-the-web-work-for-science-mozfest-2013/">post</a>.</p>
<h5 id="collaborations">Collaborations across the Open Space</h5>
<p style="text-align:center" xmlns:dc="http://purl.org/dc/terms/" xmlns:cc="http://creativecommons.org/ns#" about="http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7427/10730265945_50404766f6.jpg"><img alt="Collaborations Across the Open Space" src="media/6cf4d4e7.10730265945_50404766f6.jpg" data-original-source="http://creativecommons.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/11/10730265945_50404766f6.jpg" /><br /> <small><a rel="cc:attributionURL" href="https://secure.flickr.com/photos/creativecommons/10730265945/in/photostream/" property="dc:title">Mozfest: Collaborations Across the Open Space</a> / <a rel="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/">CC BY</a></small></p>
<p>We also participated in a session with Wikimedia, OKFN, and other orgs to talk about how we could better collaborate and share news among our organizations so we don&#8217;t keep reinventing the wheel. I won&#8217;t go into detail here, as the <a href="https://wikimedia.org.uk/wiki/Joint_Mozfest_session/Write_up">wiki session writeup</a> does it much better, and has continued to grow since the festival. For example, something as simple as a blog aggregator for all &#8220;open&#8221; related news would help those working in this space tremendously. To join our efforts, head over to the <a href="https://wikimedia.org.uk/wiki/Joint_Mozfest_session/Write_up">wiki</a> and add your thoughts and be notified of follow-up meetings.</p>
<h5 id="digital self">Digital Self Preservation Toolkit</h5>
<p><span style="float:right;padding:10px;" xmlns:cc="http://creativecommons.org/ns#" xmlns:dc="http://purl.org/dc/terms/" about="http://farm4.staticflickr.com/3834/10730243115_a076955e04_o.jpg"><img src="media/5e869c54.lastwills-e1383857895750.jpg" data-original-source="http://creativecommons.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/11/lastwills-e1383857895750.jpg" alt="mozfest candy" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-40437" /><br /> <small><a rel="cc:attributionURL" href="https://secure.flickr.com/photos/creativecommons/10730243115/in/photostream/" property="dc:title">Seeking a lawyer&#8230;</a> / <span property="cc:attributionName"></span><a rel="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/">CC BY</a></small></span> </p>
<p>One neat thing to come out of this year&#8217;s Mozfest was the beginnings of a <a href="http://etherpad.creativecommons.org/p/Digital_Self_Preservation_Toolkit">Digital Self Preservation Toolkit</a> exploring the idea of what happens to your body of creative, educational, or scientific work when you die. Some questions we asked and discussed were: In your country, what happens to your work when you die? What steps can you take to ensure its posterity? How would you want it shared and who would you want to own it? Our initial aim was to develop a set of tools and tips to help people think through how they might want to release their work upon death, building on an <a href="http://questioncopyright.org/free_culture_thing">idea</a> that the Question Copyright folks had last year around a free culture trust. Skirting the technical and legal issues for the time being, we came up with a <a href="media/dcd9d0ba.ip-donor-blue-large.png" data-original-source="http://wreckandsalvage.com/ipdonor/ip-donor-blue-large.png">prototype IP donor badge</a> that creators might use to signify their intent, a concept form that they would fill out, and a <a href="https://janepark.makes.org/thimble/digital-selfpreservation-toolkit-">mock-up website</a> where such a toolkit might reside. We are now continuing our efforts in collaboration with folks from numerous organizations interested in the same questions, and you can join us to move the project forward at the <a href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Commons:Trust">Free Culture Trust wiki</a>.</p>
<h5 id="open ed data">OER Research Hub&#8217;s Open Education Data Detective</h5>
<p>Lastly, we&#8217;d like to highlight our collaboration with the <a href="http://oerresearchhub.org/">OER Research Hub</a>, who held a &#8220;scrum&#8221; on visualizing open education data called the <a href="https://etherpad.mozilla.org/open-ed-data-detective">Open Ed Data Detective</a>. Participants experimented with open education data that the OER Research Hub made available, including data on School of Open courses.</p>


feed_id: http://creativecommons.org/?p=40598
title: US Senators seek to make college textbooks affordable and open
uri: US-Senators-seek-to-make-college-textbooks-affordable-and-open
url: http://creativecommons.org/weblog/entry/40598
content:
<p style="text-align:center" xmlns:dc="http://purl.org/dc/terms/" xmlns:cc="http://creativecommons.org/ns#" about="http://farm5.staticflickr.com/4041/4383230458_897a31d2bf_o.png"><img alt="A Human Timeline of Open Education" src="media/190fe1fb.free-the-textbook.jpg" data-original-source="http://creativecommons.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/11/free-the-textbook.jpg" /><br /> <small><a rel="cc:attributionURL" href="https://secure.flickr.com/photos/opensourceway/4383230458/in/photostream/" property="dc:title"></a><a href="https://secure.flickr.com/photos/opensourceway/4383230458/in/photostream/">Opensourceway</a> / <a rel="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0/">CC BY-SA</a></small></p>
<p>United States Senators Dick Durbin of Illinois and Al Franken of Minnesota have introduced legislation called the <a href="http://www.durbin.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/pressreleases?ID=26d6b011-b4b3-4fa1-9fea-8b2706026943">Affordable College Textbook Act</a> that seeks to make college textbooks affordable and openly available under the <a href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/">Creative Commons Attribution license</a>. According to Durbin&#8217;s <a href="http://www.durbin.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/pressreleases?ID=26d6b011-b4b3-4fa1-9fea-8b2706026943">press release</a>, <a href="http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/z?c113:S.1704:">Bill S.1704</a> does 5 things:</p>
<blockquote>
<ul>
<li>    Creates a grant program to support pilot programs at colleges and universities to create and expand the use of open textbooks with priority for those programs that will achieve the highest savings for students;</li>
<li>    Ensures that any open textbooks or educational materials created using program funds will be freely and easily accessible to the public [via <a href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/">CC BY</a>];</li>
<li>    Requires entities who receive funds to complete a report on the effectiveness of the program in achieving savings for students;</li>
<li>    Improves existing requirements for publishers to make all textbooks and other educational materials available for sale individually rather than as a bundle; and</li>
<li>    Requires the Government Accountability Office to report to Congress by 2017 with an update on the price trends of college textbooks.</li>
</ul>
</blockquote>
<p>You can read the full text of Bill S.1704 <a href="http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/z?c113:S.1704:">here</a>. In addition to highlighting <a href="http://www.gao.gov/products/GAO-13-368">the rising cost of textbooks</a>, Bill S.1704 defines the following terms:</p>
<blockquote><p>(3) <strong>OPEN EDUCATIONAL RESOURCE</strong>.—The term ‘‘open educational resource’’ means an educational resource that is licensed under an open license and made freely available online to the public.<br />
<br />
(4) <strong>OPEN LICENSE</strong>.—The term ‘‘open license’’ means a worldwide, royalty-free, non-exclusive, perpetual, irrevocable copyright license granting the public permission to access, reproduce, publicly perform, publicly display, adapt, distribute, and otherwise use the work and adaptations of the work for any purpose, conditioned only on the requirement that attribution be given to authors as designated.<br />
<br />
(5) <strong>OPEN TEXTBOOK</strong>.—The term ‘‘open textbook’’ means an open educational resource or set of open educational resources that either is a textbook or can be used in place of a textbook for a postsecondary course at an institution of higher education.</p></blockquote>
<p>The Scholarly Publishing and Academic Resources Coalition (SPARC) <a href="http://www.sparc.arl.org/advocacy/national/act">note</a> several existing open textbook programs that have proved successful in lowering costs for students, including the University of Minnesota’s online catalog of open textbooks which has so far saved students $100,000; Tidewater Community College&#8217;s degree program where each course uses open textbooks lowering costs to zero for students; and Washington State’s Open Course Library project for its 81 largest enrollment courses that has saved students $5.4 million to date.</p>
<p>In addition to cost savings, SPARC highlights Bill S.1704&#8242;s potential impacts of high quality and innovation:</p>
<blockquote><ul>
<li>High quality materials. Open educational resources developed through the grants will also be available for all other colleges, faculty and students across the country to freely use. </li>
<li>Supporting innovation. At a time where new models to support open educational resources are rapidly emerging, this bill would help foster innovation and development of best practices that can be shared with other institutions.</li>
</ul>
</blockquote>
<p>For more info, see:</p>
<ul>
<li><a href="http://www.durbin.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/pressreleases?ID=26d6b011-b4b3-4fa1-9fea-8b2706026943">Senator Durbin&#8217;s press release</a></li>
<li>SPARC&#8217;s <a href="http://www.sparc.arl.org/news/sparc-applauds-senators-durbin-and-franken-bill-make-college-textbooks-more-affordable">press release</a>, <a href="http://www.congressweb.com/sparc/23">web page to take action</a>, and <a href="http://www.sparc.arl.org/advocacy/national/act">page about the bill</a></li>
<li><a href="http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/bdquery/D?d113:1704:./list/bss/d113SN.lst::">Summary and current status of Bill S.1704</a>; <a href="http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/z?c113:S.1704:">complete text of bill</a></li>
</ul>
<p>You can take action to support Bill S.1704 <a href="http://www.congressweb.com/sparc/23">here</a> and use Twitter hashtag #oerusa to share the news!</p>


feed_id: http://creativecommons.org/?p=40656
title: Set your content free: CC at the National High School Journalism Convention
uri: Set-your-content-free-CC-at-the-National-High-School-Journalism-Conv
url: http://creativecommons.org/weblog/entry/40656
content:
<p>I&#8217;m excited to be speaking tomorrow with the young journalists at the <a href="http://boston.journalismconvention.org/">National High School Journalism Convention</a>. A few months ago, Creative Commons had a table at <a href="http://sanfrancisco.journalismconvention.org/">a similar convention in San Francisco</a>. When we saw the enthusiasm that the students there had about open licensing, we decided to start planning a session about Creative Commons for young journalists.</p>
<p>Whenever I&#8217;m talking with high schoolers about Creative Commons, one thing always strikes me. <em>They get it</em>. Today&#8217;s young content creators don&#8217;t dream of spending 40 years working for a single publisher or media company. They&#8217;re preparing to piece careers together working on projects for lots of clients with lots of different business models; therefore, they intuitively know the value of using open licensing to get their work out to as wide an audience as possible. <a href="/weblog/entry/39685">Or as Cathy put it</a>, &#8220;The creators who are thriving today are the ones who use internet distribution most innovatively; in fact, the ones who are most generous with their work often reap the most reward.&#8221;</p>
<p>I&#8217;m hoping to use this session to meet some people at school journalism programs who&#8217;d like to experiment with ramping up their sharing. What if your school newspaper went 100% CC for a year? Where would the content get republished? How would it impact your staff&#8217;s r&#233;sum&#233;s? Interested? Let&#8217;s talk.</p>
<p>Here are my slides for the session (<a href="https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1yaucoZetAtRBjWBtLPG-UfAtE3LD8Mz6gZEu1eTxQxU/edit?usp=sharing">see the speaker notes</a> for more information and links):</p>
<p><iframe src="//docs.google.com/presentation/d/1yaucoZetAtRBjWBtLPG-UfAtE3LD8Mz6gZEu1eTxQxU/embed?start=false&#038;loop=false&#038;delayms=3000" frameborder="0" width="480" height="389" allowfullscreen="true" mozallowfullscreen="true" webkitallowfullscreen="true"></iframe></p>
<p><a href="media/c3a6e277.Elliotharmon-NSPA.pdf" data-original-source="http://wiki.creativecommons.org/images/3/34/Elliotharmon-NSPA.pdf">Download as PDF</a> (2.6 MB)</p>
<p>And some links for more information:</p>
<ul>
<li><a href="media/d2a65260.6licenses-flat.pdf" data-original-source="http://wiki.creativecommons.org/images/6/6d/6licenses-flat.pdf">Six licenses for sharing your work</a> (45 KB PDF): Nice, simple introduction to Creative Commons.</li>
<li><a href="http://wiki.creativecommons.org/The_Power_of_Open/Text#ProPublica">ProPublica</a>: Investigative journalism organization that licenses all of its content under CC.</li>
<li><a href="/weblog/entry/35884">Jonathan Worth&#8217;s connected classroom</a>: Jonathan is a well-known British portrait photographer who&#8217;s been licensing his photos under CC for years.</li>
<li><a href="http://wiki.creativecommons.org/Journalism">Creative Commons in journalism</a></li>
</ul>


feed_id: http://creativecommons.org/?p=40666
title: Launch of the Open Access Button
uri: Launch-of-the-Open-Access-Button
url: http://creativecommons.org/weblog/entry/40666
content:
<p>Today marks the launch of the <a href="http://www.openaccessbutton.org/">Open Access Button</a>, a browser bookmark tool that allows users to report when they hit paywalled access to academic articles and discover open access versions of that research. The button was created by university students David Carroll and Joseph McArthur, and announced at the <a href="http://www.righttoresearch.org/act/berlin11/">Berlin 11 Student and Early Stage Researcher Satellite Conference</a>.</p>
<p>From the <a href="http://oabutton.wordpress.com/2013/11/18/students-launch-button-to-put-denied-access-to-research-on-the-map/">press release</a>:  </p>
<blockquote><p>The Open Access Button is a browser-based tool that lets users track when they are denied access to research, then search for alternative access to the article. Each time a user encounters a paywall, he simply clicks the button in his bookmark bar, fills out an optional dialogue box, and his experience is added to a map alongside other users. Then, the user receives a link to search for free access to the article using resources such as Google Scholar. The Open Access Button initiative hopes to create a worldwide map showing the impact of denied access to research.</p></blockquote>
<p><a href="http://www.openaccessbutton.org/#"><img src="media/2f44d29c.oabutton.jpg" data-original-source="http://creativecommons.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/11/oabutton.jpg" alt="oabutton" width="650" height="450" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-40668" /></a></p>
<p>The creators have also indicated that they plan to release the data collected by the Open Access Button under <a href="https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/">CC0</a>. Congratulations on the release of this useful tool. </p>


feed_id: http://creativecommons.org/?p=40312
title: Identifying drug targets one protein at a time
uri: Identifying-drug-targets-one-protein-at-a-time
url: http://creativecommons.org/weblog/entry/40312
content:
<p><img src="media/97057e96.sgc_lamppost.png.006.png" data-original-source="http://creativecommons.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/11/sgc_lamppost.png.006.png" alt="Protein structure" width="186" height="191" align="right" style="padding:5px" /></p>
<p>The structure of human proteins defines, in part, what it is to be human. It is very expensive, as much as a couple of million USD, to determine the structure of human membrane proteins. Improvements in methods, computers and access to the complete sequence of our DNA, however, has made it possible to adopt more systematic approaches, and thus reduce the time and cost to determine the shapes of proteins. Structural genomics helps determine the 3D structures of proteins at a rapid rate and in a cost-effective manner. Structural information provides one of the most powerful means to discover how proteins work and to define ligands that modulate their function. Such ligands are starting points for drug discovery.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.thesgc.org" title="Structural Genomics Consortium" target="_blank">The Structural Genomics Consortium</a> (SGC) at the Universities of Oxford and Toronto, solves the structures of human proteins of medical relevance and <em style="background-color: yellow">places all its findings, reagents and know-how into the public domain without restriction</em>. Using these structures and the reagents generated as part of the structure determination process as well as the chemical probes identified, the SGC works with organizations across the world to further the understanding of the biological roles of these proteins. The SGC is particularly interested in human protein kinases, metabolism-associated proteins, integral membrane proteins, and proteins associated with epigenetics and rare diseases.</p>
<p><img src="media/e2b42bdc.sgc_lamppost.png.002.png" data-original-source="http://creativecommons.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/11/sgc_lamppost.png.002.png" alt="Academics work under the lamp post" width="360" height="270" align="left" style="padding:5px" /> Drug discovery tends to be a crapshoot. As we are not good at <i>target validation</i> that essentially occurs in patients, more than 90% of the <i>pioneer targets</i> fail in Phase 2. Nevertheless, many academics and pharmas work on the same, small group of targets in competition with each other, wasting resources and careers, needlessly exposing patients to molecules destined for failure. The SGC chooses not to work under the lamp post, focusing on those targets for which there is little or no literature. This is because it is such pioneer targets, which will deliver pioneer, breakthrough medicines.</p>
<p>The SGC is a not-for-profit, public-private partnership, funded by public and charitable funders in Canada and UK, and eight large pharmaceutical companies – GSK, Pfizer, Novartis, Lilly, Boehringer Ingelheim, Janssen, Takeda and Abbvie, whose mandate is to promote the development of new medicines by  determining 3D structures on a large scale and cost-effectively, targeting human proteins of biomedical importance and proteins from human parasites that represent potential drug targets.</p>
<p><img src="media/33340958.sgc_lamppost.png.005.png" data-original-source="http://creativecommons.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/11/sgc_lamppost.png.005.png" alt="SGC building leadership" width="309" height="226" align="right" style="padding:5px" /> The SGC is now responsible for between a quarter and half of all structures deposited into the Protein Data Bank (PDB) each year. The SGC has released the structures of nearly 1500 proteins with implications to the development of new therapies for cancer, diabetes, obesity, and psychiatric disorders. As evident from the chart, SGC has published as many protein kinases as the rest of academia combined.</p>
<p>The SGC’s structural biology insights have allowed us to make significant progress toward the understanding of signal transduction, epigenetics and chromatin biology, and metabolic disease. The SGC has adopted the following Open Access policy—the SGC and its scientists are committed to making their research outputs (materials and knowledge) available without restriction on use. This means that the SGC promptly places its results in the public domain and agrees to not file for patent protection on any of its research outputs. This not only provides the public with this fundamental knowledge, but also allows commercial efforts and other academics to utilize the data freely and without any delay. The SGC seeks the same commitment from any research collaborator. The structural information is made available to everyone either when the structure is released by the PDB, or pre-released on <a href="www.thesgc.org" target="_blank">www.thesgc.org</a>.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.thesgc.org/scientists/groups/oxford/chas" title="Prof. Chas Bountra, SGC Oxford Scientist" target="_blank">Prof. Chas Bountra</a> at the University of Oxford says:</p>
<blockquote><p>
“Society desperately needs new treatments for many chronic (AD, bipolar disorder, pain…) or rare diseases. This need is growing because of aging societies and diseases of modern living. As a biomedical community, we have yet to deliver truly novel treatments for many such conditions. This is not for lack of effort or resources. It is simply that these disorders are complex and there are too many variables or unknowns. It is clear that no one group or organisation can do this on their own. What we are trying to do is to bring together the best scientists from across the world, irrespective of affiliation, pooling resources and infrastructures, reducing wasteful duplicative activity to catalyse the creation of new medicines for patients. Secrecy and competition in early phases of target identification/discovery are slowing down drug discovery, making the process more difficult and more expensive.”
</p></blockquote>
<p>We at CC applaud the SGC&#8217;s commitment to open access and look to them for leadership in this arena. We believe the SGC&#8217;s findings would be a great candidate for the <a href="http://creativecommons.org/about/cc0" target="_blank">CC0 Public Domain Dedication</a> because of the CC0 mark&#8217;s global recognition and a common legal status.</p>


