[okfn-coord] Notes for COMMUNIA talk on Monday...

Fri Oct 17 19:07:07 UTC 2008

Hi Rufus, Jordan, Pro,

I thought I'd pop you a copy of the notes that I'm going to turn into my 
talk on Monday...

Evidently rough and rattled off - but should give you an indication of 
what I intend to cover. Any suggestions for additions/amendments would 
be much welcomed!

For me - main thing I'm hoping for is to encourage others to get 
involved, to work more closely with COMMUNIA members (perhaps start 
informal COMMUNIA working group?), and to indicate OKF keenness to 
support this kind of work. Hence hope to get more contacts, commitments 
to contribute, suggestions, etc. What do others think?

(Also, of course, to give impression of OKF's work/mission, and how 
crucial bibliographic metadata is for this kind of work.)

Will polish on train to Amsterdam on Sunday.

Cf. also

http://blog.okfn.org/2008/10/17/public-domain-calculators-updates-and-a-new-list/

Best,

J.

Notes for talk on OKF's work on PD calculators, c. 10-15 minutes

  * will keep it brief so we have plenty of room for discussion of 
potential collaboration
  * will briefly explain background of pd calc project + okf's 
initiative vis a vis public domain works
  * as you know the okf exists to promote open knowledge in all its 
forms - knowledge is a deliberately broad term which we take to include 
any content (such as text, images, multimedia) or data - 'from genes to 
geodata, sonnets to statistics'. open in this context means this 
material can be used without restriction.
  * this includes works which in which copyright has expired.
  * to zoom out a bit, i think generally an important question to keep 
asking - 'why should anyone care about any of this?'
  * what is the value of open knowledge, or the digital public domain?
  * in general the OKF operates on the assumption that open knowledge 
has many potential social and economic benefits.
  * this is to say there is value in the public domain.
   * e.g. economic value. potential for economic exploitation. for 
example our director rufus pollock's work on the value of the public 
domain in the UK, and his work with the rightscom study on the value of 
the public domain across europe. evidence suggests there is great 
economic potential in the public domain.
   * social value.
     * greater distribution/exposure of public domain materials. for 
education. access/re-distribution. cultural heritage. works of 
literature, visual art. pd sound recordings. huge body of early american 
music that may pass into the public domain in our life time. pioneers of 
jazz, blues and gospel. brilliant performances. e.g.s
     * new value-added works. literary works with new illustrations. 
remastered recordings. e.g. robert parker. multiple recordings of 
classic concerts to make stereo version.
     * creative/cultural potential. remix culture. max ernst's 'semaine 
de bonte' with images. the so-called 'amen break' - the legendary drum 
solo performed by Gregory Sylvester "G.C." Coleman - widely supposed to 
be one of the most re-used samples in the history of recorded music. 
jamie boyle's work on minstrels.
     * new forms of exploration/re-use in education/scholarship. very 
interested in potential for new kinds of digital humanities. maps, 
timelines. e.g. imagine we could use the kinds of sophisticated text 
mining technologies we have at our disposal to aid humanities research. 
to mark up and interlink the entire output of interesting figures in 
intellectual history. who read what. who wrote to who. the history of 
certain ideas.
     * semantic web, visualisation, etc.
     * open shakespeare, open milton, open literature, open art history..
     * principle of many minds - so many interesting things to do that 
can't anticipate. innovation (again, economic value)...
  * so. in order to derive value from the public domain, whether by 
increasing distribution or compelling new re-use - it is crucial to be 
able to find public domain works, to trace the contours of the public 
domain.
  * to this end we started the 'public domain works' project - which is 
an open registry of works in the public domain, primarily focusing on 
sound recordings..
  * basically there are two parts to this: a load of data about works 
(death of author, date of publication, etc.) and an algorithm 
representing relevant copyright legistlation to say whether or not work 
is in PD in each case.
  * working with data from bbc, from private collections, ...
  * in general bibliographic data (library/archival catalogues - 
