The CC Open Education community had a busy 2023!  Five project teams, spanning nine countries, worked on open education projects ranging from developing STEAM, interactive, and climate change-related OER, to international curriculum alignment and translation work. Community members also worked on multimedia resources supporting the UNESCO Recommendation on OER, and presented in CC’s biannual Open Education Lightning Talks. Community members reflect on their accomplishments, lessons learned and what is next below. CC staff lightly edited text for clarity.

Building a K-12 Interactive Open Textbook

Update from Werner Westermann: This project developed a K-12 Open Textbook in the subject of Civics and Citizenship subject for 11th and 12th Grade, aligned to the official K-12 curriculum of Chile. With the CC funding, we made 60% progress on one Open Textbook for 11th grade, surpassing our initial goal. We worked with teachers, creators of the interactive resources and a graphic designer on all four learning units of the 11th grade Open Textbook, as defined by Chile’s official curriculum for Civics and Citizenship. To help others’ open education projects, we share some lessons we encountered:

• This type of community engagement requires specific and explicit guidelines and benchmarks for quality. Like any book development, this Open Textbook required a general editor to orchestrate community contributions, manage expectations, and enforce quality guidelines and benchmarks. 
• Standardized workflows are necessary.  It was most efficient to load content, then follow up with graphic and interactive resources, rather than focus on those specifics first. We tested an AI Smart Import tool that creates H5P interactive resources in seconds, in order to save up to 50% development time.  
• Community adoption of a tech tool (the H5P editor in our case) requires flexibility to adapt to the tool for mastery. We had a lot of discussions about what H5P could and could not achieve. For better results, postpone specific expectations and work on what is editor enabled.

What’s next? The next step is to complete the 11th grade Open Textbook development and publish it, pending funding.  We also await an AI tool for Spanish support to speed up production.

Popularization of OER in Ukraine: Small steps to a big goal

Update from Tetiana Kolesnykova: Polytechnic University of Milan and the Ukrainian State University of Science and Technologies (USUST) partnered to translate and localize a MOOC on OER: “Using Open Educational Resources in Teaching.” This OER provides equitable and inclusive access to education amidst full-scale war in Ukraine. Despite the war, the project achieved its aim: there is now a version of the MOOC for Ukrainian learners. Our lessons from this work included: listening to each other, negotiating where needed, and compromise. We were not looking for perfection but for a good result to be achieved within all limitations. With teamwork and strong motivation, we solved the challenges of the project together; and the end result exceeded our expectations. As a result: All MOOC subtitles for each video, the course description and all tests were made available in Ukrainian, ensuring participants gain a better understanding and support with the final assessment. We also created eight additional instructions and illustrations in Ukrainian. We developed a mock-up of the Certificate of Completion of the course “Using Open Educational Resources in Teaching” adapted into Ukrainian. Several faculty and librarians tested the MOOC in Ukrainian.

We started promoting the Ukrainian localisation of the MOOC “Using Open Educational Resources in Teaching” in October. Politecnico di Milano (METID) and the Scientific Library of the Ukrainian State University of Science and Technologies (USUST) presented our collaborative project at international conferences, national webinars, publications, and on the website of the USUST Scientific Library.

While it is too early to measure the success of the Ukrainian MOOC “Using Open Educational Resources in Teaching,” we know it is already raising awareness of OER opportunities among the wider Ukrainian academic community. 

What’s next?  We will continue our teamwork, and ignite new OER adaptations in a sustainable way.

STEAM Ahead with OER in South Africa project

Update from Dan McGuire: This collaborative project between Ghana, South Africa and the US created, curated, and sourced OER content aligned to Ghanaian and South African education standards.  

Our colleague, Peter Amoabil observed that using the MoodleBox and OER materials provided learning opportunities for students without the need to rely on the internet, which is very useful in Ghana where over 95% of schools don’t have internet access. Students were able to use the digital content for all subjects and especially for reading in their mother tongue, Dagbani. Reading materials in Dagbani have previously been very hard to acquire.

In South Africa, we were able to translate both reading materials and math assessments from English into isiXhosa for students in grades Pre-K through 1st grade. Students were excited to learn using WIFI devices.

What’s next? Translating educational materials into the students’ mother tongue is especially valuable and innovative. We plan to expand the professional development for use of digital OER materials aligned to national standards to more teachers in both Ghana and South Africa. This project helped us establish a process to create and deliver learning materials to Pre-K — 6th grade students. We will also be making the OER professional development courses and instructional content available via open repositories.

Climate Change: OER integrating SDG components in Education in two Southeast Asian Countries

Update from Dr. Suma Parahakaran: This project worked with the Malaysian Ministry of Education as well as Malaysian and Laotian schools, creating OER and experiential learning activities. Primary and Secondary school students engaged in cross disciplinary, technical, and integrated learning activities, such as setting up solar panels on rooftops. They got to attend workshops and brainstorms with international experts and teachers. Students also created videos, brochures and other resources focused on ethics, climate change and sustainable development education. Finally, students then entered a competition related to Climate Change and Sustainable Development OER. For more information and results of the competition, view the project website. 

What’s next? While there are private Youtube links to the videos, they will be made public soon. Project lead: Dr. Suma Parahakaran

Alquimetricos

Update from Fernando Daguanno: Alquimétricos is an OER project that uses connectors and sticks to build geometric structures for STEAM education. Through experiential learning, the project develops students’ spatial, mathematical and kinetic understanding. The Alquimétricos Kit Zero is already published online and available to purchase: see our repositories for ready-to-print and fully editable CC BY files, including content, packaging and labeling. 

