Icommons.org

Ronaldo Lemos took over the reigns from former iCommons Chairman, Joi Ito at a board meeting in Berlin yesterday. Ronaldo is no stranger to iCommons. He is the force behind Creative Commons Brazil and a number of commons-related projects including the Cultura Livre project, and the Open Business Project, an international initiative taking place in Brazil, Nigeria, Chile, Mexico, South Africa and the UK. Ronaldo is also one of the founders of Overmundo, the largest Web 2.0 iniative in Brazil - a project that he is helping iCommons to extend to its own community in 2007.

Ronaldo is excited about the future of iCommons: ‘The future of iCommons is bright and we have important challenges ahead. Our first goal is to develop tools to empower the iCommons network, and to help the nodes of our community to speak out and act globally. Our meeting in Dubrovnic next June will consolidate our unique role of putting into practice new ideas regarding the future of culture, technology, and information policy.’

Although relinquishing his role as Chairman due to his recent appointment as Chairman of Creative Commons, Joi Ito will remain on the board of iCommons.

During the festive season we tend to spend some quality time with family and friends, enjoying some festive tunes. Now that there is time to relax and listen to music, why not compile a CC-licenced music playlist, or listen to the following playlist created by Bjorn Wijers:

Artist: Some Weird Sin
Song: ‘True Love Is Suidicide’
Sounds like: Pj Harvey before ‘Is This Desire?’ Piano, drums and a great voice! Live at the Simuze evening in ACU, Utrecht The Netherlands on the 20th of december!
License: CC BY-NC-ND 2.0 (more…)

This year Creative Commons employed some fun ways to get you to donate to their annual fundraising campaign.

As stated on the CC site, with the help of Revver they “hacked the fundraising system” - so when you watch the selected Creative Commons videos, they get paid! They also enlisted Flickr, for the CC Swag photo contest, which produced some never-seen-before uses for CC swag.

And since it is the season to be giving we spoke to Melissa Reeder, CC’s Development Coordinator, on the progress of the campaign so far, and why CC is an organisation that you should (more…)

Any initiative that uses ICT as a tool for attaining development goals, for example, improving health care or education ‘ falls under the umbrella term of ‘ICT for development (ICT4D)’.

In November 25 Tech Laureates were honoured at the Tech Museum Awards in Silicon Valley, for using technology to benefit humanity in innovative ways. But not all ICT4D projects are so successful. In fact, since the late 1980s, the sector has been characterised more by project failure than success. Over time a body of knowledge and culture of information dissemination has developed, enabling those in the sector to improve the likelihood of project success by avoiding mistakes, and building on the pioneering work of others. Many case studies have been conducted on ICT4D projects to identify best practices and lessons learned. Drawing on the case study series by Bridges.org, a few of the common best ICT4D practices are described here.

Pre-project best practices

1. Conduct a needs assessment
2. Ensure ownership, get local buy-in and find a champion
3. Identify key external challenges

Project rollout best practices

1. Avoid duplication of efforts
2. Take small achievable steps and stay focussed
3. Stay Focussed
4. Critically evaluate efforts and adapt as needed

Post-project best practices

1. Final project evaluation
2. Disseminate information
3. Make it sustainable (more…)

Everybody in the iCommons community wishes you all the best on this, your 4th birthday.

You’ve come a long way, baby, and the world is a better place for it.

If you’re anywhere near these places on the 15th/16th of December, go on and raise a glass and celebrate the big day.

This month we speak to Jimmy Wales, founder of Wikipedia, president of the Wikimedia Foundation, and member of the iCommons board. We chat about the ins and outs of Wikipedia, and find out about his favourite toothpaste. Is his dental hygiene the same as yours? Keep reading…

1. What inspired the idea to start Wikipedia using a ‘read/write’ web, especially when at the time, the web was typically ‘read-only’?
I was primarily inspired by the free software movement and the writings of Richard Stallman about software freedom. I believed and still believe that those core ideas of freedom apply beyond just software and into many areas of culture.

