We are proud to announce that Dave Duarte will be taking over the role of Project Lead for Creative Commons South Africa.
Dave will be working with Legal Lead Andrew Rens to develop the awareness and use of Creative Commons licenses in South Africa, and nurture the growing CC community here.
A bit about Dave, from his […]

Over the past few months we’ve seen both good and bad ways of running competitions for user-generated content in the South African Internet world.
Exhibit A: Apple South Africa’s ‘GetPodcasting‘ Competition. In March, some eagle-eyed bloggers caught sight of the draconian terms and conditions on the site which didn’t enable people to use other content (for […]

We are Mpumi, Sibulele, and Zimi. We are visiting the iCommons offices for a day. We are here for the Cell C bring a girl child to work, which parents are allowed to bring their daughters to work for a day so they can see and learn about the work their parents do. (note from […]

Makhago Peter is a young Ugandan who writes in his spare time and has published through lulu.com. It is possible to hear Peter’s enchantingly simple voice and others like his through the initiative artmarketonline (licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution licence) which was started by the Open Cafe in Potchefstroom.
Artmarketonline is a cyber-market-place […]

Free your culture … come to the braai, Friday 20 April 2007

WHERE: The Armchair Theatre, Obsevatory, Cape Town
WHEN: 8pm, Friday, 20 April 2007
BRING: cds or dvds to braai, R40 door charge,
R100 to buy a cool SA Free Culture tee shirt.
Rip, Mix, Burn - South African style … on Friday, 20 April 2007
The SA […]

iCommons would like to invite you to our first ‘brown bag’ session on Friday 16 February at 12:30pm.
‘Brown bags’ are informal gatherings, focused on a stimulating discussion and debate. Our guest speaker for the event is Jason van Niekerk, who will be talking about the philosophy of ‘Ubuntu’ and the commons.
Jason teaches philosophy in the […]

Bring together student journalists, media studies lecturers, editors of major South African magazines and online newspapers. Add their collective, yet varied experiences from practising in the field of media. Mix in a touch of good advice and helpful hints. Stir in a pinch of passion for the profession. Attach a Creative Commons (CC) licence – […]

Creative Commons SA has recently launched their 2.5 licence.
Under this licence, the author or rightsholder can specify how they wish the work to be attributed. An author or creator can now specifiy that attribution should include not just the name of the author but also require a user to show the […]

On day 1 of the Highway Africa conference, which celebrated its 10th anniversary, a discussion about the ‘commons’ was held which looked at intellectual property rights, access to knowledge, alternative licensing and FLOSS.
The panel that presented the above concepts consisted of Vera Franz from OSI, Tutwane Letshwiti from the University of Botswana, Kerryn McKay representing […]

Remix. Sample. Mash up. Reconstruct. Reformulate. Remake. Reproduce.
Reshuffle. Transform. Recreate. Modify. Reassemble. Revamp. Rejuvenate.

The ‘remix’ has become one of the most powerful tools of the digital age. But the legal barriers to taking an established image or concept and mixing it up for a fresh take have become a hurdle for creativity - leaving […]

This year’s ICEBOX festival is now accepting entries! The festival, which is endorsed by Creative Commons, encourages all animators, storytellers, documentary filmmakers, bands and music video producers, VJs and experimental artists - student or professional - to take advantage of this opportunity to screen their work around South Africa. Collectives, festivals and media/film schools are […]

Finally! A valuable and necessary cyber space for artists in South Africa (and most especially, Joburg-based) who have needed a group of journalists (loosely-termed) to spread the news about their work.
SAartsEmerging is a website that is a free alternative to the mainstream media and mainstream disseminator (here, read gallery) of art in South […]

“Imagine trying to piece together a wireless network with no manuals, sporadic and slow access to the Internet, inadequate tools, a shortage of supplies, and in the most inclement weather. The authors of a recently published book, “Wireless Networking in the Developing World” don’t need to imagine. They have been doing so for years.”
So begins […]

Kalangala, Island, Victoria Lake, Uganda, 6 January
Over an 8-day period, 140 people from around Africa and beyond, came together to live, learn and be inspired at the Africa Source II FOSS technology workshop, organised by the Tactical Tech team.
Presented in 3 main tracks, participants were invited to share their stories and learn from experts in […]

Ever been in a space shuttle or hung out at an internet café?
Well, now’s your chance. Buckle your seatbelts, because the learningcommons team, in partnership with the Shuttleworth Foundation, has created a vivid, exciting multimedia curriculum pilot project for grade 9 technology learners!
Entitled Copyright and left: A multimedia curriculum on copy rights and […]

Research ICT Africa! has recently launched the book entitled Towards an African e-Index which documents a reseach initiative investigating both individual and household ICT access and usage in sub-Sahara Africa.
ICT Africa! encourages others to freely use the publication in their teachings and research by licensing the book under the Creative Commons South Africa […]

If you’ve been listening to Yfm this week, this will be only the second time that you’re hearing it. ccMixter, the awesome music sharing software developed by Creative Commons in the US, has just been developed for South African musicians. The site is being launched on the back of a Yfm competition sponsored by the […]

The Go Open Television Series initiated by the Go Open Campaign (Meraka, Shuttleworth Foundation, Canonical and HP) was a world first. Dedicated to promoting open source software in South Africa, the 13 episode series was broadcast on SABC last year and showcased success stories, interviews with the top local and international pioneers, and the latest […]

You sing like an angel and you’ve got more charisma than Angelina Jolie’s lips. Here’s your chance to shine. In a bid to find South Africa’s most talented cubicle superstar - its most vocally adept pen pusher - M-Net is enabling corporations to enter teams in Office Idols. And South Africa’s Go Open Source, in […]

Another awesome project from the Rhodes New Media Lab, check out the ‘State of the Arts‘ this week at the second largest festival of its kind in the world: the South African National Arts Festival in Grahamstown. Vincent Maher and the ‘99% Live’ crew are redefining South African interactive journalism as they produce news, reviews […]