Creative Commons Aotearoa New Zealand discussion

["Danyl Strype" <strypey AT riseup.net>]

In my last email, in reponse to the question of whether CC ANZ should  
take positions on public policy issues (eg publicly supporting the  
PublicACTA declaration), I said I would like to see this decision made  
by consensus of the wider CC ANZ community. I see this discussion as  
an opportunity to solicit ideas about governance of CC ANZ from  
supporters on this list. With the move into working under the Royal  
Society now official, dicussions have been taking place about how the  
CC ANZ project will be structured as an entity inside the RS, and the  
outcomes of our discussions on-list could be helpful in the evolution  
of both the formal structure and the accompanying culture of that  
entity.

A little background - since the HRN board stopped meeting,  
responsibility for CC ANZ decision-making and governance has rested  
mostly on Jane (as paid CC ANZ admin) and Stephanie (as head of  
Humanities Research Network). Because of severe time shortages, and  
the sensitive nature of the negotiations with the Council for the  
Humanities and the Royal Society, opportunities for them to report  
back to this list and get feedback and support have been limited.

Jane has explained to me that most CC jurisdictions work inside  
academic institutions, and decision-making takes place in a  
traditional, top-down manner. The CC ANZ project was initiated through  
a more collaborative, community-centred organizations style, with  
supporters being kept appraised of developments, and able to give  
feedback through this list, and I'm keen for CC ANZ to continue this  
pioneering work of implementing principles of open governance.  
Obviously this is a sensitive issue, our relationships with the Royal  
Society and its workers are new, and we don't want to 'spook the  
horses' ;) On the other hand, RS have expressed a strong desire to  
have regular input from the wider CC community, understanding that  
this engagement will be crucial to the growth and success of CC ANZ in  
its mission.

There are a number of ways we could approach collective  
decision-making, it really depends on how much committment people want  
to make to being part of the process. At this stage the only community  
consultation tools we have are this email list, and the forums (which  
have not been used much). One approach could be as simple as advising  
of the decision to be made (with links to background material) on both  
the list and the forums, with a deadline for feedback. When the  
website is redeveloped, we could look at adding other tools, such as  
straw-polls of registered users, or a wiki, like the 'talk pages' used  
to agree on what Wikipedia articles should contain. We could even look  
at holding regional public meetings. Again, this all depends on how  
motivated our supporters are to be an active part of decision-making  
process, and what tools or methods are going to make it easiest for  
them to participate in a meaningful way.

Thoughts?

He mihi nui
Danyl

BTW The documentary 'Us Now' which features a number of case studies  
of open governance in action is well worth a look

--
"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