Open Life: The Philosophy of Open Source

Dear members of the Creative Commons community.

I'm sorry if this borders on spam, since I am also the
author of this
book, but I'm sure some of you may be interested in the
newly
published "Open Life: The Philosophy of Open
Source" at
www.openlife.cc/thebook . The book is available online CC
licensed,
but in addition to that the content itself should be
interesting: A
study in the history and practices of Open Source
development, Open
Source business models, and then an extrapolation into the
more
non-technical fields. Creative Commons has its own chapter:
http://openlife.cc/node/84


The Finnish original was published a year ago, and it was
the first
Finnish book ever to be published under an Open Source
style/compliant
CC license. (www.avoinelama.fi)

henrik ingo

-- 
email: henrik.ingoavoinelama.fi
tel:   +358-40-5697354
www:   www.avoinelama.fi/~hingo
book:  www.openlife.cc
_______________________________________________
cc-community mailing list
cc-communitylists.ibiblio.org
http://lists.ibiblio.org/mailman/listinfo/cc-community

Hi! I'm wondering if anybody is writing a proposal for the
European Union's call to create a Public Domain thematic
network?  I want to support Roland Alton-Scheidl's efforts.
 He's currently at the Wizards of OS conference in Berlin
and will give a workshop on this on Sunday.  My Minciu Sodas
laboratory members Markus Petz, Dante-Gabryell Monson and
Eric Schneider are also there.  I hope we might speak up and
work together at this opportunity!

I also ask for help to make contacts in some of the bigger
businesses and institutions as I think that is essential for
the success of a proposal.  They could be in Europe but even
outside contacts might prove helpful.  I'm thinking of
hardware, software, media companies but also perhaps
insurance or real estate or travel or
pharmaceuticals or other companies that are knowledge
intensive and might possibly benefit from a progressive
approach to the Public Domain.  I'm also personally asking
for a review of current dogma and a rethinking as to how we
might approach these issues ethically first, and legally
second.  Please join us at 
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/learningfromeachother/ and
also thank you for discussion at the Creative Commons list.

Andrius Kulikauskas
msms.lt, http://www.ms.lt, Direktorius,
Minciu Sodas
---------------------------------------------


The EU's European Commission has issued a call for
proposals (due 
October 19, 2006) to create a Public Domain thematic
network. Up to 1 
million euros is available. http://europa.eu.in
t/econtentplus and more 
information below.

Since 1998, I have organized our Minciu Sodas laboratory 
http://www.ms.lt to
deliberately leverage the Public Domain to serve and 
organize independent thinkers. Together we have created more
than 15,000 
letters and 3,000 wiki pages. We're starting to reuse this
material in 
more and more ways that facilitate our working together.
We're also 
realizing that our spaces in the Public Domain filters in
those who are 
willing to work openly and share freely and filters out
sharkish, 
trollish and other deconstructive behavior. This means that
we can 
encourage our participants to invest time, energy, resources
in each 
other's growth. I have written about this logic in
"An Economy for 
Giving Everything Away" htt
p://www.ms.lt/en/workingopenly/givingaway.html

I'm writing to encourage us to organize around Roland
Alton-Scheidl, 
PUBLIC VOICE Lab & Project Lead
RegisteredCommons.org, Vorarlberg University of Applied
Sciences, 
http://www.media.coop/ab
out/ He's leading a workshop for all who would 
like to work together on this proposal. It takes place this
Sunday at 
"The Wizards of OS" conference in Berlin 
http://wiz
ards-of-os.org/index.php?id=2922 
http://www.medi
a.coop/project/ecplus/ http://del.icio.us/ecplus

I spoke with Roland today. He and Franz Nahrada know each
other quite 
well. Franz leads our lab's working group Global Villages 
http://www.globalvilla
ges.info 
http://
groups.yahoo.com/group/globalvillages/ Roland is a part
of 
Franz's video bridge team which is working with telecoms so
that they 
offer video bridge equipment free of charge to community
centers which 
subscribe to video bridge services. This option can make all
the 
difference for spreading this technology and is analogous to
the DSL 
companies offering modems free of charge to their
subscribers. It also 
lets subscribers use the existing proprietary technology
without locking 
them into it so they might switch as open source options
arise. And it's 
a ground breaking example of providers serving communities
rather than 
consumers.