During 2023 we developed a new product line of elementary-school-oriented kits, drawing from eight years of experiences and research. The kits include a deck of cards with guidelines, a bunch of hubs and sticks that help educators make Alquimétricos’ activities dynamic in the classroom. The new kit was developed and introduced as part of the (FADU-UBA) DiJu post degree “Toys and Games Design” course 2023. It was launched in Argentina at the Open Education Meeting in Bariloche – Argentinian Patagonia, presented at the OpenEd Conference 2023 and displayed at the CC Global Summit in Mexico City.

What’s next? Next steps include translation to Portuguese and English and sharing the project in global OER repositories. We will seek support proofreading and sharking Kit Zero in a community call in early 2024. 

Global Commons: Unlocking Open Education with Creative Commons

Update from Lisa Di Valentino and John Okewole: This project developed a short animated video describing Creative Commons and how CC licenses support the implementation of the United Nations Recommendation on OER. We currently have a first version of the video created by Brainboxx Studios for which we will re-record the English narration. We have also solicited translations of the transcript from other subgroup members in the nine other UNESCO languages, and have offers for translation in Arabic, Chinese, Hindi, Italian (of which we now have a draft), and Spanish. 

What’s next? We will finalize the English video and determine how to translate the video text.  We will also design handouts in the various languages explaining the benefits of using Creative Commons licensing for open educational resources.

CC Open Education Lightning Talks

Lightning Talks are seven-minute presentations on a given area of expertise or work. Based on community demand, CC hosted Open Education Lighting Talks online in February and in-person, at the CC Summit in October. Community members’  presentations ranged from explorations of OER for social justice to practical applications, such as using machine translation algorithms for OER translation and recommendations for digital publishing. CC also presented a forthcoming microcredential course on which we are partnering with the University of Nebraska Omaha, in effort to bring more open licensing expertise to new audiences. 

What’s next? We look forward to learning more from the open education community in future CC Open Education Lightning Talks!

Creative Commons extends our gratitude to the inspiring CC community members making a difference in their educational contexts. We look forward to continued open education collaborations in 2024! If you would like to join our Open Education community, visit the CC Open Education Platform site for more information.

The post CC Open Education Platform Activities: 2023 in Review appeared first on Creative Commons.

As we end 2023, we want to showcase the incredible work of CC community members to translate the CC Certificate content. Thanks to 21 volunteers this year and numerous volunteers in the past, the reading content of our CC Certificate training is now available in 10 languages. This makes our fundamental open licensing and open advocacy training more accessible to over one billion people in their native languages. 

The CC Certificate program offers in-depth courses about copyright, CC licenses, open practices and the ethos of our global, shared commons. CC Certificate courses target (1) Academic Librarians, (2) Educators and (3) Open Culture advocates, but are open to everyone. Learn more about the CC Certificate and other professional learning opportunities, then register for a Certificate course today. If you are a CC Certificate graduate and would like to translate course content in 2024, please contact certificate administrators on the alumni listserv. 

Slovak

The Slovak Centre of Scientific and Technical Information contacted CC in 2022, noting the need for CC Certificate content in Slovak. Thanks to Gabriela Fišová, Judita Takačová, Jakub Klech, and Barbora Bieliková, who translated content earlier this year, the Centre now has a complete translation. 

Download the Slovak translation files, view them on the CC Certificate translations webpage, or on Zenodo. 

Bengali

Bangladesh Open University (BOU) faculty, Sadia Afroze Sultana and Mostafa Azad Kamal, translated the CC Certificate content to make open licensing training more accessible to the 184+ million Bengali-speakers worldwide. Sadia is a CC Certificate alumna and facilitator; Mostafa is the CC Bangladesh Chapter Representative and also a CC Certificate alumnus. CC thanks Mostafa and Sadia; CC also thanks BOU faculty Asma Akter Shelly and Ananya Laboni, and graduate students Aminul Islam Rana and Mir Khadija Tahera for reading the translated copies and providing feedback. 

Download the Bengali translation files, or view them on the CC Certificate translations webpage.

French 2.0

Building on last year’s French Translation, a community of volunteers from seven countries embarked on a two-week French translation 2.0 sprint, to increase the accessibility of the French translation for different francophone audiences. Nicolas Simon, a CC community member who provided the original French translation supported the sprint, and reviewed the final draft. Adou Jean-Constant Atta, Aman Ado, Emmanuelle Guebo Kakou, Fawaz Tairou, Karen Ferreira-Meyers, Kamel Belhamel, Nyirahabihirwe Clementine, Touré Kahou, Namon Moussa Traore, and Yao Hippolyte Bondouho added local contextual considerations such as recommended links. 

Download the French translation files, or view them on the CC Certificate translations webpage.

With these translations, the CC Certificate reading content is accessible in 10 languages: Arabic, Bengali, Burmese, English, French, Italian, Spanish, Slovak, Turkish, and Yoruba. The latest translations make our open licensing training more accessible than ever before and we thank open community members for making that possible. 

The post CC Certificate Translations in Slovak, Bengali, and localized French appeared first on Creative Commons.

We want to share a message regarding some learnings obtained after the 2023 Creative Commons Global Summit and meeting with our Mexican organizing committee and members of the local community.