basically metadata about works) is not easy to get hold of..
  * e.g. BL sells, UL reluctant..
  * in october last year we partnered with the open library project
    * http://blog.okfn.org/2007/10/17/public-domain-works-the-open-library/
  * aims to be big source of open bibliographic metadata.. LoC data, and 
data from important US libraries.
  * however - there is still comparatively little open bibliographic 
data. open library have not yet licensed their data holdings.
  * some of you may have seen our response to the library of congress' 
draft policy document on the 'future of bibliographic control' which 
included mention of sharing bibliographic metadata. 150 signatories from 
groups and individuals around the world - including
     * Lawrence Lessig, Founder, Creative Commons
     * Brewster Kahle, Founder, Internet Archive
     * Tim O’Reilly, Founder and CEO O’Reilly Media
     * Tim Spalding, Founder, LibraryThing.com
     * Peter Suber, Senior Researcher, The Scholarly Publishing and 
Academic Resources Coalition
     * John Wonderlich, Program Director and John Brothers, CTO, 
Sunlight Foundation
     * Paul Miller, Rob Styles, Terry Willan, Talis
     * Rick and Megan Prelinger, Prelinger Library & Archives
     * … and librarians, system librarians, catalogers, assistant 
librarians, library support staff, library users, library school 
lecturers and students, consultants, academics and software developers 
from Australia, Belgium, Canada, Germany, India, Italy, the Netherlands, 
Norway, Portugal, Spain, the Ukraine, the UK and the US.
    * 
http://blog.okfn.org/2007/12/19/response-to-the-future-of-bibliographic-control-draft-from-the-library-of-congress/
  * there is big demand for bibliographic data, and there is great 
potential for exciting new re-uses.
  * regarding the algorithms - we are very keen to build a set of 
'public domain calculators'. there is no single 'public domain' - public 
domain depends on which jurisdiction you are in.
  * speaking to aaron swartz (OL) + jon phillips (CC). more recently 
working with michelle thorne to reach out to CCi network.
  * now over individuals and groups keen to contribute to the 
calculators in at least 10 countries:
     * Argentina: Bienes Comunes
     * Canada: Access Copyright + Creative Commons Canada, Creative 
Commons + Wikimedia Foundation
     * Chile: Derechos Digitales
     * Italy: Università di Trento
     * Norway: University of Oslo + Creative Commons Norway
     * Philippines: Philippine Commons + Arellano University School of Law
     * Sweden: University of Lund
     * Switzerland: Creative Commons Switzerland
     * United Kingdom: Open Knowledge Foundation
     * United States: Creative Commons + Open Library
   * 
http://blog.okfn.org/2008/10/17/public-domain-calculators-updates-and-a-new-list/
  * OKF keen to support the development of PD calcultors.
  * formation of loose-knit curatorial groups: lawyers, academics, 
students, free culture/open access advocates, representatives from 
relevant organisations...
  * importance of peer review, preferably representation from multiple 
legal experts, multiple institutions
  * in this sense - Canadian case is explary - Access Copyright + CC 
Canada + CC Corporation + Wikimedia Foundation
  * the more input to development, review and maintenance of calcultors 
the better. sharing experience, best practice, expertise between groups. 
good documentation for others to review and learn from... just launched 
a mailing list to this end.
  * e.g. people not sure how to get started. ideas about how to 
iteratively develop representation of law. andy kaplan-myrth had 
Canada's one on a whiteboard... possibility of using web-based sketching 
tools to generate flow diagrams..
  * currently OKF trying to help to catalyse work in this area, 
build/support groups, reach out to relevant 
individuals/groups/institutions. decentralised network of interested 
parties.
  * priority is to get good flow diagrams. okf and others can convert to 
code. nontrivial task, but building communities for legal input is hard 
part.
  * working with other networks and building on existing work.
   * CCi.
   * COMMUNIA.
   * Europeana Connect.
   * possibility of getting work from Rightscom 'value of the public 
domain' study
  * imagine what could be done by combining PD calcs + big collections 
of metadata - expose the vast and rich corpus of cultural and historical 
material. potential to fuel an explosion of innovation.
  * if anyone would like to get involved or knows people who'd like to 
help out - please get in touch!