Roland is looking for a team of four or five people who
might help with 
his proposal. I'm happy to help. Who else? He also asked
for help to 
find partners in the various European countries, especially
large 
businesses and institutions. Here are some that we can
approach right away:
- Paolo Pumilia in Milan, Italy is the organizer of several
Open Content 
conferences http://www.openculture.org
 with many ties to the academic 
community. He's the one who originally alerted me to the
call.
- Steve Cayzer of Hewlett-Packard Bristol Labs 
http://w
ww.hpl.hp.com/personal/Steve_Cayzer/ is working on the
semantic 
web and is a friend of our lab.
- Stanko Blatnik is in Slovenia and is interested in
distance learning 
and has academic connections.
- Georg Pleger of Creative Commons Austria 
http://w
ww.creativecommons.at/Members/georgP has been very
sympathetic 
and perhaps has more contacts.
I have some connections in Lithuania's government, perhaps
that might be 
relevant.

But we need bigger connections in order to have a chance of
winning. I 
spoke recently with a friendly expert who made it clear that
our lab had 
no chance of winning. These projects are typically won by
outfits that 
manage thirty or forty of them at a time. They have the
whole production 
line ready for this and the calls are usually formulated
with them in 
mind. So I'm encouraging us to work openly and rally around
Roland and 
all who are willing to put in the work and take the risk.
This will 
provide three years of funding for a few organizers and
travel for 
partners. And meanwhile it's a good opportunity for us to
connect and 
support each other.

I defer to Roland regarding the content of the proposal. But
I share my 
ideas. I would call the proposal and the network
"Ethical Public 
Domain". My goal would be to focus our attention on
ethics rather than 
legalities. Our work would be to analyze each domain where
content is 
generated and considered what is the ethically best way to
treat content 
given the relevant issues. And then to make recommendations
as to how 
laws should be changed and how to focus on ethical rather
than legal 
solutions. And how to integrate different kinds of content
in different 
situations.

Our assumption would be that people have a basic human right
to share. 
Any law which presumes that people don't want to share is
in conflict 
with that right. In particular, the laws which assume that
we claim 
ownership of our creative works are counter to our right to
share and 
thus ethically void. People who want to claim legal
protection of their 
creative works ought to be active in marking their content
accordingly. 
Otherwise they are infringing on our right to share. By
clarifying our 
human rights we would help show where the laws are ethical
and where are 
they overstepping.

For example, as Thomas Kalka noted, one argument against
public
domain software is that supposedly author's are not
protected against
presumed warrantees and associated liability. Well, instead
of
abandoning the public domain, why not clarify if the laws
are unethical
and should be changed?

I'm also thinking of social networking (people's implicit
content) and
video bridges (most explicit content) as two ends of a
spectrum and
every other kind of content is somewhere in between.

One idea is to have a video bridge center in every European
country and
have them in other countries so that we could have their
input because
this is a global issue. And to meet through the video
bridges as much as 
possible. And perhaps bring them to conferences throughout
the year so 
that people throughout Europe and around the world could
hook up on this 
issue both online and offline.

I also think that it could be helpful to focus attention on
content that 
is socially meaningful such as a knowledge base for
sustainability that 
could use all manner of media. And a social networking
system to attract 
such giving people and help them help each other find paid
work. Here 
again Public Domain is essential.

The Public Domain can also have an express ethical component
which 
explains what is appropriate behavior under various
conditions. For 
example, if you make money from content, then it's
appropriate to give 
back to the content creators. But how exactly you do that
and who 
exactly you give to isn't so important. And it's not a
legal issue. 
Certainly for individuals and small businesses there is no
recourse in 
civil law because of the expense and wasted energy and so
the law is not 
a solution for the people who matter.