Financial decisions related to the CC Summit were made by the CC team and not by the local Mexican Chapter. Specifically the cost of entry to the event, which proved to be high in relation to the contextual conditions of Mexico. Due to difficult fundraising conditions for many nonprofits in 2023, the CC team decided to keep the entrance fee higher, offer discounted rates, and scholarships for attendees. We wish to learn from this experience for future events, as it is clear that if we want to continue our value of global inclusion, it is necessary to create a new formula to eliminate access barriers for those who wish to attend our events.

Initially, the estimated cost for simultaneous translation provided to us was above our budget. For this reason, we hired SyncWords to provide live subtitles, human and automatic translations for each of the sessions and panels in the main auditorium. The translations could be accessed through the QR code that we had published in various places (this code provided access to a SyncWords page that displayed the subtitles and the translation). We also offered translation (English/Spanish) according to the needs of our attendees, with bilingual people available in each room and in the auditorium. However, as we began the event we recommended that it was imperative to have simultaneous audio translation to encourage dialogue and follow our value of global inclusion. We especially thank the Tlatolli Ollin Professional Interpretation and Translation Services cooperative, which won the challenge by providing excellent service in a short time.

No one in our Mexican Chapter should be held responsible for any decision, nor should their reputation be tarnished by decisions made during the Summit. After such big events, there are always lessons to be learned and one of them is how CC, as a small global non-profit, which has to raise funds every year to survive, can better support our local chapters that provide so much wisdom and experience.

I want to personally thank everyone involved in the CC Summit and we will continue to work to create a world where knowledge and creativity are accessible to everyone.

Sincerely,
Catherine

Español

Queremos compartir un mensaje referente a algunos aprendizajes obtenidos después de la Cumbre Global Creative Commons 2023 y de reunirnos con nuestro comité organizador mexicano y miembros de la comunidad local.

Las decisiones financieras relacionadas con la Cumbre CC fueron tomadas por el equipo de CC y no por el Capítulo Mexicano local. Específicamente el costo de la entrada al evento, el cual se consideró alto en relación a las condiciones contextuales de México. Debido a las difíciles condiciones de recaudación de fondos para muchas organizaciones sin fines de lucro en 2023, el equipo de CC decidió mantener la tarifa de entrada más alta, ofrecer tarifas con descuento, y becas para los asistentes. Deseamos aprender de esta experiencia para eventos futuros, ya que está claro que si queremos seguir nuestro valor de inclusión global, es necesario crear una nueva fórmula para eliminar barreras de acceso para aquellos que deseen asistir a nuestros eventos.

Inicialmente, el costo estimado para traducción simultánea se nos proporcionó por encima de nuestro presupuesto. Por tal motivo contratamos a SyncWords para realizar subtítulos, traducciones humanas y automáticas en vivo para cada una de las sesiones y paneles en el auditorio principal. Se podía acceder a las traducciones a través del código QR que habíamos publicado en varios lugares (dicho código proveía acceso a una página de SyncWords que mostraba los subtítulos y la traducción). También ofrecimos traducción (inglés/español) según las necesidades de nuestros asistentes, con personas bilingües disponibles en cada sala y en el auditorio. Sin embargo, al comenzar el evento decidimos que era imperativo contar con traducción de audio simultánea para fomentar el diálogo y seguir nuestro valor de inclusión global. Agradecemos especialmente a la cooperativa Tlatolli Ollin Servicios Profesionales de Interpretación y Traducción que aceptó el desafío brindando un excelente servicio en poco tiempo.

Nadie en nuestro Capítulo Mexicano debe ser responsabilizado por ninguna decisión, ni su reputación debe verse empañada por las decisiones tomadas durante la Cumbre. Después de eventos tan grandes, siempre hay lecciones que aprender y una de ellas es cómo CC, como una pequeña organización global sin fines de lucro, que tiene que recaudar fondos cada año para sobrevivir, puede apoyar mejor a nuestros capítulos locales que brindan tanta riqueza, sabiduría y experiencia.

Quiero agradecer personalmente a todos los involucrados en la Cumbre CC y continuaremos trabajando para crear un mundo donde el conocimiento y la creatividad sean accesibles para todos.

Atentamente,
Catherine

The post CC Global Summit 2023: Reflections appeared first on Creative Commons.

On the eve of the CC Global Summit, members of the CC global community and Creative Commons held a one-day workshop to discuss issues related to AI, creators, and the commons. The community attending the Summit has a long history of hosting these intimate discussions before the Summit begins on critical and timely issues.

Emerging from that deep discussion and in subsequent conversation during the three days of the Summit, this group identified a set of common issues and values, which are captured in the statement below. These ideas are shared here for further community discussion and to help CC and the global community navigate uncharted waters in the face of generative AI and its impact on the commons.

