Icommons.org

When Creative Commons saw that its ideas and licenses met with enthusiastic interest around the world, its international licensing project was set up in 2003. Since then, Creative Commons International (CCi) made many friends all over the globe. With Finland, Brazil and Japan being the first jurisdiction projects, volunteering experts around the globe started collaborating with Creative Commons to adapt the licenses to their local copyright. But what exactly is this all about?

Creative Commons Jurisdiction Projects
Creative Commons International works to ‘port’ the core Creative Commons licenses to different international jurisdictions. The aim of this project is to produce high (more…)

This is the second piece in a series of articles written to provide a better understanding of Science Commons and shed light on how the principles of open access tie into Creative Commons‘ efforts in the sciences.

Last month, we took a look at open access ‘ touching on the key points needed to garner a basic understanding of its core principles. (For a refresher, click here. The ‘green’ and ‘gold’ roads were discussed, further breaking down the idea of OA into two branches.

The first branch ‘ the ‘green’ road ‘ is at the heart of our Scholar’s Copyright Project. This model involves self-archiving, where authors first publish in a subscription-based journal, then make their scholarly works available on the public internet after-the-fact.

Our Scholar’s Copyright Project takes on this issue directly. Authors can choose from one of our Author’s Addenda, fill out the form, print and attach to the copyright transfer (more…)

I scan the Open Access and Creative Commons blogs regularly for new developments, but it is gratifying when news of a new venture in commons thinking comes not from the open community, but from industry sources. I was interested, therefore, to see this piece from the Publishers Lunch Newsletter, a lively daily commentary on the publishing industry written by publisher Michael Cader. By the way, Publisher’s Lunch is itself a very successful example of a mixed business model ‘ it provides a free daily online newsletter and a longer and more detailed version in return for a very low subscription ($15 a month). Subscribers get access to a directory of literary agents, a rights trading market, and a database of book reviews. The site carries advertising, but I will give it a free advertisement ‘ for anyone who wants the low-down on what goes on in this very secretive industry, from a lively voice, this is the place to go.

To get to the point ‘ ten days ago this piece appeared in Publishers Lunch, telling of an established author, Jonathan Lethem who is offering to give away film rights to his latest book, You Don’t Love Me Yet in return for a percentage of the take if a film is made. Lethem is a prolific, lively (more…)

Blogs are conversational tools. In my mind, the blogging movement’s philosophical parent is the groundbreaking work, The Cluetrain Manifesto, which pointed out that markets are conversations. A blog is designed to facilitate conversations. Most blogs have certain common elements, which have come to be regarded as defining characteristics of what blogs are. These include comments and trackbacks, which are used to continue and spread conversations that started with one post and has since encompassed many more blogs than were initially contemplated.

But there is a barrier to truly free conversations, using blogs - this is the tendency to publish posts under full copyright. The problem with this is that, without the publisher’s (more…)

The hand that you see in the picture with this article is mine. I want you to imagine it is your hand and that you are looking at your own mobile phone. Then ask ourself: What are we waiting for? When will we use the devices that are now in the hands of 3 billion people to deliver learning: literacy, knowledge, education?

The 3 billion people who already have a mobile phone make up nearly one half of the world’s population. When lessons are made available on mobile phones, it will be half of the people on earth who could look into their own hand and see the little window where learning could reach them. We know that little window is opening with particularly great speed and global coverage for the young generations for whom learning is crucial.

Places where nearly everyone has at least one mobile phone includes Japan, South Korea, Finland, Hong Kong, Norway and the UK. China and India’s enormous markets are absorbing the (more…)

Whenever someone who is familiar with the beautiful history of South Asia hears the name of Lahore, a grand culture signified and coloured by a great history usually comes to mind. Lahore has always been the peaceful cultural capital of the Punjab province in Pakistan, home to beautiful Mughal gardens, historical buildings, mosques, libraries, museums, shrines, forts, towers and monuments dating back centuries to old civilizations and empires of great rulers. The city is inhabited by the lively and joyful Lahoris, people who are always in the mood for fun, games and cultural events spiced with great fiestas and delicious food.

My experience of this culture started when I accidentally walked into a meeting being held by the members of a group called Danka, while I was waiting for a friend at one of Lahore’s relaxed, artistic cafes, “Nai Rang”, owned by Pakistan’s famous architect Nayar Ali Dada, in the heart of Lahore.

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Still trying decide if you’re coming to the Summit? Let this picture, taken from one of the venues, make up your mind for you…

This month, the office is getting bigger, to make space for some new faces at iCommons. You’ll get to meet them in the podcast. We’ll be updating our listeners on how the programme, artist in residence and registration for the Summit are progressing, and we’ll be playing some very cool tunes from the Brazilian leg of the South Africa-Brazil remix contest.

To download the AAC file directly, click here. For the mp3 file, click here. And for the Ogg Vorbis file, click here.

For direct subscribing to the podcast feed:
AAC RSS
MP3 RSS
OGG RSS

Also look for it in iTunes and at Podcast Alley.

Songs:

Noite de Carnaval by rostro - CC BY-NC-SA 2.5
Tudo vem da Africa by luciok - CC BY 2.5
Carnaval na Africa by flu - CC BY-NC-SA 2.5
Cigarra na Brasa by criscabello CC BY-NC-SA 2.5
Madrugada1 by celim CC BY-NC-SA 2.5

Photo: Daniela Faris CC BY 2.5

After our first call for suggestions from the community for participants in the iSummit Artists in Residence programme, we were overwhelmed with the positive response. The Artists in Residence page on the wiki quickly filled with 66 nominees, of which we could only choose 5 participants. The decision was a tough one, and inspired much lively debate amongst the members of the community who volunteered to be part of the process. But after some back-and-forth discussion (and some ‘virtual’ blood, sweat and tears) we are proud to announce the names of the artists who will be participating in the Artists in Residence programme in June, Dubrovnik. (more…)

Yes, you read that right! You can now apply for a scholarship to attend the iCommons Summit in Dubrovnik from 15-17 June.

If you’ve already registered, log on to the registration site with your username and password, and apply for a scholarship by filling out the information under the ‘Scholarship’ tab.

If you haven’t registered, please create an account at http://icommons.pentabarf.org/register by following the instructions.

Please note that scholarship applications close on Monday 26 March. (more…)

iCommons is proud to announce that registration for this year’s iSummit is now open. The annual Summit will be hosted in Dubrovnik this year, from 15-17 June.

The theme of this year’s event is: ‘Opening the Lid: Investigating the Mechanics of Open Communities’. With a focus on isolating what it is that makes successful projects work, this year’s iCommons Summit will (more…)