CCGN Archives - Creative Commons https://creativecommons.org/tag/ccgn/ Thu, 13 Mar 2025 16:35:44 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.3.5 Community in 2025 https://creativecommons.org/2025/03/13/community-in-2025/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=community-in-2025 Thu, 13 Mar 2025 16:35:44 +0000 https://creativecommons.org/?p=76188 Regent Street Looking Towards the Duke of York’s Column, plate twelve from Original Views of London as It Is by Thomas Shotter Boys is marked with CC 1.0 In case you missed it, we recently published our 2025-2028 Strategy which sets the stage for our goals and activities over the next few years. This updated strategy…

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Regent Street Looking Towards the Duke of York’s Column, plate twelve from Original Views of London as It Is by Thomas Shotter Boys is marked with CC0 1.0
Regent Street Looking Towards the Duke of York’s Column, plate twelve from Original Views of London as It Is by Thomas Shotter Boys is marked with CC 1.0

In case you missed it, we recently published our 2025-2028 Strategy which sets the stage for our goals and activities over the next few years. This updated strategy reaffirms our three goals at CC: 

  1. Strengthen the open infrastructure of sharing
  2. Defend and advocate for a thriving creative commons
  3. Center community

As CC’s Community and Licensing Program Manager, I’m particularly  excited to share more details about Goal 3: Center community. For those of you who attended our strategy consultations in August 2024, you’ll know that reaffirming CC’s commitment to community was a top priority for community members, and we completely agree! In our strategy, community is listed as a goal in and of itself, but it is also recognized that all three of our goals are interconnected and each goal is required to fulfill the other goals. With that in mind, community is also central to strengthening the open infrastructure of sharing and defending and advocating for a thriving creative commons. 

We are excited to find new ways to support a CC community of anyone who uses, advocates for, or supports the infrastructure that enables open licensing or who supports and believes in the power of the commons. 

When we think about centering community now and in the future, it may first be useful for a quick history of the Creative Commons Global Network (CCGN) and past community efforts. If you are well aware of the history of the CCGN, feel free to skip ahead to the next section! 

A Quick History of the CCGN

The Creative Commons Affiliate Network was founded in 2001 alongside the founding of Creative Commons in order to support the global adoption of CC Licenses, and to port (or legally and linguistically adapt) the licenses to different legal jurisdictions. In November 2013, the 4.0 licenses, which no longer required porting, were launched. This presented an opportunity to shift the role of the Network to regional policy work, general awareness raising, and other local priorities. As a result, there was a need to rethink the Network structure to support this shift. A steering committee was launched in 2015 to create a new network strategy starting in 2015. The outcome of this work was the publication of Faces of the Commons, which included  the ultimate recommendation for a revised Creative Commons Global Network (CCGN) to be created by the global network itself. With the goal of meeting this challenge, in 2017, the Global Network Strategy was published. Alongside the 2017 strategy, Network Platforms were introduced (and then reintroduced in 2020) as a means to collaborate across jurisdictions on specific themes. The network strategy states these platforms as the intended primary locale for network collaboration, and today they are the most active spaces of the CC community.

Adjustments to the CCGN continued. In 2019, a set of  recommendations was published (though not adopted formally), in 2020, a report on the state of the network was produced, and in 2022, some major needs were identified.  Much of this occurred while the CC team itself was facing a tough budgetary reality and was unable to adequately resource community management of the CCGN and support recommended changes. 

Today, the CCGN is in need of renewed support from CC (the organization) to make sure the wonderful work of the global community can continue to be sustained. Many of the stated goals of the Network Strategy are out of alignment with how the network currently functions. As it stands, the Network Council—the body that governs the CCGN—has not met in over a year, and approved changes to the membership process have not been implemented because of the technical limitations of the current network website. 

We have an engaged and vibrant community of almost 1,000 CCGN members, many of whom participate in local, self-governed CC Chapters, and some of whom do not (or may wish to but don’t know how to get more involved). Many folks have inquired about the ways in which they could join the CCGN but as a result of past governance shifts and untied loose ends, the CCGN is stuck in a bit of governance limbo. That brings us to today and why Goal 3: Centering Community is so important to the success of CC’s vision and mission. 

Creating A Shared Vision of the Next Generation of the CCGN

Over the last year as we consulted on CC’s strategy, we have also been chatting with community members, some who are formally CCGN members and others who are CC advocates within their communities without formal affiliation with the CCGN. We conducted an internal assessment of the CCGN using historical data, community surveys, and interviews with chapter leads. In thinking about the future of our community, the shared sentiment is that the CC community is much more expansive than the formal structures of the CCGN; the CC community is anyone who uses, advocates for, or supports the infrastructure that enables open licensing or who supports and believes in the power of the commons. 

Today, nothing feels more important than both supporting and belonging to a community of values-aligned CC and open advocates who champion access to knowledge, and freedom of information as the foundations of a democratic society. We are excited to adapt the CC global community to the contexts and realities of 2025 so that together we can protect and strengthen the thriving creative commons as a means to solve the world’s greatest challenges. 

Sign up for our new Community newsletter to continue engaging with our work to refresh and center the CC community in our work.

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20CC: Open Works from CC’s 20th Anniversary https://creativecommons.org/2022/12/05/20cc/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=20cc Mon, 05 Dec 2022 10:00:46 +0000 https://creativecommons.org/?p=66056 During 2021–2022, CC has been celebrating the 20th anniversary of our founding in 2001 and the first release of the CC licenses in 2002, successfully concluding an ambitious fundraising campaign to support programs like Open Culture, Open Climate, and Open Education, and to help ensure CC’s ongoing sustainability. In November 2022, CC brought the 20th anniversary celebration to an official…

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During 2021–2022, CC has been celebrating the 20th anniversary of our founding in 2001 and the first release of the CC licenses in 2002, successfully concluding an ambitious fundraising campaign to support programs like Open CultureOpen Climate, and Open Education, and to help ensure CC’s ongoing sustainability.

In November 2022, CC brought the 20th anniversary celebration to an official close with both online and in-person activities. Highlights from these events were a collection of new open works showcasing the creativity and power of the open community. Take a tour down the page to explore video, digital experiences, music, and visual arts, all made to mark 20 years of Creative Commons, and now part of the open commons for everyone to share and remix.

Twenty Years of Creative Commons (in Sixty Seconds)

To mark CC’s 20th anniversary, we collaborated with Ryan Junell — the artist who designed the CC logo — and CC board member Glenn O. Brown to produce a new video showcasing the journey CC has taken over two decades to transform a messy, all-rights-reserved world into a thriving open commons. The video debuted on the big screen at the #20CC event to thunderous applause.

Twenty Years of Creative Commons (in Sixty Seconds)” by Ryan Junell and Glenn Otis Brown for Creative Commons is licensed via CC BY 4.0 and includes adaptations of the multiple open and public domain works. View full licensing and attribution information about all works included in the video on Flickr.

Ain’t Nobody’s Business

Special musical guest Ouida performed a three-song set at the #20CC event, including two of her own original songs and her reinterpretation of a classic jazz standard, now in the public domain. Listen to Ouida’s “Ain’t Nobody’s Business” recorded live on 17 November 2022 in San Francisco.

“Ain’t Nobody’s Business” by Ouida licensed via CC BY-NC 4.0 adapted from “Tain’t Nobody’s Biz-ness If I Do” by Porter Grainger and Everett Robbins in the public domain.

