Hi Tessa
I was part of a discussion on the issue of gender balance in the
commons community a few years ago, when people realised that the 2007 iCommons
conference (that for a few years was the main gathering of the CC community) in
Dubrovnik didn’t have a female keynote.
The feeling at the time was that, because of its origins in the
programming and academic communities, a lot of the existing ‘high profile’
commoners were men - but that a lot (maybe even the majority) of people ‘on
the ground’ were women. We were hoping that as the commons moved more
into the education and collections areas, the balance would start to right
itself.
A mailing list for ideas to increase the profile of women in the
commons was set up, but didn’t really go anywhere.
As far as the CC chapters go – doing a random count of the
people I know off the top of my head, I’d say representation is fairly
even between men and women. Though I note the head office seems to be
weighted towards men – though again, this might be a result of the number
of programmers it has on staff. About a third of the board are women.
I presume you’re aware of the excellent work being done
here in Australia by our local LinuxChix chapter (http://au.linuxchix.org/) and by the Brisbane-base
‘Tech Girls are Chic’ organisation (http://techgirlsarechic.org/)? I can give
you contacts for both these groups if you’d like.
Jessica Coates
Project Manager
Creative Commons Clinic
Queensland University of Technology
ph: 07 3138 8301
fax: 07 3138 9395
email: j2.coates AT qut.edu.au
From: cc-nz-bounces AT lists.ibiblio.org
[mailto:cc-nz-bounces AT lists.ibiblio.org] On Behalf Of Tessa Houghton
Sent: Thursday, 26 November 2009 7:02 AM
To: cc-nz AT lists.ibiblio.org
Subject: Re: [Cc-nz] reportback from IRGO unConference (Danyl Strype)
Hello,
I also attended the IRGO unConference, and Danyl has given a great overview of
what went on. As he has said, I also felt that some of the best
conversation happened in the 'gaps' - both informal conversation and the space
provided for the flashmeets, such as the one on Open Source, which was, for me,
one of the best discussion spaces of the 2 days. With regards to that
flashmeet and the discussion of women in the open source community, general
figures tend to be closer to 2% than 20%, which is something I'm interested in
(and women in programming in general), and have planned some research on in the
next year. Statistics can be found here: http://www.gendershouldntmatter.org/
I'd welcome contact from anyone (women or men) who has anything to share on
this issue, either in-list or by direct mail. I don't know anything about
female involvement in CC chapters and in general, but I wonder if similar
discrepancies exist?
Anyway, just wanted to say hello and share that info. I've only just signed up
for the mailing list, and am looking forward to seeing what you are all up to -
CC is a great initiative, and something that I hope will continue to gain
greater traction both here and globally.
Cheers,
Tessa
Tessa Jade Houghton
PhD Candidate
Media and Communication
University of Canterbury
New Zealand
"If one could conclude as to the nature of the Creator from a study of
creation, it would appear that God has an inordinate fondness for stars and
beetles." - J.B.S. Haldane
On Thu, Nov 26, 2009 at 7:20 AM, <cc-nz-request AT lists.ibiblio.org>
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Today's Topics:
1. reportback from IRGO unConference (Danyl Strype)
---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: "Danyl Strype" <strypey AT riseup.net>
To: cc-nz <cc-nz AT lists.ibiblio.org>
Date: Wed, 25 Nov 2009 19:13:12 +1300
Subject: [Cc-nz] reportback from IRGO unConference
Kia ora koutou
The IRGO unConference produced some stimulating discussion about the future of
internet usage and the angles that researchers from various academic disciplines
are taking towards it. I had to travel down to Otepoti on Monday morning, so
unfortunately I missed the keynote address by Professor Greg Hearn (of QUT,
where some of the Oz CC team are based), and the first few sessions.
I arrived in time to attend two of the afternoon panels. The first, Building
Communities Online, was focussed mainly on how to make money out of online
communities, whereas I would rather have heard more about how and why people
gather in online communities and what useful purposes they serve beyond the
financial. The second, about Mobile Internet, revealed that although kiwi users
have a high level of internet adoption overall, we are behind in our adoption
of mobile internet. This may be because of the availability of cabled services,
and the (perceived) high cost of mobile services. Many developing countries
have limited cable infrastructure, meaning cell phone use is more ubiquitous
and mobile internet more intuitive.
The panel I put forward, Copy Rights, Copyleft, and the CreativeCommons, was
the first session on Tuesday morning, and with no other panel up against it, we
had good numbers, and an enthusiastic discussion. Thanks again to my fellow
panelists; Pam McKinley, an arts teacher at Otago Polytech, and Alan Toy, a law
lecturer at Otago University.
I showed the 2min video 'Wanna Work Together', which explains briefly how CC
works, and answered some questions about the different license conditions. One
or two baffling questions came up. For example, how are CC licenses are
affected by different copyright durations across jurisdictions? If something is
licensed under a NZ CC license, and goes into the public domain, can the
license conditions still be enforced in the US, where a copyright last longer?
I have to admit I think of a CC license as part of a conversation between
artist and audience, and I haven't thought much about enforcement. The next
session, on Digital Content, followed on nicely.
One aspect of the unConference format was the 'flashmeets', spaces for spontaneous
discussions arising out of the pre-arranged panels. I participated in one
flashmeet where we explored the question of whether open source represents a
break with the political economy of capitalism, or a reform within it. My
observation is that libre/ open licensing (and the collaborative, participatory
productions models that seem to go with it) attracts people who would support
each of those options. One can find examples of both flat, post-capitalist
management structures and the strict bearaucratic heirarchy of traditional
corporates contributing to libre development, sometimes working on the same
libre project. The participation of IBM and Novell in Linux development is one
such example. Certainly free software also attracts anti-corporate advocates
like myself, but an across-the-board adoption of libre licensing of software
and media would not necessarily require or precipitate an anti-capitalist
revolution, although it would be a social revolution of a sort. There was also
some discussion of levels of female participation, which is apparently around
20% in open source development, but higher in proprietary development.
The programme concluded with a discussion on the potential for future
unConferences, and a keynote by Brett Telfer from Telecom, who was quizzed
about how Telecom is planning to add various new cable and wireless services to
Telecom's traditional landline, cell, and internet offerings.
As always with such events, some of the most productive conversations happened
during the breaks, and over drinks after the days sessions were over. One
project that we cooked up was a research page on existing business models for
online media distribution that aspire to make it possible for artists to make a
living from their art, while incorporating CC licensing. Potentially this could
be hosted on the CC.org wiki.
I also spoke to Jordan Carter from InternetNZ about a conference on defending
the open internet, which he wants to hold in Poneke in 2010. This could be an
opportunity to hold another discussion on copyright in the era of online
distribution, and bring together some people who are keen to work on promoting
and educating about CC to do some brainstorming.
Overall, the internet unConference was a great idea, and successfully executed.
It's a shame that KiwiCon is on in Poneke so soon after, I'd like to have held
a session on CC there as well. If anyone is going, please see if there is any
opportunity to bring CC into the programme.
RnB
Danyl
--
"A free society is a society where it is safe to be unpopular."
- Adlai E. Stevenson Jr
"Be who you are and say what you feel because those who mind don't matter
and
those who matter don't mind."
- Dr Suess
http://strypey.orconhosting.net.nz/contacts.html
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