Background considerations

1. Recognizing that around the globe the legal status of using copyright protected works for training generative AI systems raises many questions and that there is currently only a limited number of jurisdictions with relatively clear and actionable legal frameworks for such uses. We see the need for establishing a number of principles that address the position of creators, the people building and using machine learning (ML) systems, and the commons, under this emerging technological paradigm.
2. Noting that there are calls from organized rightholders to address the issues posed by the use of copyrighted works for training generative AI models, including based on the principles of credit, consent, and compensation.
3. Noting that the development and deployment of generative AI models can be capital intensive, and thus risks resembling (or exacerbating) the concentration of markets, technology, and power in the hands of a small number of powerful for-profit entities largely concentrated in the United States and China, and that currently most of the (speculative) value accrues to these companies.
4. Further noting that, while the ability for everyone to build on the global information commons has many benefits, the extraction of value from the commons may also reinforce existing power imbalances and in fact can structurally resemble prior examples of colonialist accumulation.
   1. Noting that this issue is especially urgent when it comes to the use of traditional knowledge materials as training data for AI models.
   2. Noting that the development of generative AI reproduces patterns of the colonial era, with the countries of the Global South being consumers of Northern algorithms and data providers.
5. Recognizing that some societal impacts and risks resulting from the emergence of generative AI technologies need to be addressed through public regulation other than copyright, or through other means, such as the development of technical standards and norms. Private rightsholder concerns are just one of a number of societal concerns that have arisen in response to the emergence of AI.
6. Noting that the development of generative AI models offers new opportunities for creators, researchers, educators, and other practitioners working in the public interest, as well as providing benefits to a wide range of activities across other sectors of society. Further noting that generative AI models are a tool that enables new ways of creation, and that history has shown that new technological capacities will inevitably be incorporated into artistic creation and information production.

Principles

We have formulated the following seven principles for regulating generative AI models in order to protect the interests of creators, people building on the commons (including through AI), and society’s interests in the sustainability of the commons:

1. It is important that people continue to have the ability to study and analyse existing works in order to create new ones. The law should continue to leave room for people to do so, including through the use of machines, while addressing societal concerns arising from the emergence of generative AI.
2. All parties should work together to define ways for creators and rightsholders to express their preferences regarding AI training for their copyrighted works. In the context of an enforceable right, the ability to opt out from such uses must be considered the legislative ceiling, as opt-in and consent-based approaches would lock away large swaths of the commons due to the excessive length and scope of copyright protection, as well as the fact that most works are not actively managed in any way.
3. In addition, all parties must also work together to address implications for other rights and interests (e.g. data protection, use of a person’s likeness or identity). This would likely involve interventions through frameworks other than copyright.
4. Special attention must be paid to the use of traditional knowledge materials for training AI systems including ways for community stewards to provide or revoke authorisation.
5. Any legal regime must ensure that the use of copyright protected works for training generative AI systems for noncommercial public interest purposes, including scientific research and education, are allowed.
6. Ensure that generative AI results in broadly shared economic prosperity – the benefits derived by developers of AI models from access to the commons and copyrighted works should be broadly shared among all contributors to the commons.
7. To counterbalance the current concentration of resources in the the hands of a small number of companies these measures need to be flanked by public investment into public computational infrastructures that serve the needs of public interest users of this technology on a global scale. In addition there also needs to be public investment into training data sets that respect the principles outlined above and are stewarded as commons.

In keeping with CC’s practice to provide major communications related to the 2023 Global Summit held in Mexico City in English and Spanish, following is the text of this post originally created in English translated to Spanish

Hacer que la IA funcione para los creadores y los bienes comunes

En vísperas de la Cumbre Global CC, los miembros de la comunidad global CC y Creative Commons celebraron un taller de un día para discutir cuestiones relacionadas con la IA, los creadores y los bienes comunes. La comunidad que asiste a la Cumbre tiene una larga historia de albergar estas discusiones íntimas antes de que comience la Cumbre sobre temas críticos y oportunos.

Como resultado de esa profunda discusión y de la conversación posterior durante los tres días de la Cumbre, este grupo identificó un conjunto de cuestiones y valores comunes, que se recogen en la siguiente declaración. Estas ideas se comparten aquí para una mayor discusión comunitaria y para ayudar a CC y a la comunidad global a navegar por aguas inexploradas frente a la IA generativa y su impacto en los bienes comunes.

Consideraciones preliminares

1. Reconociendo que en todo el mundo el estatus legal del uso de obras protegidas por derechos de autor para entrenar sistemas generativos de IA plantea muchas preguntas y que actualmente solo hay un número limitado de jurisdicciones con marcos legales relativamente claros y viables para tales usos. Vemos la necesidad de establecer una serie de principios que aborden la posición de los creadores, las personas que construyen y utilizan sistemas de aprendizaje automático y los bienes comunes, bajo este paradigma tecnológico emergente.
2. Señalando que hay llamados de titulares de derechos organizados para abordar los problemas que plantea el uso de obras protegidas por derechos de autor para entrenar modelos de IA generativa, incluso basados en los principios de crédito, consentimiento y compensación.
3. Observando que el desarrollo y despliegue de modelos generativos de IA puede requerir mucho capital y, por lo tanto, corre el riesgo de asemejarse (o exacerbar) la concentración de mercados, tecnología y poder en manos de un pequeño número de poderosas entidades con fines de lucro concentradas en gran medida en los Estados Unidos y China, y que actualmente la mayor parte del valor (especulativo) corresponde a estas empresas.
4. Señalando además que, si bien la capacidad de todos para aprovechar los bienes comunes globales de información tiene muchos beneficios, la extracción de valor de los bienes comunes también puede reforzar los desequilibrios de poder existentes y, de hecho, puede parecerse estructuralmente a ejemplos anteriores de acumulación colonialista.
   1. Señalando que esta cuestión es especialmente urgente cuando se trata del uso de materiales de conocimientos tradicionales como datos de entrenamiento para modelos de IA.
   2. Señalando que el desarrollo de la IA generativa reproduce patrones de la era colonial, siendo los países del Sur Global consumidores de algoritmos y proveedores de datos del Norte.
5. Reconocer que algunos impactos y riesgos sociales resultantes del surgimiento de tecnologías de IA generativa deben abordarse mediante regulaciones públicas distintas de los derechos de autor, o por otros medios, como el desarrollo de estándares y normas técnicas. Las preocupaciones de los titulares de derechos privados son sólo una de una serie de preocupaciones sociales que han aparecido en respuesta al surgimiento de la IA.
6. Señalando que el desarrollo de modelos generativos de IA ofrece nuevas oportunidades para creadores, investigadores, educadores y otros profesionales que trabajan en el interés público, además de brindar beneficios a una amplia gama de actividades en otros sectores de la sociedad. Señalando además que los modelos generativos de IA son una herramienta que permite nuevas formas de creación, y que la historia ha demostrado que inevitablemente se incorporarán nuevas capacidades tecnológicas a la creación artística y la producción de información.

