COMMUNIA: public domain and alternative licensing for knowledge-sharing
(Dieser Artikel ist auch in deutscher Sprache verfügbar)
Today’s digital networks offer extraordinary new opportunities for
sharing and building upon our global, public pool of knowledge.
Shedding light on the scientific, educational, economical, ethical and
political importance of the digital public domain has, therefore,
become crucial for the future of our knowledge-based societies.
This is the rationale behind a freshly launched project: COMMUNIA, the
European Thematic Network on the Public Domain in the Digital Age.
Funded by the European Commission under the eContent+ programme and
coordinated by the Politecnico di Torino’s NEXA Research Center for
Internet and Society, the three-year long project held its kick-off
meeting in Turin, Italy, on 28 September 2007.
The project has been proposed by a network of 36 members from 21
countries who are dedicated to developing theoretical analysis and
strategic policy discussion of existing and emerging issues to the
public domain in the digital environment, as well as related topics
including, but not limited to, alternative forms of licensing for
creative material (including the Creative Commons licenses), open
access to scientific publications and research results, and management
of works with unknown authors (i.e. orphan works).
COMMUNIA is organizing a productive schedule of thematic workshops and
conferences to be held in several European venues, with the goal of
maintaining a strong link between participants. The network aims at
producing both analytical and practical results, including the
production of a book and an academic journal, a “best practices” guide
for European research and reference centres and a final strategic
report containing specific policy guidelines.
The overall goal is to create an open, wide, and active partnership
aimed at improving knowledge access and to help all the stakeholders –
public and private, from the local to the European level – tackling
the issues that the existence of a digital public domain have raised
and will undoubtedly continue to raise.
For more information, please visit the project website; questions,
comments, requests for information and/or clarification should be sent
to the Coordinator of COMMUNIA, Prof. Juan Carlos De Martin
European Commission page on COMMUNIA
http://www.ec.europa.eu/information_society/activities/econtentplus/projects/psi/communia/index_en.htm
COMMUNIA project website
http://communia-project.eu
NEXA Research Center for Internet and Society
http://nexa.polito.it/
(contribution by Bernardo Parrella, COMMUNIA dissemination manager)