feed_id: http://creativecommons.org/?p=40752
title: CC Job Opportunity: Arab World Regional Coordinator
uri: CC-Job-Opportunity-Arab-World-Regional-Coordinator
url: http://creativecommons.org/weblog/entry/40752
content:
<p>Creative Commons is looking to hire a <a href="https://creativecommons.org/opportunities#rcarabworld">part-time contractor</a> to assist the CC Global Network team with organizational planning, strategic communications, community building, and fundraising in the <a href="http://www.ccarabworld.org/">Arab World</a>. The focus of the position in 2014 will include supporting local affiliates, conducting outreach to new communities, and coordinating collaborative projects. Candidates should be based in the Middle East region, and the position will require international travel. Candidates should be able to communicate in Arabic and English. </p>
<p>This is a great opportunity for a knowledgeable and motivated free culture advocate or community organizer. Please follow the <a href="https://creativecommons.org/opportunities#rcarabworld">instructions</a> on the CC website if you&#8217;d like to apply. </p>


feed_id: http://creativecommons.org/?p=40770
title: A letter from Paul: New directions at CC
uri: A-letter-from-Paul-New-directions-at-CC
url: http://creativecommons.org/weblog/entry/40770
content:
<p align="center"><a href="http://summit2013.creativecommons.org/"><img src="media/360540ad.ccsum-500.png" data-original-source="http://creativecommons.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/11/ccsum-500.png" width=500 height=124 border=0/></a></p>
<p>As we prepare for the December board meeting, I&#8217;d like to reflect on Creative Commons&#8217; biennial <a href="http://summit2013.creativecommons.org/">Global Summit in Buenos Aires</a> last August and report on developments in <a href="/weblog/entry/39874">Cathy Casserly&#8217;s transition as CEO</a>.</p>
<p>It was inspiring to be among the several hundred who gathered in Argentina, meeting with the global affiliate network, CC staff, and our allies in the open movement. We had <a href="/weblog/entry/39416">several days of substantive interactions</a> with representatives from over 80 countries, enriched by our diverse cultures, language, and experiences.</p>
<p>CC&#8217;s <a href="/board">board of directors</a> held its summer meeting during the summit. Our agenda focused on our strategic priorities, license version 4.0, copyright reform, and upcoming shifts within the board and organization.</p>
<ul>
<li>Cathy Casserly summarized accomplishments in CC priority and identified key challenges that remain.</li>
<li>Board member Michael Carroll provided an overview of the 4.0 license suite, now poised for launch this month.</li>
<li>We held a preliminary discussion of the copyright reform policy statement developed by the CC community to support copyright reform efforts around the world, and approved it at the next Board meeting, in October.</li>
<li>We discussed candidates nominated by the community to join the CC Board of Directors and newly formed Advisory Council. Stellar recommendations emerged from the open call process, and I look forward to announcing the names of our new governance leadership after our December board meeting.</li>
</ul>
<h3>Copyright Reform</h3>
<div style="float:left; padding:10px" xmlns:dc="http://purl.org/dc/terms/" xmlns:cc="/ns#" about="http://www.flickr.com/photos/anitalmada/9562830445/"><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/anitalmada/9562830445/"><img width="320" height="240" src="media/21093461.9562830445_6ed78ed685_n.jpg" data-original-source="http://farm3.staticflickr.com/2894/9562830445_6ed78ed685_n.jpg" alt="CC Summit" /></a>
<p><small><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/anitalmada/9562830445/"><span property="cc:attributionName">Ana Laura Almada</span> / </a><a rel="license" href="/licenses/by-nc-sa/2.0/">CC BY-NC-SA</a></small></p>
</div>
<p>From the earliest days of Creative Commons, there has been ongoing discussion about the degree to which it is appropriate for the organization to engage in the copyright reform debate. While the organization&#8217;s mission has always been to help creators share their knowledge and creativity with the world, our licenses are necessarily embedded in and adjunct to copyright law. Moreover, many of CC&#8217;s affiliates are leaders of the copyright reform movements in their respective countries.</p>
<p>Those discussions culminated at the summit, when affiliates held a special pre-summit conference to discuss Creative Commons&#8217; role in the copyright reform debate. The event was the one of the best-attended sessions of the entire summit, with over 100 individuals representing both the Affiliate Network and the broader community.</p>
<p>Participants collectively drafted <a href="/about/reform">a statement that acknowledges the need for improvements in copyright law worldwide</a>. The board formally endorsed the statement in October. The statement won&#8217;t be surprising or controversial to people who’ve been following CC for very long. What it will do is clarify that as an organization, we don&#8217;t see open licensing as the only solution to every problem with copyright law.</p>
<p>For a longer explanation of the context around this issue and what it means for the organization, see the <a href="/weblog/entry/39639">blog post about it</a>.</p>
<div style="float:right; padding:10px" xmlns:dc="http://purl.org/dc/terms/" xmlns:cc="/ns#" about="http://www.flickr.com/photos/meexplore/9869662464/"><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/meexplore/9869662464/"><img width="240" height="320" src="media/1a7c3d55.9869662464_ce4e997e12_n.jpg" data-original-source="http://farm6.staticflickr.com/5541/9869662464_ce4e997e12_n.jpg" alt="Cathy Casserly" /></a>
<p><small><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/meexplore/9869662464/"><span property="dc:title">Cathy Casserly</span></a> / <span property="cc:attributionName">Bilal Randeree</span><br /><a rel="license" href="/licenses/by-nc-sa/2.0/">CC BY-NC-SA</a></small></p>
</div>
<h3>CEO Transition: The Search Begins</h3>
<p>The last part of our meeting in Buenos Aires focused on <a href="/weblog/entry/39874">Cathy&#8217;s plans to transition from her role as CEO in early 2014</a>, after three years of service. Cathy has been a tremendous strategic leader for the organization, and with the focus she has brought to CC&#8217;s mission and priorities, we are substantially closer to achieving our vision than ever before.</p>
<p>To ensure a wide and thorough search for our next CEO, the Board of Directors has engaged <a href="http://www.moppenheim.com/">m/Oppenheim</a> to lead our search process. The search committee has now been formed; we expect to launch the search publicly in the near future, and look forward to community input. Please send any ideas about candidates to Lisa Grossman, lisag@moppenheim.com.</p>
<p>As the Creative Commons leadership changes, its mission remains constant, and I am continually heartened by the memory of the summit which confirmed that the global community&#8217;s commitment to our movement&#160;&#8212; to a more open internet and world&#160;&#8212; are stronger than ever.</p>
<p>Best wishes,<br />Paul</p>


feed_id: http://creativecommons.org/?p=40741
title: CC to European Commission: No restrictions on PSI re-use
uri: CC-to-European-Commission-No-restrictions-on-PSI-re-use
url: http://creativecommons.org/weblog/entry/40741
content:
<p>Creative Commons has responded to the European Commission’s <a href="https://ec.europa.eu/digital-agenda/en/news/consultation-guidelines-recommended-standard-licences-datasets-and-charging-re-use-public">consultation</a> on recommended standard licenses, datasets and charging for the re-use of public sector information (PSI). See our response <a href="media/0678172a.Ec_psi_consultation_cc_2013.pdf" data-original-source="http://http//wiki.creativecommons.org/images/c/cf/Ec_psi_consultation_cc_2013.pdf">here</a>. The Commission asked for comments on these issues in light of the adoption of the <a href="http://eur-lex.europa.eu/LexUriServ/LexUriServ.do?uri=OJ:L:2013:175:0001:0008:EN:PDF">new Directive on re-use of public sector information</a>. The Directive 1) brings libraries, museums, and archives under the scope of the Directive, 2) provides a positive re-use right to public documents, 3) limits acceptable charging to only marginal costs of reproduction, provision, and dissemination, and 4) reiterates the position that documents can be made available for re-use under open standards and using machine readable formats. CC recognizes the high value of PSI not only for innovation and transparency, but also for scientific, educational and cultural benefit for the entire society.</p>
<div style="float:right; padding:10px" <a href="media/c5bbcd20.eu1.png" data-original-source="http://creativecommons.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/11/eu1.png"><img src="media/c5bbcd20.eu1.png" data-original-source="http://creativecommons.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/11/eu1.png" alt="eu1" width="300" height="200" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-40748" /></div>
<p>The Commission has not yet clarified what should be considered a “standard license” for re-use (Article 8). The dangers of license proliferation&#8211;which potentially leads to incompatible PSI&#8211;is still present. But it’s positive that the Commission is using this consultation to ask specific questions regarding legal aspects of re-use. </p>
<p>Part 3 of the <a href="http://ec.europa.eu/yourvoice/ipm/forms/dispatch?form=PSIguidelines">questionnaire</a> deals with licensing issues. One question asks what should be the default option for communicating re-use rights. We believe that there should be no conditions attached to the re-use of public sector information. The best case scenario would be for public sector information to be in the public domain, exempt from copyright protection altogether by amending national copyright laws. If it’s not possible to pass laws granting positive re-use rights to PSI without copyright attached, public sector bodies should use the <a href="https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/">CC0 Public Domain Dedication</a> (CC0) to place public data into the worldwide public domain to ensure unrestricted re-use. </p>
<p>Another question first states that the Commission prefers the least restrictive re-use regime possible, and asks respondents to choose which condition(s) would be aligned with this goal. Again, we think that every condition would be deemed restrictive, since ideally PSI would be removed from the purview of copyright protection through law or complete dedication of the PSI to the public domain using CC0. If the Commission were to permit public sector bodies to incorporate limited conditions through licensing, then they should be expected to use standard public licenses aligned with the <a href="http://opendefinition.org/">Open Definition</a> (with a preference for “attribution only” licenses). A simple obligation to acknowledge the source of the data could be accomplished by adopting a liberal open license, like <a href="https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/">CC BY</a>. Such a license would also cover other issues, such as acknowledging that an adaptation has been made or incorporating a waiver of liability. Some of the conditions listed would be detrimental to interoperability of PSI. An obligation not to distort the original meaning or message of public sector data should be deemed unacceptable. Such an obligation destroys compatibility with standard public licenses that uniformly do not contain such a condition. The UK’s <a href="https://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/doc/open-government-licence/version/2/">Open Government License</a> has already removed this problematic provision when it upgraded from OGL 1.0 to OGL 2.0. </p>
<p>In addition to mentioning CC licensing as a common solution, the questionnaire notes, “several Member States have developed national licenses for re-use of public sector data. In parallel, public sector bodies at all levels sometimes resort to homegrown licensing conditions.” In order to achieve the goals of the Directive and “to promote interoperable conditions for crossborder re-use,” the Commission should consider options that minimize incompatibilities between pools of PSI, which in turn maximize re-use. As far as we are concerned that means that governments should be actively discouraged from developing their own licenses. Instead, they should be encouraged to adopt standard public licenses aligned with the Open Definition. But even better would be to consider removing copyright protection for PSI by amending copyright law or waiving copyright and related rights using CC0.</p>
<p><small><a href="http://thenounproject.com/noun/europe/#icon-No9380">Europe</a> graphic designed by <a href="http://thenounproject.com/merdesign">Monika Ciapala</a>; Public Domain.</small></p>


feed_id: http://creativecommons.org/?p=40906
title: Are you on #teamopen? Support Creative Commons.
uri: Are-you-on-teamopen-Support-Creative-Commons
url: http://creativecommons.org/weblog/entry/40906
content:
<p align="center"><a href="http://teamopen.cc/?utm_campaign=2013fund&#038;utm_source=blog1&#038;utm_medium=blog"><img src="media/d132419b.teamopen-600blue.png" data-original-source="http://creativecommons.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/11/teamopen-600blue.png" width=600 height=137 border=0 /></a></p>
<div style="float:right; padding:10px" xmlns:dc="http://purl.org/dc/terms/" xmlns:cc="/ns#" about="http://creativecommons.org/weblog/entry/40906"><a href="media/f803be99.meryl-67-600.jpg" data-original-source="http://creativecommons.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/11/meryl-67-600.jpg"><img width="300" height="300" src="media/b7b7e278.meryl-67-300.jpg" data-original-source="http://creativecommons.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/11/meryl-67-300.jpg" alt="67!" /></a>
<p><small>Meryl and our 67 donors. <a href="https://donate.creativecommons.org/?utm_campaign=2013fund&#038;utm_source=blog1&#038;utm_medium=blog">Are you number 68?</a></small></p>
</div>
<p>There are over half a billion pieces of Creative Commons&#8211;licensed content in the world. That&#8217;s an impressive number, but it only hints at how powerful and widespread CC licenses have become. The real impact is in the stories of how people like you use CC licenses. When you use a CC-licensed photo in a presentation or share your latest song under CC, you&#8217;re a part of the story of CC&#8217;s impact in the world. We&#8217;re proud to share in this amazing journey with you.</p>
<p>Today, we&#8217;re excited to launch <a href="http://teamopen.cc/?utm_campaign=2013fund&#038;utm_source=blog1&#038;utm_medium=blog">Team Open</a>, a new initiative of our staff and community. We&#8217;ve been spending the past few months talking to the CC community, looking for its favorite stories of how CC licenses benefit real people. You&#8217;ll meet a young scientist fighting cancer with free research, an entrepreneur who&#8217;s putting the <em>public</em> back in <em>public domain</em>, and a quirky musician who&#8217;s built his career on giving music away. We hope these stories inspire you, and we hope you feel inspired to share them with your friends and colleagues.</p>
<p>We&#8217;re also launching our <a href="https://donate.creativecommons.org/?utm_campaign=2013fund&#038;utm_source=blog1&#038;utm_medium=blog">annual fundraising campaign</a> today. We have some cool giveaways this year, including a Team Open t-shirt and set of trading cards. To make it fun, we&#8217;re setting a little goal for ourselves. We&#8217;d like to see 600 donors by January. We&#8217;ll be keeping you up-to-date on our progress via <a href="//twitter.com/creativecommons">Twitter</a> and <a href="//facebook.com/creativecommons">Facebook</a>. If Creative Commons is important to you but you&#8217;ve never made a donation, this could be the day!</p>
<p>CC is more than a license to share; it&#8217;s a license for all of us to create a better world.</p>


feed_id: http://creativecommons.org/?p=40768
title: CC’s Next Generation Licenses — Welcome Version 4.0!
uri: CC-s-Next-Generation-Licenses-Welcome-Version-4-0
url: http://creativecommons.org/weblog/entry/40768
content:
<div style="float:right; padding:10px; "><a href="/version4"><img src="media/7d9c37fb.cc40-itshere-275.png" data-original-source="http://creativecommons.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/11/cc40-itshere-275.png" width=275 height=245 border=0 /></a></div>
<p>We proudly introduce our 4.0 licenses, now <a href="http://creativecommons.org/choose/">available for adoption</a> worldwide. The 4.0 licenses &#8212; more than two years in the making &#8212; are the most global, legally robust licenses produced by CC to date.  We have incorporated dozens of improvements that make sharing and reusing CC-licensed materials easier and more dependable than ever before.</p>
<p>We had <a href="https://creativecommons.org/weblog/entry/29639">ambitious goals in mind</a> when we embarked on the versioning process coming out of the 2011 CC Global Summit in Warsaw. The new licenses achieve all of these goals, and more. The 4.0 licenses are extremely well-suited for use by governments and publishers of public sector information and other data, especially for those in the European Union.  This is due to the expansion in license scope, which now covers <em>sui generis</em> database rights that exist there and in a handful of other countries.</p>
<p>Among other exciting new features are improved readability and organization, common-sense attribution, and a new mechanism that allows those who violate the license inadvertently to <a href="http://wiki.creativecommons.org/FAQ#How_can_I_lose_my_rights_under_a_Creative_Commons_license.3F_If_that_happens.2C_how_do_I_get_them_back.3F">regain their rights automatically</a> if the violation is corrected in a timely manner. </p>
<p>You can find highlights of the most significant improvements <a href="http://creativecommons.org/Version4">on our website</a>, track the course of the public discussion and evolution of the license drafts on <a href="http://wiki.creativecommons.org/4.0/Drafts">the 4.0 wiki page</a>, and view a recap of the <a href=http://wiki.creativecommons.org/Version_4>central policy decisions</a> made over the course of the versioning process.</p>
<p>The 4.0 versioning process has been a truly collaborative effort between the brilliant and dedicated <a href="http://wiki.creativecommons.org/CC_Affiliate_Network">network of legal and public licensing experts</a> and the active, vocal <a href="http://wiki.creativecommons.org/4.0/#Process">open community</a>.  The 4.0 licenses, the public license development undertaking, and the Creative Commons organization are stronger because of the steadfast commitment of all participants. </p>
<p>With the 4.0 licenses published, we will be turning our attention to <a href="http://wiki.creativecommons.org/Legal_Tools_Translation">official translations of the legal code</a> in partnership with our affiliate network and larger community. Translations of our new deeds are also underway, with a <a href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">significant number already completed</a>.</p>
<p>Thank you and congratulations to everyone who participated in making 4.0 a reality!</p>


feed_id: http://creativecommons.org/?p=40959
uri: European-directive-on-collective-rights-management-Collecting-societi
url: http://creativecommons.org/weblog/entry/40959
title:
European directive on collective rights management: Collecting societies must allow use of CC licenses

