Creative Commons Aotearoa New Zealand discussion

[Danyl Strype <strypey AT disintermedia.net.nz>]

Kia ora koutou

Richard, I presume you have talked to Robin Day and Pam McKinley, who
I understand both played a role in making CC the default license for
Otago Polytech? As you say, different style of institution may require
different approaches, but this was an early success story, and one we
can hopefully build on.

My guess is that universities were excluded from NZGOAL because of the
significant role that private sector interests play in co-funding
universities these days. I assume that NZGOAL will naturally lead to
any research commissioned by government departments or other
publicly-funded entities being released under an open license (either
CC or an open data license, or both, as appropriate). Hopefully as
private research funders see the benefits of this, they will follow.

I see a role for CC ANZ here in researching and documenting proven
benefits from the release of publicly-funded research. One project
already underway as a demonstration of such benefits is 'Beethoven's
Open Repository', which Jane sent us a link to earlier in the year:
http://rockethub.com/projects/3755-transforming-the-way-we-publish-research

As that page mentions, there are already many academics and even whole
journals publishing research under CC licenses, which is great. Again,
there is an opportunity here for CC ANZ to aggregate this in some way,
perhaps with a focus on CC-licensed papers and journals produced in
Aotearoa?

Thinking out load, it seems to me there is a two stage process
underway here. The first stage is for traditional academic publishing
to adopt CC licensing and create institutional repositories. The
second, as exemplified by the Beethoven project, is to actually
transform the style of academic publishing, and even the way research
is directed and focussed, taking advantage of the benefits offered by
database, hyperlinking, and wiki technologies.

Wayne's proposal for a national hui on open access for tertiary
institutions is exciting. Jane's suggestion of a forum on this topic
at NetHui is a good one, and obviously building awareness and
participation for Open Access Week is important. There may be other
national fora related to the tertiary sector where CC/ open access
advocates could present: for example national hui of
- Tertiary Education Union
- NZUSA
- Māori student associations
- post-grad associations
- tertiary librarians (LIANZA?)

I will personally be working on incorporating discussions on
CC-licensed learning materials into the Australasian Permaculture
Convergence happening April, 2011 in Turangi. There will be
permaculture educators there from Oz, Aotearoa, and the pacific - a
fantastic opportunity to champion open access to permaculture
education.

I'm considering basing myself in Ōtepoti in 2012, and will definitely
be spending some time there in late Feb and early Mar. Perhaps a
number of us could meet then to brainstorm some strategies for
networking across the tertiary sector and working towards national
hui?

Hei kōnei rā
Danyl

> On Tue, Dec 13, 2011 at 3:29 PM, Richard White <richard.white AT otago.ac.nz>
> wrote:
>>
>> Hi Jane (and all)
>>
>>
>>
>> I’d like to make some comments in relation to the Roadmap, with particular
>> reference to the tertiary education sector.
>>
>>
>>
>> As NZGOAL was released (and I also followed streamed discussions at NetHui
>> about some of the open access developments in the public sector), I was 
>> left
>> to look on with envy, since tertiary institutions were specifically 
>> excluded
>> from NZGOAL, probably for good reason (biting off more than you can chew, I
>> expect).  But this was very disappointing.
>>
>>
>>
>> At Otago we’re trying to harness some of the grass roots enthusiasm for
>> open access principles and transfer that energy to a more senior, strategic
>> level.  I would be very interested in talking to others at other
>> Universities (or tertiary providers more generally, though our cultures
>> probably present different challenges) about what they are doing or hope to
>> do in this context.  If we could develop a sense of common principles or
>> purpose as a sector, we would present a much more convincing and coherent
>> argument for widespread adoption of open practices in academia.
>>
>>
>>
>> The NZVCC does have a copyright sub-committee (which I have attended) but
>> that group is largely concerned with compliance, I would suggest – and
>> therefore not the right forum in which to advance the kinds of things I’m
>> talking about.
>>
>>
>>
>> Could there be a place for Creative Commons to help facilitate these sorts
>> of discussions?
>>
>>
>>
>> I’d welcome thoughts from anyone else.  For the record, these are purely
>> my own thoughts, in my role as Copyright Officer, and should not be taken 
>> as
>> any kind of official view from the University of Otago!
>>
>>
>>
>> Regards
>> Richard




-- 
Danyl Strype
Community Developer
Disintermedia.net.nz/strype

"freedom is participation in power.”
- Cicero

"Allowing the university to be turned into the tool of business is
allowing it to be corrupted."
- Richard Stallman
http://www.oss-watch.ac.uk/resources/Stallman.xml

"There is tenderness only in the coarsest demand: that no-one should
go hungry any more. That children go hungry, that they will be cold
and starving, and uncared for this winter, right here in New York,
condemns every fine word said in favor of the current social order by
the sock puppets whose fine, well paid job it is to find excuses for
it."
- Theodor Adorno