A history of CC

Slides from the new dynamic CC Timeline looped on the big screen during the #20CC event, showcasing key moments in CC’s dynamic history, from our founding in 2001 and the release of our first open licenses in 2002, all the way to our most recent milestones. CC grew up online, so we’ve also included landmarks from web history in the timeline to show the close connections between the spread of digital networks and key events in our global community project to open knowledge and culture for everyone.

Screenshot of A History of Creative Commons Timeline, showing the Creative Commons logo in white on a green background with timeline controls at the bottom and right.

Is something missing from this CC history? You can contribute key events to help build the timeline.

#BetterSharing illustrations

Thumbnails of 12 illustrations inspired by the question: What does better sharing for a brighter future look like to you?

To celebrate the 20th anniversary of Creative Commons and our licenses, we partnered with Fine Acts to commission the #BetterSharing collection of illustrations to be enjoyed, used and adapted, and then shared again, by anyone, forever.

In developing this collection of artworks, we posed this question to 12 prominent global open advocates:

What does better sharing for a brighter future look like to you? 

Fine Acts selected 12 well-known international artists who have embraced openness to create a series of visual pieces under an open license, which are inspired by the theme and responses from the advocates and shared in The Greats, an open repository of free illustrations from great artists
to change the world.

Attendees at the live #20CC event bid on framed prints of the #BetterSharing illustrations, raising funds to sustain CC’s work. Explore the full collection, and feel free to print and frame your own copies of these open works.

CC 20th Anniversary Open Mix

If you paused to listen at the #20CC event, you heard tracks from a special playlist of open music, curated by Marko Roca, Head of Music at the Free Music Archive. Tracks came from a wide range of genres, from afrobeat, to balkan, bluegrass, electronica, jazz, folk, funk, hiphop, pop, salsa, triphop and everything in between. Our thanks to Marko and all the artists in the mix — CC is contributing to support these artists on FMA, and we encourage you to listen and contribute to support open music artists!

Screenshot of the Creative Commons 20th Anniversary Open Mix on the Free Music Archive, showing the 20CC logo and the first 5 tracks.

Open Infrastructure Circle

Huge thanks to the organizations who joined our Open Infrastructure Circle to show their support for the work CC does to steward and develop the open licensing and legal tools that are essential to support a global, interoperable public commons: BCCampus, Hypothesis, Michelson 20MM Foundation, MIT OpenCourseWare, Pressbooks, and Saylor Academy.

Six logos, clockwise from the upper left: BCCampus, Hypothesis, MIT OpenCourseWare, Saylor Academy, Pressbooks, and Michelson 20MM Foundation.

Does your organization rely on CC licenses and legal tools to participate in the open commons? Join the Open Infrastructure Circle to help CC develop and steward essential open infrastructure to continue to grow the open commons and ensure emerging technologies support better sharing.

Make a contribution to support CC

Creative Commons empowers people, institutions, and governments to share content openly to advance knowledge, equity, and creativity for everyone, everywhere. As we look ahead to the next 20 years, our focus is on better sharing, sharing that is contextual, inclusive, just, equitable, reciprocal, and sustainable. As a nonprofit, we rely on contributions from people like you. Make a contribution of any size >

A large black and white 20, where the 0 is the Creative Commons icon, followed by the Creative Commons wordmark.

 

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Her Story: Embracing the Here and Now https://creativecommons.org/2021/04/05/her-story-embracing-the-here-and-now/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=her-story-embracing-the-here-and-now Mon, 05 Apr 2021 14:58:39 +0000 https://creativecommons.org/?p=63177 For over 40 years, millions across the globe have collectively celebrated the achievements, histories, ideas, and contributions of women on March 8 and increasingly, throughout March for Women’s History Month using #HerStory and #BecauseOfHerStory. This year, we wanted to do something special to celebrate this annual event, so we reached out to several members of…

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Choose Hope” by Carla Orozco, licensed CC BY-NC-SA.

For over 40 years, millions across the globe have collectively celebrated the achievements, histories, ideas, and contributions of women on March 8 and increasingly, throughout March for Women’s History Month using #HerStory and #BecauseOfHerStory. This year, we wanted to do something special to celebrate this annual event, so we reached out to several members of the Creative Commons Global Network and the broader open community to ask them to share their personal stories, ideas, and insights by responding to five questions. The result is this five-part blog series called, “Her Story.” Throughout this series, we’ll also be highlighting the work of women artists who submitted pieces to Fine Acts’ Reimagining Human Rights challenge. 

Our hope is that these conversations will inspire you to reflect on your own stories and ideas. We also hope it will motivate you to think about how you can help make open sharing more inclusive, equitable, and sustainable. Put simply, we want to make sharing better—to do that, we need your help.

In part five of this series, participants responded to the following question: What initiatives or projects in the open movement are you most excited about and why?


  • Florence Devouard | Co-Lead, Wiki Loves Women; Wikimedian for 19 years; Former Chairwoman, Wikimedia Foundation

Pour ma part, je suis une wikipédienne dans l’âme. J’aime la diversité des personnes qui forment sa communauté et j’aime cette approche de “neutralité de point de vue” car quelque soit notre bagage militant (notre positionnement politique, religieux etc.), on est prié d’essayer de le laisser à la porte lorsque l’on contribue. Bien loin de se retrouver dans l’entre-soi comme sur de nombreux réseaux sociaux, il est possible de multiplier les interactions avec des personnes totalement différentes de nous. Pour ma part, j’aime également appartenir à plusieurs sous-communautés, plutôt que de me consacrer à une seule, ce qui génère plus d’opportunités excitantes à explorer ! Puisqu’on me demande des exemples concrets, je vais en prendre trois.

Un groupe d’action : les sans pagEs. C’est un groupe francophone très actif né du besoin de combler le fossé et le biais de genre sur Wikipédia.

Un autre groupe d’action : le UserGroup “Wikimedians for offline wikis“. C’est un groupe hétéroclite de personnes cherchant à faciliter l’accès à la connaissance et à la culture auprès des personnes peu ou pas connectées à internet.

EN: For my part, I am a Wikipedian at heart. I like the diversity of the people who make up its community and I like its approach of a “neutrality of point of view,” meaning whatever our background (e.g. political, religious positioning, etc.), we are asked to try to leave it at the door when contributing. Far from being in the inter-self as on many social networks, it is possible to multiply interactions with people who are totally different from us. For my part, I also like belonging to multiple sub-communities, rather than dedicating myself to just one, which generates more exciting opportunities to explore! Since I am asked for concrete examples, I will take three.

– An action group: the sans pagEs. It is a very active French-speaking group born from the need to bridge the gap and the gender bias on Wikipedia.

– Another action group: the UserGroup “Wikimedians for offline wikis.” It is a motley group of people seeking to facilitate access to knowledge and culture for people with little or no internet connection.

The Visible Wiki Women project is my favourite project. The WikiLovesWomen project, the Decolonizing the Internet project, State of the Internet’s Languages, The CC Bangladesh Open Mapping project are also all exciting initiatives that are bringing to light the work of brilliant and amazing people of colour who are making the open movement and the concept of open access more meaningful to communities across the globe.

