Creative Commons Global Summit 2017 - Toronto, Canada

Conferences can sometimes be intimidating especially for first timers or people new to the CC community. We don’t want this to happen to you so we’ve organized this welcome breakfast for CC Newbies where you’ll get to meet other first timers and new community members, make conference buddies and feel comfortable right before we begin the event.

We’d love for you to be at this breakfast and hope you to attend. We'll take care of your registration at this breakfast.

• how do we understand the commons (it is a broad concept!)
• where does Creative Commons fit within the broader commons
• and who our peers, allies and partners are in our efforts

Cultural heritage institutions and libraries often digitize for the purpose of opening up access. An imbalanced copyright system, a lack of information about copyright and public domain status, materials challenges to digitization, and other issues interfere with this goal. How can we improve access and build better tools for achieving that goal from a legal, technical, and community perspective? How can we move past licenses into collaboration and community-building?

Session Goals:

• Tell the public the projects we are currently working on, how they can be fostered and what are our visions for the future.

• Identify areas of work where we can enhance collaboration.

• Provide input for the Open GLAM Platform.

Speakers:

• The Internet Archive is a digital archive with the mission of providing universal access to human knowledge. Our Library2020 project—which seeks to provide libraries everywhere with free access to four million digital books—is one of eight semi-finalists for the MacArthur 100&Change grant challenge.

• The uruguayan database of authors (autores.uy) is a project to gather all the information about uruguayan authors relevant for identifying the copyright status of their works. The aim of this project is to allow institutions a safeguard for their digitization projects. The data is freely available online and can be downloaded freely in an open format.

• OurDigitalWorld is a Canadian non-profit building tools for sharing digitized cultural heritage, working with over 200 GLAM organizations. Our VITA collections toolkit currently hosts over 2.4 million pieces of cultural heritage from across North America.

• The “Digitalisation workshop” is a project that builds DIY Book Scanners and teaches GLAM institutions how to digitize their collections with cheap and easy to find tools & materials. We are also working on building a public domain database of authors (as autores.uy) for Argentina, and helping grassroots magazines projects to digitize their collections.

In this session we will discuss how Europe, Australia and Canada are addressing changes to their copyright laws with the aim to fit education to the modern age.

Policy "listening session": surfacing legal and policy issues areas and trends that affect CC
Saturday April 29
11:30a-12:30p
Facilitated by Timothy Vollmer, Sarah Pearson

The goal of the session is to identify policy areas where CC has a stake and would like to be involved, either in leading, or supporting what’s going on within other civil society and advocacy organisations.   

I’d like for this to truly be a listening session (or as close as it can be to one), so I’d prefer to not have any presentations or panelists talking. If there are questions about what CC is working on from a policy or legal team perspective, then we can answer those.

The clear target participants are CC affiliates. Also, we might want to specifically invite particular attendees from digital rights orgs that tackle issues beyond copyright/IP. For example, we could ask OpenMedia, EFF, Wikimedia, and other NGO reps to come, in addition to some of the typical players already within CC, like Derechos Digitales.

Agenda:

• Intros around the room (10 min)

• Set the stage and goals for the session: CC’s role in copyright policy and commons advocacy under updated strategy, and especially in relation to new global network formation (5 min)

• Open floor: Issue identification (20 min)

  • Stickies: write down top three policy areas you think CC should address in the next year

  • Be ready to explain them to give a bit more context to the group

  • All ideas can go on the table

  • Around the room sharing and grouping similar stickies to the wall

• Discussion of grouped issues (30 min)

  • Including policy & legal trend spotting related to CC

• Discussion of resources & capacity needed (15 min)

• Next steps: ideas for action and collaboration (10 min)

  • Draft a summary of today’s session to be shared with the CCGN and larger community

For 15 years, Wikimedians have worked together to build the largest free knowledge resource in human history. During this time, Wikimedia has grown from a small group of editors to a diverse network of editors, developers, affiliates, readers, donors, and partners. For 8 years, the content on Wikimedia projects like Wikipedia and Wikimedia Commons has been licensed under Creative Commons licenses so it can be used, reused, and remixed for any purpose -- even commercial.