content:
<p>Today the JURI (legal affairs) committee of the European Parliament approved <a href="media/02004172.EU-RL-VerwG-131126.pdf" data-original-source="https://netzpolitik.org/wp-upload/EU-RL-VerwG-131126.pdf">the compromise text of the proposed directive on collective rights management in the EU</a> (478 KB PDF, passages in bold are changes from the original proposal). The main objective of the directive is to facilitate the licensing of music throughout Europe (which is currently being done on a country-by-country basis) and to increase the transparency and accountability of collective rights management organisations operating in Europe.</p>
<p>Creative Commons has been following the discussions about the directive. Many collecting societies for authors of musical works prevent their members from electing alternative licensing frameworks, such as Creative Commons licenses, for their work. The directive provided an opportunity to change this situation by establishing clear rules for all European countries.</p>
<p>Over the past few years Creative Commons and its European affiliates have teamed up with Collecting Societies to allow, on a controlled basis, <a href="http://wiki.creativecommons.org/Collecting_Society_Projects">pilot projects</a> that allow members of the participating societies to use the NonCommercial CC licenses. Such pilot projects have been launched in the <a href="/weblog/entry/7622">Netherlands</a>, <a href="/weblog/entry/8012">Denmark</a>, <a href="http://wiki.creativecommons.org/Collecting_Society_Projects/Sweden">Sweden</a>, and <a href="/weblog/entry/31205">France</a>, and they have demonstrated that collective rights management and the use of Creative Commons licenses can go hand in hand.</p>
<p>During the discussion of the directive, Creative Commons advocated (<a href="http://www.communia-association.org/2013/01/07/communia-policy-paper-on-proposed-directive-on-collective-management-of-copyright/">together with others</a>) that the directive should include provisions that would ensure that members of collecting societies can individually license their rights. As a result, the European Parliament introduced language in the directive that requires collecting societies to allow their members &#8216;<em>to grant licences for the non-commercial uses of the rights, categories of rights or types of works and other subject matter of their choice.</em>&#8216;</p>
<p>We are happy to report that this new provision (article 5.2.a) has made it into the final text that was voted on in the European Parliament today. This means that once the directive has been adopted (there is one more vote in Parliament which is basically a formality), members of all European Collecting Societies will have the rights to grant licenses for non-commercial use of their work, opening the door for the use of the three Creative Commons licenses that allow non-commercial use of the licensed work.</p>
<p>Creative Commons applauds the European lawmakers with this step. The new directive will strengthen the rights of members of collecting societies, and we are looking forward to a future where musicians all over Europe enjoy more flexibility in sharing their creations.</p>


feed_id: http://creativecommons.org/?p=40935
title: Press release: Creative Commons launches Version 4.0 of its license suite
uri: Press-release-Creative-Commons-launches-Version-4-0-of-its-license-s
url: http://creativecommons.org/weblog/entry/40935
content:
<p><strong><a href="media/813926af.creativecommonsversion4.pdf" data-original-source="http://creativecommons.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/11/creativecommonsversion4.pdf">Download the press release (67 KB PDF).</a></strong></p>
<p><strong>Creative Commons launches Version 4.0 of its license suite</strong><br /><em>Refreshed copyright licenses function globally and cover new rights</em></p>
<p><strong>Mountain View, CA, November 26, 2013:</strong> Creative Commons (CC) announced today that Version 4.0 of its licensing suite is now available for use worldwide.</p>
<p>This announcement comes at the end of a two-year development and consultation process, but in many ways, it began much earlier. Since 2007, CC has been working with legal experts around the world to adapt the 3.0 licenses to local laws in over 35 jurisdictions. In the process, CC and its affiliates learned a lot about how the licenses function internationally. As a result, the 4.0 licenses are designed to function in every jurisdiction around the world, with no need for localized adaptations.</p>
<p>In a blog post celebrating the launch, CC general counsel Diane Peters acknowledged the role that CC&#8217;s affiliates played in developing the new licenses. “The 4.0 versioning process has been a truly collaborative effort between the brilliant and dedicated network of legal and public licensing experts and the active, vocal open community. The 4.0 licenses, the public license development undertaking, and the Creative Commons organization are stronger because of the steadfast commitment of all participants.&#8221;</p>
<p>Creative Commons is a nonprofit organization that enables the sharing and use of creativity and knowledge through free legal tools. Creators and copyright holders can use its licenses to allow the general public to use and republish their content without asking for permission in advance. There are over half a billion Creative Commons–licensed works, spanning the worlds of arts and culture, science, education, business, government data, and more.</p>
<p>The improvements in Version 4.0 reflect the needs of a diverse and growing user base. The new licenses include provisions related to database rights, personality rights, data mining, and other issues that have become more pertinent as CC&#8217;s user base has grown. &#8220;These improvements may go unnoticed by many CC users, but that doesn&#8217;t mean they aren&#8217;t important,&#8221; Peters said. &#8220;We worry about the slight nuances of the law so our users don&#8217;t have to.&#8221;</p>
<p><strong>Additional Information:</strong></p>
<ul>
<li><a href="/weblog/entry/40768">Launch announcement</a></li>
<li><a href="/version4">List of new features</a></li>
</ul>


feed_id: http://creativecommons.org/?p=40393
title: School of Open begins investigating its impact with the OER Research Hub
uri: School-of-Open-begins-investigating-its-impact-with-the-OER-Research
url: http://creativecommons.org/weblog/entry/40393
content:
<p style="text-align:center" xmlns:dc="http://purl.org/dc/terms/" xmlns:cc="http://creativecommons.org/ns#" about="http://creativecommons.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/11/milton-keynes.jpg"><img alt="milton keynes" src="media/168dc6fc.milton-keynes.jpg" data-original-source="http://creativecommons.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/11/milton-keynes.jpg" /><br /> <small><a rel="cc:attributionURL" href="" property="dc:title"></a> Milton Keynes / <a rel="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/">CC BY</a></small></p>
<p>I took up residence in Milton Keynes, England, for one week in October as the <a href="http://oerresearchhub.org/community/fellowships/oerrh-research-fellowships-programme/linked-fellowships/">Linked OER Research Hub Fellow</a> for the <a href="http://schoolofopen.org/">School of Open</a>. The School of Open is a community of volunteers from all around the world who are developing free education opportunities on the meaning, application, and impact of openness in their field of choice, whether that&#8217;s education, science, research, or community design. The free education opportunities consist of online courses, face-to-face workshops, and in-person training programs. Whatever the format, volunteers seek to help people do what they already do better with the aid of open resources and tools. One obvious example is helping educators to find and use free and open educational resources (OER) for the classroom.</p>
<p>In developing these opportunities, we decided it would be a good idea to simultaneously attempt to measure the impact of our activities. We teamed up with the OER Research Hub for a Linked Research Fellowship, which would provide funding for travel/accommodations and a researcher to help with administering, collecting, and analyzing School of Open data. Since we only just <a href="https://creativecommons.org/weblog/entry/37179">launched</a> in March and have a limited data set to work with, we decided to start by focusing on a subset of our online, facilitated courses. School of Open volunteers administered optional surveys in four courses: <a href="https://p2pu.org/en/courses/632/copyright-4-educators-aus/">Copyright 4 Educators (AUS)</a>, <a href="https://p2pu.org/en/courses/667/copyright-for-educators-us/">Copyright 4 Educators (US)</a>, <a href="https://p2pu.org/en/courses/620/creative-commons-for-k-12-educators/">Creative Commons for K-12 Educators</a>, and <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:School_of_Open_course">Writing Wikipedia Articles: The Basics and Beyond</a>. The surveys gather feedback from participants on their sharing practices and attitudes towards OER before and after the course. In combination with feedback from the facilitators themselves and archival course material, we hope to write up a short report on our preliminary findings. This report will likely identify gaps where more research is needed, which we hope to conduct during our next round of facilitated courses in March 2014. Then we will publish a final report with our findings in the third quarter of 2014. </p>
<h4>My week with the OER Research Hub</h4>
<p style="text-align:center"><a href="http://oerresearchhub.org/"><img src="media/0a0257c3.cropped-oer_700-banner-2.jpg" data-original-source="http://creativecommons.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/11/cropped-oer_700-banner-2.jpg" alt="cropped-oer_700-banner-2" width="513" height="144" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-40433" /></a></p>
<p>As a linked fellow, my week with the OER Research Hub was organized around meeting with Beck Pitt, the researcher I have been working closely with around collecting the data, in addition to meeting the rest of the Hub&#8217;s <a href="http://oerresearchhub.org/about-2/the-team/">research team</a> and Open University staff working on open education projects of interest to the School of Open. Since I had been and would continue to work on aggregating and analyzing the data remotely, it was crucial to make the most of my stay through face-to-face meetings. Through these meetings, I was thrilled to discover additional areas for collaboration. They are:</p>
<ul>
<li><strong>OER Research course</strong>: A School of Open course on how to conduct research openly, especially in the field of OER, to be developed in conjunction with an OER research toolkit that the OER Research Hub team is already developing. The initial concept for the course is still being shaped, but we imagine the course to be for those who are leading open education projects of their own that don&#8217;t currently have the resources to measure the impact of their project. This course would equip them with the methods, tools, and familiarity with ethical, privacy, and cultural issues researchers need to consider when conducting research. We aim to have the course developed in time to be part of a facilitated round of School of Open courses in the second quarter of 2014, and to exist thereafter as a stand-alone course for anyone to take at any time.</li>
<li><strong>Open Translation course</strong>: A School of Open course on open translation, or more specifically, how to translate materials that are openly licensed and what that means. The <a href="http://www.open.ac.uk/about/international-development/ido-asia/development-programme/Tess-India">TESS-India project</a> at the Open University already runs translation workshops for its volunteers in various regions of India to translate OER addressing regional, cultural, and linguistic issues for translation into several Indian languages including Hindi. As part of the workshops, TESS-India will include a day/session on OER and open licensing and what that means for translation. As these workshops will be recorded, we will have video in addition to the workshop resources which can be adapted into an online course for translators around the world. We hope to work with TESS-India to prepare this course for 2014.</li>
<li><strong>OpenLearn OER course</strong>: A joint <a href="http://www.open.edu/openlearn/"></a>OpenLearn and School of Open course on OER, drawing on existing resources like <a href="http://www.open.edu/openlearn/education/creating-open-educational-resources/content-section-0">Creating open educational resources</a>.</li>
<li>CC license and OER education for the OER Research Hub&#8217;s <a href="http://oerresearchhub.org/about-2/collaborators/school-k12/">K-12 educator networks</a>, such as the Flipped Learning Network, in the form of webinars and media such as infographics.</li>
</ul>
<p><span style="float:right;padding:10px;" xmlns:cc="http://creativecommons.org/ns#" xmlns:dc="http://purl.org/dc/terms/" about="http://creativecommons.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/11/mozfest-candy1.jpg"><img src="media/3cd0f4a3.mozfest-candy1.jpg" data-original-source="http://creativecommons.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/11/mozfest-candy1.jpg" alt="mozfest candy" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-40437" /><br /> <small><a rel="cc:attributionURL" href="" property="dc:title"></a> Mozfest candy / <span property="cc:attributionName"></span><a rel="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/">CC BY</a></small></span> </p>
<p>For our main collaboration &#8212; research on School of Open courses &#8212; we were able to ready some of the data we had collected for the <a href="http://mozillafestival.org/">Mozilla Festival</a>, where Beck hosted a &#8220;<a href="https://etherpad.mozilla.org/open-ed-data-detective">scrum</a>&#8221; on visualizing open education data called the Open Ed Data Detective. Throughout the festival, several participants came by to experiment with the School of Open data along with other data the OER Research Hub made available. In addition to preparing for the data scrum, we collected and compiled most of the initial data on the School of Open courses listed above, including web analytics and data for all <a href="https://p2pu.org/en/schools/school-of-open/#stand-alone">13 stand-alone courses</a>. We outlined a plan for completion of a report on preliminary research findings, follow-up interviews we will conduct with facilitators and course participants, and additional research we will conduct in 2014 during Round 3 of School of Open’s facilitated courses.</p>
<p>For a research residency that lasted less than a week, we made a tremendous amount of progress. I look forward to working closely with the OER Research Hub and Open University staff in the coming months!</p>


feed_id: http://creativecommons.org/?p=40970
title: Human Services Taxonomy
uri: Human-Services-Taxonomy
url: http://creativecommons.org/weblog/entry/40970
content:
<p><em>[written in collaboration with <a href="mailto:egray@auntbertha.com">Erine A. Gray</a>, founder, <a href="http://auntbertha.com" title="Aunt Bertha">Aunt Bertha</a> and the <a href="http://openeligibility.org" title="Open Eligibility Project">Open Eligibility Project</a>]</em></p>
<p>Text-based search is powerful. However, as more and more information is digitized and made available on the internet, the effectiveness of text-based search could stand to be supplemented with other technologies.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.auntbertha.com/"><img src="media/9f8a9205.auntbertha.jpg" data-original-source="http://creativecommons.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/12/auntbertha.jpg" alt="Aunt Bertha logo" width="200" height="200" class="alignleft size-full wp-image-40972" align="left" /></a> <a href="http://auntbertha.com" title="Aunt Bertha">Aunt Bertha</a>, an Austin, TX&#8211;based B Corporation, focuses on helping people to find government and charitable human service programs on the web. In the United States, there are 89,000 governments, a million charities, and more than three hundred thousand congregations. Many of these organizations provide food, health, housing, or education programs to those who need it (the “Seekers”). Aunt Bertha’s goal is to index all these programs so that the Seekers can find help in seconds.</p>
<p>Launched in the fall of 2010, Aunt Bertha founders learned something very interesting early on. In a medium-sized city, a Seeker can have at least 500 government and charitable programs to choose from. The user experience designer must ensure that the Seekers can easily find the program that fits their need, a task that&#8217;s harder than it might seem: not only are the Seekers are multi-faceted and complex; so are the programs that serve them. A common language that described both the Seekers and the available human services would go a long way to help as text-based search alone would not work. Enter the <a href="http://openeligibility.org" title="Open Eligibility Project">Open Eligibility Project</a>. </p>
<p><a href="http://openeligibility.org/"><img src="media/ca303572.open_eligibility_project.png" data-original-source="http://creativecommons.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/12/open_eligibility_project.png" alt="Open Eligibility Project" width="382" height="115" align="right" /></a> Realizing that other organizations were facing the same problem &#8212; and that there had been attempts at categorizing these types of programs before, but the terms and methodologies used were full of bureaucratic jargon &#8212; the Open Eligibility Project set out to simplify the taxonomy, the terms that describe human services. </p>
<p>There are two important facets to human services taxonomy: Human Services and Human Situations. Human Services are simply the services provided by the organization—examples include clothes for school, computer classes and counseling. Human Situations are simply the attributes of the Seeker—for examples, mothers, ex-offenders or veterans. Here is one example of the use of this taxonomy on <a href="http://auntbertha.com" title="Aunt Bertha">Aunt Bertha</a>:</p>
<p><a href="media/99daa4c5.wic_program.png" data-original-source="http://creativecommons.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/12/wic_program.png"><img src="media/99daa4c5.wic_program.png" data-original-source="http://creativecommons.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/12/wic_program.png" alt="WIC Program" width="603" height="275" class="alignleft size-full wp-image-40974" border="1" /></a></p>
<p>It is not always easy to find the balance between comprehensiveness and ease-of-use. For this project to be successful, a tension should always exist between these two goals. Lean too far one way and it becomes suitable only for the policy wonks. Lean the other way, and it loses specificity and the Seekers can not find what they are seeking. </p>
<p>Since launching the Open Eligibility Project, there has been some interesting traction in the area of human services taxonomy. Just this year, a new <a href="http://www.w3.org/wiki/WebSchemas/CivicServices" title="Civic Services Schema">Civic Services Schema</a> was submitted and accepted by <a href="http://schema.org" title="Schema.org">Schema.org</a>. The <a href="http://sdo-civicservices.appspot.com/serviceAudience" title="ServiceAudience field">ServiceAudience</a> field of the spec, in particular, is a great fit for Open Eligibility’s <a href="http://openeligibility.org/situations" title="Human Situations tags">Human Situations tags</a>. If government agencies adopt this spec, it will make their programs more findable by people who fit those situations (ex: programs for veterans, programs for foster children, etc.). </p>
<h2>What’s Next</h2>
<p>Aunt Bertha seeded the <a href="http://openeligibility.org" title="Open Eligibility Project">Open Eligibility Project</a> with all of the types of services and situations listed on Aunt Bertha. But, there are more out there though, and help from others would make the taxonomy even better. That is why the founders were attracted to Creative Commons, and decided to release the <a href="https://github.com/auntbertha/openeligibility">taxonomy on Github</a> under a <a href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/" title="CC BY-SA 3.0">CC BY-SA 3.0 license</a>. Hackers, coders, and those concerned generally with human services are invited to join the <a href="https://plus.google.com/communities/105865718927965700914">Google+ community</a>, and to contribute to the project on the Github page, or to connect with Aunt Bertha on <a href="https://www.facebook.com/auntbertha">Facebook</a> or <a href="https://twitter.com/auntbertha">Twitter</a>.</p>