Principios

Hemos formulado los siguientes siete principios para regular los modelos de IA generativa con el fin de proteger los intereses de los creadores, las personas que construyen sobre los bienes comunes (incluso a través de la IA) y los intereses de la sociedad en la sostenibilidad de los bienes comunes:

1. Es importante que la gente siga teniendo la capacidad de estudiar y analizar obras existentes para crear otras nuevas. La ley debería seguir dejando espacio para que las personas lo hagan, incluso mediante el uso de máquinas, al tiempo que aborda las preocupaciones sociales que aparecen por el surgimiento de la IA generativa.
2. Todas las partes deberían trabajar juntas para definir formas para que las personas creadoras y quienes son titulares de derechos expresen sus preferencias con respecto a la capacitación en IA para sus obras protegidas por derechos de autor. En el contexto de un derecho exigible, la capacidad de hacer un “opt out” de tales usos debe considerarse el límite legislativo, ya que los enfoques basados en la aceptación voluntaria y el consentimiento bloquearían grandes sectores de los bienes comunes debido a la duración y el alcance excesivos de la protección de los derechos de autor, así como el hecho de que la mayoría de las obras no están siendo activamente gestionadas.
3. Además, todas las partes también deben trabajar juntas para abordar las implicaciones para otros derechos e intereses (por ejemplo, protección de datos, uso de la imagen o identidad de una persona). Esto probablemente implicaría intervenciones a través de marcos distintos del derecho de autor.
4. Se debe prestar especial atención al uso de materiales del conocimiento tradicional para entrenar sistemas de IA, incluidas formas para que los custodios de las comunidades proporcionen o revoquen la autorización.
5. Cualquier régimen legal debe garantizar que se permita el uso de obras protegidas por derechos de autor para entrenar sistemas generativos de IA con fines no comerciales de interés público, incluidas la investigación científica y la educación.
6. Garantizar que la IA generativa dé como resultado una prosperidad económica ampliamente compartida: los beneficios que obtienen los desarrolladores de modelos de IA del acceso a los bienes comunes y a las obras protegidas por derechos de autor deben compartirse ampliamente entre quienes contribuyen a los bienes comunes.
7. Para contrarrestar la actual concentración de recursos en manos de un pequeño número de empresas, estas medidas deben ir acompañadas de inversión pública en infraestructuras computacionales públicas que satisfagan las necesidades de los usuarios de interés público de esta tecnología a escala global. Además, también es necesario invertir públicamente en sets de datos de entrenamiento que respeten los principios descritos anteriormente y se administren como bienes comunes.

The post Making AI Work for Creators and the Commons appeared first on Creative Commons.

Used by permission from the Ministry of Culture of Mexico.

Tenemos un grupo increíble de personas preparadas para ser oradores principales en la Cumbre Global 2023, que se llevará a cabo del 3 al 6 de octubre en la Ciudad de México. En nuestros primeros anuncios, dimos la bienvenida a la escritora Anya Kamenetz y al líder de medios Māori Peter-Lucas Jones. Ahora nos sentimos profundamente honrados de anunciar que el discurso de apertura de la Cumbre estará a cargo de Marina Núñez Bespalova, Subsecretaría de Desarrollo Cultural de México, quien hablará sobre la cultura global desde la perspectiva profundamente arraigada de México y América Latina.

Marina Núñez Bespalova es subsecretaria de Desarrollo Cultural de la Secretaría de Cultura de México desde agosto de 2019. Doctorada en Filología Hispánica, Marina es editora y gestora cultural con casi dos décadas de servicio público en el sector cultural. Anteriormente ha sido Directora General de Publicaciones de Conaculta (el Consejo Nacional para la Cultura y las Artes), la Secretaría de Cultura y del Archivo General de la Nación, y estuvo a cargo de la concepción de la plataforma LibrosMéxico. También ha sido encargada del programa Salas de Lectura y del Plan Nacional de Lectura de 2016 a 2018, de la expansión de diversos programas infantiles y juveniles, así como de programas específicos sobre intervención cultural en situaciones de crisis y trabajo con población migrante, entre otros cargos públicos. Ha formado parte del grupo que promovió diversas iniciativas de ley en materia cultural. Ha sido docente en universidades globales en las que, además, ha tenido estancias de investigación, como la Queen Mary University of London, la Complutense de Madrid o la Sapienza de Roma. Recibió apoyos del Ministerio de Educación de España para realizar su tesis doctoral y participar en un grupo de investigación sobre la Edad Media y la cultura laica a través del mecenazgo. Ha participado ampliamente en foros nacionales e internacionales, ha enseñado numerosos cursos y seminarios y ha sido autora de obras en publicaciones académicas y literarias.