  • Irene Soria Guzmán | Representative to the Global Network Council, CC México; feminista; académica y activista de la cultura libre

Fuente tipográfica libre Ácrata—hecha por mujeres diseñadoras mexicanas, por que es la primera fuente abierta para destruir al patriarcado. Lxs pitarecasporque es un proyecto que nos invita a cuestionar los derechos de autor y ha causado polémica en México por compartir libros en internet.

EN: The free open typeface “Ácrata” made by Mexican women designers—it’s the first open-source typeface to destroy the patriarchy. See it here. Lxs pitarecasit’s a project that invites us to question copyright and has caused controversy in Mexico for sharing books on the internet.

  • Isla Haddow-Flood | Chair and Advancement Lead, Wiki In Africa; CoProject Lead, Wiki Loves Women

Beyond the initiatives and projects I co-created and love so much, such as Wiki Loves Women (training women to seize their own agency on Wikimedia projects) and Wiki Loves Africa (using photography as a fun way to break down the barriers to contribution and rewrite the visual perception of Africa), there are so many other amazing projects within the Wikimedia movement, such as WikiDonne, Les sans pagEs, Art + Feminism, WikiGap, Women in Red, etc (more can be found here).

  • Primah Kwagala | Executive Director, Women’s Probono Initiative (Uganda)

I am always excited about the opportunities Creative Commons offers artists (to create logos, for instance)—this is always a great opportunity to see and view a diversity of cultures across the globe. The CC Global Summit, in particular, allows for creatives to share their work and progress in the open movement, which is also exciting. However, it’ll be even more exciting if the next CC Global Summits deliberately open spaces for feminist engagement on a global platform.

? There’s more! Read part one, part two, part three, and part four of our “Her Story” blog series today!

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Her Story: Promoting Inclusivity and Equity https://creativecommons.org/2021/03/22/her-story-promoting-inclusivity-and-equity/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=her-story-promoting-inclusivity-and-equity Mon, 22 Mar 2021 14:17:53 +0000 https://creativecommons.org/?p=63133 For over 40 years, millions across the globe have collectively celebrated the achievements, histories, ideas, and contributions of women on March 8 and increasingly, throughout March for Women’s History Month using #HerStory and #BecauseOfHerStory. This year, we wanted to do something special to celebrate this annual event, so we reached out to several members of…

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Hold Each Other” by Osheen Siva, licensed CC BY-NC-SA.

For over 40 years, millions across the globe have collectively celebrated the achievements, histories, ideas, and contributions of women on March 8 and increasingly, throughout March for Women’s History Month using #HerStory and #BecauseOfHerStory. This year, we wanted to do something special to celebrate this annual event, so we reached out to several members of the Creative Commons Global Network and the broader open community to ask them to share their personal stories, ideas, and insights by responding to five questions. The result is this five-part blog series called, “Her Story.” Throughout this series, we’ll also be highlighting the work of women artists who submitted pieces to Fine Acts’ Reimagining Human Rights challenge. 

Our hope is that these conversations will inspire you to reflect on your own stories and ideas. We also hope it will motivate you to think about how you can help make open sharing more inclusive, equitable, and sustainable. Put simply, we want to make sharing better—to do that, we need your help.

In part four of this series, participants responded to the following question: What efforts or actions should be taken by open organizations to ensure the movement is more inclusive?


  • Florence Devouard | Co-Lead, Wiki Loves Women; Wikimedian for 19 years; Former Chairwoman, Wikimedia Foundation

Plusieurs initiatives du monde libre travaillent à la mise en place de code de conduite, charte de bonnes pratiques, lutte contre le harcèlement, usage de langage inclusif, respect du genre déclaré, prise en compte des besoins des personnes neuroatypiques ou en situation de handicap lors des évènements présentiels, réflexion sur les modes de représentation au sein des conseils d’administration, délocalisation des évènements depuis l’Europe/Etats-Unis vers d’autres continents, prise en charge des frais de nounous, prise en charge des frais de connexion internet, respect des préférences alimentaires etc.

Il serait bon d’être à l’écoute des démarches engagés par les autres organisations du mouvement libre, éventuellement d’établir un observatoire des bonnes pratiques de chacune d’entre elles (selon les étapes de discussion, pilote, implémentation, retours d’expérience) et multiplier les opportunités d’échanges et de partage de documents.

EN: Several initiatives in the [open movement] are working on the establishment of a code of conduct, a charter of good practices, fight against harassment, use of inclusive language, respect for declared gender, taking into account the needs of neuro-atypical people or people with disabilities during face-to-face events, reflection on modes of representation on boards of directors, relocation of events from Europe / United States to other continents, coverage of nanny fees, coverage of connection fees for the internet, respect for food preferences, etc.

It would be good to follow the steps taken by the other organizations in the open movement to establish an observatory of the good practices (e.g. stages of discussion, piloting, implementation, feedback, etc.) and increase the opportunities for exchange and sharing of documents.

Pay people that are doing the hard work of fostering and building open communities outside of the United States and Europe. Without support, they cannot participate as they would like to. Hire black people, folks from the LGBTQI community, from Indigenous communities and honour their efforts. Move out of your comfort zone and find people that are creating a positive impact—and share their stories, introduce them to the powerful networks you have access to; put your allyship where your power and money is. Get rid of the volunteerism industrial complex.

  • İlkay Holt | Representative to the CC Global Network Council, CC Turkey

I can think of a long list of actions but overall I believe that supporting multilingualism, welcoming cultural diversity and community-driven governance, as well as openness in workflows, transparency in decisions and utilizing a collaborative approach around shared values could help create a more inclusive environment at the organisational level.

  • Irene Soria Guzmán | Representative to the Global Network Council, CC México; feminista; académica y activista de la cultura libre

Creo que la empatía es fundamental. Ir más allá de “incluir” y mejor, crear otros mundos y otras realidades diversas. Que podamos hablar abiertamente y en espacios seguros sobre los problemas que tenemos desde el sur global y otras periferias y márgenes.

EN: I think empathy is essential. Go beyond “include” and move on to create other worlds and other diverse realities. Build safe spaces where we can speak openly about the problems we face in the Global South and in other peripheries and margins.

  • Isla Haddow-Flood | Chair and Advancement Lead, Wiki In Africa; CoProject Lead, Wiki Loves Women

Recite the Wikimedia mantra: be bold! Recognise your own biases—both conscious and unconscious. Open up channels of communication for feedback, criticism and constructive suggestions. Don’t just pay lip-service to inclusivity, be it. Find ways to bring people in from the margins. Make sure your values reflect inclusivity and that you and your team live by those values.

  • Mariana Valente | Director, InternetLab; Professor, Insper University; 2019-2020 CC Brazil lead

The first step is to recognize the existing power imbalances and take concrete, bold steps to address them. One problem is the defensiveness and protectiveness of the past and how things used to be that causes silence and inaction. I’m not just referring to gender imbalances but to the many inequalities that exist across our organizations and our societies. We need to recognize these and move forward.

The second thing, in a movement like ours that works in so many different layers and levels, is understanding and internalizing that identities are constantly shifting and are contextual. Someone subalternized in certain environments will probably be in situations of privilege when facing others. For example, in international environments, I face discrimination for being a Brazilian woman that is very different from the experiences I have back at home, where besides being a woman, I enjoy many privileges that are related to the racial and class-related local history and context. This also affects my international experiences. Women from other countries and continents might face these issues differently. Because we are a global community, this requires difficult conversations, as well as constant checking and evaluation.