feed_id: http://creativecommons.org/?p=40991
title: Give open: CC’s holiday shopping list
uri: Give-open-CC-s-holiday-shopping-list
url: http://creativecommons.org/weblog/entry/40991
content:
<p align="center"><img src="media/1d566b55.giveopen-400.gif" data-original-source="http://creativecommons.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/12/giveopen-400.gif" width=400 height=400 /></p>
<p>If you&#8217;re scurrying for gifts this year, consider giving open. We&#8217;ve put together this list of a few of our favorite openly licensed gifts. What did we miss? Add your favorites to the comments.</p>
<p><a href="http://questioncopyright.com/sita.html"><img src="media/4bc2757d.peacock-250.jpg" data-original-source="http://creativecommons.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/12/peacock-250.jpg" width=250 height=251 align="right" border=0 style="margin-left: 10px; "/></p>
<h3><a href="http://questioncopyright.com/sita.html">Sita Sings the Blues merchandise</a></h3>
<p>Not only is <em>Sita</em> a great film, but it has some of the most unique and beautiful merchandise ever. I&#8217;ve actually always thought this was the success of her business model &#8211; having things people actually want to buy. I&#8217;ve always been particularly fond of the peacock phonograph pendant. <em>Review by Jessica Coates</em></p>
<h3><a href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0615314465/creatcommo09-20/ref=nosim/">xkcd volume 0</a></h3>
<p>The first collection of the best geek comic out there. There&#8217;s something for everyone in this volume, whether they&#8217;re a lover, a gamer or a mathematician. There&#8217;s even something for us copyright geeks, with the complete adventures of Doctorow, Lessig, et al in their complete superhero garb. <em>Review by Jessica Coates</em></p>
<h3><a href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/9063692595/creatcommo09-20/ref=nosim/<br />
">Open Design Now</a></h3>
<p><em><a href="http://opendesignnow.org/">Open Design Now</a></em> is been one of the most thought-provoking books I&#8217;ve read this year on openness. It&#8217;s available for free online under a Creative Commons license or available for purchase as a hard copy. Highly recommended read for anyone interested in the intersection of open design and physical objects. <em>Review by Paul Stacey</em></p>
<p></a><a href="http://www.fabsie.com/products/this-stool-rocks"><img src="media/c5fb2e4e.thisstool-250.jpg" data-original-source="http://creativecommons.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/12/thisstool-250.jpg" width=250 height=350 align="left" border=0 style="margin-right: 10px; "/></a></p>
<h3><a href="http://www.fabsie.com/products/this-stool-rocks">This Stool Rocks</a></h3>
<p>Yup, it&#8217;s a rocking stool. It&#8217;s such an elegant innovation in design that once you see it, you wonder why it took so long for someone to think of it. If you have access to a CNC machine, you can download the CC-licensed design and build your own. <a href="http://www.fabsie.com/products/this-stool-rocks">Assmbly will make one for you</a>, and even carve your logo on the seat, but order now: there&#8217;s a waiting list. <em>Review by Elliot Harmon</em></p>
<h3><a href="http://cardsagainsthumanity.com/">Cards Against Humanity</a></h3>
<p>One of the best card games out there, perfect for long nights with good friends and a bottle of whisky. Like Apples for Apples, but far more surreal and less suitable for children. Download the whole thing from their website and spend hours turning it into a neat game; or <a href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/B004S8F7QM/creatcommo09-20/ref=nosim/<br />
">just shell out $25</a> and get the pretty one to begin with. Also available in Spanish, Dutch, pirate and many other languages thanks to its CC license and fan translations. <em>Review by Jessica Coates</em></p>
<h3><a href="http://phylogame.org/">Phylo</a></h3>
<p>The Phylo trading card game is a CC licensed online initiative aimed at creating a Pokemon-like resource but using photos of <em>real</em> animals and plants as a means of helping children learn about biodiversity. <em>Review by Paul Stacey</em></p>
<h3><a href="http://groupworksdeck.org/">Group Works</a></h3>
<p>Sticking with cards, I also really like the Group Works pattern cards. These are really useful for anyone who plans meetings, conferences, retreats, and other group sessions. If you are a facilitator, these cards help you plan and create meaningful events. You can download the free, CC-licensed deck or purchase one. <em>Review by Paul Stacey</em></p>
<p><iframe align="right" width="251" height="141" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/8IywguCdoHQ" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe></p>
<h3><a href="http://deadunicorn.bandcamp.com/">Dead Unicorn: Pandemic</a></h3>
<p>Dead Unicorn makes melodic pop-punk music that&#8217;s surprisingly fun, given their fixation on writing songs about disease. They&#8217;re also the guys behind <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8IywguCdoHQ">my favorite &#8220;about CC&#8221; video ever</a>. Earlier this year, the band Kickstarted <a href="http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/zacshaw/dead-unicorn-pandemic-lp"><em>Pandemic</em></a> and printed a limited run on colored vinyl (they identify the color as &#8220;piss yellow.&#8221;) Give it to your weird nephew who thinks you aren&#8217;t cool. <em>Review by Elliot Harmon</em></p>
<h3><a href="http://publicdomainreview.org/store/posters-and-prints/">Public Domain Review prints</a></h3>
<p>If you&#8217;re not already following The Public Domain Review (a project of our friends at <a href="http://okfn.org/">The Open Knowledge Foundation</a>), you should be. Every day, they post a new find from the endless supply of public domain treasures and oddities. This year, the PDR launched a <a href="http://publicdomainreview.org/store/">store full of public domain goodies</a> to help raise money. My favorite is the print of an 1887  woodcut designed to teach Japanese children English words. <em>Review by Elliot Harmon</em></p>
<h3><a href="https://donate.creativecommons.org/?utm_campaign=2013fund&#038;utm_source=blog3&#038;utm_medium=blog">Team Open trading cards</a></h3>
<p>Of course we had to sneak ourselves onto this list. We worked with the webcartoonist <a href="http://www.lukesurl.com/">Luke Surl</a> on the drawings for our <a href="http://teamopen.cc/">Team Open interview project</a>. We think he perfectly captured the spirit of the subjects we interviewed. <a href="https://donate.creativecommons.org/?utm_campaign=2013fund&#038;utm_source=blog3&#038;utm_medium=blog">Everyone who donates $25 (USD) or more</a> to CC gets their own complete set of trading cards.</p>


feed_id: http://creativecommons.org/?p=41005
title: Support Creative Commons on #GivingTuesday
uri: Support-Creative-Commons-on-GivingTuesday
url: http://creativecommons.org/weblog/entry/41005
content:
<p align="center"><a href="https://donate.creativecommons.org/?utm_campaign=2013fund&#038;utm_source=blog2&#038;utm_medium=blog"><img src="media/74846afd.billy92-500.jpg" data-original-source="http://creativecommons.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/12/billy92-500.jpg" width=500 height=375 border=0 /></a><br /><small><em>Billy Meinke with our 92 donors. <a href="https://donate.creativecommons.org/?utm_campaign=2013fund&#038;utm_source=blog2&#038;utm_medium=blog">Are you number 93?</a></em></small></p>
<p>Today, nonprofits and donors around the world are celebrating <a href="http://community.givingtuesday.org/">#GivingTuesday</a>. When you&#8217;re deciding what organizations to support this year, <a href="https://donate.creativecommons.org/?utm_campaign=2013fund&#038;utm_source=blog2&#038;utm_medium=blog">we hope you consider Creative Commons</a>.</p>
<p>We have a lot to celebrate together this year. Last week, we unveiled <a href="/weblog/entry/40768">Version 4.0 of the Creative Commons license suite</a>, an accomplishment that reflects two years of work by literally hundreds of people.</p>
<p>More than any CC license before, Version 4.0 reflects the power of the CC movement. It was built upon the expertise of our amazing global community, a community that you join when you license or use content under CC licenses. We&#8217;re glad to be on your team.</p>
<p>If you&#8217;re proud of what we&#8217;ve accomplished together, <a href="https://donate.creativecommons.org/?utm_campaign=2013fund&#038;utm_source=blog2&#038;utm_medium=blog">consider making a donation to support CC&#8217;s work in 2014</a>.</p>


feed_id: http://creativecommons.org/?p=41050
title: Free! Music! Sampler now shipping
uri: Free-Music-Sampler-now-shipping
url: http://creativecommons.org/weblog/entry/41050
content:
<p align="center"><a href="http://musik.klarmachen-zum-aendern.de/artikel/viva_la_freevolucci%C3%B3n_-_free_music_sampler_2013_ready_shipping-2533"><img src="media/189ceffc.fms-500.jpg" data-original-source="http://creativecommons.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/12/fms-500.jpg" width=500 height=270 border=0 /></a></p>
<p>Our friends at <a href="http://bandcamp.musikpiraten-ev.de/">Musikpiraten e.V.</a> just let us know that the <a href="http://musik.klarmachen-zum-aendern.de/artikel/viva_la_freevolucci%C3%B3n_-_free_music_sampler_2013_ready_shipping-2533">Free! Music! Sampler</a> is now shipping. You might remember this year&#8217;s <a href="/weblog/entry/39047">Free! Music! Contest</a>. The winners have been chosen, and the heavily exclamatory compilation album looks gorgeous. You can listen to all the tracks and download the album from <a href="http://bandcamp.musikpiraten-ev.de/">Musikpiraten&#8217;s Bandcamp page</a>.</p>
<p>While you&#8217;re there, check out Musikpiraten&#8217;s <a href="http://musik.klarmachen-zum-aendern.de/adventskalender_mit_musik_2013">advent calendar</a>, which will feature a new CC-licensed song every day between now and Christmas Eve (<a href="http://musik.klarmachen-zum-aendern.de/files/ccc-2013/cc-calendar-mobile.html">mobile version</a>).</p>
<p><script src="http://musik.klarmachen-zum-aendern.de/files/ccc-2013/cc-calendar-loader.js"></script></p>


feed_id: http://creativecommons.org/?p=41061
title: Welcome to the CC community, intergovernmental organizations
uri: Welcome-to-the-CC-community-intergovernmental-organizations
url: http://creativecommons.org/weblog/entry/41061
content:
<p align="center"><img src="media/47f6d412.cc_govt_blue2.png" data-original-source="http://creativecommons.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/12/cc_govt_blue2.png" width=410 height=200 border=0 /></p>
<p>We&#8217;re pleased to announce <a href="/licenses/by/3.0/igo/">a new suite of Creative Commons licenses</a> specifically designed for <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intergovernmental_organization">intergovernmental organizations (IGOs)</a>. IGOs produce a wide array of valuable information and content, ranging from scholarly and scientific papers to environmental data. Just like other creators who seek wide dissemination of their works to achieve maximal impact, <a href="http://wiki.creativecommons.org/Intergovernmental_Organizations#Why_Intergovernmental_Organizations_Benefit_from_Using_CC">IGOs benefit from using CC&#8217;s well understood and widely adopted licenses</a>.</p>
<p>Since the <a href="http://wiki.creativecommons.org/Global_Summit_2011">2011 CC Global Summit</a> in Warsaw, and in tandem with our <a href="/weblog/entry/40935">4.0 license development process</a>, we&#8217;ve been working closely with IGOs to understand and find acceptable ways to address <a href="http://wiki.creativecommons.org/Intergovernmental_Organizations#Can_intergovernmental_organizations_.28.22IGOs.22.29_use_CC_licenses.3F">their unique needs</a> in our licenses. The process mirrored the <a href="http://wiki.creativecommons.org/Faq#What_are_the_international_.28.E2.80.9Cunported.E2.80.9D.29_Creative_Commons_licenses.2C_and_why_does_CC_offer_.E2.80.9Cported.E2.80.9D_licenses.3F">porting process used for the 3.0 licenses</a>, which addresses specific needs of jurisdictions. Additionally, we have been working closely on adoption opportunities so that the valuable content IGOs produce can be reused around the globe under our standard licenses. For example, the World Bank leverages CC&#8217;s licenses as part of <a href="http://teamopen.cc/carlos/">its impressive open access policy</a>, and Commonwealth of Learning has adopted an <a href="/weblog/entry/27703">OER policy</a> under which it will release its own materials using CC licenses.</p>
<p>CC and IGO working group participants announced the results of this effort today. From the <a href="http://www.wipo.int/pressroom/en/articles/2013/article_0026.html">press release</a>:</p>
<blockquote><p>&#8220;The more that everyone can access and use the important work of IGOs, the more impactful they are,&#8221; Creative Commons co-founder Lawrence Lessig said. &#8220;By publishing their information and data under Creative Commons licenses, these organizations are giving anyone on the planet the right to read and share those materials.&#8221;</p></blockquote>
<p>You can <a href="http://wiki.creativecommons.org/Intergovernmental_Organizations">learn more about the IGO licenses on our wiki</a>, where you can also find specific <a href="http://wiki.creativecommons.org/Intergovernmental_Organizations#What_should_I_know_before_I_use_a_work_licensed_under_the_IGO_3.0_ported_licenses.3F">considerations that licensees should be aware of</a> when using a work under these new licenses.</p>
<p>Congratulations to everyone! We look forward to seeing more and more IGOs joining the commons.</p>


feed_id: http://creativecommons.org/?p=40184
title: Guest post: What’s behind the success of Copyright 4 Educators Australia?
uri: Guest-post-What-s-behind-the-success-of-Copyright-4-Educators-Aust
url: http://creativecommons.org/weblog/entry/40184
content:
<p><em>The following is a guest post by <a href="//p2pu.org/en/Jessica_Smith/">Jessica Smith</a>, National Copyright Officer for the National Copyright Unit of Australia. She ran the Copyright 4 Educators (AUS) course with <a href="//p2pu.org/en/Delia%20Browne/">Delia Browne</a> as part of the School of Open&#8217;s <a href="https://creativecommons.org/?p=39060">second round of facilitated courses</a> in 2013.</p>
<p>The <a href="http://schoolofopen.org/">School of Open</a> is a community of volunteers focused on providing free education opportunities on the meaning, application, and impact of &#8220;openness&#8221; in the digital age and its benefit to creative endeavors, education, research, and more. Volunteers develop and run online courses, offline workshops, and real world training programs on topics such as Creative Commons licenses, open educational resources, and sharing creative works.</em></p>
<hr />
<div style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; ">
<p style="float:left; padding-right: 10px;"><a href="//p2pu.org/en/Jessica_Smith/"><span xmlns:cc="http://creativecommons.org/ns#" xmlns:dc="http://purl.org/dc/terms/"><img src="media/e974a0a0.jessica-smith-profile-pic-21.jpg" data-original-source="http://creativecommons.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/11/jessica-smith-profile-pic-21.jpg" alt="jessica smith" title="Jessica Smith" width="" height="" /></span></a><br /><small><span property="dc:title">Self portrait by Jessica Smith</span> / <a rel="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/">CC BY</a></small></p>
<p style="float:left; padding-right: 10px;"><a href="//p2pu.org/en/Delia%20Browne/"><span xmlns:cc="http://creativecommons.org/ns#" xmlns:dc="http://purl.org/dc/terms/"><img src="media/a0675ebf.delia-profile-pic-2.jpg" data-original-source="http://creativecommons.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/11/delia-profile-pic-2.jpg" alt="Delia Browne" title="Delia Browne" width="" height="" /></span></a><br /><small><span property="dc:title">Self portrait by Delia Browne</span> / <a rel="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/">CC BY</a></small></p>
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<p>The <a href="http://www.smartcopying.edu.au/copyright-guidelines/footer-menu/about-us">National Copyright Unit</a> (NCU) of Australia ran its second cycle of the School of Open’s <a href="https://p2pu.org/en/courses/632/copyright-4-educators-aus/">Copyright 4 Educators (AUS) course</a> in August.  The course ran for seven weeks, with a two-week introduction period and five weeks of substantive group work. We took on 60 learners, with enrollments filling up in less than two days, plus a wait list of around 15 people. At the end of the course, we only had 3 drop-outs, a 95% retention rate! </p>
<p>On top of those stellar results, we also had very happy learners as well as great results in terms of the uptake and understanding of the information. We have an ongoing wait list for the course as well as teachers and librarians continuously enquiring about the course. We’re also in the process of obtaining accreditation for the course through larger teacher organizations so that it can be used to fulfill specific professional learning requirements of Australian educators. </p>
<p>We believe our course has succeeded for three reasons:</p>
<ol>
<li>We made it easy for the students to participate.</li>
<li>The course was associated with the NCU, an official government division.</li>
<li>We assigned small groups based on commonalities, such as profession and field.</li>
</ol>
<h3>1. Make it easy for the students to participate</h3>
<p>Making it easy for students is of utmost importance in an online environment, especially if the course is targeted to people who may not be familiar with online learning. We know this may sound obvious, but it’s so important that it’s definitely worth mentioning and expounding on. If you don’t nail this, you’re not going to retain your students. </p>
<p>So how do you make it easy for the students? Have everything (eg, communication tools and assignment submission entrypoints) set up for them and support them to the nth degree. What this means: you have to put the time in before the course starts and you, as the course facilitator/organizer, must be very comfortable with the course layout and tools in order to be able to give ample support as well as troubleshoot when issues arise.  </p>
<h4>Tutorials for Tools</h4>
<p>For our course, we had heaps of information on our P2PU course site (outlining essentially everything they’d need to get through the course), but we also created tutorials and sent out additional information through email on all the essential parts of the course (ie. using the discussion tool Disqus, submitting group assignments, leaving peer review, etc).  We really wanted the students to feel supported and to answer questions and issues BEFORE they arose. It’s too easy to drop out of an online course, so we wanted to preemptively take care of as many issues as possible. We had one student state they were “very nervous and uncomfortable” to take an online course who later reported how great the course was set up and how easy it was in terms of knowing what to do and how to do it. It’s key students feel like this from the start of the course, or they won’t stick with it.</p>
<h4>Tools we used</h4>
<p>We used Google docs for our course. We had every group’s Google doc set up for every single week, and we linked to the docs from both the course on P2PU as well as in emails that we sent out every week. The weekly emails make it very clear what was expected of our learners as well as where to go to complete their tasks.  See an example below:</p>
<div style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; max-width: 565px; border-radius: 3px; padding: 1em; border: 3px solid #A4A4A4;">
Hi all,<br />
<br />
It’s the last week already!  You’ve all done a great job getting here.  We’ve been very impressed with the calibre of all the groups’ work in this cycle.  In Week 7, you&#8217;ll be using everything you&#8217;ve learnt throughout the course to help a peer.<br />
<br />
This week you should:<br />
<br />
*read the Week 7 Readings;<br />
*collaborate with your group to complete Week 7’s assignment;<br />
*post (ie by copying and pasting) your final group answer to your group’s google doc HERE by COB this Sunday, September 22nd;<br />
*leave peer review for Week 7 by COB Tuesday following the assignment due date, September 24th;<br />
*and remember you should also have your peer review for Week 3 finished by COB tomorrow Tuesday, September 17th.<br />
<br />
Please note this assignment is only asking you to point to helpful resources – ie, you don&#8217;t actually have to answer the question &#8211; you simply need to demonstrate that you&#8217;re able to find, compile and share helpful copyright resources.<br />
<br />
<em>Peer Review</em><br />
<br />
You will peer review the exact same groups every week. Just as a reminder see below:<br />
<br />
* Group 1 will review Groups 2 and 3.<br />
* Group 2 will review Groups 1 and 3.<br />
* Group 3 will review Groups 1 and 2.<br />
* [...]<br />
<br />
<strong>Badges</strong><br />
<br />
Since you’ve all now completed Week 6’s assignment, you can apply for the Copyright Exceptions badge HERE.<br />
<br />
For more information on P2PU badges, see HERE.<br />
<br />
As always, if you have any questions or concerns, just let us know!</div>
<h4>Following up</h4>
<p>We also sent out individual group chase-ups the Monday following a Sunday due date as well as a chase-up Wednesday following the peer review due date.  See below for an example of this:</p>
<div style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; max-width: 565px; border-radius: 3px; padding: 1em; border: 3px solid #A4A4A4;">
Hi Group 7,<br />
<br />
It doesn’t look like you’ve done your peer review for Week 6.  Remember this is a requirement of the course.  Your group is responsible for leaving peer review for Groups 8 and 9.  I can see your group has left feedback for 8 already, so only Group 9 to go!<br />
Let me know if you have any questions or concerns.  If you want to see some examples of peer review, you can take a look at some of the other groups’ docs.  It doesn’t have to be anything long – just something to show you’ve had a look at the other groups’ work.  If it works best for your group, you can also nominate one person per week to represent your group and do the peer review.<br />
Please review Group 9 ASAP.  We will leave our facilitator feedback on the docs this afternoon, and it would be most beneficial for you as well as the group you leave feedback for if your reviews were left before we post our comments.<br />
<br />
The link to Week 6’s google folder is HERE.<br />
<br />
Let me know if I can help in any way!
</div>
<p>Its also very important to understand that the first two to three weeks are a bit rough for learners &#8211; they’re confused and they have lots of questions and issues. We received anywhere from 15 to 30 emails a week and at least five calls, asking general questions about the course, the platform, google docs, etc. We nearly always responded to these on the same day and offered as much support as needed. A quick response to a simple question can be the deciding factor between a learner getting frustrated and dropping out or being satisfied and feeling supported and staying in the course.</p>
<h4>Onboarding</h4>
<p>This initial confusion is also why we went with a two-week introduction period, and we think this really helps with the retention rate. It gave the learners a chance to ask questions, sort out their issues and concerns and get comfortable with the course, the platform, the collaboration tools, and their groups. </p>
<h3>2. Associate a course with a known, respected entity</h3>
<p>Our course was associated with the NCU of Australia, which is very well known and respected. We deal with teachers on a daily basis, and most of our NCU affiliated teachers/librarians were the first to sign up for the course and have been our biggest supporters and promoters.  </p>
<p>In addition to past participants spreading the word, we promoted the course through our school connections in Australia – through teachers whom we’ve given advice, the Copyright Advisory Group (each State/Territory in Australia as well as each sector has a representative), teacher organizations, and our website (http://www.smartcopying.edu.au/) which is the official guide to copyright issues for Australian Schools and Technical and Further Education (TAFE) institutions. Once we did our initial promotional blitz, the promotion largely took off on its own, making its way onto numerous listservs and teacher associations that we didn’t previously know existed.  </p>
<p>So the association helped with the initial promotion of the course, but we also believe the reputation of the NCU encouraged teachers to sign up for the course: it made teachers feel more comfortable asking questions/contacting us, it decreased the numbers of dropouts, and we also found that many employers, such as school deans, required their teaching staff to take the course.</p>
<p>Incorporating the course into NCU’s daily workload also allowed us to quickly and effectively respond to questions/issues with the course.  </p>
<h3>3. Arrange groups to encourage conversation and cohesiveness</h3>
<h4>Questionnaire</h4>
<p>In the first week of the course, we only asked our learners to fill out a questionnaire and have a look around the course. With the information from the questionnaire, we created 15 groups of four. We also took group requests, which frequently came from teachers at the same school. If groups were not requested, we arranged groups based on school location, level and sector to encourage conversation and commonality between group members. In the second week of the course, we only asked our students to meet their group and to decide on how their group would collaborate. Group members got to know each other and supported each other over the course of the seven weeks, and we think this group cohesiveness really encouraged group members to stay committed to the group and the course (as well as have more fun!).</p>
<h4>Peer support</h4>
<p>As an example, we had one student who was going to drop out because she needed to have surgery in the third week of the course, and she would be unable to type for a week or two. She consulted us, and we told her to first discuss the problem with her group to see if they could work something out. She did this, and they became somewhat of a support group for her and they worked out that she would lead discussion in the weeks leading up to her surgery (which they mainly did via email) and then the weeks she couldn’t type she participated via a weekly Skype session with her group.<br />
We’ve also been told by a number of groups that they all plan to keep in touch with each other to discuss any copyright questions and what’s going on in their classrooms/schools.</p>
<h3>Conclusion</h3>
<p>Overall, we believe the course was very successful. Not only because of the retention rate but also because people enjoyed it! They’re telling others about the course, they learnt the information, and if they ever have any questions or issues they now know where to find the information.  </p>


