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Category: Open Culture

Recap & Recording: “Whose Open Culture? Decolonization, Indigenization, and Restitution”

Open Culture
The background is a woven textile with black, red, blue, and brown and tan shapes emmulating birds and fish. The text reads Andean Textile Fragment” by Peruvian. 1500. Walters Art Museum., here slightly cropped, is released into the public domain under CC0.

In January we hosted a webinar titled “Whose Open Culture? Decolonization, Indigenization, and Restitution” discussing the intersection of indigenous knowledge and open sharing. Our conversation spanned a variety of topics regarding indigenous sovereignty over culture, respectful terminology, and the legacy of colonialism and how it still exists today.

What did Creative Commons do for Open Culture in 2023?

Open Culture
Laterna magica picture painted in color on glass plate. Pictures from the solar system. Laterna magica bild målad i färg på glasskiva. Bilder ur solsystemet. from Tekniska Museet Svenska, Public Domain Mark. https://digitaltmuseum.se/021016341596/laterna-magica-bild-malad-i-farg-pa-glasskiva-bilder-ur-solsystemet

2023 was quite a year for the Creative Commons (CC) Open Culture Program, thanks to generous funding from Arcadia, a charitable fund of Lisbet Rausing & Peter Baldwin. In this blog post we look back on some of the year’s key achievements.

Upcoming Open Culture Live Webinar: “Whose Open Culture? Decolonization, Indigenization, and Restitution”

Open Culture
The background is a woven textile with black, red, blue, and brown and tan shapes emmulating birds and fish. The text reads Andean Textile Fragment” by Peruvian. 1500. Walters Art Museum., here slightly cropped, is released into the public domain under CC0.

On Wednesday, 17 January, 2024, at 3:00 pm UTC, CC’s Open Culture Program will be hosting a new webinar in our Open Culture Live series titled “Whose Open Culture? Decolonization, Indigenization, and Restitution.” As we observed a few years ago, there is growing awareness in the open culture movement about issues related to the acquisition, preservation, access, sharing, and reuse of cultural heritage of Indigenous peoples and local communities (including traditional knowledge and traditional cultural expressions), heritage in the context of colonization, and culturally-sensitive heritage.

Open Culture Live Recap & Recording: Respectful Terminologies & Changing the Subject

Open Culture
A detail from the painting showing a scene of Indian princesses gathered around a fountain with multi-colored dresses, overlaid with the CC Open Culture logo and Open Culture Live wordmark, and text saying “Changing the Subject & Respectful Technologies 29 November 2023 | 4:00 PM UTC” and including an attribution for the image: “Princesses Gather at a Fountain, ca. 1770 Source: The Metropolitan Museum of Art.” Princesses Gather at Fountain”, ca. 1770, shown slightly cropped. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Public Domain.

On 22 November, we organized a webinar with a group of experts to discuss their unique approaches to reparative metadata practices: considering the ways that harmful histories and terminologies have made their way into collections labeling and categorization practices and finding ways to identify those terms, contextualize them, and/or replace them altogether. Jill Baron, a…

Highlights from GLAM Wiki by the CC Open Culture Team

Open Culture
From left to right, the team stands together with GLAM Wiki Lanyards. Jocelyn has short brown curly hair and wears a black and white dress with a black shirt. Brigitte has light brown hair and wears jeans and a pink jacket. Connor wears a white button up shirt and jeans, glasses. Jennryn has long blonde hair and colorful hoop earrings with a CC t-shirt. The team is featured in front of an ornate door and checkered black and white tiled floor. Picture of the Creative Commons team at GLAM Wiki, Montevideo, Uruguay, 17 November, 2023. From left to right: Jocelyn Miyara, Brigitte Vézina, Connor Benedict, and Jennryn Wetzler. © Creative Commons, licensed CC-BY.

From 16 to 18 November, members of the Creative Commons (CC) Open Culture and Learning and Training teams attended GLAM Wiki in Montevideo Uruguay. In this blog post we look back at the event’s highlights from CC’s perspective.

Open Culture Live Webinar: Changing the Subject & Respectful Terminologies

Open Culture
A detail from the painting showing a scene of Indian princesses gathered around a fountain with multi-colored dresses, overlaid with the CC Open Culture logo and Open Culture Live wordmark, and text saying “Changing the Subject & Respectful Technologies 29 November 2023 | 4:00 PM UTC” and including an attribution for the image: “Princesses Gather at a Fountain, ca. 1770 Source: The Metropolitan Museum of Art.” Princesses Gather at Fountain”, ca. 1770, shown slightly cropped. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Public Domain.

For centuries, cultural heritage institutions have been undertaking the work to document and catalog objects in their collections — sometimes this work suffers from a legacy of colonialism and discrimination in the way their collections are labeled and categorized. Some institutions are working to update these labels with more respectful terminology. Hear more from some of the changemakers working to update labels and metadata with more respectful terminologies during this CC panel.

CC’s Key Insights from WIPO’s Meeting on Copyright

Copyright, Open Heritage
A screenshot of the SCCR webcasting with Brigitte Vézina delivering a statement on behalf of Creative Commons. “WIPO SSCR Screenshot” by Creative Commons is licensed via CC BY 4.0.

From 6 to 8 November 2023, Creative Commons participated remotely in the 44th session of the World Intellectual Property Organization Standing Committee on Copyright and Related Rights. In this blog post, we look back on the session’s highlights on broadcasting, exceptions and limitations, and generative AI, from CC’s perspective.