As a movement, much like Creative Commons, we have an opportunity to decide where we go from here. What should we achieve over the next 15 years? What trends will impact the future of free knowledge? To chart our path, the Wikimedia movement is beginning a global strategy discussion that will engage participants across a broad spectrum: editors, readers, affiliates, technologists, activists, policy makers, donors, institutional partners, and people we have yet to reach.

As advocates for free knowledge, what challenges do our communities share? What unites us? Are we part of a broader open movement?

Wikimedia representatives Nicole Ebber and Juliet Barbara will present the initial findings of the Wikimedia movement strategy process (10 minutes) and host a guided conversation about how the Creative Commons and Wikimedia movement intersect, and how we can collaborate (20 minutes).

The message of the commons goes beyond the domain of knowledge and the internet. The commons as an approach can be a unifying political vision bridging many struggles and movements. It can be political and empowering in many domains: from water and energy to science commons, medicines and the right to health, food and democracy.

As an emerging paradigm embracing co-creation, stewardship, and social and ecological sustainability, the commons approach holds the potential for a unified vision towards an alternative economy, which is ecological and from the bottom up.  The idea jointly stewarding shared resources, community and a generative economy, can find resonance with a diverse range of citizens. It is not a movement that is solely  reactionary, on the contrary, it is able to set the agenda showcasing developments on the ground. Recent experiences with the European Commons Assembly are a testimony to the power of the commons narrative.  

Saturday, 29 April
3:30-6:00pm
Harbourfront Room
Facilitated by Timothy and Lisette

• Intros around the room (5 min)

• Agenda of what we want to accomplish today (10 min) (Timothy + Lisette)

  • Purpose and objective(s) of the platform

  • “Setting the floor” of shared principles for copyright reform in the CCGN

  • Discussion of membership process and ideas for working together

  • Drafting of relevant working documents to inform others and solicit feedback

  • Discussion of subgroups/committees

• Explanation of “platform” model under CCGN strategy (15 min) (Alek + Claudio)

• “Show-and-tell” example of existing copyright reform collaboration (20 min)

  • Communia case study (Anna? + others)

  • Others?

• Facilitated discussion and information-gathering: GOALS AND POLICY PLATFORM (30 min)

  • ~6 persons/group

  • Questions to answer in the breakout groups:

    1. What are the goals of the platform? What is in scope? What is out of scope?

    2. What are our core policy recommendations for copyright reform in support of the commons and the public interest?  

    3. What are the key venues for engagement? International (WIPO), supranational (European Union), national (Argentina), multilateral (TPP), etc.

    4. How does this platform intersect with existing coalitions/projects/efforts around copyright reform? i.e. what is already being done?

• Report back (15 min)

• Output: Draft document on shared goals and policy platform for CC copyright reform

 5:15p

• Facilitated discussion and information-gathering: OPERATIONS AND MEMBERSHIP (30 min)

  • ~6 persons/group

  • Questions to answer in the breakout groups:

    1. How do issues get raised? How do decisions get made?

    2. How do new members come into the group?

    3. What are the responsibilities of platform members? How do we enable people to contribute in different ways?

    4. How does the platform communicate, both internally and externally?

    5. How do we develop and agree on a roadmap of work? How do we track and measure these activities?

  • Report back (15 min)

• Output: Draft document for operation of CC copyright reform platform

• Next steps

  • Drafting and editing of papers

  • Public communications of outcomes of the session?

  • Development of working groups on particular aspects?