We are, of course, referring to attitudes and practices, but change requires policies too. We can learn from the many experiences out there of organizational policies that have made rights and wrongs in addressing these issues: diversity, effective participation in decision-making, qualified hearing procedures, anti-harassment actions, etc. We know, of course, no rights have ever been granted without struggle—so, we need to organize. It is amazing to see how many women from this community have taken on feminist causes inside the community, have tirelessly addressed this in summits, talks, projects, and everyday actions. Huge thanks to them!

  • Primah Kwagala | Executive Director, Women’s Probono Initiative (Uganda)

Consider affirmative action positions in the leadership of the open movement. Let us be deliberate in appointing women to lead specific aspects of the open movement. Women in many aspects will not offer themselves for leadership, let us seek them out and offer them the spaces to lead and offer their works. Let us celebrate them as much as we celebrate the male gender.

? There’s more! Read part one, part two, and part three of our “Her Story” blog series today. Part five will be published soon. Stay tuned!

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Meet Your New Global Network Council Executive Committee! https://creativecommons.org/2021/03/16/new-global-network-council-executive-committee/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=new-global-network-council-executive-committee Tue, 16 Mar 2021 13:24:15 +0000 https://creativecommons.org/?p=63070 In December 2020 the Creative Commons Global Network Council (GNC) voted on the new Executive Committee (ExCom). The ExCom took up its work in January 2021 and will be working throughout the next year and beyond by supporting the Network, fostering and strengthening connections, and encouraging activities around the new CC Strategy.  Meet the six…

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In December 2020 the Creative Commons Global Network Council (GNC) voted on the new Executive Committee (ExCom). The ExCom took up its work in January 2021 and will be working throughout the next year and beyond by supporting the Network, fostering and strengthening connections, and encouraging activities around the new CC Strategy. 

Meet the six elected members of the ExCom below! 


  • Susanna Ånäs (2021-2022 term)

Image of Susanna ÅnäsSusanna is a photographer and media artist by background. She works with Open GLAM at Avoin GLAM, a joint effort of Wikimedia, Open Knowledge and Creative Commons in Finland (for which she is the GNC representative). Through this collaboration, we hope to explore the boundaries of Open Access when it comes to Traditional Knowledge or personal information. She develops Wikidocumentaries, a microhistory platform and a maker space for citizen historians. She likes weaving linked open cultural heritage data and personal memories into stories with the help of Wikibase and Wikimedia projects. Her recent projects include arranging the online cultural hackathon Hack4OpenGLAM at the Creative Commons Summit 2020, the initiation of a local history wiki Paikallishistoriawiki and a local archiving project The Central Park Archives in the neighbourhood of Maunula, Helsinki.

  • Franco Giandana – the new ExCom Chair (2021 term)

Image of Franco GiandanaFranco is a long time contributor to the Open Movement ecosystem, working at the Unviersidad Nacional de Córdoba as a Coordinator por Public Innovation, developing open technology to foster civil participation in local governments. As a private lawyer, he has participated in national and international cases representing artists and authors in different industries, such as the film, music or street art industries. Recently, he joined the Fundacion Via Libre as a legal and policy analyst and is currently working on a LACNIC funded project to counteract abusive DMCA content moderation in internet platforms in Latin America. He is the GNC representative for the Creative Commons Argentine Chapter.

  • Arturo Sánchez Pineda (2021-2022 term)

Image of Arturo Sánchez PinedaArturo is a Venezuelan researcher (PhD) in physics, computer sciences and education. He lives in Europe and develops his professional activities at CERN, LAPP and ICTP in Switzerland, France and Italy, respectively. Some of the relevant activities in the OER area are the management of the ATLAS Open Data project for Education at CERN, the coordination of the CEVALE2VE, and member of the EU Horizon 2020 project ESCAPE, and the EU ERASMUS+ project LA-CoNGA physics. He is also the co-founder and GNC representative of the Venezuela Creative Commons Chapter (founded in 2018) and is working on the re-establishment of a Creative Commons Chapter in Switzerland (2021). In general, he always tries to teach and outreach what he learns. In his opinion, the best way to contribute to the Creative Commons objectives and society has been through education.

  • Irene Soria  (2021-2022 term)

Image of Irene SoriaIrene is a PhD candidate in the Feminist Studies Department at Universidad Autónoma Metropolitana in Mexico City. She is a part-time faculty member, academic, consultant, graphic designer and activist for the free software / free culture movement since 2009. Irene decided to explore and study her own practices when migrating to the exclusive use of free software as a graphic designer, which led her to the in-depth analysis of open knowledge, free access, the Commons and above all: social sciences crossed by feminism and decolonial studies. Around these topics, she has written a degree thesis, academic and general interest articles, books and compilations, as well as attended and presented at conferences in many countries. In 2018, she was invited to re-found the Creative Commons Mexico Chapter, which she represents at the Global Network Council, in addition to being a member of the CC Global Network Council Membership Committee and, lately, part of the ExCom.

  • Alek Tarkowski (2021 term)

Image of Alek TarkowskiAlek is the Strategy Director of Open Future Foundation, a European think tank for the open movement. He is a sociologist, activist and strategist. Since 2004 he has been active, in Poland and globally, in organizations and social movements building an open internet. His focus has been on copyright, commons-based approaches to resource management and intellectual property. His interests include digital strategies for societies, regulation of emergent technologies, digital skills and openness of public resources.

He is the co-founder of Centrum Cyfrowe, a Polish think-and-do tank supporting open, digital society, where he currently chairs the Oversight Board. He also co-founded Creative Commons Poland, Communia (the European Association on the Digital Public Domain) and the Polish Coalition for Open Education (KOED). He has co-chaired the strategic process for the new Creative Commons Global Network Strategy. He is an alumnus of the Leadership Academy of Poland (Class of 2017), in 2016 he was named New Europe 100 Challenger.  Member of the Steering Committee of Internet Governance Forum Poland.  Formerly, member of the Board of Strategic Advisors to the Prime Minister of Poland (2008-2011), member of the Polish Board of Digitisation, an advisory body to the Minister of Digitisation (2011-2016) and Junior Fellow at the McLuhan Program on Culture and Technology at the University of Toronto.

He co-authored a range of Polish strategic documents, including the strategic report “Poland 2030”, the “Digital Poland” strategy and the Polish official long-term strategy for growth. He advised as well multiple public institutions and civil society organizations on digital strategies and projects. Co-author, with Mirek Filiciak, of a collection of essays titled “Two zero. Alphabet of new culture and other texts”. Lecturer at Artes Liberales Faculty at University of Warsaw and SWPS University of Social Sciences and Humanities. Member of the Advisory Board of the Commonwealth Center for Connected Learning, School of Ideas SWPS and CoderDojo Polska.

  • Tomo Watanabe (2021-2022 term)

Image of Tomo WatanabeTomo is a long-time member of the Creative Commons Japan Chapter, involved in its launch circa 2003 and continuously active since 2007. He has been leading the Japan team while being involved in license porting and translation, open data, copyright reform advocacy, and other activities. He is an academic at GLOCOM, the International University of Japan where he also manages the research division. His interests include social and policy issues related to openness, such as open data, open innovation through FabLab, multi-stakeholder policymaking process, open collaboration on Wikipedia, open strategies, open network infrastructure policies. He co-founded Open Knowledge Foundation Japan and was once a Wikipediholic. He holds a PhD from Indiana University.