I think it's also perfectly human to have ethics and laws
which allow 
humans to use their best judgement but require institutions
with limited 
liability, such as corporations, to be taxed for their use
of content. 
Or, for example, it makes sense to have patents which allow
humans 
unrestricted use but require corporations to negotiate with
the patent 
holder.

I think it's important to think of the Public Domain in a
practical way 
and not make a legal parody of it. In practice, people can
and do change 
their mind as to whether their work is in the Public Domain.
And the 
common sense consequence is that this does not affect any
copies already 
published but should affect any future copies to the extent
that the 
publisher has been made or should be aware of the change of
status. In 
which case the publisher should be prepared to negotiate or
find a 
substitute. This makes for a world where sharing is much
more voluntary 
and not based on force, and where investments are made
accordingly.

I'm interested to approach participants in the Creative
Commons 
initiative who would like to see more emphasis on ethics
rather than 
law. I believe that here in Europe we might succeed in
developing an 
ethical European alternative ("respect these
requests") to a legalistic 
American approach ("these rights reserved").
Especially as the network's 
major role can be to suggest European policy that leads to
directives 
that lead to harmonized laws throughout the Union.

Pamela McLean has agreed to host work on this proposal at
her working 
group 
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/learningfromeachother/ Her
key 
concept in life is "learning from each other"
and she's especially 
interested in how we and ICT might support learning,
especially in 
Africa, which is a wonderful land for thinking fresh. Paolo
Pumilia is 
also active there. We invite all to join us, please send a
blank message 
to learningfromeachother-subscribe@yahoogroups.com Roland,
if you think 
this is a good idea, please ask people at your workshop to
sign up for 
this group and get their permissions. This would be a great
boost for us 
to help you! Also, the more openly that we write this
proposal, the more 
partners, attention and good will we might attract.

Roland, best wishes in your work!
Please keep us posted!

Andrius

Andrius Kulikauskas
Minciu Sodas
http://www.ms.lt
msms.lt
+370 (5) 264 5950
+370 (699) 30003
Vilnius, Lithuania


Each letter sent to Learning From Each Other enters the
PUBLIC DOMAIN unless it explicitly states otherwise http://www.ethical
publicdomain.org  Please be kind to our authors! 

_______________________________________________
cc-community mailing list
cc-communitylists.ibiblio.org
http://lists.ibiblio.org/mailman/listinfo/cc-community

Sorry! I forgot to add this. Andrius, http://www.ms.lt
------------------------------------------------------------
----

http:
//europa.eu.int/information_society/activities/econtentplus/
docs/call_2006/ecp_work_programme_2006.pdf


REINFORCING COOPERATION BETWEEN DIGITAL CONTENT STAKEHOLDERS

Issues and policies relating to the public domain are
critical across 
all the target areas covered by
the programme for facilitating the accessibility, use and
exploitation 
of digital content in general. In
2006, eContentplus will fund a thematic network to examine
the situation 
in the European Union
and develop strategies and solutions for its Member States.
For the purposes of this work programme, public domain
refers to content 
that is not or no longer
protected by copyright, for example because it is not
entitled to 
copyright protection or the
copyright has been waived or has expired. Related issues
that also 
require examination include
material that is protected by copyright, but can be accessed
and used by 
all, e.g. through open
access, under Creative Commons licences or as orphan works,
i.e. works 
protected by copyright but
where it is impossible to identify the person entitled to
exercise the 
rights.

6.1. A Thematic Network on public-domain and related issues

Objective: A single network will be funded to spread
awareness among 
content stakeholders on the importance of issues relating to
the public 
domain for the usability and accessibility of digital
content. It will 
identify the issues and develop strategies for tackling them
at European 
level.

Conditions: In addition to the common requirements for
Thematic 
Networks, proposals should meet the
following conditions:
• They should bring together experts from different
backgrounds with an 
interest in the public
domain, such as IPR experts, content owners (libraries and
archives), 
representatives of the
scientific community, end users and consumers.
• Participants should represent the interests of actors from
a 
sufficiently wide geographical area
so as to have an impact at European level.

Expected results: Digital stakeholders should understand and
appreciate 
public domain issues and incorporate that understanding and
appreciation 
in strategies and solutions for dealing with such issues at
European
level.