feed_id: http://creativecommons.org/?p=41118
title: European Commission announces public consultation on the review of EU copyright rules
uri: European-Commission-announces-public-consultation-on-the-review-of-EU
url: http://creativecommons.org/weblog/entry/41118
content:
<p><em>This post originally appears on the <a href="http://www.communia-association.org/2013/12/11/commission-announces-public-consultation-on-the-review-of-eu-copyright-rules/">Communia Association blog</a>. Creative Commons is a founding member and active participant in Communia.<br />
</em><br />
Last week Thursday the European Commission launched its much anticipated <a href="http://ec.europa.eu/internal_market/consultations/2013/copyright-rules/index_en.htm">public consultation on the review of the EU copyright rules</a>. This consultation is the first visible sign of the second track of the Commission’s attempt to modernise the EU rules (the first track consisted of the <a href="http://www.kennisland.nl/filter/opinies/failure-of-licenses-for-europe-underlines-the-need-for-reform-of">rather unsuccessful Licenses for Europe stakeholder dialogue</a>). In the words of the Commission the focus of the consultation is on:</p>
<blockquote><p>… ensuring that the EU copyright regulatory framework stays fit for purpose in the digital environment to support creation and innovation, tap the full potential of the Single Market, foster growth and investment in our economy and promote cultural diversity.</p></blockquote>
<p>With regards to the contents of the consultation, a first reading reveals a mixed bag of questions, with a surprising amount of them actually touching on issues that are closely related to <a href="http://www.communia-association.org/recommendations-2/">our own policy recommendations</a>. The consultation comes in the form of a 37 page document with a grand total of 80 questions that cover everything from the functioning of the single market for copyrighted works, linking and browsing, copyright term duration, registration of copyrighted works and exceptions and limitations for cultural heritage institutions, education, research, persons with disabilities and &#8220;user generated content&#8221;. In addition, there are questions about private copying and levies, the fair remuneration of authors and performers, respect for rights, and even the possibility of a single EU copyright title. Finally there is an open question for everything else that stakeholders might want to tell the Commission.</p>
<p>The deadline for providing answers to all of these questions is the 5th of February, which if one takes into account the upcoming holiday period is rather short.<span id="more-41118"></span>Below we highlight a number of questions from the consultation. In addition to this we will prepare a more thorough analysis and make our own response to the consultation public at a later date.</p>
<h3>Rights and the functioning of the Single Market</h3>
<p>The first set of questions deals with ‘Rights and the functioning of the Single Market’. According to the Commission…</p>
<blockquote><p>…the main issue at stake here is, therefore, whether further measures (legislative or non-legislative, including market-led solutions) need to be taken at EU level in the medium term to increase the cross-border availability of content services in the Single Market, while ensuring an adequate level of protection for right holders.</p></blockquote>
<p>The questions related to this section ask for examples of problems in this area and then invite stakeholders to provide their views on how these problems should be addressed (usually split between ‘legislative solutions’ and ‘other solutions’). This structure repeats itself throughout the consultation.</p>
<p>Specifically, the commission is interested in perspectives on the issue of territoriality of rights clearance (i.e., should the current situation where service providers need to obtain permission for all member states where they want to offer their service be changed, for example by introducing a country of origin rule where rights only need to be cleared for the member state where the service providers is based?).</p>
<p>In addition, this section also contains two questions on linking and browsing that show a worrisome lack of understanding how the internet works:</p>
<blockquote><p>Should the provision of a hyperlink leading to a work or other subject matter protected under copyright, either in general or under specific circumstances, be subject to the authorisation of the rightholder?</p>
<p>Should the viewing of a web-page where this implies the temporary reproduction of a work or other subject matter protected under copyright on the screen and in the cache memory of the user’s computer, either in general or under specific circumstances, be subject to the authorisation of the rightholder?</p></blockquote>
<p>While it should be obvious to anyone who has ever used the internet that requiring authorisation of the right-holders for any of these acts would fundamentally break the internet, it is important to realize that both questions are currently being debated in European courts. In this context it is important that these questions are answered with a resounding no, so that it leaves European policy makers no other option than to propose legislation that would clarify that both browsing and linking do not require permission from rightsholders (or anyone else).</p>
<p>The remainder of this section contains questions that explore the length of copyright protection (Are the current terms of copyright protection still appropriate in the digital environment?) and the registration of works (Would the creation of a registration system at EU level help in the identification and licensing of works and other subject matter?). Communia has longstanding policy recommendations on both of these issues, and we would hope that in answering the consultation others will look at these recommendations.</p>
<blockquote><p><strong><a href="http://www.communia-association.org/recommendations-2/#1">Recommendation #1:</a></strong> The term of copyright protection should be reduced. The excessive length of copyright protection combined with an absence of formalities is highly detrimental to the accessibility of our shared knowledge and culture. The term of copyright protection should be reduced.</p>
<p><strong><a href="http://www.communia-association.org/recommendations-2/#8">Recommendation #8:</a></strong> In order to prevent unnecessary and unwanted protection of works of authorship, full copyright protection should only be granted to works that have been registered by their authors. Non registered works should only get moral rights protection.</p></blockquote>
<h3>Limitations and exceptions in the Single Market</h3>
<p>The second part of the consultation focuses on ‘Limitations and exceptions in the Single Market’. Communia believes that adjusting the exceptions and limitations to copyright that are enshrined in the 2001 Copyright Directive to the requirements of the digital environment must be at the heart of any change of the European copyright rules. Again, we have a related policy recommendation that provides a good basis for addressing issues related to exceptions and limitations:</p>
<blockquote><p><strong><a href="http://www.communia-association.org/recommendations-2/#3">Recommendation #3:</a></strong> Harmonize Exceptions and Limitations of the Copyright Directive among the Member States and open up the exhaustive list so that the user prerogatives can be adapted to the ongoing technological transformations.</p></blockquote>
<p>It is good to see that the consultation contains questions related to all aspects of this recommendation (harmonisation, need for new exceptions and limitations, and need for more flexibility).</p>
<p>The rest of the section on limitations and exceptions touches on specific types of uses/users benefiting from exceptions and limitations. In the first four cases (access to content in libraries and archives, teaching, research, and users with disabilities) the Commission wants to know if the relevant exceptions and limitations continue to achieve the objectives envisaged or whether they need to be updated to cover use in digital networks. The consultation also identifies 2 types of use (Text and data mining and so-called ‘User-generated content’) that might benefit from new exceptions.</p>
<p>Again some of the Communia policy recommendations are relevant here and can provide guidance when answering the questions related to education and memory institutions:</p>
<blockquote><p><strong><a href="http://www.communia-association.org/recommendations-2/#10">Recommendation #10:</a></strong> Memory Institutions must be enabled to fulfill their traditional function in the online environment. In order to be able to provide access to knowledge and culture they must benefit from compulsory and harmonized exceptions and limitations that allow them to make their collections available online for non commercial purposes.</p>
<p><strong><a href="http://www.communia-association.org/recommendations-2/#12">Recommendation #12:</a></strong> Access to copyright protected works for education and research purposes must be facilitated by strengthening existing exceptions and limitations and broadening them to cover uses outside of formal educational institutions. All publicly funded research output and educational resources must be made available as open access materials.</p></blockquote>
<h3>Other Questions</h3>
<p>Among the remaining questions, those in the sections on ‘A single EU Copyright Title’ and ‘Respect for Rights’ are the most noteworthy.</p>
<p>It is refreshing to see the Commission devote a section on the idea of a single European copyright title. The idea of having a unified EU Copyright Title that would totally harmonise the area of copyright law in the EU and replace national laws has been part of academic discussion about copyright in Europe for quite some time (<a href="http://www.communia-association.org/2013/06/05/hugenholtz-hargreaves-on-modernising-the-european-copyright-framework/">see here for a recent proposal</a>).</p>
<p>On the other hand, ‘Respect for Rights’ is a thinly veiled euphemism for enforcement of rights. Contrary to what the consultation suggests, respect is not created by enforcement but by establishing rules that are perceived as fair and balanced by as many stakeholders as possible. With this in mind the most effective way to improve ‘respect for rights’ would be to take user concerns seriously when addressing the other issues identified throughout the entire consultation.</p>
<p>Instead, the Commission has added a question that is explicitly aimed at inviting answers promoting stronger liability of intermediaries for copyright infringement by third parties:</p>
<blockquote><p>In particular, is the current legal framework clear enough to allow for sufficient involvement of intermediaries (such as Internet service providers, advertising brokers, payment service providers, domain name registrars, etc.) in inhibiting online copyright infringements with a commercial purpose? If not, what measures would be useful to foster the cooperation of intermediaries?</p></blockquote>
<p>This is the exact same proposal that was rejected by a broad coalition <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Protests_against_SOPA_and_PIPA">that brought down the SOPA/PIPA legislative proposals in the US</a> earlier this year. It was also one of the most contentious issues in ACTA, which ultimately was rejected by the European Union. It is sad to see the Commission promoting this approach in the context of this otherwise reasonable consultation.</p>
<h3>Next steps</h3>
<p>It is somewhat unclear what will happen to the outcomes of the public consultation. Given that next year is an election year it is rather unrealistic that they will feed directly into a legislative proposal for a new or updated EU copyright directive. At best, we hope that the current Commission will provide the next one with a clear and precise roadmap for copyright reform &#8211; which we hope will be in line with our recommendations.</p>
<p>But regardless of the likelihood of immediate outcomes, it is important that stakeholders who are in favor of meaningful copyright reform make themselves heard by providing their perspectives. Communia will work with a broad coalition of other organisations on ensuring broad feedback from across all affected sectors. As part of this we expect to publish a more detailed answering guide at the beginning of next year.</p>


feed_id: http://creativecommons.org/?p=41148
title: Holiday albums from ccMixter
uri: Holiday-albums-from-ccMixter
url: http://creativecommons.org/weblog/entry/41148
content:
<p><a href="http://tunetrack.net/ccmixter/blog/posts/637/season-of-gratitude-holiday-albums/"><img src="media/98d9741b.12248205-season-of-gratitude-by-ccmixter.jpg" data-original-source="http://creativecommons.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/12/12248205-season-of-gratitude-by-ccmixter.jpg" width=240 height=240 align="right" border=0 /></a>If you&#8217;re not familiar with <a href="http://ccmixter.org/">ccMixter</a>, you should be. It&#8217;s an amazing community for downloading and sharing CC-licensed, remixable music and samples.</p>
<p><a href="http://tunetrack.net/ccmixter/blog/posts/637/season-of-gratitude-holiday-albums/">ccMixter has released two albums of holiday music this year</a>; you can buy them or receive them for free for becoming a ccMixter supporter.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.prlog.org/12248205-cup-of-winter-cheer-ccmixters-season-of-gratitude-double-album-now-available-on-itunes.html">From the press release</a>:</p>
<blockquote><p>Season of Gratitude was first conceived last November, when the ccMixter all-volunteer admin team organized its annual Holiday Remix Event called Gift of Song. The community created original holiday-themed samples, a capellas, songs, and remixes. True to all ccMixter uploads, each original sound was released with Creative Commons licenses which inspire collective creativity and allow everyone to enjoy the resulting songs for free.  The Season of Gratitude double album is a curation of the remixes that transpired from the event, re-mastered by ccMixter artist Copperhead, for optimum sound quality.</p></blockquote>
<blockquote><p>“I love participating in the annual holiday remix event on ccMixter,” shares Kara Square, contributing Season of Gratitude artist.  “The atmosphere on the site is extra warm and open-minded.  As we contribute, we learn about each other’s beliefs and celebrate our diversity through the music we invent.”</p></blockquote>
<p><strong>Other holiday goodies:</strong></p>
<ul>
<li><a href="/weblog/entry/40991">Give open: CC’s holiday shopping list</a></li>
<li><a href="/weblog/entry/41050">Free! Music! Sampler now shipping</a></li>
</ul>