2. When Wikipedia first started, what incentives did you offer people to get involved in adding content to Wikipedia?
Fun! Even today (more…)

The Tactical Technology Collective is a European based non-profit that aims to advance the use of new technologies as a tool for civil society. One of the core projects of Tactical Tech is NGO-in-a-box, a series of Free and Open Source Software toolkits covering areas such as Audio and Video, Security, Mobile devices and now, Open Publishing.

The editions are distributed quite literally as a box-set of three CDs. The first disc is the compilation put together by the edition editorial team, the second is the GNU/Linux distribution Ubuntu and the third is the OpenCD, a collection of basic FOSS programmes for Windows. One of the project’s core aims is to overcome the problems of bandwidth in many developing countries by providing physical access to the software. Additionally the kits aim to provide an edited selection of tools to minimise the often confusing and labourious process of finding open source software that really works and is user friendly.

NGO-in-a-box also helps solve the problem of distribution and access. By utilising FOSS the toolkits may be freely copied and (more…)

Episode 1 of our fantastic new podcast is now available for download!

In which a lawyer, a media guy, a producer and some commoners discuss Open Film and how it was that one man was able to stop worrying, and love the commons. Also featured is an interview with Whispa, an awfully nice guy and the winner of CCMixter South Africa’s SAfro-Brazilian remix contest.

To download the file directly, click here.

For direct subscribing to the podcast feed, click here.

Also look for it in iTunes and at Podcast Alley.

Small FYI: In the conversation about Open Film, four licences are mentioned. What we meant to say was that there are six licence choices and four conditions to a CC licence. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/

We are proud do announce that iCommons has produced its first podcast!

Produced in the board-room of the iCommons office in Johannesburg, South Africa, we invited a variety of local guest speakers to contribute including Reuben Goldberg (radio journalist), Matthew Buckland (publisher of the Mail & Guardian online), Paul Jacobson (attorney and new media enthusiast), Whispa (the recent winner of the ccmixer SA competition), Heather Ford (iCommons’ Executive Director) and Rebecca Kahn (icommons writer and researcher).

The podcast will discusse topics concerning:

The Internet Governance Forum

How One Man Stopped Worrying, And Learnt To Love CC’¦

Hip to be CC

Got Popcorn?

South-South Alliances - the Bangalore workshop on Electronic Publishing and Open Access; as well as

the ccMixter competition

On Wednesday a feed will be up and running, allowing users to subscribe and/or download the podcast - enjoy!

More pics from the podcast are available on the iCommons flickr group - feel free to join the group and submit your iCommons’ related images!

The Yale Law School Information Society Project (ISP) and the
International Journal of Communications Law & Policy (IJCLP) have just announced their 4th Interdisciplinary Writing Competition. The winning author will present their work at a panel during the next Access to Knowledge Conference (A2K) from April 27-29, 2007 at the Yale Law School. The winner will also be automatically invited to publish their work in a special Autumn 2007 volume of the International Journal of Communications Law & Policy devoted to “Access to Knowledge”.

The IJCLP has also announced a general call for papers. Authors from countries listed as developing and transition countries will receive financial support from an Open Society Institute (OSI) - a great opportunity for technologists, researchers and journalists interested in these issues in the South.

By all accounts, next year’s event promises to be a feast of some of the greatest thinkers around the world who are thinking and talking about Access to Knowledge. According to the organisers, ‘The A2K2 conference will be an event focused on mobilizing the A2K coalition. A2K2 will keep building the connections between access to knowledge issues and amongst the institutions that crystallized at the first landmark conference. Developing both a theoretical framework and delving into the details of practical implementation, the program will focus on mobilizing the private sector, governments, and civil society around A2K issues. A2K2’s policy panels will be structured towards tangible legal and technological solutions and collaborative strategies for policy makers and individual institutions.’

Definitely something to diarise!

Visit the A2K site for more information.