------------------------------------------------------------
---------




Andrius Kulikauskas wrote:

>Hi! I'm wondering if anybody is writing a proposal for
the European Union's call to create a Public Domain
thematic network?  I want to support Roland Alton-Scheidl's
efforts.  He's currently at the Wizards of OS conference in
Berlin and will give a workshop on this on Sunday.  My
Minciu Sodas laboratory members Markus Petz, Dante-Gabryell
Monson and Eric Schneider are also there.  I hope we might
speak up and work together at this opportunity!
>
>I also ask for help to make contacts in some of the
bigger businesses and institutions as I think that is
essential for the success of a proposal.  They could be in
Europe but even outside contacts might prove helpful.  I'm
thinking of hardware, software, media companies but also
perhaps insurance or real
estate or travel or pharmaceuticals or other companies
that are knowledge intensive and might possibly benefit from
a progressive approach to the Public Domain.  I'm also
personally asking for a review of current dogma and a
rethinking as to how we might approach these issues
ethically first, and legally second.  Please join us at 
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/learningfromeachother/ and
also thank you for discussion at the Creative Commons list.
>
>Andrius Kulikauskas
>msms.lt, http://www.ms.lt, Direktorius,
Minciu Sodas
>---------------------------------------------
>
>
>The EU's European Commission has issued a call for
proposals (due 
>October 19, 2006) to create a Public Domain thematic
network. Up to 1 
>million euros is available. http://europa.eu.in
t/econtentplus and more 
>information below.
>
>Since 1998, I have organized our Minciu Sodas laboratory