feed_id: http://creativecommons.org/?p=41139
title: Permanence of CC licenses upheld in CrunchBase settlement
uri: Permanence-of-CC-licenses-upheld-in-CrunchBase-settlement
url: http://creativecommons.org/weblog/entry/41139
content:
<div style="float:right; padding:10px" xmlns:dc="http://purl.org/dc/terms/" xmlns:cc="/ns#" about="http://www.flickr.com/photos/kalexanderson/5083631539/"><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/kalexanderson/5083631539/"><img width="320" height="240" src="media/47b29cd5.5083631539_d5c845f8df_n.jpg" data-original-source="http://farm5.staticflickr.com/4087/5083631539_d5c845f8df_n.jpg" alt="CC in the box of letters" /></a>
<p><small><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/kalexanderson/5083631539/"><span property="dc:title">CC in the box of letters</span></a> / <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/kalexanderson/"><span property="cc:attributionName">Kristina Alexanderson</span></a> / <a rel="license" href="/licenses/by-sa/2.0/">CC BY-SA</a></small></p>
</div>
<p>For how popular they are worldwide, it&#8217;s striking <a href="http://wiki.creativecommons.org/Case_Law">how rarely CC licenses&#8217; validity has been questioned in court</a>. We consider that a testament to the care with which we craft the licenses: we try to find every possible area of contention or ambiguity before we launch the licenses. To our knowledge, no court in any country has ever found a CC license invalid.</p>
<p>An out-of-court settlement yesterday affirmed what most people reading this blog already knew: you are free to use Creative Commons&#8211;licensed content under the terms of the license without fear of infringing the licensor&#8217;s copyright, <a href="http://wiki.creativecommons.org/Frequently_Asked_Questions#What_if_I_change_my_mind_about_using_a_CC_license.3F">even if the licensor changes her mind later</a>.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.eff.org/press/releases/startup-settles-creative-commons-licensing-dispute-tech-database">The complicated case</a> involved CrunchBase, a <a href="/licenses/by/3.0/">CC BY</a> database of names and companies in the tech space, operated by TechCrunch. A startup company called <a href="http://getpeopleplus.com/">Pro Populi</a> built an app using CrunchBase data with attribution. CrunchBase questioned the legality of Pro Populi using its data in that way, pointing to a clause in its own terms-of-service agreement reserving the right to &#8220;<a href="http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/2013/11/aol-crunchbase-cc-flap/">continually review and evaluate all uses of the API, including those that appear more competitive than complementary in nature</a>.&#8221;</p>
<p>When the story hit last month, <a href="http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/2013/11/aol-crunchbase-cc-flap/">Wired&#8217;s David Kravets interviewed CC&#8217;s Diane Peters</a>. She reiterated the non-revocable nature of the licenses, saying, &#8220;As a matter of copyright, once you have it, you have it, and can do what you want with it.&#8221;</p>
<p>The case has now been dropped, but more importantly, CrunchBase has now revised its own terms-of-service agreement to remove any contradiction with the CC license, thanks in no small part to <a href="https://www.eff.org/press/releases/startup-settles-creative-commons-licensing-dispute-tech-database">our friends at the Electronic Freedom Foundation</a>:</p>
<blockquote><p>&#8220;Offering content under the most permissive CC license while claiming the right to shut down uses they didn&#8217;t like was a bit misleading,&#8221; said EFF Staff Attorney Mitch Stoltz. &#8220;CrunchBase&#8217;s new terms of service are clearer and more in line with the best practices of the open content community. The new terms should allow developers to re-use and build on the CrunchBase dataset with greater confidence.&#8221;</p></blockquote>
<blockquote><p>[&#8230;]</p></blockquote>
<blockquote><p>&#8220;We are grateful to the Electronic Frontier Foundation for playing an instrumental role in updating the CrunchBase Terms of Service,&#8221; said CrunchBase President Matt Kaufman. &#8220;At their suggestion, we adopted Creative Commons 4.0 and open content best practices. These updates provide more clarity to our community and provide a stronger foundation from which to build and extend the CrunchBase dataset.&#8221;</p></blockquote>


feed_id: http://creativecommons.org/?p=41329
title: BioMed Central moves to CC BY 4.0 along with CC0 for data
uri: BioMed-Central-moves-to-CC-BY-4-0-along-with-CC0-for-data
url: http://creativecommons.org/weblog/entry/41329
content:
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<td colspan="3" align="center">
<div style="text-align: center">
<a href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/"><img src="media/7d9c37fb.cc40-itshere-275.png" data-original-source="http://creativecommons.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/11/cc40-itshere-275.png" alt="CC 4.0" width="55" height="49" class="alignleft size-full wp-image-40912" /></a><br />
</p>
<h3>at</h3>
</div>
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<td>
<a href="http://www.biomedcentral.com" target="_blank"><img src="media/74364987.bmc_logo-300x69.png" data-original-source="http://creativecommons.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/12/bmc_logo-300x69.png" alt="BioMed Central, The Open Access Publisher" width="225" height="52" class="alignleft size-medium wp-image-41336" /></a>
</td>
<td>
<a href="http://www.chemistrycentral.com/"><img src="media/c5333e02.chemcentral_logo.gif" data-original-source="http://creativecommons.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/12/chemcentral_logo.gif" alt="chemcentral_logo" width="220" height="52" class="alignleft size-medium wp-image-41346" /></a>
</td>
<td>
<a href="http://www.springeropen.com"><img src="media/251d0f00.springeropen_logo.gif" data-original-source="http://creativecommons.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/12/springeropen_logo.gif" alt="SpringerOpen" width="145" height="52" class="alignleft size-full wp-image-41345" /></a>
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<p><a href="http://www.biomedcentral.com" title="BioMed Central" target="_blank">BioMed Central</a> (BMC) is one of the largest open access (OA) publishers in the world with 250 peer-reviewed OA journals, and more than 100,000 OA articles published yearly. BMC is also long-time user of CC licenses to accomplish its mission of husbanding and promoting open science. BMC has been publishing articles under a CC license since 2004.</p>
<p>In June of least year, BMC&#8217;s Iain Hrynaszkiewicz and Matthew Cockerill, published an editorial titled <a href="http://www.biomedcentral.com/1756-0500/5/494" title="Open by default" target="_blank">Open by default</a> in which they proposed a <em>copyright license and waiver agreement for open access research and data in peer-reviewed journals</em>. The gist of the editorial was that</p>
<blockquote><p>
Copyright and licensing of scientific data, internationally, are complex and present legal barriers to data sharing, integration and reuse, and therefore restrict the most efficient transfer and discovery of scientific knowledge, (and that implementing) a combined Creative Commons Attribution license (for copyrightable material) and Creative Commons CC0 waiver (for data) agreement for content published in peer-reviewed open access journals… in science publishing will help clarify what users—people and machines—of the published literature can do, legally, with journal articles and make research using the published literature more efficient.
</p></blockquote>
<p>Starting September 3, 2013, in keeping with its forward-looking mission, BMC started requiring a <a href="http://creativecommons.org/about/cc0" title="CC0 Public Domain Dedication" target="_blank">CC0 Public Domain Dedication</a> for data supporting the published articles.</p>
<p>This is good because CC0 reduces all impedance to sharing and reuse by placing the work in the public domain. Good scientific practices assure proper credit is given via citation, something   scientists have already been doing for centuries. Marking data with CC0 sends a clear signal of zero impedance to reuse. CC0 is a public domain dedication, however, wherever such a dedication is not possible, CC0 has a public license fallback. Either way, the impedance to data reuse is eliminated or minimized. Making CC0 the default removes uncertainty, and speeds up the process of accessible, collaborative, participatory and inclusive science.</p>
<p>But wait, there is more… starting February 3, 2014, BMC, <a href="http://www.chemistrycentral.com" title="Chemistry Central" target="_blank">Chemistry Central</a> and all of <a href="http://www.springeropen.com" title="SpringerOpen" target="_blank">SpringerOpen</a> family of journals are also <a href="http://blogs.biomedcentral.com/bmcblog/2013/12/18/moving-forward-biomed-centrals-open-access-license-is-being-updated-to-cc-by-4-0/" target="_blank">Moving Forward</a> to the latest CC BY 4.0 license. <a href="http://blogs.biomedcentral.com/bmcblog/2013/12/18/cc-by-4-0/" target="_blank">Changes in CC-BY — version 4.0</a>, released on <a href="http://creativecommons.org/weblog/entry/40768" target="_blank">Nov 25, 2013</a>, represent more than two years of community process, public input and feedback to develop a truly open, global license suitable for both copyright, related rights and, where applicable, database rights. By moving to CC4.0, BMC is not only getting set for reliable, globally recognizable mark of open, it is also setting a high bar for the future of open science.</p>
<p>We at Creative Commons are big fans of BMC, and we applaud their move to creating a stronger, more vibrant open commons of science.</p>


feed_id: http://creativecommons.org/?p=41172
title: Creative Commons welcomes new energy and expertise onto its board
uri: Creative-Commons-welcomes-new-energy-and-expertise-onto-its-board
url: http://creativecommons.org/weblog/entry/41172
content:
<ul>
<li><strong><a href="media/38d2ff89.cc-newboardmembers.pdf" data-original-source="http://creativecommons.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/12/cc-newboardmembers.pdf">Download the press release (118 KB PDF)</a></strong></li>
<li><strong><a href="/board">Updated board and advisory council listing</a></strong></li>
</ul>
<p>Creative Commons, a globally-focused nonprofit that provides legal and technological tools for sharing and collaboration, welcomed eight new members to its board of directors today. It also announced a new advisory council to complement the board and provide input and feedback to CC leadership. Several alumni of the CC board will be transitioning to the advisory council. CC co-founder Lawrence Lessig will lead the advisory council and transition to emeritus status on the board.</p>
<p>The announcement comes on the anniversary of the first Creative Commons licenses, which were launched in 2002. Since then, thousands of creators around the world have used Creative Commons licenses, amassing a selection of over half a billion CC-licensed works, spanning the worlds of education, art, academia, data, science, and much more.</p>
<p>&#8220;With the continuity of current board members and a fresh outlook brought by the new members, Creative Commons is well prepared to engage with a very different environment from the time of its founding,&#8221; board chair Paul Brest said. &#8220;The board includes some of the world’s foremost experts in technology, intellectual property  law, the internet, and business and social entrepreneurship. It’s appropriate that we’re announcing the new board on December 16, the date when it all began eleven years ago.&#8221;</p>
<p>The new board members reflect the broad diversity of the global Creative Commons community. Four of the new board members&#160;&#8212; Renata Avila (Guatemala), Dorothy Gordon (Ghana), Paul Keller (Netherlands), and Jongsoo Yoon (South Korea)&#160;&#8212; are Creative Commons affiliates, experts who represent Creative Commons around the world and localize CC licenses and other materials for their jurisdictions.</p>
<p>Creative Commons also gained board members with substantial experience in technology and product development, like Ben Adida, a director of engineering at Square who previously served as CC&#8217;s first technology lead; and Christopher Thorne, a veteran technology entrepreneur and private equity investor. The new members also bring additional legal acumen to the organization, including Microsoft intellectual property counsel Thomas C. Rubin and New York University Law School professor Chris Sprigman. Together, these individuals will augment Creative Commons&#8217; existing capacity in technology and intellectual property law.</p>
<p>Creative Commons CEO Cathy Casserly will be leaving her role as CEO in early 2014, but will continue to serve on the newly formed advisory council. &#8220;While my role in the organization will be changing, I&#8217;m proud to continue to serve the CC community alongside this diverse and talented group of leaders,&#8221; Casserly said. &#8220;Through our collective efforts, we will continue to work toward our vision of a truly collaborative, free internet.&#8221;</p>


feed_id: http://creativecommons.org/?p=41182
title: What we’ve built together
uri: What-we-ve-built-together
url: http://creativecommons.org/weblog/entry/41182
content:
<p align="center"><a href="https://donate.creativecommons.org/?utm_campaign=2013fund&#038;utm_source=blog4&#038;utm_medium=blog"><img src="media/f6cb8f10.teamopen-600-orange.png" data-original-source="http://creativecommons.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/12/teamopen-600-orange.png" width=600 height=108 border=0 /></a></p>
<p align="center"><strong><a href="https://donate.creativecommons.org/?utm_campaign=2013fund&#038;utm_source=blog4&#038;utm_medium=blog"><font COLOR="#c95b28">Pick Team Open.<br />Support Creative Commons.</font></a></strong></p>
<p>On this date in 2002, we launched the first Creative Commons license suite. But it&#8217;s what happened next that matters.</p>
<p>Thousands of creators started using CC licenses to share their works, everything from film to educational resources to science research. And sometime between then and now, the world changed a little.</p>
<p>Musicians started thinking less about piracy and more about how they could benefit from fans sharing their music. Entrepreneurs developed business models based on open licenses, proving that you can share your work without sacrificing profit.</p>
<p>And there&#8217;s something else. <a href="http://teamopen.cc/"><em>People began to demand open</em></a>. We started expecting it from our governments, our universities, and our employers. Legally, All Rights Reserved is still the default, but today, it&#8217;s a choice. Today, people notice when those in power choose <em>closed</em>.</p>
<p>Let&#8217;s not delay the obvious any longer: we&#8217;re writing to ask for money. As you&#8217;re considering which charities to support this year, please take a moment to reflect on what we&#8217;ve built together over the past 11 years.</p>
<p>When you use a Creative Commons license, you fuel a movement for open that spans every country on earth. A CC license badge isn&#8217;t just a legal tool; it&#8217;s a symbol for the better world that we can make together. Thank you for joining Team Open.</p>
<p><a href="https://donate.creativecommons.org/?utm_campaign=2013fund&#038;utm_source=blog4&#038;utm_medium=blog">Please make a donation to Creative Commons at whatever level you can afford</a>. We have some t-shirts and other gifts for donors, but more importantly, we promise to use every cent to fight harder than ever for open.</p>
<p>Year 12 starts now.</p>
<p align="right"><a href="https://donate.creativecommons.org/?utm_campaign=2013fund&#038;utm_source=blog4&#038;utm_medium=blog"><img src="media/9271a72a.ccheart-orange.png" data-original-source="http://creativecommons.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/12/ccheart-orange.png" width=114 height=100 alt="Support Creative Commons" /></a></p>


feed_id: http://creativecommons.org/?p=41216
title: Paleobiology Database now CC BY
uri: Paleobiology-Database-now-CC-BY
url: http://creativecommons.org/weblog/entry/41216
content:
<p>[written in collaboration with <a href="http://strata.geology.wisc.edu/Home/Home.html" target="_blank">Shanan Peters</a>, Professor, Department of GeoScience, University of Wisconsin-Madison and the Principal Investigator of the <a href="http://paleobiodb.org/#/about" target="_blank">Paleodb Project</a>]</p>
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<a href="http://paleobiodb.org/#/" target="_blank"><img src="media/6b5f386f.pbdb_banner.png" data-original-source="http://creativecommons.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/12/pbdb_banner.png" alt="The Paleobiology Database" width="558" height="89" class="alignleft size-full wp-image-41322" /></a></p>
<h3>now available under</h3>
<p><a href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/" target="_blank"><img src="media/83fa4d12.cc-by.png" data-original-source="http://creativecommons.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/12/cc-by.png" alt="CC BY" width="88" height="31" class="alignleft size-full wp-image-41218" /></a>
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<p>After a year of community feedback and discussion, the Paleobiology Database has <a href="http://paleobiodb.org/#/faq/who-owns-the-db" title="Who owns the PBDB" target="_blank">taken the decision</a> that <span style="background-color: yellow;border: 1px solid yellow">&#8220;All records are made available to the public based on a Creative Commons license that requires attribution before use.&#8221;</span> The Paleobiology Database is now licensed under a <a href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/" target="_blank">CC-BY 4.0 International License</a>.</p>
<h2 id="paleontology">Paleontology</h2>
<p>Paleontology, the description and biological classification of fossils, has spawned countless field expeditions, museum trips, and hundreds of thousands of publications. The construction of databases that aggregate these descriptive data on fossils in a way that allows large-scale, synthetic questions to be addressed, such as the long-term history of biodiversity and rates of biological extinction and origination during global environment change, has greatly expanded the intellectual reach of paleontology and has led to many important new insights into macroevolutionary and macroecological processes. </p>
<h2 id="pbdb">Paleobiology Database</h2>
<p>One of the largest compendia of fossil data assembled to date is the <a href="http://paleobiodb.org" target="_blank">Paleobiology Database</a> (PBDB), founded in 1998 by <a href="http://bio.mq.edu.au/~jalroy/" target="_blank">John Alroy</a> and <a href="http://ib.berkeley.edu/people/faculty/marshallc" target="_blank">Charles Marshall</a>. These two pioneers assembled a small team of scientists who were motivated to generate the <a href="http://www.pnas.org/content/98/11/6261" target="_blank">first geographically-explicit, sampling standardized global biodiversity curve</a>. The PBDB has since grown to include an international group of more than 150 contributing scientists with diverse research agendas. Collectively, this body of volunteer and grant-supported investigators have spent more than 9 continuous person years entering more than 280,000 taxonomic names, nearly 500,000 published opinions on the status and classification of those names, and over 1.1 million taxonomic occurrences. Some PBDB data derive from the original fieldwork and specimen-based studies of the contributors, but the majority of the data were extracted from the text, figures, and tables of over 48,000 published papers, books, and monographs that span the range of topics covered by paleontology. Their efforts have been well rewarded by enabling new science. As of December 2013, the PBDB had produced almost <a href="http://paleobiodb.org/cgi-bin/bridge.pl?a=publications" title="publications" target="_blank">two hundred official peer reviewed publications</a>, all of which address scientific questions that cannot be adequately answered without such a database.</p>
<table style="border: 1px solid grey;background-color: #f5f5f5">
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<em>Ptyagnostus atavus</em> or <em>Leiopyge calva</em> Zone (Cambrian of the United States)
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>
<div id="attachment_41233" class="wp-caption alignleft" style="width: 271px"><a href="http://www.paleobiodb.org/cgi-bin/bridge.pl?a=basicCollectionSearch&amp;collection_no=262" target="_blank"><img src="media/39fdaf8d.h_USA_-_Houston_Museum_of_Natural_Science_-_DSC01415-261x300.jpg" data-original-source="http://creativecommons.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/12/Olenoides_superbus_Late_Middle_Cambrian_Upper_Marjum_Formation_House_Range_Millard_County_Utah_USA_-_Houston_Museum_of_Natural_Science_-_DSC01415-261x300.jpg" alt="Olenoides superbus, Late Middle Cambrian, Upper Marjum Formation, House Range, Millard County, Utah, USA - Houston Museum of Natural Science" width="196" height="225" class="size-medium wp-image-41233" /></a><p class="wp-caption-text">Photo by <a href="media/66019d61.unty_Utah_USA_-_Houston_Museum_of_Natural_Science_-_DSC01415.jpg" data-original-source="http://creativecommons.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/12/Olenoides_superbus_Late_Middle_Cambrian_Upper_Marjum_Formation_House_Range_Millard_County_Utah_USA_-_Houston_Museum_of_Natural_Science_-_DSC01415.jpg">Wikipedia user Dwergenpaartje</a> under CC0 Public Domain Dedication</p></div>
</td>
<td valign="top">
<ul>
<li><b>Where:</b> Utah (38.9° N, 113.4° W: paleocoordinates 4.1° S, 92.0° W)</li>
<li><b>When:</b> <em>Ptyagnostus atavus</em> or <em>Leiopyge</em> trilobite zone, Marjum Limestone Formation, Marjumian (513.0 &#8211; 498.5 Ma)</li>
<li><b>Environment/lithology:</b> offshore ramp; burrowed, peloidal packstone</li>
<li><b>Size classes:</b> macrofossils, mesofossils</li>
<li><b>Primary reference:</b> A. J. Rowell and N. E. Caruso. 1985. The evolutionary significance of <em>Nisusia sulcata</em>, an early articulate brachiopod. <i>Journal of Paleontology</i> <b>59</b><b>(5)</b>:1227-1242 [A. Hendy/A. Hendy] <a href="http://www.paleobiodb.org/cgi-bin/bridge.pl?a=displayReference&amp;reference_no=29202" title="more details" target="_blank">more details</a></li>
<li><b>Purpose of describing collection:</b> taxonomic analysis</li>
</ul>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="2">
<a href="http://www.paleobiodb.org/cgi-bin/bridge.pl?a=basicCollectionSearch&amp;collection_no=262" target="_blank"><b>PaleoDB collection 262:</b> authorized by Jack Sepkoski, entered by Mike Sommers on 20.11.1998</a>
</td>
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</table>
<h2 id="shifttoccby">Shift to CC BY</h2>
<p>From its inception, the paleontologists who have invested the most effort in entering data have made decisions about data management and access policies, which ultimately brings up the important questions of proper licensing and citation. In the first application of the PBDB licensing policy, the individual contributors chose their own CC license for each fossil collection record. As a result there were three kinds of contributors: those who didn’t know what to do, didn’t care, or didn’t know about the new policy that required them to specify how existing collections should be licensed (55% of the data), those who selected the most restricted option available to them (34% of the data), and those who selected the most unrestricted option available to them (10% of the data).</p>
<p>This received mostly negative response via social media and other outlets, partly because of the increased attention the database was receiving during a leadership and governance transition. Naturally, the governance group responded to the community feedback. The first actual action was by individual contributors. Many of the contributors who either didn’t know about CC licenses or who didn’t think fully about their meaning and implications changed their own individual licenses. This always went from a more restrictive license to the least restrictive option available to them: CC BY. That wave of individual choices towards the least restrictive license immediately shifted the balance for records in the database. At that point, only one contributor had a restrictive license, and the governance group quickly moved to adopt one single unifying license for the database: CC BY. Now, all new records are explicitly CC BY as part of database policy, although individual contributors still have the option of placing a moratorium on the public release of their own new data so as to protect their individual scientific interests. </p>
<h2>Future of PBDB</h2>
<p>In addition to being a scientific asset to the field of paleontology, the PBDB and other databases like it provide an addition means by which to participate in rapidly emerging initiatives and developments in cyberinfrastructure. To increase its reach in this area, the PBDB now has an <a href="http://paleobiodb.org/data1.1/" target="_blank">Application Programming Interface</a> (API), which makes data more easily and transparently accessible, both to individual researchers and to applications, such as the open source web application <a href="http://paleobiodb.org/navigator/" target="_blank">PBDB Navigator</a> and the <a href="https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/mancos/id541570878" target="_blank">Mancos iOS mobile application</a>. Both of these applications are built on the public API and are designed to allow the history of life and environment documented by the PBDB to be more discoverable. These new modes of interactivity and visualization highlight unintended, but potentially useful, aspects of the PBDB. The PBDB API has facilitated a loosely coupled integration with other related but independently managed biological and paleontological database initiatives and online resources, such as the <a href="http://www.neotomadb.org" target="_blank">Neotoma Paleoecology Database</a>, <a href="http://www.morphobank.org/index.php" target="_blank">Morphobank</a>, and the <a href="http://eol.org" target="_blank">Encyclopedia of Life</a>. The PBDB API can also be harnessed by geoscientists outside of paleontology, thereby facilitating the integration of paleontological data with diverse types of data and model output, such as paleogeographic plate rotation and geophysical models in <a href="http://www.gplates.org" target="_blank">GPlates</a>. The liberal CC BY license ensures  interoperability and data access necessary to facilitate fundamentally new science and because it expands the reach of paleontology to a broader community of researchers and educators than is possible via any single website or application. </p>


