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Software Freedom Conservancy has a plan to help all non-profit organizations (NPOs) by creating an Open Source and Free Software accounting system usable by non-technical bookkeepers, accountants, and non-profit managers. You can help us do it by donating now. To keep their books and produce annual government filings, most NPOs rely on proprietary software, paying [...]

V súvislosti s pripravovanou smernicou o kolektívnej správe práv sa do popredia dostáva otázka využívania verejných licencií členmi organizácií kolektívnej správy práv. Aj napriek tomu, že návrh smernice pôvodne nevenoval prílišnú pozornosť tejto otázke, bolo predstavených niekoľko zmien, ktoré by mali zabezpečiť možnosť slobodného výberu verejnej licencie pre osoby s členstvom v niektorej z organizácií. [...]

（相關訊息，以本網頁內容為準。）招募宗旨：台灣創用CC計畫2013年將拓展設計領域對創用CC授權之認識，並增進在學學生對公眾授權（Public Licensing）領域 之實務瞭解，特招募實習生協助相關案例蒐集、彙整、以及策展之活動。閱讀全文 2013-05-01T16:03:32Z emyleo

El Barcelona Creative Commons Film Festival (@BccNfestival) es un festival que selecciona películas que además de ver, puedes copiar y distribuir libremente. De acuerdo a sus organizadores, las licencias libres permiten una distribución más amplia de los contenidos, además de un reparto más justo de los beneficios entre exhibidores y autores. En sus tres ediciones [...]

OCL How-to Guide / SBCTC / CC BY A year and a half ago, the Washington State Board for Community and Technical Colleges (SBCTC) released the first 42 of Washington state’s 81 high-enrollment courses under the Creative Commons Attribution license (CC BY). Now they have released the remaining 39 under the same terms, which means [...]

Dňa 18. apríla bola oficiálne spustená nová Digital Public Library of America (DPLA), kde je možné získať milióny digitálnych zdrojov z rôznych knižníc, archívov a múzeí. Osobitne je potrebné vyzdvihnúť kvalitné spracovanie a možnosti vyhľadávania od interaktívnej mapy, tvorbu rôznych kolekcií, postupne vytvárané osobitné aplikácie až po časovú os, ktorá umožňuje vyhľadať materiál vzťahujúci sa [...]

1. Stan Kalifornia przoduje w otwieraniu edukacji i nauki, tym razem za pomocą propozycji prawa aby artykuły naukowe z badań finansowanych z publicznych pieniędzy stanowych były dostępne maksymalnie po 12 miesiącach od publikacji recenzowanej w trybie Open Access. 2. Krzysztof Kietzman, nie tylko opublikował swoją pracę magisterską o Cyberpunku na wolnej licencji CC BY-SA, ale również trafił z nią na słynny serwis [...] 2013-04-28T20:01:08Z

I april 2013 offentliggjorde forskningsrådet i Storbritannia (Research Council UK) sin reviderte veiledning om Open Access publisering av forskningsresultater. Du finner lenker både til veiledningen og den tilhørende FAQ på denne nettsiden. 2013-04-27T08:29:54Z Webmaster

In de Verenigde Staten is op 18 april 2013 de Digital Public Library of America (DPLA) gelanceerd. de DPLA is de Amerikaanse variant op Europeana. Beide projecten brengen metadata van duizenden culturele instellingen bij elkaar, waardoor deze doorzoekbaar worden voor het grote publiek. de DPLA volgt vanaf het moment van lancering het voorbeeld van Europeana [...]

Seal Of The Executive Office Of The President / Public Domain

Yesterday President Barack Obama issued an Executive Order requiring federal government information to be open and machine-readable by default. This Order is the latest in a series of actions going back to 2009 in support of increasing access to and transparency of government information.

In addition to the Executive Order, the White House released a Memorandum (PDF) explaining how federal government agencies will comply with the new open data policy.