>http://www.ms.lt to
deliberately leverage the Public Domain to serve and 
>organize independent thinkers. Together we have created
more than 15,000 
>letters and 3,000 wiki pages. We're starting to reuse
this material in 
>more and more ways that facilitate our working together.
We're also 
>realizing that our spaces in the Public Domain filters
in those who are 
>willing to work openly and share freely and filters out
sharkish, 
>trollish and other deconstructive behavior. This means
that we can 
>encourage our participants to invest time, energy,
resources in each 
>other's growth. I have written about this logic in
"An Economy for 
>Giving Everything Away" htt
p://www.ms.lt/en/workingopenly/givingaway.html
>
>I'm writing to encourage us to organize around Roland
Alton-Scheidl, 
>PUBLIC VOICE Lab & Project Lead
>RegisteredCommons.org, Vorarlberg University of Applied
Sciences, 
>http://www.media.coop/ab
out/ He's leading a workshop for all who would 
>like to work together on this proposal. It takes place
this Sunday at 
>"The Wizards of OS" conference in Berlin 
>http://wiz
ards-of-os.org/index.php?id=2922 
>http://www.medi
a.coop/project/ecplus/ http://del.icio.us/ecplus
>
>I spoke with Roland today. He and Franz Nahrada know
each other quite 
>well. Franz leads our lab's working group Global
Villages 
>http://www.globalvilla
ges.info 
>http://
groups.yahoo.com/group/globalvillages/ Roland is a part
of 
>Franz's video bridge team which is working with
telecoms so that they 
>offer video bridge equipment free of charge to community
centers which 
>subscribe to video bridge services. This option can make
all the 
>difference for spreading this technology and is
analogous to the DSL 
>companies offering modems free of charge to their
subscribers. It also 
>lets subscribers use the existing proprietary technology
without locking 
>them into it so they might switch as open source options
arise. And it's 
>a ground breaking example of providers serving
communities rather than 
>consumers.
>
>Roland is looking for a team of four or five people who
might help with 
>his proposal. I'm happy to help. Who else? He also
asked for help to 
>find partners in the various European countries,
especially large 
>businesses and institutions. Here are some that we can
approach right away:
>- Paolo Pumilia in Milan, Italy is the organizer of
several Open Content 
>conferences http://www.openculture.org
 with many ties to the academic 
>community. He's the one who originally alerted me to
the call.
>- Steve Cayzer of Hewlett-Packard Bristol Labs 
>http://w
ww.hpl.hp.com/personal/Steve_Cayzer/ is working on the
semantic 
>web and is a friend of our lab.
>- Stanko Blatnik is in Slovenia and is interested in
distance learning 
>and has academic connections.
>- Georg Pleger of Creative Commons Austria 
>http://w
ww.creativecommons.at/Members/georgP has been very
sympathetic 
>and perhaps has more contacts.
>I have some connections in Lithuania's government,
perhaps that might be 
>relevant.
>
>But we need bigger connections in order to have a chance
of winning. I 
>spoke recently with a friendly expert who made it clear
that our lab had 
>no chance of winning. These projects are typically won
by outfits that 
>manage thirty or forty of them at a time. They have the
whole production 
>line ready for this and the calls are usually formulated
with them in 
>mind. So I'm encouraging us to work openly and rally
around Roland and 
>all who are willing to put in the work and take the
risk. This will 
>provide three years of funding for a few organizers and
travel for 
>partners. And meanwhile it's a good opportunity for us
to connect and 
>support each other.
>
>I defer to Roland regarding the content of the proposal.
But I share my 
>ideas. I would call the proposal and the network
"Ethical Public 
>Domain". My goal would be to focus our attention
on ethics rather than 
>legalities. Our work would be to analyze each domain
where content is 
>generated and considered what is the ethically best way
to treat content 
>given the relevant issues. And then to make
recommendations as to how 
>laws should be changed and how to focus on ethical
rather than legal 
>solutions. And how to integrate different kinds of
content in different 
>situations.
>
>Our assumption would be that people have a basic human
right to share. 
>Any law which presumes that people don't want to share
is in conflict 
>with that right. In particular, the laws which assume
that we claim 
>ownership of our creative works are counter to our right
to share and 
>thus ethically void. People who want to claim legal
protection of their 
>creative works ought to be active in marking their
content accordingly. 
>Otherwise they are infringing on our right to share. By
clarifying our 
>human rights we would help show where the laws are
ethical and where are 
>they overstepping.
>
>For example, as Thomas Kalka noted, one argument against
public
>domain software is that supposedly author's are not
protected against
>presumed warrantees and associated liability. Well,
instead of
>abandoning the public domain, why not clarify if the
laws are unethical
>and should be changed?
>
>I'm also thinking of social networking (people's
implicit content) and
>video bridges (most explicit content) as two ends of a
spectrum and
>every other kind of content is somewhere in between.
>
>One idea is to have a video bridge center in every
European country and
>have them in other countries so that we could have their
input because
>this is a global issue. And to meet through the video
bridges as much as 
>possible. And perhaps bring them to conferences
throughout the year so 
>that people throughout Europe and around the world could
hook up on this 
>issue both online and offline.
>
>I also think that it could be helpful to focus attention
on content that 
>is socially meaningful such as a knowledge base for
sustainability that 
>could use all manner of media. And a social networking
system to attract 
>such giving people and help them help each other find
paid work. Here 
>again Public Domain is essential.
>
>The Public Domain can also have an express ethical
component which 
>explains what is appropriate behavior under various
conditions. For 
>example, if you make money from content, then it's
appropriate to give 
>back to the content creators. But how exactly you do
that and who 
>exactly you give to isn't so important. And it's not a
legal issue. 
>Certainly for individuals and small businesses there is
no recourse in 
>civil law because of the expense and wasted energy and
so the law is not 
>a solution for the people who matter.
>
>I think it's also perfectly human to have ethics and
laws which allow 
>humans to use their best judgement but require
institutions with limited 
>liability, such as corporations, to be taxed for their
use of content. 
>Or, for example, it makes sense to have patents which
allow humans 
>unrestricted use but require corporations to negotiate
with the patent 
>holder.
>
>I think it's important to think of the Public Domain in
a practical way 
>and not make a legal parody of it. In practice, people
can and do change 
>their mind as to whether their work is in the Public
Domain. And the 
>common sense consequence is that this does not affect
any copies already 
>published but should affect any future copies to the
extent that the 
>publisher has been made or should be aware of the change
of status. In 
>which case the publisher should be prepared to negotiate
or find a 
>substitute. This makes for a world where sharing is much
more voluntary 
>and not based on force, and where investments are made
accordingly.
>
>I'm interested to approach participants in the Creative
Commons 
>initiative who would like to see more emphasis on ethics
rather than 
>law. I believe that here in Europe we might succeed in
developing an 
>ethical European alternative ("respect these
requests") to a legalistic 
>American approach ("these rights reserved").
Especially as the network's 
>major role can be to suggest European policy that leads
to directives 
>that lead to harmonized laws throughout the Union.
>
>Pamela McLean has agreed to host work on this proposal
at her working 
>group 
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/learningfromeachother/ Her
key 
>concept in life is "learning from each
other" and she's especially 
>interested in how we and ICT might support learning,
especially in 
>Africa, which is a wonderful land for thinking fresh.
Paolo Pumilia is 
>also active there. We invite all to join us, please send
a blank message 
>to learningfromeachother-subscribe@yahoogroups.com
Roland, if you think 
>this is a good idea, please ask people at your workshop
to sign up for 
>this group and get their permissions. This would be a
great boost for us 
>to help you! Also, the more openly that we write this
proposal, the more 
>partners, attention and good will we might attract.
>
>Roland, best wishes in your work!
>Please keep us posted!
>
>Andrius
>
>Andrius Kulikauskas
>Minciu Sodas
>http://www.ms.lt
>msms.lt
>+370 (5) 264 5950
>+370 (699) 30003
>Vilnius, Lithuania
>
>
>Each letter sent to Learning From Each Other enters the
PUBLIC DOMAIN unless it explicitly states otherwise http://www.ethical
publicdomain.org  Please be kind to our authors! 
>
>_______________________________________________
>cc-community mailing list
>cc-communitylists.ibiblio.org
>http://lists.ibiblio.org/mailman/listinfo/cc-community
>
>
>  
>

