Cc-hk mailing list

[Haggen So <haggenso AT gmail.com>]

Online Version:
http://hk.creativecommons.org/2009/02/12/the-commons-crossroads/langswitch_lang/en/

The second Asia Pacific Creative Commons Conference, "The Commons
Crossroads: Defining the Roadmap for Creative Commons in Asia and the
Pacific", was held in Manila of the Philippines on 5-6 of February
2009. CCHK participated in this event by sending our project manager,
Dr. Haggen So.

The conference started early at 8am, first with the presentation of
the Philippine National Anthem from the Arellano Law Singers,
Invocation and welcome remarks from the host, followed by the
presentation from CC Philippines on their current projects.

Though CC Philippines was only launched in January 2008, the
presentation comprised of an array of impressive projects. The first
presenter was from Vibal Foundation, which was funded by the Vidal
Publishing House. Vibal Foundation ran two famous online knowledge
bases, namely Filipiniana.net and WikiPilipinas.org. Filipiniana.net
was a digital library containing historical and cultural artefacts of
the Philippines. WikiPilipinas.org was the largest online Philippine
encyclopaedia in the world. The foundation also started E-turo.org, an
online repository of teaching and learning tools.

The next presenter, DRIP, was a local band who made themselves famous
and collaborated with other musicians worldwide through licensing
their works under CC and distributing them using different online
tools, especially ccMixter. With the lowering cost of distribution of
music, DRIP was able to make a living comfortably using this new
business model.

The most different and valuable part of the conference from last year
was the Commons of the stage, where most part of the programme was
comprised of presentations and sharing from all the jurisdictions
represented.

Our representative from Hong Kong, Dr. Haggen So, presented the
exciting development of CC in Hong Kong last year with Lessig and Ito
at the official launch and the future direction on education. A good
number of current and potential CC projects initiated by CCHK and the
community were shown to the audience as well.

Other jurisdictions also shared their experiences on the topics of
current and future CC related projects and licence usage, where a good
number of presentations focused on the area of education, government
and Web 2.0 sites.

The organisation, operation and funding of each jurisdiction were also
discussed and compared. Most CC organisations were hosted in academic
institutions, with the exception of Korea. The common problems were to
find funding and the difficulties in using research funding for
promotion purposes.

At the end of the conference, the topic of collaborations between
different Asia-Pacific CC movements was discussed. The conclusion of
this conversation is encapsulated in the "Action Plan Statement",
which will be made public soon.

Other than presentations and discussions, the host also organised a
cultural night where the participants could see the performance of
traditional-native Filipino dances from different tribes and origins
as well as a surprise presentation from TrueFaith, a well-known local
band. Other artists included the Arellano Law Singers, DRIP and Lisa
Diy.

This conference was a great time for relationship building, sharing
experiences and resources. A number of jurisdictions were similar to
CCHK with education as an important focus and employed CC as a tool
for the development of curriculum materials. A number of collaboration
initiatives will be announced in the "Action Plan Statement". Last but
not least, we would like to thank CC Philippines and the Arellano
University School of Law for the effort and the hospitality in
organising this successful event.

For more information, please refers to http://www.cc-asiapacific.net/.