The ExCom also has three CC positions. These are filled by CC’s CEO Catherine Stihler, CC’s Network Manager, and CC’s Board member Delia Browne

Image credits: Susanna and Irene: Sebastiaan ter Burg under (CC BY 2.0); Franco, Arturo, Tomo, and Alek provided their photos. 

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Her Story: Transforming Open Through Feminism https://creativecommons.org/2021/03/15/her-story-transforming-open-through-feminism/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=her-story-transforming-open-through-feminism Mon, 15 Mar 2021 13:49:21 +0000 https://creativecommons.org/?p=63048 For over 40 years, millions across the globe have collectively celebrated the achievements, histories, ideas, and contributions of women on March 8 and increasingly, throughout March for Women’s History Month using #HerStory and #BecauseOfHerStory. This year, we wanted to do something special to celebrate this annual event, so we reached out to several members of…

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Support is Everything” by Ipsita Divedi, licensed CC BY-NC-SA.

For over 40 years, millions across the globe have collectively celebrated the achievements, histories, ideas, and contributions of women on March 8 and increasingly, throughout March for Women’s History Month using #HerStory and #BecauseOfHerStory. This year, we wanted to do something special to celebrate this annual event, so we reached out to several members of the Creative Commons Global Network and the broader open community to ask them to share their personal stories, ideas, and insights by responding to five questions. The result is this five-part blog series called, “Her Story.” Throughout this series, we’ll also be highlighting the work of women artists who submitted pieces to Fine Acts’ Reimagining Human Rights challenge. 

Our hope is that these conversations will inspire you to reflect on your own stories and ideas. We also hope it will motivate you to think about how you can help make open sharing more inclusive, equitable, and sustainable. Put simply, we want to make sharing better—to do that, we need your help.

In part three of this series, participants responded to the following question: How can feminism transform the open movement?


  • Florence Devouard | Co-Lead, Wiki Loves Women; Wikimedian for 19 years; Former Chairwoman, Wikimedia Foundation

Les courants féministes sont de véritables bouillons de culture d’idées et des valeurs et accompagnent sous diverses formes notre histoire à travers des demandes d’égalité, de justice, de liberté, de visibilité. De son côté, le mouvement de la culture libre reste majoritairement masculin (par exemple  seule 10% de personnes participant à Wikipedia sont des femmes; il y également beaucoup moins de femmes dans le développement de logiciel libre que dans le développement de logiciel propriétaire) et l’ambiance parfois assez agressive, voire sexiste. Les féministes sont à l’origine de nombreuses initiatives innovantes destinées à sensibiliser, recruter, former, soutenir les novices du mouvement libre, et membres des groupes de travail réfléchissant aux moyens de développer un environnement plus amical, plus positif, plus réceptif et réactif aux situations individuelles (tels que développement de Charte de participation). 

EN: Feminist currents are veritable broths for the culture of ideas and values, ​​and in various forms accompany our history through demands for equality, justice, freedom, and visibility. For its part, the free culture movement remains predominantly male (for example, only 10% of people participating in Wikipedia are women; there are also far fewer women in the development of free software than in the development of proprietary software) and the atmosphere is sometimes quite aggressive, even sexist. Feminists are behind many innovative initiatives aimed at sensitizing, recruiting, training, and supporting novices of the free movement, and are also members of working groups reflecting on ways in which to develop a more friendly, positive, receptive, and responsive environment.

Abolishing the patriarchy and cisheteronormativity gives room in which we can foster creativity into the knowledge we consider important to share and preserve. Black women and Black queer folks have so much knowledge and brilliance to share, but this is shadowed daily by the small but meaningful and impactful things that go on within the open movement. Such as controlling or directing who receives funding, people not having the “necessary” networks that could get them into rooms where important and powerful decisions and conversations are made, Eurocentrism, a lack of diversity in leading organizations, inequality in labour and hiring procedures, etc. Until these things are dealt with, nothing will change.

  • İlkay Holt | Representative to the CC Global Network Council, CC Turkey

I am not an expert in this area but I can say that feminism would help to put equality in practise in the open community, not only in terms of gender but every level of social equality.

  • Irene Soria Guzmán | Representative to the Global Network Council, CC México; feminista; académica y activista de la cultura libre

Silvia Federici dice que los comunes no son “cosas” sino relaciones sociales. Por ello, hablar del acto de compartir, [commoning], los vínculos y la interdepencia, pueden ser ideas que desde el feminismo ayuden a derribar las jerarquías sociales impuestas y transformar el movimiento abierto.

EN: Silvia Federici says that the commons are not “things” but social relationships. For this reason, talking about feminist ideas like the act of sharing, commoning, social ties, and inter-dependence can help demolish the imposed social hierarchies and transform the open movement.

  • Isla Haddow-Flood | Chair and Advancement Lead, Wiki In Africa; CoProject Lead, Wiki Loves Women

Feminism is an integral part of the open movement. Equity and inclusion are building blocks of openness: you cannot be truly open if you are keeping people out. Most of the main players in this space are dedicated to ensuring gender equity. Within the Wikimedia movement alone, active feminism and gender-equity projects and groups exist across languages, themes, and regions. Accompanied by safety and security teams and policies (such as the Universal Code of Conduct and friendly space policy), together and separately these projects and initiatives have transformed the Wikimedia movement. There is a LOT of work still to be done, but the movement is definitely a more gender-friendly space than it used to be. These projects have not only elevated women and encouraged female contribution but have also allowed for space where men can be gender sensitised and have the opportunity to work towards gender equity too.

  • Mariana Valente | Director, InternetLab; Professor, Insper University; 2019-2020 CC Brazil lead

Obviously, we need to address gender equality in the open movement, but here I would like to go beyond that. Feminism has a lot to teach about forming communities, destabilizing crystallized power structures, and learning within differences. There are many affinities between the open movement and feminism. More than a legal solution, the open movement is about changing worldviews and creating—in the present—the living experience of what a different future could look like. Feminists are about that too. But one of the things which I think is exceptional is that feminists have learned over the decades how to fight in extremely adversarial environments, how to protect themselves from reactive waves, and how to reshape the movement in the face of internal power imbalances. Feminists have had to differentiate and define themselves too, politically, geographically, and in terms of values and principles—and at times, to join forces for common causes. Feminists have long understood the need to fight for both cultural and institutional change. These are all learnings that I think are very useful in addressing today’s challenges in the open movement. 

  • Primah Kwagala | Executive Director, Women’s Probono Initiative (Uganda)

An ecofeminist approach to the open movement requires us to interrogate the patriarchal systems that continuously make it impossible for women to access, share, and consume openly accessible knowledge and content. Traditionally, it is men that are considered professionals whilst women were and are referenced/viewed as an aesthetic and a support system to their male colleagues in the open movement. Many women, to this date, are only able to exist as ghostwriters to their male colleagues in the open movement. This needs to end. The open movement needs to embrace and expose women’s works so we can equally celebrate and promote women as co-creators with their male colleagues. 

? There’s more! Read part one and part two of our “Her Story” blog series today. Part four and five will be published Monday mornings (EST) throughout the month of March. Stay tuned!