_______________________________________________
cc-community mailing list
cc-communitylists.ibiblio.org
http://lists.ibiblio.org/mailman/listinfo/cc-community

On Thursday 14 September 2006 04:56 pm, Andrius Kulikauskas
wrote:
> Hi! I'm wondering if anybody is writing a proposal for
the European Union's
> call to create a Public Domain thematic network?  I
want to support Roland
> Alton-Scheidl's efforts.  He's currently at the
Wizards of OS conference in
> Berlin and will give a workshop on this on Sunday.  My
Minciu Sodas
> laboratory members Markus Petz, Dante-Gabryell Monson
and Eric Schneider
> are also there.  I hope we might speak up and work
together at this
> opportunity!
>
> I also ask for help to make contacts in some of the
bigger businesses and
> institutions as I think that is essential for the
success of a proposal. 
> They could be in Europe but even outside contacts might
prove helpful.  I'm
> thinking of hardware, software, media companies but
also perhaps insurance
> or real estate or travel or pharmaceuticals or
other companies that are
> knowledge intensive and might possibly benefit from a
progressive approach
> to the Public Domain.  I'm also personally asking for
a review of current
> dogma and a rethinking as to how we might approach
these issues ethically
> first, and legally second.

Well, I think one simple change in the law to push for that
might make a hugh 
difference is to make all non-marked works default to a
simple copyleft 
license instead of all rights reserved.

> Please join us at 
> 
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/learningfromeachother/ and
also thank you for
> discussion at the Creative Commons list.
>
> Andrius Kulikauskas
> msms.lt, http://www.ms.lt, Direktorius,
Minciu Sodas
> ---------------------------------------------
>

