[Icommons] Announcing OpenSA! South African heritage for online creators

Heather Ford hfordsa at gmail.com
Fri Jan 23 02:34:04 EST 2009


Thought I'd update you on a new project that we're launching today  
called OpenSA! at www.iheritage.org.za


OpenSA! launches in Johannesburg today with a pilot project to make  
South African heritage more accessible for remixing and re-publishing  
by online creators. In collaboration with SA Rocks and the African  
Commons Project, OpenSA! is collecting, tagging and managing  
donations from people who are willing to make their material freely  
available online.  OpenSA! will also be helping to coordinate  
outreach to South Africa’s young creators to enable them to learn  
more about how to find open content that they are free to remix and  
share.

As access to the Internet grows in South Africa, so too does the  
range of creative activity by a new generation of active online  
citizens. Internet publishing in the form of blogging and citizen  
journalism, online publishing of photographic, video and music  
publishing are all part of a wide range of democratic speech that we  
as a young nation are trying to encourage and nurture.

There are some moments in the history and culture of South Africa  
that are part of our shared heritage – such as Nelson Mandela’s  
speech when he was released from prison in 1990 or Thabo Mbeki’s ‘I  
am an African’ speech. For the first time in history we have the  
means to make those moments available to more than just the  
professional journalists, filmmakers and researchers who were  
traditionally authorized to re-publish them.

OpenSA! is a pilot project dedicated to the growing number of young  
South Africans who are finding their voice online. The project was  
started in order to nurture this creativity by making it easier for  
young creators to find and share media about our heritage safely and  
legally.


Heather Ford

The African Commons Project
http://www.africancommons.org

iHeritage: South African Heritage Online
http://iheritage.wordpress.com

http://www.hblog.org/
skype: heatherford
aim: queenbea878

Phone: +27 11 327 3155
PO Box 1453, Saxonwold, 2132, Johannesburg





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