[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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