all the best,

drew
http://www.nanowrimo.org/module
s/newbb/viewtopic.php?topic_id=33654&forum=157
>
> The EU's European Commission has issued a call for
proposals (due
> October 19, 2006) to create a Public Domain thematic
network. Up to 1
> million euros is available. http://europa.eu.in
t/econtentplus and more
> information below.
>
> Since 1998, I have organized our Minciu Sodas
laboratory
> http://www.ms.lt to
deliberately leverage the Public Domain to serve and
> organize independent thinkers. Together we have created
more than 15,000
> letters and 3,000 wiki pages. We're starting to reuse
this material in
> more and more ways that facilitate our working
together. We're also
> realizing that our spaces in the Public Domain filters
in those who are
> willing to work openly and share freely and filters out
sharkish,
> trollish and other deconstructive behavior. This means
that we can
> encourage our participants to invest time, energy,
resources in each
> other's growth. I have written about this logic in
"An Economy for
> Giving Everything Away" htt
p://www.ms.lt/en/workingopenly/givingaway.html
>
> I'm writing to encourage us to organize around Roland
Alton-Scheidl,
> PUBLIC VOICE Lab & Project Lead
> RegisteredCommons.org, Vorarlberg University of Applied
Sciences,
> http://www.media.coop/ab
out/ He's leading a workshop for all who would
> like to work together on this proposal. It takes place
this Sunday at
> "The Wizards of OS" conference in Berlin
> http://wiz
ards-of-os.org/index.php?id=2922
> http://www.medi
a.coop/project/ecplus/ http://del.icio.us/ecplus
>
> I spoke with Roland today. He and Franz Nahrada know
each other quite
> well. Franz leads our lab's working group Global
Villages
> http://www.globalvilla
ges.info
> http://
groups.yahoo.com/group/globalvillages/ Roland is a part
of
> Franz's video bridge team which is working with
telecoms so that they
> offer video bridge equipment free of charge to
community centers which
> subscribe to video bridge services. This option can
make all the
> difference for spreading this technology and is
analogous to the DSL
> companies offering modems free of charge to their
subscribers. It also
> lets subscribers use the existing proprietary
technology without locking
> them into it so they might switch as open source
options arise. And it's
> a ground breaking example of providers serving
communities rather than
> consumers.
>
> Roland is looking for a team of four or five people who
might help with
> his proposal. I'm happy to help. Who else? He also
asked for help to
> find partners in the various European countries,
especially large
> businesses and institutions. Here are some that we can
approach right away:
> - Paolo Pumilia in Milan, Italy is the organizer of
several Open Content
> conferences http://www.openculture.org
 with many ties to the academic
> community. He's the one who originally alerted me to
the call.
> - Steve Cayzer of Hewlett-Packard Bristol Labs
> http://w
ww.hpl.hp.com/personal/Steve_Cayzer/ is working on the
semantic
> web and is a friend of our lab.
> - Stanko Blatnik is in Slovenia and is interested in
distance learning
> and has academic connections.
> - Georg Pleger of Creative Commons Austria
> http://w
ww.creativecommons.at/Members/georgP has been very
sympathetic
> and perhaps has more contacts.
> I have some connections in Lithuania's government,
perhaps that might be
> relevant.
>
> But we need bigger connections in order to have a
chance of winning. I
> spoke recently with a friendly expert who made it clear
that our lab had
> no chance of winning. These projects are typically won
by outfits that
> manage thirty or forty of them at a time. They have the
whole production
> line ready for this and the calls are usually
formulated with them in
> mind. So I'm encouraging us to work openly and rally
around Roland and
> all who are willing to put in the work and take the
risk. This will
> provide three years of funding for a few organizers and
travel for
> partners. And meanwhile it's a good opportunity for us
to connect and
> support each other.
>
> I defer to Roland regarding the content of the
proposal. But I share my
> ideas. I would call the proposal and the network
"Ethical Public
> Domain". My goal would be to focus our attention
on ethics rather than
> legalities. Our work would be to analyze each domain
where content is
> generated and considered what is the ethically best way
to treat content
> given the relevant issues. And then to make
recommendations as to how
> laws should be changed and how to focus on ethical
rather than legal
> solutions. And how to integrate different kinds of
content in different
> situations.
>
> Our assumption would be that people have a basic human
right to share.
> Any law which presumes that people don't want to share
is in conflict
> with that right. In particular, the laws which assume
that we claim
> ownership of our creative works are counter to our
right to share and
> thus ethically void. People who want to claim legal
protection of their