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Meet CC Nepal, Our Next Feature for CC Network Fridays! https://creativecommons.org/2021/03/12/meet-cc-nepal-our-next-feature-for-cc-network-fridays/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=meet-cc-nepal-our-next-feature-for-cc-network-fridays Fri, 12 Mar 2021 16:46:00 +0000 https://creativecommons.org/?p=63042 After introducing the CC Italy Chapter to you in July, the CC Netherlands Chapter in August, CC Bangladesh Chapter in September, CC Tanzania Chapter in October, and the CC India Chapter in November, the CC Mexico Chapter in December, and CC Argentina Chapter in January, and  CC South Africa Chapter in February, we are now…

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After introducing the CC Italy Chapter to you in July, the CC Netherlands Chapter in August, CC Bangladesh Chapter in September, CC Tanzania Chapter in October, and the CC India Chapter in November, the CC Mexico Chapter in December, and CC Argentina Chapter in January, and  CC South Africa Chapter in February, we are now back to Asia to introduce CC Nepal! 

The Creative Commons Global Network (CCGN) consists of 48 CC Country Chapters spread across the globe. They’re the home for a community of advocates, activists, educators, artists, lawyers, and users who share CC’s vision and values. They implement and strengthen open access policies, copyright reform, open education, and open culture in the communities in which they live.

To help showcase their work, we’re excited to continue our blog series and social media initiative: CC Network Fridays. At least one Friday a month, we’re traveling around the world through our blog and on Twitter (using #CCNetworkFridays) to a different CC Chapter, introducing their teams, discussing their work, and celebrating their commitment to open! 


Say hello to CC Nepal!

The CC Nepal Chapter was formed in 2018. Its Chapter Lead is Kshitiz Khanal and its representative to the CC Global Network Council is Roshan Kumar Karn. CC Nepal is involved in advocacy, open education and copyright reform. For this post, we spoke to Roshan who told us a bit more about the Chapter’s work. 

CC: What open movement work is your Chapter actively involved in? What would you like to achieve with your work? 

CC Nepal: CC Nepal is actively involved in the promotion and advocacy of CC licenses, open education and copyright reform. We’re involved in the creation, curation and digitization of textbooks under appropriate CC licenses. We organize workshops and seminars to advocate for CC licenses.

CC: What exciting project has your Chapter engaged in recently?

CC Nepal: We organized Open Access “Back to School” teachers’ training recently. With the emerging need for virtual education and content development, the proper use of content with appropriate licenses has become equally important. CC licenses are of great impact for low and middle-income countries like Nepal as they will reduce knowledge barriers.

CC: What do you find inspiring and rewarding about your work in the open movement?

CC Nepal: The open movement allows researchers, students, and professionals from all fields to access relevant and up-to-date information enabling them in their careers, assisting them in making better decisions, and producing better outcomes—this is what we find rewarding. The pleasure of imparting knowledge without any barriers is eternally satisfying.

CC: What are your plans for the future? 

CC Nepal: 

  • Establishing an OER unit in the Ministry of Education to plan, implement and evaluate OER activities.
  • Make a robust network to digitize educational resources/textbooks provided by the Nepal government and implement appropriate CC licenses in it.
  • Organize workshops, webinars, boot camps, roadshows and other live engagements to raise awareness and facilitate communication.

CC: What projects in your country are using CC licenses that you’d like to highlight? 

CC Nepal: A few resources provided by the Ministry of Education use CC licenses: 

Thank you to the CC Nepal team, especially Roshan for contributing to the CC Network Fridays feature, and for all of their work in the open community! To see this conversation on Twitter, click here. To become a member of the CCGN, visit our website!

?: Featured image has icons by Guilherme Furtado and Vectors Point via Noun Project (CC BY 3.0).

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Her Story: Facing Our Greatest Challenges https://creativecommons.org/2021/03/08/her-story-facing-our-greatest-challenges/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=her-story-facing-our-greatest-challenges Mon, 08 Mar 2021 14:15:08 +0000 https://creativecommons.org/?p=62963 For over 40 years, millions across the globe have collectively celebrated the achievements, histories, ideas, and contributions of women on March 8 and increasingly, throughout March for Women’s History Month using #HerStory and #BecauseOfHerStory. This year, we wanted to do something special to celebrate this annual event, so we reached out to several members of…

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An illustration of a little girl on a swingset

Seeing is Believing” by Linoca Souza, licensed CC BY-NC-SA.

For over 40 years, millions across the globe have collectively celebrated the achievements, histories, ideas, and contributions of women on March 8 and increasingly, throughout March for Women’s History Month using #HerStory and #BecauseOfHerStory. This year, we wanted to do something special to celebrate this annual event, so we reached out to several members of the Creative Commons Global Network and the broader open community to ask them to share their personal stories, ideas, and insights by responding to five questions. The result is this five-part blog series called, “Her Story.” Throughout this series, we’ll also be highlighting the work of women artists who submitted pieces to Fine Acts’ Reimagining Human Rights challenge. 

Our hope is that these conversations will inspire you to reflect on your own stories and ideas. We also hope it will motivate you to think about how you can help make open sharing more inclusive, equitable, and sustainable. Put simply, we want to make sharing better—to do that, we need your help.

In part two of this series, participants responded to the following questions: What is the biggest challenge facing the open movement today? And what’s the solution?


  • Florence Devouard | Co-Lead, Wiki Loves Women; Wikimedian for 19 years; Former Chairwoman, Wikimedia Foundation

Je pense que notre plus gros challenge aujourd’hui est de parvenir à rester pertinent au regard des évolutions actuelles, quelles soient technologiques ou sociétales. Par exemple prendre en compte la fragmentation des réseaux et les actes de censure qui limitent la libre participation et la libre circulation des contenus. Ou par exemple être capables de donner accès aux informations sous différents formats technologiques, faciliter le partage d’information entre plateformes. Par exemple améliorer l’expérience utilisateur-trice, en fournissant un service respectueux des besoins de chaque personne. A beaucoup d’égard, notre mouvement était très novateur il y a 15-20 ans. Est-ce toujours le cas aujourd’hui ? On ne peut sans doute pas rivaliser avec les innovations technologiques des GAFA, mais notre mouvement est certainement capable de montrer le chemin et inspirer sur le plan humain au regard d’innovations liées à notre fonctionnement collectif.

EN: I think that our biggest challenge today is to remain relevant with regard to current developments, whether technological or societal. For example, take into account the fragmentation of networks and acts of censorship which limit free participation and the free circulation of content, or being able to provide access to information in different technological formats or facilitate the sharing of information between platforms. For example, improving the user experience by providing a service that respects the needs of each person. In many ways, our movement was very innovative 15-20 years ago. Is this still the case today? We can undoubtedly not compete with the technological innovations of GAFA, but our movement is certainly capable of showing the way and inspiring people on the human level with regard to innovations linked to our collective functioning.

Volunteerism and Eurocentrism—the idea that if someone loves doing something they can do this for free—is unsustainable and exploitative, to say the least. There is also more recognition for white men in anything open culture and this to me considers that they’re more knowledgeable and important to the movement; I say every day that for every one brilliant white man you know in the open movement, there are at least ten brilliant Black women doing the same thing without receiving any recognition or support because of this white exceptionalism.

