The Institute has a position available for a (junior) researcher to work on an ongoing research project on Open Content licensing. IViR is legal partner of Creative Commons NL, which has received substantial funding from the Dutch Ministry of Culture for a variety of Open Content related activities, including legal research.

Full details are available here: Jobs.ac.uk | University of Amsterdam

July 15-17, 2008 Barcelona, Spain

http://fkft.eu

This looks really interesting. I won’t post the whole conference description, but in relevant part:

The programme consists of an elegant mix between keynote speakers, panel discussions and parallel tracks on topics such as Social implications of Free Knowledge and Free Technologies, Technological aspects of e-learning, Learning Standards, Free Software in society, Legal issues of Free
Knowledge, Free Knowledge in public bodies, Introducing the SELF Platform, and many more. Invited speakers are, amongst others, Lawrence Lessig (pending confirmation), Karel de Vriendt (EU/IDABC), Pekka Himanen (pending confirmation). During the social evening the Award Ceremony of the “Free Knowledge, Free Technology” Open Documentary Contest will take place.

Conference information: http://fkft.eu/index.php/fkft/2008
Organising team: http://fkft.eu/index.php/fkft/2008/about/organizingTeam
For Papers: http://fkft.eu/index.php/fkft/2008/about/submissions
For Registration:
http://www.ftfk.org/index.php/fkft/2008/schedConf/registration

COMMUNIA Workshop: “Technology and the public domain” (18/01/2008)

Organized by the NEXA Center for Internet & Society of
the Politecnico di Torino (Italy) this event takes aim
at the international debate about the “digital commons” and the
complex relationship between technological innovation and today’s
mass usage of digital technologies. The Workshop provides an
opportunity for experts and innovators in digital technologies to
meet with other stakeholders, opinion leaders, and policy makers in
order to deepen and share their understanding of the role of
technology in shaping the present and future of our digital commons.

After the opening plenary talk at 9:15 on “Technology, the law and
the public domain” (by Rishab Ghosh, MERIT, University of Maastricht)
the workshop will continue for the entire day with three different
topic sessions, addressing technology issues, software tools and
formats, and infrastructure matters — all of them related to the
development of the “digital commons” as a general mainframe, and the
science commons in particular.

The list of confirmed speakers includes Keith Jeffery (Current Research
Information Systems, president ERCIM), Nathan Yergler (CTO Creative
Commons), Robert Horvitz (Open Spectrum Foundation), Philippe Aigrain
(Society for Public Information Spaces), Xavier Serra (Universitat
Pompeu Fabra), Juan Carlos De Martin (COMMUNIA Coordinator), Andrea
Glorioso (NEXA Research Center for Internet and Society).

A wrap-up session and closing discussion is scheduled at 16:00.

The workshop will take place in Torino (Italy), at the Aula Magna of
the Politecnico of Torino at the Lingotto (Via Nizza 230).

Admission is free and open to the public, but pre-registration is required.

More information and program details: http://ws1-2008.communia-project.eu
Pre-registration: http://ws1-2008.communia-project.eu/phorm/reg-form.html
Media inquiries: press ]AT[ communia-project.eu

COMMUNIA, the European Thematic Network on the Public Domain in the Digital Age, held its kick-off meeting in Turin, Italy on September 28, 2007. The network consists of over 35 members from 21 countries who are dedicated to developing

“the single European point of reference for high-level policy discussion and strategic action on all issues related to the public domain in the digital environment, as well as related topics such as alternative forms of licensing for creative material (including, but not limited to, the Creative Commons licenses), open access to scientific publications and research results, management of works whose authors are unknown (i.e. orphan works).”

The COMMUNIA project, funded by the European Commission and coordinated by Politecnico di Torino, will enrich the next 3 years with a productive schedule of thematic workshops and conferences, with the goal of maintaining a strong link between participants dedicated to analytical and practical results, including “the production of a book; an academic journal; a “best practices” guide for European research and reference centres on the topics covered by COMMUNIA; and a final strategic report containing policy guidelines that will help all the stakeholders – public and private, from the local to the European level – tacking the issues that the existence of a digital public domain have raised and will undoubtedly continue to raise.”

The kick-off meeting owes its success to the superb organization efforts of Italian CC Project Lead and COMMUNIA Network Coordinator Prof. Juan Carlos De Martin, Project Manager Andrea Glorioso, Ms. Maria Teresa Medina Quintana, Prof. Angelo Raffaele Meo, and Prof. Marco Ricolfi. Also part of the COMMUNIA Project team is Mr. Bernardo Parrella as online PR manager.

The project looks very interesting and I’m looking forward to its output.