The Internet Archive’s collection of text, audio, moving images and web information is growing at an incredible rate. Check out their open source film archive, their Prelinger movie archives, and their live music archive. Read about why the archive is building an ‘internet library’ and about their campaign in collaboration with the Electronic Frontier Foundation about their latest campaign to free access to out-of-print books.
Wits digital arts students use Creative Commons’ free book
I bumped into Professor Christo Doherty at an exhibition called ‘Terminal Extentions’ by the Wits Masters-level Interactive Media Design students last week. Christo runs this exciting, young programme at the Wits School of Arts which aims to ‘develop an analytical understanding of either interactive media or 3D animation as aesthetic and commercial forms of communication’. I was very excited to hear that Christo has set Larry Lessig’s latest book, ‘Free Culture‘ as a setwork for the programme. ‘We use the free PDF version available on the Free Culture website,’ he said, ‘Otherwise it would be too expensive for our students.’
Christo said that he downloads the PDF of the book and copies it onto CDRom for his students since low bandwidth speeds in South Africa make it difficult to download such large files.
It’s really great to see such an excellent example of progressive educators taking the time to think about their students’ ability to pay for high-priced setworks, and really leading the way in the field of open content in South African education. Great going, WSOA!
International Commons gains ground
Fight against the commodification of culture
I spoke to Justin Nurse from Laugh it off promotions the other day. LIO is fighting a decision made last year in favour of South African Breweries (SAB) against their ‘Black Labour White Guilt’ T-shirt campaign. Nurse believes that LIO should be able to freely express their criticism of the SAB brand for profiting off of the South African working class and insists that they will continue to satirise South African culture and challenge societal convention ‘in original, thought provoking and unconventional ways’ (Laugh It Off Annual, 2003 – South African Youth Culture).
LIO won their right to appeal in May last year and will go to the Supreme Court of Appeal in Bloemfontein in August where they will use freedom of expression provisions in the South African constitution to argue for their right to satirize and challenge South African society.
Contribute to their annual of South African youth culture here and do your part for free expression.
Happy Youth Day
Today marks the 28th anniversary of the uprising which saw apartheid police open fire on pupils protesting against the use of Afrikaans as the medium of instruction in schools. Today, South African young people face new challenges – not least of which is the need for open access to education and knowledge. Especially when you read stories like this one that describes rural schools that have little more than a classroom and a chalkboard – let alone textbooks or a school library.
Wizards of free culture
The future of the digital commons looks bright if the Creative Commons Summit at the Wizards of os conference is anything to go by. Joined by project leads from Brazil, France, Finland and Germany, I spoke about the relevance of Creative Commons in Africa and the importance of Africans being engaged in this global community effort. The WOS conference gave me a sense of the global community that is rallying around the cry for a people’s culture through cooperation and fairness. I have never been more proud to wear my Creative Commons tshirt 
More here.
Creative Commons South Africa in Berlin
I will be talking about the Creative Commons South Africa project at the Wizards of OS conference in Berlin next week (10-12 June). Along with South Africa, Creative Commons project leads from Austria, Brazil, Croatia and France will talk about their experiences and the early adopters of cc licenses at the Creative Commons Summit taking place on Saturday, June 12.
Let us know if you’re going to be around and be sure to introduce yourselves at the party afterwards!
KEWL choice for African education
KEWL (Knowledge Environment for Web-based Learning) is an open source e-learning platform that is being re-developed to run on a free software platform rather than on Microsoft servers. According to project director, Derek Keats, ‘KEWL Next Generation will be developed into the most advanced learning management system in the world, using largely talent that exists within African higher education, other organizations, the African Diaspora, businesses, and partners from around the world.’
When asked why his team chose to integrate Creative Commons license choices into their platform, Keats said, ‘One way to raise awareness of the issues is to get lecturers to think about (these issues) when they create a course.’
Keats said that the current version allows educators to choose Creative Commons licenses merely by reference. This has meant that only those who already know about Creative Commons have used it to license their work. In the next generation system, educators must make a choice about the licensing of their content when they publish a course. Training courses accompanying the software will include information to help educators investigate which license fits their needs best. Courses marked with Creative Commons licenses will automatically be made available to the public under the appropriate conditions, and lecturers will be encouraged to make source images and other raw materials available as well.
From the project website: ‘Although world class software will be produced within this project, this is not a software development project. Rather it is a project about human development, about capacity building, and about creating opportunities for people through the formation of transnational alliances both within Africa and out.’
Creative Commons salutes a very KEWL initiative!
Weblog- To Shoot An Elephant, CC BY-SA Documentary, Wins Award at Festival dei Popli
- WikiEducator, Connexions, and MediaWiki join forces in OER Remix Project
- CC board chair Esther Wojcicki on teachers sharing … and supporting CC
- Mr. Mayo’s Class Integrates CC, Skypes with Lawrence Lessig
- Indaba Launch CC BY Loop Library, Contest With Filter Magazine
- Donate Today to Have Your Donation Doubled by WhippleHill!
- CC and the Google Book Settlement
- CC Japan Release iPhone App for Into Infinity
- Commoner Letter #4: Molly Kleinman of the University of Michigan
- Our 2010 Google Policy Fellowship