  • İlkay Holt | Representative to the CC Global Network Council, CC Turkey

There are many challenges in the open movement. I guess the most prominent ones today are equity and diversity. Equity in access to knowledge and diversity in terms of language and communities. The COVID-19 pandemic proved how large the gap is in access to knowledge around the world but also proved the status quo can be changed if challenged. A short, great article on this is available here.

  • Irene Soria Guzmán | Representative to the Global Network Council, CC México; feminista; académica y activista de la cultura libre

Uno de los retos es luchar contra la idea “individualista” de “autor único” que crea solo, por que no nos permite ver que se “crea” en comunidad y para los demás. La solución podría ser, hacerle ver al mundo que pensar en “comunidad” nos beneficia más. “Soy por que somos”

EN: One of the challenges is to fight against the “individualistic” idea of a “unique author” who creates alone because it does not allow us to see that they are “creating” in a community and for others. The solution could be to make the world see that thinking about “community” benefits us more. Put simply, “I am because we are.”

  • Isla Haddow-Flood | Chair and Advancement Lead, Wiki In Africa; CoProject Lead, Wiki Loves Women

The open movement has come so far in the nearly 10 years since I have been officially involved. Ultimately the open movement is a brave new world—so different from the corporate mindset. Like anything new, it has had teething problems and difficulties settling. Perhaps the elements that have been holding it back are those very elements that make it so powerful: the multiple voices, needs, and requirements that all the various and diverse stakeholders have. The strategic discussions that have been happening among some of the major players are definitely helping to drive the movement beyond its awkward teenage years.

With regards to individual involvement, I think the main challenge is still the lack of multiple fun and engaging pathways open to people so they can see how they can benefit personally or professionally. Most people still come to the movement through word of mouth or professional advancement. Across Africa, there is still a lot of confusion and a lack of applied knowledge around copyright and the open movement. So much more could happen if people understood the benefits and applications better. I would encourage greater visibility drives at the national and thematic level with fun ways to engage with and adopt the many open movement tools and resources that are available. Local aligned open organisations, affiliates, and chapters should work together more towards this aim.

  • Mariana Valente | Director, InternetLab; Professor, Insper University; 2019-2020 CC Brazil lead

The internet has changed—new challenges have emerged that divide our attention. The environment is much more complex than it was 20 years ago in terms of business models for the entertainment industry, new controls over users, and the opaqueness of injustices in the knowledge ecosystem. I think our message used to be simpler and clearer.

However, the open movement has crucial solutions for many of the issues we are facing today, such as misinformation, walled gardens, online violence and discrimination, and geopolitical inequalities in the digital environment. Thankfully, many people in the open community have realized this. We must face these problems boldly and proactively—and make the connections to openness crystal clear. Free knowledge and culture are at the center of the digital transformation agenda and are critical for overcoming global inequalities in the information era.

  • Primah Kwagala | Executive Director, Women’s Probono Initiative (Uganda)

The biggest challenge in my opinion is the fear by content creators that they won’t be able to realise royalty for their creations if their work is made freely available to the public. This is a fear that we have to dispel. If the work is openly licenced online but commercialised in hardcopies, I find it a bigger and better marketing strategy. People still prefer flipping papers and the smell and sound of paper. They can still buy physical copies of the work and the creators can still make significant gains out of their creation.

? There’s more! You can now read part one of our “Her Story” blog series here. Part three, four, and five will be published Monday mornings (EST) throughout the month of March. Stay tuned!

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Her Story: Becoming an Advocate for Open https://creativecommons.org/2021/03/08/her-story-becoming-an-advocate-for-open/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=her-story-becoming-an-advocate-for-open Mon, 08 Mar 2021 14:14:14 +0000 https://creativecommons.org/?p=62927 For over 40 years, millions across the globe have collectively celebrated the achievements, histories, ideas, and contributions of women on March 8 and increasingly, throughout March for Women’s History Month using #HerStory and #BecauseOfHerStory. This year, we wanted to do something special to celebrate this annual event, so we reached out to several members of…

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Women’s Day” by Elsa Martino, licensed CC BY-NC-SA.

For over 40 years, millions across the globe have collectively celebrated the achievements, histories, ideas, and contributions of women on March 8 and increasingly, throughout March for Women’s History Month using #HerStory and #BecauseOfHerStory. This year, we wanted to do something special to celebrate this annual event, so we reached out to several members of the Creative Commons Global Network and the broader open community to ask them to share their personal stories, ideas, and insights by responding to five questions. The result is this five-part blog series called, “Her Story.” Throughout this series, we’ll also be highlighting the work of women artists who submitted pieces to Fine Acts’ Reimagining Human Rights challenge. 

Our hope is that these conversations will inspire you to reflect on your own stories and ideas. We also hope it will motivate you to think about how you can help make open sharing more inclusive, equitable, and sustainable. Put simply, we want to make sharing better—to do that, we need your help.

In part one of this series, participants responded to the following question: What motivated you to join the open movement and become an advocate for open access to knowledge and culture?


  • Florence Devouard | Co-Lead, Wiki Loves Women; Wikimedian for 19 years; Former Chairwoman, Wikimedia Foundation

J’ai rejoint le mouvement libre il y a 19 ans, lorsque j’ai découvert l’encyclopédie Wikipédia. Je n’avais pas la moindre idée du fait que je rejoignais le mouvement libre ! Je n’en avais en fait jamais entendu parler. Wikipedia m’a séduite par sa vision, l’accès à la connaissance au plus grand nombre, ainsi que par les valeurs que professent sa communauté, en particulier le fait que tout le monde puisse y participer et le positionnement éditorial ferme que nous appelons “la neutralité de point de vue”. Mais tout comme Mr Jourdain faisait de la prose sans le savoir, je faisais la promotion du mouvement libre sans le savoir. Par exemple, je n’ai commencé à vraiment comprendre les particularités des “licence libre” qu’au bout de 2 ans de contribution. 

EN: I joined the free movement 19 years ago when I discovered the Wikipedia encyclopedia. I had no idea that I was joining the free movement! I had never actually heard of it. Wikipedia seduced me with its vision, access to knowledge to as many people as possible, as well as the values ​​professed by its community. In particular, I like the fact that everyone can participate and the firm editorial positioning that we call “point of view neutrality.” But, just as Mr Jourdain was doing prose without knowing it, I was promoting the open movement without knowing it. For example, I only started to really understand the specifics of “open licenses” after two years of contribution.

My long time friend Simeon Oriko encouraged me to find a way of sharing the knowledge and skills I had accrued with students from less-fortunate backgrounds here in Kenya and who aspired to the same things in life as I did. While building on this work, I realized that a lot of the content we consume erases the work done by women—especially Black women—and did not encourage learners to create projects that would preserve their communities’ histories, culture, and knowledge.

  • İlkay Holt | Representative to the CC Global Network Council, CC Turkey

I joined the open movement a long time ago. Although I can’t remember my initial motivation, what keeps me in it is the public good. It doesn’t matter which area of “open” that you work in or advocate for, doing something good for the public and acting like it are the most rewarding aspects. Acting collectively for the public good motivates me to do more. 

  • Irene Soria Guzmán | Representative to the Global Network Council, CC México; feminista; académica y activista de la cultura libre

Me motiva que todas las personas del mundo puedan acceder al conocimiento y la cultura para tomar las mejores decisiones en su proyecto de vida, sobre todo a quienes menos acceso tienen, y no solo unas cuantas personas privilegiadas.