Al igual que Marina, todos nuestros oradores principales se conectan directamente con las áreas de enfoque de CC, desde la creatividad contemporánea y el patrimonio cultural hasta los medios, la ciencia, la educación y el periodismo. Con el tema de la Cumbre sobre la IA y los bienes comunes, también esperamos enfrentar el desafío de perspectivas nuevas y renacidas que deberíamos considerar al pensar en la inteligencia artificial y su intersección con el conocimiento y la cultura abiertos. Todas los oradores principales de la Cumbre honrarán tanto la ubicación de la Cumbre en México como el alcance global de la comunidad CC.

¡Estén atentos para conocer a nuestros otros oradores principales! Te invitamos a unirte a nosotros en la Cumbre en la Ciudad de México para escuchar hablar a Marina y muchas otras voces diversas. Nuestra esperanza es que los oradores principales, el programa completo de la Cumbre y nuestras conexiones informales en la Ciudad de México y en línea se combinen para permitirnos a todos cultivar la estrategia de CC de compartir mejor, un compartir que sea contextual, inclusivo, justo, equitativo, recíproco y sostenible.

Regístrese para la Cumbre Global CC >

The post Marina Núñez Bespalova Será una Oradora Principal en la Cumbre Mundial CC 2023 appeared first on Creative Commons.

Used by permission from the Ministry of Culture of Mexico.

We have an incredible group of people lined up to be keynote speakers at the 2023 CC Global Summit, to be held 3–6 October in Mexico City. In our first announcements, we welcomed writer Anya Kamenetz and Māori media leader Peter-Lucas Jones. We are now deeply honored to announce that the Summit’s opening keynote will be from Marina Núñez Bespalova, Mexico’s Undersecretary of Cultural Development, speaking on global culture from the deeply rooted perspective of Mexico and Latin America.

Marina Núñez Bespalova is the undersecretary of Cultural Development in Mexico’s Ministry of Culture, starting in August 2019. With her doctorate in Spanish philology, Marina is an editor and cultural manager with almost two decades of public service in the cultural sector. She has previously been General Director of Publications of Conaculta (National Council for Culture and the Arts), the Ministry of Culture, and the National Archive, and was in charge of the conception of the platform LibrosMéxico. She also led the Reading Rooms program, the National Reading Plan from 2016 to 2018, and the expansion of various children and youth programs, as well as specific programs on cultural intervention in crisis situations and work with migrant populations, among other public charges. She has been part of the group that promotes various cultural law initiatives. She has been a teacher at global universities where she has also had research stays, such as the Queen Mary University of London, the Complutense of Madrid, and the Sapienza of Rome. She received support from the Spanish Ministry of Education to carry out her doctoral thesis and participate in a research group on the Middle Ages and secular culture through patronage. She has participated widely in national and international forums, taught many courses and seminars, and authored works in both academic and literary publications.

Like Marina, all our keynoters connect directly with CC’s areas of focus, from contemporary creativity and cultural heritage, to media, science, education, and journalism. With the Summit’s theme of AI and the commons, we also expect to be challenged with new and reborn perspectives that we should consider in thinking about artificial intelligence and its intersection with open knowledge and culture. All the Summit keynotes will honor both the Summit’s location in Mexico, and the CC community’s global scope.

We invite you to join us at the Summit in Mexico City to hear Marina and many other diverse voices speak. Our hope is that the keynote addresses, the full Summit program, and our informal connections in Mexico City and online will combine to enable us all to cultivate CC’s strategy of better sharing, sharing that is contextual, inclusive, just, equitable, reciprocal, and sustainable.

Register for the CC Global Summit >

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“Input” by jputman, here slightly cropped, is licensed via CC BY-SA 2.0.

Over the last year, innovation and use of generative artificial intelligence (AI) has proliferated, providing new ways for people to create content from art to zines, and everything in between. At CC, we’ve been watching these experiments in creativity while considering what it all means for what we call better sharing: sharing that is contextual, inclusive, just, equitable, reciprocal, and sustainable. What will generative AI mean for CC’s mission to overcome legal obstacles in sharing knowledge and creativity to address the world’s most pressing challenges?

Supporting community-driven solutions has always been at the heart of CC’s approach to sharing and creativity. In February, we held open meetings with our community to start to explore what CC might do new or differently in a world filling with AI-generated creations. Over 65 people registered to participate in the conversation from all over the world, including artists, educators, lawyers, librarians, policymakers, scholars, scientists, students, technologists, and more.

To get the conversation started, we asked participants to consider some framing questions:

• How can CC and its community help to ensure AI participates in better sharing for all and contributes to a public interest commons?
• How can CC best enable creators to shape how their works contribute to training AI?
• How can CC clarify the copyright status of works generated using AI?

The conversations were wide ranging, touching on some of the specifics of how generative AI actually works, how current copyright laws intersect with AI inputs and outputs, and ideas around where CC and our community might focus, including expanding CC’s educational offerings and policy advocacy on AI topics, mechanisms for rightsholders to opt in and/or out of AI training datasets, and mechanisms to better record and cite the provenance of works generated both by humans and AI. You can read and comment on the raw notes from all three community meetings.