• Feedback on Mission, Vision, Values
• Preparing to expand in Canada
• Preparing to partner internationally

• Power of Open: 3D Printing
• Power of Open: Arduino 

Are you curious about citizen engagement in the digital age; open and participatory heritage; co-creation between citizens, government and other sectors; mass-scale collaboration; showcasing our national cultural heritage and preserving our social digital photo artifacts? If so, then please join us as we share our Capture.Canada journey! Capture.Canada is an app and web platform where people can share their photos of Canada to co-create an authentic collection of Creative Commons licensed photos available for everyone to enjoy and use – building a living national photo archive and a legacy for generations to come.

Access to relevant learning resources is an important aspect in ensuring inclusive and equitable quality education and lifelong learning opportunities for all as outlined in SDG4. The Commonwealth of Learning (COL) has identified the development of OER as a potential answer to these challenges. A total of 29 provincial OER policies and guidelines were drafted in Sri Lanka, Botswana and Cameroon closely involving the provincial policy makers for school education. This session aims to share how this bottom-up approach was used to ensure wider advocacy for OER and the increased uptake/ownership from a larger number of policy makers/implementers spread throughout these developing countries.

The session will highlight provincial OER policy development activities in Sri Lanka, Botswana and Cameroon. The champions in each country will share their experiences in advocacy, sensitization and development of draft OER policies/guidelines for the school education system in their respective countries. I will use pre-recorded video clips of 10 minutes each for the champions to share their experiences. They will highlight the challenges faced in approaching the most rural of regions in their respective countries to advocate the use of OER for schools as a potential solution for the lack of textbooks. I will be speaking for approximately 30 minutes providing introductions, sharing resources and concluding. 

If we were to reimagine CC's core tools for real users in 2017, who would be our core audience? If we didn't have the constraints of 15 years ago when the licenses launched, how would we design the licenses to serve CC users’ needs and desires today? We will present and discuss current and new designs of the CC licenses, buttons, deeds, and chooser. Content platforms will provide insight into their users’ motivations. Additionally, we invite participants from every region to give us insight into their users’ needs, and an opportunity to help reimagine CC’s tools for the current web and sharing climate.

El movimiento de cultura libre que surgió alrededor de las licencias Creative Commons hace más de 10 años tuvo un impacto importante en Latinoamérica. Artistas, desarrolladores y activistas por el acceso al conocimiento comenzaron a reconocerse como parte de una comunidad global y a crear pensando en el valor de compartir.

Sin embargo, como lo señala el informe “State of Open Policy 2016” el número de políticas o legislaciones nacionales en torno a “lo abierto” no son suficientes para que llamemos a América Latina un territorio abierto. Esto, sumado a que las discusiones sobre derecho de autor en nuestros países han perdido fuerza en la agenda política, parece haber desalentado a las comunidades de creadores y a los mismos activistas y entusiastas de la cultura libre.

Este panorama solo demuestra que aún tenemos mucho por hacer. Por eso nos interesa tener una conversación en donde podamos abordar qué significa la nueva estrategia de CC para nuestra región y qué agenda vamos a construir para asumir los retos y las oportunidades de esta nueva etapa. En otras palabras, para responder al "¿y ahora qué sigue?" que nos plantea este Summit.

Tenemos una gran oportunidad para compartir las primeras bases de dicha agenda y plantear objetivos para los próximos dos años, teniendo en cuenta los objetivos y temas que se proponen este año para la cumbre, relacionados en los intereses de la red y en la necesidad de construir un movimiento que se enfoque en las personas y en fortalecer las relaciones de colaboración.

Algunos puntos a discutir en esta sesión:

• Impacto de la nueva estrategia de CC en nuestra región.

• Revisar/replantear/reivindicar la idea de región

• Financiamiento

• En qué estamos trabajando, cómo podemos colaborarnos.

• Estamos adelantando distintos proyectos y necesitamos espacios para ponerlos en común. (nuevos escenarios de colaboración)

¡Les esperamos!

• Sarah Hinchliff Pearson and Paul Stacey, Made with Creative Commons (every attendee at the Summit gets a free print copy)
• Matt Thompson, Working Open
• Maira Sutton,  Sharing Cities: Activating the Urban Commons