This Memorandum requires agencies to collect or create information in a way that supports downstream information processing and dissemination activities. This includes using machine­ readable and open formats, data standards, and common core and extensible metadata for all new information creation and collection efforts. It also includes agencies ensuring information stewardship through the use of open licenses and review of information for privacy, confidentiality, security, or other restrictions to release.

It provides a forward-thinking set of guidelines for open data to be released by U.S. federal agencies:

Open data: For the purposes of this Memorandum, the term “open data” refers to publicly available data structured in a way that enables the data to be fully discoverable and usable by end users. In general, open data will be consistent with the following principles:

• Public. Consistent with OMB’s Open Government Directive, agencies must adopt a presumption in favor of openness to the extent permitted by law and subject to privacy, confidentiality, security, or other valid restrictions.
• Accessible. Open data are made available in convenient, modifiable, and open formats that can be retrieved, downloaded, indexed, and searched. Formats should be machine-readable (i.e., data are reasonably structured to allow automated processing). Open data structures do not discriminate against any person or group of persons and should be made available to the widest range of users for the widest range of purposes, often by providing the data in multiple formats for consumption. To the extent permitted by law, these formats should be non-proprietary, publicly available, and no restrictions should be placed upon their use.
• Described. Open data are described fully so that consumers of the data have sufficient information to understand their strengths, weaknesses, analytical limitations, security requirements, as well as how to process them. This involves the use of robust, granular metadata (i.e., fields or elements that describe data), thorough documentation of data elements, data dictionaries, and, if applicable, additional descriptions of the purpose of the collection, the population of interest, the characteristics of the sample, and the method of data collection.
• Reusable. Open data are made available under an open license that places no restrictions on their use.
  
• Complete. Open data are published in primary forms (i.e., as collected at the source), with the finest possible level of granularity that is practicable and permitted by law and other requirements. Derived or aggregate open data should also be published but must reference the primary data.
• Timely. Open data are made available as quickly as necessary to preserve the value of the data. Frequency of release should account for key audiences and downstream needs.
• Managed Post-Release. A point of contact must be designated to assist with data use and to respond to complaints about adherence to these open data requirements.

The Memorandum provides some more information about how U.S. government information will be made reusable:

Ensure information stewardship through the use of open licenses – Agencies must apply open licenses, in consultation with the best practices found in Project Open Data, to information as it is collected or created so that if data are made public there are no restrictions on copying, publishing, distributing, transmitting, adapting, or otherwise using the information for non-commercial or for commercial purposes.

Depending on the exact implementation details, this could be a fantastic move that would remove any legal confusion about using federal government data. By leveraging open licenses, the U.S. federal government would be doing a great service to reusers by communicating those rights available in advance. And, if the U.S. truly wishes to make federal government information available without restriction, it could consider using a tool such as the CC0 Public Domain Dedication. CC0 is used by many data providers to place open data directly in the public domain. We’ve already suggested this (PDF) as an option for sharing federally funded research data.

The White House should be commended for taking another positive step forward to ensure that U.S. government data is made legally and technically accessible and useable.

As we mentioned last week, California has introduced AB 609, the California Taxpayer Access to Publicly Funded Research Act. The bill, sponsored by Assembly Member Brian Nestande, would require that research articles funded through California tax dollars be made available online for free no later than 12 months after publication in a peer-reviewed journal. A letter from the University of California may have prompted the Assembly to modify the text of the draft bill to extend the embargo to 12 months (instead of six), and to include a provision exempting the University of California and California State University from the state agencies that must comply with the legislation, if enacted. A group of organizations (including Creative Commons) sent a letter to Assembly Member Nestande thanking him for introducing the bill. The letter urged the Assembly to considering strengthening the proposed law by including reuse rights language, such as through the adoption of open licenses: We encourage you to consider strengthening this legislation by including a provision to ensure that manuscripts reporting on state-funded research be made fully usable by the public. To fully unlock the value of the information contained in these digital articles, they should be made available in formats and under licensing terms that permit users to read, downloaded, search, compute on, data mine or analyze for any lawful purpose. It also asked for the original 6 month embargo to be reinstated: Additionally, while we would strongly prefer that these articles be made available to the public immediately upon publication, we would support the inclusion of an embargo period as originally proposed of no longer than six months. A hearing in the Committee on Accountability and Administrative Review is scheduled for May 1 in Sacramento. California residents can support the legislation by sending a message to representatives at the Alliance for Taxpayer Access site. More information on the bill is available on the SPARC website. California icon by Christopher Scott, from the Noun Project, under CC BY. Unlock icon by J. Ali, from the Noun Project, Public Domain.