Going forward, CC will house community conversation about generative AI within our Copyright Platform, where you can learn more about how anyone can join and contribute to work at the intersection of generative AI, better sharing, and CC’s mission.

We thank everyone who has contributed to the discussion so far, not only in these meetings, but in the AI webinars we held during Nov 2022, and all the other ways we’ve been in touch. We encourage you to keep helping us think through the complex questions that AI technologies and practices raise for all of us who are working to support a commons in the public interest.

Stay in touch with CC: subscribe to our mailing list, follow us on social media (Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, Mastodon & Twitter), or join CC on Slack.

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Sharing matters. Thanks to the digital revolution, we share things like never before, from scientific research to family photos, from day-to-day life to college courses — and all instantaneously. The variety and volume of sharing today was unimaginable even just a decade ago. Now social media and publishing platforms, smartphones, cheap data, and expanded internet access have enabled more sharing, both in forms that bring us joy and connection, and in the spread of lies, hate and misinformation. Our digital life reflects human nature in all its complexity, highlighting both the good and the bad.

All this sharing has created a flood of new copyrighted works — practically everyone is now a published author, many times over, when we think of all our social media postings — but is the current copyright paradigm working in our interest?

Copyright law is a strand of intellectual property law that affects us all, helping decide what we can read, listen to, watch and share online. It impacts creators, innovators and users of content. We all agree that creators should be fairly rewarded for their works. The economic argument that stronger protection for authors’ rights will inevitably lead to more gains for individual creators may appear convincing in the abstract. However, in practice, the economic argument does not turn out to be persuasive, because extending copyright terms from a few decades to life plus 70 years has not materially increased earnings for the majority of individual creators. Instead, it has generated greater monopolies, benefiting select corporations whose profit motives lift only a few star players. The vast majority of creators do not experience the benefits of the current copyright system first hand. When culture is paywalled, rented and held for profit, when knowledge is locked away, when our libraries are threatened and educators diminished, there’s a chill cast on how our society interoperates, and ultimately on the health of our democracy.

Onerous copyright rules, benefiting the few and not the many, obstruct our access to culture, the knowledge we share, and the society we care about. In order to empower individual creators and safeguard our democracy, Creative Commons (CC) has developed an alternative system to the onerous all rights reserved copyright rules, enabling a commons of knowledge and culture which is freely accessible to everyone, everywhere. We offer a set of open licenses and public domain tools free for anyone to use — a new system where creators get to make their own choices about which rights they want to keep and which rights they want to share. By making their own choices for sharing, creators can reach new and expanded audiences, and people across the planet can access works and ideas to build new creations. Our licenses are now the global standard for sharing content, for creators, researchers, educators, librarians, archivists and governments.

As CC celebrates 20 years of facilitating the sharing of content across the planet, it is important to reflect on what we have learned.

Firstly, our strategic shift away from sharing just for sharing’s sake to working for better sharing, helps us address the careful balance between sharing that is in the public interest, and sharing which is not. This is important at a time when all the benefits that the internet has brought to us seem to be so quickly forgotten, and the predominant narrative is around “harm” rather than public interest. At CC, we want to shift this narrative back to the importance of why sharing matters and how we can do it better. This is why we are an organizing partner in the nascent Better Internet movement, and are actively advocating around the world to ensure that human values and public interest are front and center in our online world.

Secondly, time and time again, we see digital public infrastructure and goods taken for granted. At a time when the public interest often stands in direct contrast to the commercial interest of the creative industries and large tech firms, we need public investment in the structures that underpin the open commons. If we are not careful, the internet will be just a collection of those company towns, where you get paid in company scrip, can only buy from the company store, and only hear the company line and see the company viewpoint. With democracy already in a fragile state and open societies threatened, we need investment in the infrastructure that protects the public interest. Creative Commons is part of this public infrastructure. Without it, we will be poorer, less open and less democratic.

Thirdly, CC needs to be better at publicizing and promoting our work, to reach more people, so that our tools and services can be used to help expand the open commons of knowledge and culture even further. Our impact dwarfs our resources. Even though people use the open commons daily, the vast majority of the public have never heard of CC, or if they have, they are either surprised there is an organization behind the licenses at all, or they think that we are the size of Wikimedia — when in reality CC has a staff of 20, and Wikimedia over 550. We at CC recognize this challenge, and this is why we are already working with our existing network to build a new community of young and emerging leaders who can carry the torch of open knowledge and culture forward into the future.

Catherine Stihler” by Martin Shields is licensed under CC BY 4.0

Finally, the world we live in today is different from the one when CC was first created. Looking forward, as I mark my 2nd anniversary at CC, I see our challenges and opportunities are to recognize and consolidate the impact we’ve made in supporting the growth of the commons, but also to continue that impact in this emerging era of AI, big data, and web3 to effect positive change in our world. We have reshaped the copyright regime in 20 years, becoming the global standard for open content sharing. Now we stand at the cusp of the next 20 years, encountering new places and spaces for dialogue, and championing a new generation of practitioners and advocates, but most importantly, continuing to build a commons of knowledge and culture that is accessible to everyone, everywhere. I look forward to working with you all to make this vision a reality.