EN: That all people in the world can access knowledge and culture to make the best decisions in their life—especially for those who have less access, not just a few privileged people.

  • Isla Haddow-Flood | Chair and Advancement Lead, Wiki In Africa; CoProject Lead, Wiki Loves Women

I was first introduced to the open movement when working in the arts and culture scene in Cape Town. It just felt right. It encapsulated all the ideals I hadn’t yet given a voice to: sharing, collaboration, equity, openness, transparency. These were all incorporated within the movement and were easy to contribute and benefit from. My main contribution has been to activate, drive and support the WikiAfrica movement across the African continent, ensuring that Africa’s voices, cultures, and knowledge were given an equal opportunity within the Wikimedia movement. So, I guess it was a combination of personal beliefs and the passion to ensure the voices, cultures, and knowledge of Africa were heard—not only globally, but more importantly by those in Africa. This passion led to Wiki Loves Africa, Wiki Loves Women and multiple education projects and offline tools through Wiki In Africa.

  • Mariana Valente | Director, InternetLab; Professor, Insper University; 2019-2020 CC Brazil lead

I was a law student at the University of São Paulo when I first learned about Creative Commons in 2009. I was thrilled! I was interested in cultural policies, had begun studying copyright law on my own and was developing a critical perspective. I remember quite well how it felt to find that there were people all around the world actually using the law to produce very concrete, transforming results in access to culture and knowledge.

The thrill never left me. I became more interested and wrote my master’s dissertation about Free Software and Creative Commons at the University of São Paulo. When I was finished in 2012, I had the chance to join the team that then represented CC Brazil—the Center for Technology and Society at the Getúlio Vargas Foundation. I jumped right in, started joining CC international meetings, developed several collaborations, and made good friends in the community. Over the years, my interest only grew for the other subjects CC introduced me to, including internet policy and human rights. Both of which I currently work on.

  • Primah Kwagala | Executive Director, Women’s Probono Initiative (Uganda)

Women and girls are disproportionately affected by limited access to knowledge goods and resources. Finances are traditionally in the hands of men in our society. There are more men than women on the internet. The inability to access resources for women and girls intersects with the inability to access knowledge and culture outside their traditional environment. The desire to bring knowledge goods closer to women who cannot otherwise afford them when copyrighted spurred me to become an advocate for open access to knowledge and culture in Uganda and Africa as a whole.

? There’s more! You can now read the next part of our “Her Story” blog series here. Part three, four, and five will be published Monday mornings (EST) throughout the month of March. Stay tuned!

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Meet CC South Africa, Our Next Feature for CC Network Fridays! https://creativecommons.org/2021/02/12/meet-cc-south-africa/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=meet-cc-south-africa Fri, 12 Feb 2021 15:26:57 +0000 https://creativecommons.org/?p=62843 After introducing the CC Italy Chapter to you in July, the CC Netherlands Chapter in August, CC Bangladesh Chapter in September, CC Tanzania Chapter in October, and the CC India Chapter in November, the CC Mexico Chapter in December, and CC Argentina Chapter in January, we are now travelling to Africa to introduce the CC…

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After introducing the CC Italy Chapter to you in July, the CC Netherlands Chapter in August, CC Bangladesh Chapter in September, CC Tanzania Chapter in October, and the CC India Chapter in November, the CC Mexico Chapter in December, and CC Argentina Chapter in January, we are now travelling to Africa to introduce the CC South Africa Chapter! 

The Creative Commons Global Network (CCGN) consists of 48 CC Country Chapters spread across the globe. They’re the home for a community of advocates, activists, educators, artists, lawyers, and users who share CC’s vision and values. They implement and strengthen open access policies, copyright reform, open education, and open culture in the communities in which they live.

To help showcase their work, we’re excited to continue our blog series and social media initiative: CC Network Fridays. At least one Friday a month, we’re traveling around the world through our blog and on Twitter (using #CCNetworkFridays) to a different CC Chapter, introducing their teams, discussing their work, and celebrating their commitment to open! 


Say hello to CC South Africa!

The CC South Africa Chapter was formed in 2019. Its Chapter Lead is Paul West and its representative to the CC Global Network Council is Derek Moore. CC South Africa is a loose, value network of South African people and organizations who support the ideals and practices of the open movement. Members of the Chapter are committed to promoting and enabling the legal sharing of creative works, education, and other works with others. For this post, we spoke to Paul and Derek who told us a bit more about the Chapter’s work. 

CC: What open movement work is your Chapter actively involved in? What would you like to achieve with your work? 

CC South Africa: We supported the approval of the copyright amendment bill and objected to ongoing delays by SA Presidency in signing it into law. The Bill is being held up for issues, including resistance by international lobbies that are opposed to developing countries including FAIR USE in their copyright legislation. You can find more information by following @DeniseNicholson and in this article.  

We also work with Open Content Finder, a collaboratively-sourced directory of #OER for teaching and learning materials. @OpenUCT content carries CC licenses. Find out more here and by following @GlenCox

We were involved with the #feesmustfall resources for online and blended learning that were developed by four South African universities (UP, UJ. UCT & UFS) and were shared as open educational resources (CC BY SA NC) with other higher education institutions in South Africa. 

CC: What exciting project has your Chapter engaged in recently?

CC South Africa: We work with the @UNESCOICT4D which resulted in the report “Education for the most marginalised post‑COVID-19” and guidance note “Sharing open educational resources (OER) with Creative Commons (CC) open licenses“. For more information follow @PGWest

CC: What do you find inspiring and rewarding about your work in the open movement?

CC South Africa: Working in the open movement helps us create OPEN learning systems in 2021 that will provide free access to download, retain, reuse, revise, remix and redistribute to others. These require CC #OER licenses. See the guidance note and follow @CCSA and @PGWest for more information.

The “Open Umbrella” is a self-evaluation tool & field-guide, intended for online education. This OER offers manageable steps to course improvement. Future plans include 8 self-study modules, webinars & workshops over 3 years. For more information follow @weblearning.

CC: What are your plans for the future? 

CC South Africa: Especially for the rest of the pandemic, we will continue to meet and conduct encouraging messages using video conferences and newsy emails. Members are being encouraged to develop their own projects and share information on projects that include CC licenses through the Chapter. 

CC: What projects in your country are using CC licenses that you’d like to highlight? 

CC South Africa: 

Early reading projects (Bookdash and African Storybook) are making a significant impact and their work is being enabled with Creative Commons

  • Beautifully told and illustrated early reading materials, packaged professionally and shared. Check this out via their website or follow @BookDash  
  • Open Textbook projects (@dot4d) are being written and released    

CC: Anything else you want to share?

CC South Africa: Our Chapter membership has reached 50 people and there is even some interest from individuals in neighboring countries where Chapters have not yet been established. Everyone with a common interest to promote open education with CC licenses and to collaborate constructively with others is invited.

Thank you to the CC South Africa team, especially Paul and Derek for contributing to the CC Network Fridays feature, and for all of their work in the open community! To see this conversation on Twitter, click here. To become a member of the CCGN, visit our website!

?: Featured image has icons by Guilherme Furtado and Vectors Point via Noun Project (CC BY 3.0).

The post Meet CC South Africa, Our Next Feature for CC Network Fridays! appeared first on Creative Commons.

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