feed_id: http://creativecommons.org/?p=41265
title: UNESCO launches Open Access Repository under Creative Commons
uri: UNESCO-launches-Open-Access-Repository-under-Creative-Commons
url: http://creativecommons.org/weblog/entry/41265
content:
<div style="float:right; padding:10px" xmlns:dc="http://purl.org/dc/terms/" xmlns:cc="/ns#" about="//www.flickr.com/photos/un_photo/3311537995/"><a href="//www.flickr.com/photos/un_photo/3311537995/"><img width="320" height="242" src="media/8f8ad73a.unesco-320.jpg" data-original-source="http://creativecommons.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/12/unesco-320.jpg" alt="The New UNESCO House in Paris" /></a>
<p><small><a href="//www.flickr.com/photos/un_photo/3311537995/"><span property="dc:title">The New UNESCO House in Paris</span></a><br /><span property="cc:attributionName">United Nations Photo</span> / <a rel="license" href="/licenses/by-nc-nd/2.0/">CC BY-NC-ND</a></small></p>
</div>
<p>UNESCO has announced a new <a href="http://en.unesco.org/open-access/">Open Access Repository</a> making more than 300 digital reports, books and articles available to the world under the Creative Commons <a href="http://creativecommons.org/weblog/entry/41061">IGO licenses</a>. </p>
<p>From UNESCO&#8217;s <a href="http://www.unesco.org/new/en/media-services/single-view/news/unesco_makes_its_publications_available_free_of_charge_through_a_new_open_access_repository/#.UrDHaPbRujQ">press release</a>:</p>
<blockquote><p>&#8220;Currently, the Repository contains works in some 12 languages, including major UNESCO reports and key research publications. As well as the 300 Open Access publications, UNESCO will provide on-line availability to hundreds of other important reports and titles.  Covering a wide range of topics from all regions of the world, this knowledge can now be shared by the general public, professionals, researchers, students and policy-makers… under an open license.&#8221;</p></blockquote>
<p>UNESCO will continue to expand its collection of open resources with selected past publications and all new works following its new <a href="media/b4e8b525.oa_policy_rev2.pdf" data-original-source="http://www.unesco.org/new/fileadmin/MULTIMEDIA/HQ/ERI/pdf/oa_policy_rev2.pdf">Open Access Policy</a> adopted in April 2013.  As of 31 July 2013 all new UNESCO publications are released with one of the CC IGO licenses and will be loaded into the Open Access Repository. The majority of UNESCO resources will be openly licensed under <a href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/igo/">CC BY SA</a>.</p>
<p>Kudos too to UNESCO for implementing many of the recommendations in its own <a href="http://creativecommons.org/weblog/entry/33089">2012 Paris OER Declaration</a> (<a href="http://www.unesco.org/new/en/communication-and-information/access-to-knowledge/open-educational-resources/what-is-the-paris-oer-declaration/">translations</a>):</p>
<blockquote><p>d. Promote the understanding and use of open licensing frameworks.<br />
g. Encourage the development and adaptation of OER in a variety of languages and cultural contexts.<br />
i. Facilitate finding, retrieving and sharing of OER.<br />
j. Encourage the open licensing of educational materials produced with public funds.</p></blockquote>
<p>By open licensing its publications, UNESCO not only makes all the knowledge it creates freely and openly available to the world, but it sets an important example for its <a href="http://www.unesco.org/new/en/member-states/countries/">195</a> member (and 9 associate member) nations about the <a href="http://wiki.creativecommons.org/Intergovernmental_Organizations#Why_Intergovernmental_Organizations_Benefit_from_Using_CC">strong policy arguments</a> for releasing publicly funded resources under open licenses. The message is clear: it is a good idea to adopt open policies that increase access and reduce costs to education, research, scientific and cultural resources.</p>
<p>Congratulations UNESCO!</p>


feed_id: http://creativecommons.org/?p=41397
title: Conclusions from the European Commission PSI consultation
uri: Conclusions-from-the-European-Commission-PSI-consultation
url: http://creativecommons.org/weblog/entry/41397
content:
<p>Last month, Creative Commons and several other groups <a href="https://creativecommons.org/weblog/entry/40741">responded</a> to the European Commission’s <a href="https://ec.europa.eu/digital-agenda/en/news/consultation-guidelines-recommended-standard-licences-datasets-and-charging-re-use-public">consultation</a> on licensing, datasets and charging for the re-use of public sector information (PSI). See our response <a href="media/0678172a.Ec_psi_consultation_cc_2013.pdf" data-original-source="http://http//wiki.creativecommons.org/images/c/cf/Ec_psi_consultation_cc_2013.pdf">here</a>. There were <a href="http://ec.europa.eu/information_society/newsroom/cf/dae/document.cfm?action=display&#038;doc_id=3920">355 submissions to the questionnaire (spreadsheet download)</a>, apparently from all EU Member States except Cyprus. The Commission <a href="http://ec.europa.eu/information_society/newsroom/cf/dae/document.cfm?action=display&#038;doc_id=3898">hosted a hearing (PDF of meeting minutes)</a> on the issue on 25 November. </p>
<p>This week the Commission released a <a href="http://ec.europa.eu/information_society/newsroom/cf/dae/document.cfm?action=display&#038;doc_id=3896">final summary report (PDF)</a> to the consultation. There were several interesting data points from the report concerning licensing. First, the questionnaire respondents preferred a &#8220;light-weight approach, limited to a mere disclaimer or consisting of allowing the reuse of data without any particular restrictions&#8230;&#8221; (pg5). In our submission, we said that there should be no conditions attached to the re-use of public sector information, with the best case scenario being for public sector information to be in the public domain, exempt from copyright protection altogether by amending national copyright laws. </p>
<p><a href="media/748d57c6.licensing1.jpg" data-original-source="http://creativecommons.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/12/licensing1.jpg"><img src="media/748d57c6.licensing1.jpg" data-original-source="http://creativecommons.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/12/licensing1.jpg" alt="licensing1" width="622" height="389" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-41401" /></a></p>
<p>Second, when asked about licensing conditions that would comply with the PSI Directive&#8217;s requirement of &#8216;not unnecessarily restricting possibilities for re-use&#8217;, the most respondents indicated support for the requirement to acknowledge the source of data. In our submission we said we believed every condition would be deemed restrictive, since ideally PSI would be removed from the purview of copyright protection through law. At the same time, we realize that if the Commission were to permit public sector bodies to incorporate a limited set of conditions through licensing, then they should be expected to use standard public licenses aligned with the <a href="http://opendefinition.org/">Open Definition</a>. The preference should be for “attribution only” licenses, like CC BY. </p>
<p><a href="media/b4b87d4d.licensing2.jpg" data-original-source="http://creativecommons.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/12/licensing2.jpg"><img src="media/b4b87d4d.licensing2.jpg" data-original-source="http://creativecommons.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/12/licensing2.jpg" alt="licensing2" width="731" height="439" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-41407" /></a></p>
<p>The report noted that a majority (62%) of respondents believed that greater interoperability would be best achieved through the use of standard licences. And 71% of respondents said that the adoption of Creative Commons licenses would be the best option to promote interoperability. The report states, &#8220;this may be interpreted as both a high awareness of the availability of standard licences and a genuine understanding of their role in ensuring licencing interoperability across jurisdictions&#8221; (pg7). </p>
<p><a href="media/7e8b9564.licensing3.jpg" data-original-source="http://creativecommons.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/12/licensing3.jpg"><img src="media/7e8b9564.licensing3.jpg" data-original-source="http://creativecommons.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/12/licensing3.jpg" alt="licensing3" width="778" height="430" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-41411" /></a></p>
<p>The report also mentions the fact that several respondents chose to provide feedback on which Creative Commons licenses would be deemed suitable for PSI re-use. It noted that the most prevalent licenses mentioned were CC0 and CC BY, while a few respondents suggested BY-SA. Others provided a more general answer, such as &#8220;the most open CC license could be used&#8230;But [the] BEST OPTION is no use of any of license: public domain&#8221; (pg9).</p>
<p>The report concludes (pg16): </p>
<blockquote><p>There is also a widespread acceptance of the need to offer interoperable solutions, both on the technical and licencing levels. And even if opinions differ as to the exact shape of re-use conditions, the answers show that a general trend towards a more open and interoperable licencing system in Europe, largely based on available standard licences is gaining ground. </p></blockquote>


feed_id: http://creativecommons.org/?p=41518
title: Creative Commons 4.0 BY and BY-SA licenses approved conformant with the Open Definition
uri: Creative-Commons-4-0-BY-and-BY-SA-licenses-approved-conformant-with-th
url: http://creativecommons.org/weblog/entry/41518
content:
<p>In November we <a href="https://creativecommons.org/weblog/entry/40768">released</a> version 4.0 of the Creative Commons license suite, and today the <a href="http://opendefinition.org/advisory-council/">Open Definition Advisory Council</a> approved the CC 4.0 <a href="https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">Attribution (BY)</a> and <a href="https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">Attribution-ShareAlike (BY-SA)</a> International licenses as conformant with the <a href="http://opendefinition.org/">Open Definition</a>.</p>
<blockquote><p>The Open Definition sets out principles that define “openness” in relation to data and content&#8230;It can be summed up in the statement that: <em>“A piece of data or content is open if anyone is free to use, reuse, and redistribute it — subject only, at most, to the requirement to attribute and/or share-alike.”</em></p></blockquote>
<p>Prior versions of Creative Commons BY and BY-SA licenses (1.0 &#8211; 3.0, including jurisdiction ports) are also aligned with the Open Definition, as is the <a href="https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/">CC0 Public Domain Dedication</a>. Here’s the <a href="http://opendefinition.org/licenses/">complete list</a> of conformant licenses. None of the Creative Commons NonCommercial or NoDerivatives licenses comply with the Definition. </p>
<p>The Open Definition is an important marker that communicates the fundamental legal conditions that make content and data open, and CC is working on ways to better display which of our licenses conform to the Definition. We appreciate the open and participatory process conducted by the Open Definition Advisory Council in <a href="http://opendefinition.org/licenses/process/">evaluating licenses</a> and providing expert assistance and advice to license stewards. Individuals interested in participating in the Open Definition license review process may join the <a href="https://lists.okfn.org/mailman/listinfo/od-discuss">OD-discuss email list</a>. </p>


feed_id: http://creativecommons.org/?p=41505
title: What the internet was made for
uri: What-the-internet-was-made-for
url: http://creativecommons.org/weblog/entry/41505
content:
<p align="center"><a href="https://donate.creativecommons.org/?utm_campaign=2013fund&#038;utm_source=blog5&#038;utm_medium=blog"><img src="media/6f302350.creativeworld-400.gif" data-original-source="http://creativecommons.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/12/creativeworld-400.gif" width=400 height=400 /></a></p>
<p align="center"><strong><a href="https://donate.creativecommons.org/?utm_campaign=2013fund&#038;utm_source=blog5&#038;utm_medium=blog"><font COLOR="#3A8964">Invest in a more creative world.<br />Support Creative Commons.</font></a></strong></p>
<p>Sudanese political cartoonist <a href="http://teamopen.cc/khalid/?utm_campaign=2013fund&#038;utm_source=blog5&#038;utm_medium=blog">Khalid Albaih</a> pushes boundaries with his art to reach new viewers and ignite change. &#8220;People should support Creative Commons if they care about what they&#8217;re doing, and they want to get their work to as many people as possible; if they care about collaborating with people all over the world together and coming up with something beautiful&#8230; this is what we&#8217;re supposed to be doing&#160;&#8212; what the internet was made for.&#8221;</p>
<p>YouTube celebrity <a href="http://teamopen.cc/jonathan/?utm_campaign=2013fund&#038;utm_source=blog5&#038;utm_medium=blog">Jonathan Mann</a> gets excited when his work encourages others to create. &#8220;So many people, when they hear what I do, they tell me that they wish that they could be making more of whatever it is they make. They wish that they were more tapped into their creativity.&#8221; He has certainly tapped into his. He began writing and recording a song a day and posting them online under a CC license for anyone to reuse or remix, garnering worldwide attention.</p>
<p>Illustrator and activist <a href="http://teamopen.cc/miyoung/?utm_campaign=2013fund&#038;utm_source=blog5&#038;utm_medium=blog">Miyoung Yi</a> wants to show other Korean artists the value of sharing. She uses her own CC-licensed drawings to carry her message of open across South Korea. &#8220;[Creative Commons] can pave an alternate path to success outside of big capital, big companies, and big industries.&#8221;</p>
<p>Stand with Miyoung, Jonathan, Khalid, and thousands of other creators who believe that art is best when it&#8217;s shared. Support Creative Commons and make collaboration and creativity flourish. <a href="https://donate.creativecommons.org/?utm_campaign=2013fund&#038;utm_source=blog5&#038;utm_medium=blog">Please donate now.</a></p>
<p align="right"><a href="https://donate.creativecommons.org/?utm_campaign=2013fund&#038;utm_source=blog5&#038;utm_medium=blog"><img src="media/4bc99bf5.heart-darkgreen.png" data-original-source="http://creativecommons.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/12/heart-darkgreen.png" width=114 height=100 alt="Support Creative Commons" /></a></p>