> creative works ought to be active in marking their
content accordingly.
> Otherwise they are infringing on our right to share. By
clarifying our
> human rights we would help show where the laws are
ethical and where are
> they overstepping.
>
> For example, as Thomas Kalka noted, one argument
against public
> domain software is that supposedly author's are not
protected against
> presumed warrantees and associated liability. Well,
instead of
> abandoning the public domain, why not clarify if the
laws are unethical
> and should be changed?
>
> I'm also thinking of social networking (people's
implicit content) and
> video bridges (most explicit content) as two ends of a
spectrum and
> every other kind of content is somewhere in between.
>
> One idea is to have a video bridge center in every
European country and
> have them in other countries so that we could have
their input because
> this is a global issue. And to meet through the video
bridges as much as
> possible. And perhaps bring them to conferences
throughout the year so
> that people throughout Europe and around the world
could hook up on this
> issue both online and offline.
>
> I also think that it could be helpful to focus
attention on content that
> is socially meaningful such as a knowledge base for
sustainability that
> could use all manner of media. And a social networking
system to attract
> such giving people and help them help each other find
paid work. Here
> again Public Domain is essential.
>
> The Public Domain can also have an express ethical
component which
> explains what is appropriate behavior under various
conditions. For
> example, if you make money from content, then it's
appropriate to give
> back to the content creators. But how exactly you do
that and who
> exactly you give to isn't so important. And it's not
a legal issue.
> Certainly for individuals and small businesses there is
no recourse in
> civil law because of the expense and wasted energy and
so the law is not
> a solution for the people who matter.
>
> I think it's also perfectly human to have ethics and
laws which allow
> humans to use their best judgement but require
institutions with limited
> liability, such as corporations, to be taxed for their
use of content.
> Or, for example, it makes sense to have patents which
allow humans
> unrestricted use but require corporations to negotiate
with the patent
> holder.
>
> I think it's important to think of the Public Domain
in a practical way
> and not make a legal parody of it. In practice, people
can and do change
> their mind as to whether their work is in the Public
Domain. And the
> common sense consequence is that this does not affect
any copies already
> published but should affect any future copies to the
extent that the
> publisher has been made or should be aware of the
change of status. In
> which case the publisher should be prepared to
negotiate or find a
> substitute. This makes for a world where sharing is
much more voluntary
> and not based on force, and where investments are made
accordingly.
>
> I'm interested to approach participants in the
Creative Commons
> initiative who would like to see more emphasis on
ethics rather than
> law. I believe that here in Europe we might succeed in
developing an
> ethical European alternative ("respect these
requests") to a legalistic
> American approach ("these rights
reserved"). Especially as the network's
> major role can be to suggest European policy that leads
to directives
> that lead to harmonized laws throughout the Union.
>
> Pamela McLean has agreed to host work on this proposal
at her working
> group 
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/learningfromeachother/ Her
key
> concept in life is "learning from each
other" and she's especially
> interested in how we and ICT might support learning,
especially in
> Africa, which is a wonderful land for thinking fresh.
Paolo Pumilia is
> also active there. We invite all to join us, please
send a blank message
> to learningfromeachother-subscribe@yahoogroups.com
Roland, if you think
> this is a good idea, please ask people at your workshop
to sign up for
> this group and get their permissions. This would be a
great boost for us
> to help you! Also, the more openly that we write this
proposal, the more
> partners, attention and good will we might attract.
>
> Roland, best wishes in your work!
> Please keep us posted!
>
> Andrius
>
> Andrius Kulikauskas
> Minciu Sodas
> http://www.ms.lt
> msms.lt
> +370 (5) 264 5950
> +370 (699) 30003
> Vilnius, Lithuania
>
>
> Each letter sent to Learning From Each Other enters the
PUBLIC DOMAIN
> unless it explicitly states otherwise http://www.ethical
publicdomain.org 
> Please be kind to our authors!
>
> _______________________________________________
> cc-community mailing list
> cc-communitylists.ibiblio.org
> http://lists.ibiblio.org/mailman/listinfo/cc-community

-- 
(da idea man)
http://www.ourmed
ia.org/node/145261
Record a song and you might win $1,000.00
http://www.ourmedi
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