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Subject: Creative Commons Aotearoa New Zealand discussion

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  • From: "Danyl Strype" <strypey AT riseup.net>
  • To: cc-nz <cc-nz AT lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: [Cc-nz] CC ANZ governance
  • Date: Tue, 20 Apr 2010 09:59:00 +1200

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




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