feed_id: http://creativecommons.org/?p=41423
title: School of Open: What we did in 2013
uri: School-of-Open-What-we-did-in-2013
url: http://creativecommons.org/weblog/entry/41423
content:
<p>Here&#8217;s another end of year list: <a href="http://creativecommons.org/tag/school-of-open">all the awesome things</a> the School of Open community accomplished in 2013. Last year, we <a href="https://creativecommons.org/weblog/entry/36078">highlighted</a> the work we put into materializing School of Open as a concrete entity with goals and people involved. This year, we actually <a href="http://creativecommons.org/weblog/entry/37179">launched the School</a> with a full set of online courses and kick-off events around the world!</p>
<p>But we didn&#8217;t stop there. All year long, our volunteers have been contributing in so many fantastic and unexpected ways that it&#8217;s been hard to wrap our brains around all the activity. So here&#8217;s my attempt at collecting and distilling everything here, as a teaser for the new School of Open landing page that will happen in 2014. </p>
<div style="float:right; width: 350px; padding-left:0px"><img src="media/4ec66186.SOO-breakdown-copy.jpg" data-original-source="http://creativecommons.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/12/SOO-breakdown-copy.jpg" alt="SOO breakdown" class="alignright size-full wp-image-41445" /></div>
<p>The biggest thing you should note about the School of Open is that it is <strong>no longer just a set of online courses sitting on the P2PU platform</strong>. It is a global community and movement of volunteers developing and running online or hybrid <strong>courses</strong>, <strong>face-to-face workshops</strong>, and <strong>real world training programs</strong> &#8212; all with the purpose of helping people <em>do what they already do</em> <strong>better</strong> with the aid of open resources and tools.</p>
<h3>In 2013, we</h3>
<ul>
<li>Launched <a href="https://p2pu.org/en/schools/school-of-open/#stand-alone">12 stand-alone courses</a> for anyone to take at any time, with or without others.</li>
<li>Ran a total of <a href="https://p2pu.org/en/schools/school-of-open/#facilitated">11 facilitated courses</a> on topics such as: Copyright 4 Educators, Designing Collaborative Workshops, Open Science, CC licensing, Writing Wikipedia Articles, and Why Open? </li>
<li>Conducted initial research on the impact of some of these courses and completed a <a href="https://creativecommons.org/weblog/entry/40393">research residency</a> with the OER Research Hub in Milton Keynes, England</li>
<li>Hosted multiple workshops, course sprints, and other events across 5 continents (in countries like England, Germany, Kenya, China, Sudan, Argentina, South Africa, the U.S.)</li>
<li>Started <a href="http://teamopen.cc/kasyoka/">School of Open Kenya</a>, an after school program for high school students teaching about open educational resources, CC licenses, and the open culture that they engender</li>
<li>Put on an <a href="https://creativecommons.org/weblog/entry/39057">engineering and design challenge</a> incorporating open source and CC licensing education for university students in China</li>
<li>Ran a two-week OER summer camp for kids on Luxi island, an island in rural China (more info to follow in a guest blog post)</li>
<p></p>
<p style="text-align:center" xmlns:dc="http://purl.org/dc/terms/" xmlns:cc="http://creativecommons.org/ns#" about="http://creativecommons.net.cn/2013/07/11/2013-7-11/%e9%b9%bf%e8%a5%bf%e5%b2%9boer1/"><a href="http://creativecommons.net.cn/2013/07/11/2013-7-11/"><img src="media/796f5bf7.OER1.jpg" data-original-source="http://creativecommons.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/12/鹿西岛OER1.jpg" alt="oer summer camp" border=0 /></a><br /><small><span property="dc:title">OER summer camp on Luxi island</span> (<span property="cc:attributionName"> ZHU Renkai</span> / <a rel="license" href="/licenses/by/3.0/cn">CC BY</a>)</small></p>
<li>Launched <a href="https://creativecommons.org/weblog/entry/40105">WikiProject Open</a>, a community of new and experienced Wikipedians, dedicated to improving Wikipedia’s coverage of all things &#8220;open&#8221; and to using openly licensed content to improve Wikipedia articles in general</li>
<li>Got the School of Open&#8217;s Writing Wikipedia Articles course <a href="https://creativecommons.org/weblog/entry/40460">adopted as part of a formal university course</a> (the University of Mississippi&#8217;s &#8220;Open Educational Resources and Practices&#8221;)</li>
<li>Piloted <a href="http://badges.p2pu.org/">P2PU badges</a> for 7 of our facilitated courses! For examples, check out this <a href="http://badges.p2pu.org/en/badge/view/119/">Remix OER badge</a> and this <a href="http://badges.p2pu.org/en/badge/view/110/">Intro to Open Science Open Access badge</a></li>
<li>Built a <a href="http://timemapper.okfnlabs.org/okfnedu/open-education-timeline">human timeline of the open education space</a>! Which we want anyone and everyone to <a href="https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0Anv5eAZeR0ERdGh3YmVqd0xBU1hveVNfLWtGVEdLaVE&#038;usp=sharing">contribute to</a></li>
<li>Helped turn a &#8220;collaborations across the open space&#8221; session at Mozfest into a funded part-time position that will help coordinate our open communities! (more info at <a href="http://pad.okfn.org/p/Open_Communities_Group">this pad</a>)</li>
<li>Developed <a href="http://info.p2pu.org/get-involved/create-a-course/">support resources</a> for course facilitators, including this <a href="https://creativecommons.org/weblog/entry/40184">comprehensive tip sheet</a> by a facilitator with a 95% retention rate</li>
<li>Created a couple videos for online conferences, like <a href="https://vimeo.com/76496537">this one for K-12 educators</a> and this <a href="https://vimeo.com/60035152">one for Open Ed Week</a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.slideshare.net/janeatcc/expanding-the-school-of-open-affiliate-showcase">Showcased School of Open projects by CC affiliates</a> at the Creative Commons Global Summit in Buenos Aires&#8230;</li>
</ul>
<p style="text-align:center"><iframe src="http://www.slideshare.net/slideshow/embed_code/25649626" width="427" height="356" frameborder="0" marginwidth="0" marginheight="0" scrolling="no" style="border:1px solid #CCC;border-width:1px 1px 0;margin-bottom:5px" allowfullscreen> </iframe></p>
<p>&#8230;and more, all of which you can check out in detail on the CC blog at <a href="http://creativecommons.org/tag/school-of-open">http://creativecommons.org/tag/school-of-open</a>. </p>
<h3>In 2014, we will</h3>
<ul>
<li>Launch our third round of facilitated courses in March. <a href="http://groups.google.com/group/school-of-open-announce">Sign up to be notified</a> when registration opens</li>
<li>Revamp the <a href="http://schoolofopen.org/">School of Open landing page</a> to better reflect our multi-layered activity</li>
<li>Build out courses in different languages. So far volunteers have expressed interest in translating courses into Spanish, Romanian, Hindi, Swedish, Chinese, Korean, Dutch, French, Arabic, German, Portuguese, Danish, Finnish, Hebrew&#8230; yes, we&#8217;ve got our work cut out for us!</li>
<li>Expand current training programs to other regions; for example, we hope to have similar programs to School of Open Kenya in place in Ghana, Nigeria, and Tanzania</li>
<li>Start new courses and training programs in South Africa, Colombia, Uruguay, El Salvador, Argentina, and more!</li>
<li>Collaborate with our fellow open organizations such as OKFN, Mozilla, Wikimedia, P2PU, and more!</li>
<li>Do more research! And completing a report of our findings with the OER Research Hub</li>
<li>Get more SOO courses adopted as part of formal university courses</li>
<li>Secure professional development credit for teachers/librarians taking Copyright 4 Educators in Australia (and elsewhere)</li>
<li>Collaborate with the California School Librarians Association (CSLA) to increase CC and OER education in K-12 schools!</li>
<div style="float:right; width: 200px; padding-left:10px" xmlns:dc="http://purl.org/dc/terms/" xmlns:cc="/ns#" about="http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8352/8330884841_8056fc575b.jpg"><a href="https://secure.flickr.com/photos/hades2k/8330884841/in/photostream/"><img src="media/023f14a3.firework1.jpg" data-original-source="http://creativecommons.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/12/firework1.jpg" alt="fireworks" /></a>
<p><small><em><span property="dc:title">Fireworks</span></em> / <span property="cc:attributionName">Jack-Benny</span> / <a rel="license" href="/licenses/by-sa/2.0/">CC BY-SA</a></small></p>
</div>
<li>Run more workshops, especially one for SOO volunteers to get together and grow their respective projects</li>
<li>Take more pictures. We didn&#8217;t have enough this year!</li>
</ul>
<p>And I could go on, but I&#8217;ll stop there. On behalf of the School of Open community, we wish you a Happy Holidays and a wonderful New Year!</p>
<p>If you would like to join us in our endeavors to provide free education opportunities on all things open, introduce yourself at the <a href="https://groups.google.com/group/school-of-open">School of Open Google Group</a>, sign up for <a href="http://groups.google.com/group/school-of-open-announce">announcements</a>, and check out a <a href="http://schoolofopen.org/">course</a> (or two or three).</p>
<h3>About the School of Open</h3>
<p><a href="http://schoolofopen.org/"><img src="media/0f80fa89.school-of-open-logo-small.png" data-original-source="http://creativecommons.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/12/school-of-open-logo-small.png" alt="school of open logo" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-39074" /></a></p>
<p><em>The School of Open is a global community of volunteers focused on providing free education opportunities on the meaning, application, and impact of “openness” in the digital age and its benefit to creative endeavors, education, research, and more. Volunteers develop and run online courses, offline workshops, and real world training programs on topics such as Creative Commons licenses, open educational resources, and sharing creative works. The School of Open is coordinated by Creative Commons and <a href="http://p2pu.org/">P2PU</a>, a peer learning community and platform for developing and running free online courses.</em></p>


feed_id: http://creativecommons.org/?p=41548
title: Thanks for collaborating on 4.0 — looking ahead to 2014!
uri: Thanks-for-collaborating-on-4-0-looking-ahead-to-2014
url: http://creativecommons.org/weblog/entry/41548
content:
<p style="text-align:center" xmlns:dc="http://purl.org/dc/terms/" xmlns:cc="http://creativecommons.org/ns#" about="//www.flickr.com/photos/wwworks/4759535950/"><a href="//www.flickr.com/photos/wwworks/4759535950/"><img src="media/7d726123.4759535950_7bca6684c8.jpg" data-original-source="http://creativecommons.org//farm5.staticflickr.com/4079/4759535950_7bca6684c8.jpg" alt="thank you note for every language" width="500" height="313" border=0 /><br /><small><a href="//www.flickr.com/photos/wwworks/4759535950/"><span property="dc:title">thank you note for every language</span></a> / <a href="//www.flickr.com/photos/wwworks/"><span property="cc:attributionName">woodleywonderworks</span></a> / <a rel="license" href="/licenses/by/2.0/">CC BY</a></small></a></p>
<p>As we take stock of our achievements in 2013 and plan our legal work for the year ahead, we would be remiss not to pause and express our deepest gratitude to the many individuals and organizations whose contributions made one of CC’s most significant projects in 2013 – the development of license version 4.0 – an overwhelming success.  This milestone was made possible because of the dedication of our diverse, talented, and extensive CC community.  Our community brought legal expertise and practical experience to bear in our policy deliberations, and continued to hold us accountable for running an inclusive, transparent process.  CC is thankful for your ongoing efforts and your trust in our stewardship.  The version 4.0 licenses are all the better for your participation.</p>
<p>Although many more could be thanked, we in particular wish to recognize the contributions of a few:</p>
<ul>
<li>the CC <a href="http://wiki.creativecommons.org/CC_Affiliate_Network">global affiliate network</a> for their legal analysis and drafting assistance, which included participation by representatives from more than 55 jurisdictions over the course of <a href="http://wiki.creativecommons.org/4.0/Drafts">four license drafts</a>;</li>
<p></p>
<li>the larger CC community of creators and license users who contributed constructively, thoughtfully, and often passionately to our policy debates through 1000+ posts to our <a href="http://lists.ibiblio.org/pipermail/cc-licenses/">license development email list</a>;</li>
<p> </p>
<li>other public license stewards, including the <a href="https://www.fsf.org">Free Software Foundation</a> and <a href="http://artlibre.org/licence/lal/en">Artlibre.org</a>, for carefully navigating the intricacies of license compatibility and sharing ideas for (hopefully) achieving that goal in the new year;</li>
<p></p>
<li>our friends and colleagues at the <a href="http://artlibre.org/licence/lal/en">Electronic Frontier Foundation</a>, <a href="http://artlibre.org/licence/lal/en">Public Library of Science</a>, <a href="http://softwarefreedom.org">Software Freedom Law Center</a>, <a href="http://www.wikimedia.org">Wikimedia Foundation</a>, and other sister organizations, who contributed expertise and insights on difficult policy decisions and considered with us the potential implications of our policy choices;</li>
<p></p>
<li>CC fellow Mike Linksvayer and consultant Eric Steuer, for their perspectives on past policy decisions and insight into opportunities and challenges for future license adoptions;</li>
<p></p>
<li>former staff members including Chris Webber, Greg Grossmeier, and Aurelia Schultz, as well as the CC board of directors, particularly Michael Carroll and Molly Van Houweling who provided instrumental guidance and legal expertise throughout the process; and</li>
<p></p>
<li>as always, our trusted pro bono counsel at <a href="http://www.lw.com">Latham &#038; Watkins</a> and <a href="http://www.wsgr.com/WSGR/Display.aspx?SectionName=locations/loc_paloalto.htm">Wilson Sonsini</a>.</li>
</ul>
<p>Looking ahead to 2014, our community will have many additional opportunities to participate in our legal work.  In close collaboration with our worldwide affiliate network, we will shortly begin the process of creating and publishing <a href="http://wiki.creativecommons.org/Legal_Tools_Translation">official translations of the 4.0 licenses</a> and related educational materials, including FAQs and implementation tool kits.  We will also be returning our attention to ShareAlike compatibility. We will be finalizing the (currently Draft) <a href="http://wiki.creativecommons.org/DRAFT_ShareAlike_Statement_of_Intent">ShareAlike Statement of Intent</a>, which will be followed by development of ShareAlike <a href="http://wiki.creativecommons.org/DRAFT_ShareAlike_Statement_of_Intent">compatibility criteria and processes</a> and evaluation of leading candidates for compatibility with BY-SA 4.0.  Starting this month, we will also begin publishing a series of blog posts that focus on new features of the 4.0 license suite.  The series will explore in more depth implications of the underlying policy decisions reflected in our new licenses, such as the operation of our licenses in the context of text and data mining.</p>
<p>We will also be turning our attention to legal projects set aside while finishing 4.0, such as our work on CC0 translations and other public domain-focused efforts.  You can also expect us to solicit your input on important new projects under evaluation and in development.  There will be no shortage of opportunities for our community to lend their expertise (and opinions!) as we move forward in 2014.</p>
<p>Thanks once again for contributing to a successful version 4.0 launch.  We look forward to continuing our collaborations with all of you in the new year!</p>


feed_id: http://creativecommons.org/?p=41605
title: Creative Commons seeks CEO
uri: Creative-Commons-seeks-CEO
url: http://creativecommons.org/weblog/entry/41605
content:
<p style="text-align:center" xmlns:dc="http://purl.org/dc/terms/" xmlns:cc="http://creativecommons.org/ns#" about="/weblog/entry/39416"><a href="/weblog/entry/39416"><img src="media/470a4f50.DSC_2346-50kb1.jpg" data-original-source="http://creativecommons.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/09/DSC_2346-50kb1.jpg" alt="GS2013 Final Day in Hall" width="600" height="399" border=0 /><br /><small><a href="/weblog/entry/39416"><span property="dc:title">GS2013 Final Day in Hall</span></a> / <span property="cc:attributionName">Ibtihel Zaatouri</span> / <a rel="license" href="/licenses/by-sa/3.0/">CC BY-SA</a></small></a></p>
<p>You might remember <a href="/weblog/entry/39874">our announcement a few months ago</a> that Cathy Casserly will be stepping down as CEO of Creative Commons this year. Today, we&#8217;re excited to officially open the search for the new CEO. Our friends at <a href="http://www.moppenheim.com/active-searches-items/creative-commons-chief-executive-officer/">m/Oppenheim Associates</a> are helping to coordinate the search.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.moppenheim.com/active-searches-items/creative-commons-chief-executive-officer/">From m/Oppenheim&#8217;s announcement</a>:</p>
<blockquote><p>Creative Commons is at an inflection point in its history. In the coming years, CC will pursue strategies that expand use of its licenses and promote a robust knowledge-sharing ecosystem. The organization recognizes that many paths lay open for pursuing these objectives, and the search for a new chief executive offers an opportunity to explore new ideas for services, products, advocacy, policies and programs. The new leader will oversee continued stewardship of CC&#8217;s licenses and also seek new opportunities to expand knowledge-sharing through the internet.</p></blockquote>
<p><strong><a href="media/96b84a25.Creative-Commons-CEO-position-description.pdf" data-original-source="http://creativecommons.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/01/Creative-Commons-CEO-position-description.pdf">Download the job description</a></strong> (78 KB PDF)</p>


feed_id: http://creativecommons.org/?p=41614
title: Access to knowledge: a basic human right
uri: Access-to-knowledge-a-basic-human-right
url: http://creativecommons.org/weblog/entry/41614
content:
<p align="center"><a href="https://donate.creativecommons.org/?utm_campaign=2013fund&#038;utm_source=blog6&#038;utm_medium=blog"><img src="media/9b39ef81.jack-email.gif" data-original-source="http://creativecommons.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/12/jack-email.gif" width=600 height=400 alt="Jack Andraka - Team Open" border=0 /></a></p>
<p>At the age of 15, <a href="http://teamopen.cc/jack/?utm_campaign=2013fund&#038;utm_source=blog6&#038;utm_medium=blog">Jack Andraka</a> developed a new method for detecting a rare type of pancreatic cancer. Like all scientific discoveries, Jack&#8217;s research built on the work of other researchers. Unlike those researchers, however, he lacked access to the expensive scholarly databases usually paid for by their universities. Fortunately, open access databases carrying a Creative Commons license gave him the tools he needed.</p>
<p>&#8220;Access to knowledge is, you know, a basic human right,&#8221; Jack says. &#8220;Knowledge should not be commoditized; it wants to be free.&#8221;</p>
<p>There&#8217;s been a lot of talk about open access to science research over the past year. In February, <a href="/weblog/entry/35267?utm_campaign=2013fund&#038;utm_source=blog6&#038;utm_medium=blog">the U.S. White House issued a directive</a> requiring that most publicly funded research be available to the public. It was a step in the right direction, but the fight is far from over.</p>
<p>For example, not all of the papers Jack needed were free. He spent nearly a thousand dollars paying to read the research he needed that <em>wasn&#8217;t</em> open. He&#8217;s the first to admit that he was lucky: for most young scientists around the world, those expenses aren&#8217;t an option. &#8220;We need the best and most recent research to be available to <em>everyone</em>.&#8221;</p>
<p>If you think that everyone should have access to the most current scientific knowledge, then stand with Jack and thousands of other scientists who believe in open by <a href="https://donate.creativecommons.org/?utm_campaign=2013fund&#038;utm_source=blog6&#038;utm_medium=blog">making a gift to Creative Commons</a>.</p>
<p><strong>The Brin Wojcicki Foundation has agreed to match every donation that Creative Commons receives in January 2014.</strong></p>
<p align="right"><a href="https://donate.creativecommons.org/?utm_campaign=2013fund&#038;utm_source=blog6&#038;utm_medium=blog""><img src="media/63904e18.heart-email-violet.png" data-original-source="http://creativecommons.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/12/heart-email-violet.png" width=114 height=100 alt="Support Creative Commons" /></a></p>