Will you join us? Subscribe to our newsletter to stay informed about the commons, make a donation to support CC’s work, join our global network to get more involved, or get certified to deepen your open practices.

The post Sharing Matters: What We’ve Learned at Creative Commons appeared first on Creative Commons.

Alongside the humanitarian crisis, the war is also causing irreversible damage to the arts, cultural, education, information, and media sectors. Creative Commons stands in solidarity with Ukraine and supports the brave and selfless individuals, working hard to preserve, safeguard, protect, and share the knowledge and cultural heritage of the Ukrainian people. 

We stand beside EU Ministers of Culture and Media who expressed their support for artists, journalists, and cultural and media professionals, who, because of Russian military aggression, are now threatened in their freedoms. 

We also agree with the statement of UNESCO Director-General, Audrey Azoulay, who called for the “protection of Ukrainian cultural heritage, which bears witness to the country’s rich history, and includes its seven World Heritage sites – notably located in Lviv and Kyiv; the cities of Odessa and Kharkiv, members of the UNESCO Creative Cities Network; its national archives, some of which feature in the UNESCO Memory of the World Register; and its sites commemorating the tragedy of the Holocaust.” 

We commend UNESCO’s efforts in helping Ukraine safeguard museum collections and cultural property.  We also encourage volunteers to help archive Ukrainian cultural heritage sites, for example through this initiative.

At Creative Commons, we believe that caring for cultural heritage is a social responsibility and that it is our collective duty to continue to protect and celebrate cultural heritage and uphold the fundamental right of freedom of information. Information and culture found in galleries, libraries, archives, and museums (GLAMs) empower people by offering them resources to engage and participate in civic life and build a future for themselves. 

In 1940, during WWII, US Librarian of Congress Archibald MacLeish wrote, “Keepers of books, keepers of print and paper on the shelves, librarians are keepers also of the records of the human spirit.” 

As the war on Ukraine escalates, the global library community is supporting the appeal from the Ukrainian Library Association to combat dis- and mis-information and provide accurate information to support democracy and freedom of expression. False information and media manipulation can be used to alter public opinion. Preserving and ensuring collections are available to everyone can help manage the spread of dis- and mis-information by making information, knowledge, culture and history available to all instead of warped through revisionist theories.

 In the field of education, the Open Education community has highlighted the need for Ukrainian open educational resources (OER) for children and teachers as countries prepare to receive refugees. Helping children get back into school, with culturally appropriate educational resources, will be a critical part of ensuring educational opportunities continue in these trying times.

The Open Access Research community is working to support Ukrainian researchers through the website #ScienceForUkraine: a platform to support Ukrainian researchers with accommodation, research hosting, and funding. One of our friends and partners, Iryna Kuchma (Open Access Programme Manager at Electronic Information for Libraries -EIFL), lives in Ukraine and has bravely stayed behind with her parents. Her inspiring tweets are a mix of reliance, inspiration and the sadness of war.

Researchers in Russia have published a statement against the war with Ukraine:

We, Russian scientists and scientific journalists, declare a strong protest against the hostilities launched by the armed forces of our country on the territory of Ukraine. This fatal step leads to huge human losses and undermines the foundations of the established system of international security. The responsibility for unleashing a new war in Europe lies entirely with Russia.

Together we unite in these somber times. Let us hope for a return to peace and respect for human dignity soon.

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“Catherine Stihler” by Martin Shields is licensed under CC BY 4.0

Dear CC Community,

It’s a very special day — today marks the 20th Anniversary of Creative Commons’ founding!

Twenty years ago, Creative Commons started with a simple, radical idea: to save the internet from “failed sharing” and create a world where everyone has access to knowledge and creativity.

What began as a simple idea and dream is today a reality worldwide. Over the past 20 years, Creative Commons has powered a global movement spanning 86 countries, developed and stewarded legal tools and licenses, and unlocked over two billion works that can be openly and freely shared.

But we didn’t get here on our own — as we’ve grown and evolved over the last two decades, we’ve built a vibrant global CC Community of advocates, activists, scholars, artists, and users working to strengthen the Commons worldwide. In 2017, we established the CC Global Network to help coordinate and provide leadership in the global Creative Commons movement. And today there are 48 CC Chapters around the world!

While we stay grounded in the vision of our founding, we also look toward the future. And for us, and many others, the future includes Better Sharing – the type of sharing that serves the public interest, creates the world the internet promised, and one where everyone has access to culture, science, and knowledge. We invite you to support our Better Sharing campaign below.

And the good news is that the celebration isn’t over yet! The 20th Anniversary of CC licenses is December 16, 2022. So throughout the year, we will continue conversations with influencers who are adding to the open movement, share insights and innovations from CC staff and partners, and host special events of celebration for our global community. Keep an eye on the CC Blog, our monthly newsletters, and on social for exciting announcements and new content.

To the entire CC Community, CC staff and board members (past and present), our 20th Anniversary Committee, CC friends, partners and donors — I thank you for your continued commitment to Creative Commons and our mission. Simply put, we wouldn’t be celebrating 20 years of CC without you.

Here’s to another 20 fantastic years! 

Sincerely,

Catherine Stihler,
CEO of Creative Commons
On behalf of the CC Team

Check out our special 20th Anniversary episode of CC’s Open Minds podcast, featuring Creative Commons founder Lawrence Lessig! Lessig reflects on how CC began, what it has accomplished, and what he hopes to see in the next twenty years and beyond. 

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