On April 19, 2013 US Acting Secretary of Labor Seth D. Harris announced the third annual round of the Trade Adjustment Assistance Community College and Career Training Program (TAACCCT) grant program. The press release states that the current round of grants available is $474.5 million bringing the total 2011-13 program investment to nearly $1.5 billion. [...]

Το 6ο Συνέδριο Κοινοτήτων Ανοιχτού Λογισμικού FOSSCOMM 2013 έφτασε στο τέλος του. Σας ευχαριστούμε ΟΛΟΥΣ! Περιμένουμε τις εντυπώσεις σας στο ερωτηματολόγιο http://hua.fosscomm.gr/eval.jsp . Video και διαφάνειες των παρουσιάσεων θα αναρτηθούν τις επόμενες μέρες στο site του συνεδρίου http://hua.fosscomm.gr/ Tο FOSSCOMM 2013 (hua.fosscomm.gr) διοργανώθηκε στο Χαροκόπειο Πανεπιστήμιο (www.hua.gr) από το Τμήμα Πληροφορικής και Τηλεματικής (www.dit.hua.gr ) [...]

美國於2013年4月18日正式成立了數位圖書館(TheDigital Public Library of America，簡稱DPLA)。成立DPLA的計畫於2010年時開始準備，它從眾多的圖書館、資料庫及博物館收集了數以百萬的數位資源。閱讀全文 2013-04-24T09:04:32Z emyleo

Aquest Sant Jordi, l’associació “Konfraria de la Vil·la del pingüí” de la Palma de Cervalló ha decidit donar a conèixer les llicències Creative Commons i altres llicències lliures a través d’un punt de llibre i un DVD amb continguts i programari lliure; el «Konfraria Free Culture DVD». El “Konfraria Free Culture DVD” recull una sèrie [...] 2013-04-22T10:01:08Z

Se acerca la Cumbre Mundial de Creative Commons 2013 y es hora de pensar en la imagen que la representará. Por eso, a través de esta convocatoria, se escogerá al logo ganador. Algunas pautas para participar:   . Logos pueden ser diseñados por los colaboradores de los equipos afiliados o por uno de los miembros [...]

1. Wystartowała Digital Public Library of America (Cyfrowa Biblioteka Publiczna Ameryki), która zbiera zasoby z kilkudziesięciu amerykańskich bibliotek cyfrowych. Metadane  dla zasobów biblioteki dostępne będą, podobnie jak w wypadku Europeany na licencji CC0. Również kod źródłowy oprogramowania całej biblioteki jest otwarty i dostępny przez GitHub. 2. 9 maja po raz pierwszy w Polsce odbędzie się AccessibilityCamp 2013, Wydarzenie będzie poświęcone [...] 2013-04-22T00:01:19Z

Creative Commons would like to congratulate the Digital Public Library of America on its official launch today. The DPLA, which has been in planning since 2010, brings together millions of digital resources from numerous libraries, archives, and museums. From DPLA: The Digital Public Library of America will launch a beta of its discovery portal and [...]

Beautiful DreamerStephen Foster / Public Domain Remember the Happy Birthday song contest? Our friends at the Free Music Archive and WFMU are running another challenge to bring more music into the commons. But this time, it’s all about creating new, public domain recordings of public domain compositions. From FMA: Bring the public domain into the [...]

With the introduction at the federal level of both the Fair Access to Science and Technology Research Act (FASTR) and the White House public access directive, several states have begun to think about supporting public access to publicly funded research. Like the proposed federal legislation and White House policy, the state-level bills aim to support [...]