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Free Culture Research Workshop

Harvard Law School October 23, 2009

Sponsored by: Berkman, NEXA, iCommons

The Free Culture 2009 research workshop builds on the enthusiasm generated by the First Interdisciplinary Research Workshop on Free Culture which took place during the 2008 iSummit in Sapporo, Japan. It presents a unique opportunity for scholars whose work contributes to the promotion, study or criticism of an emerging Free Culture, to engage with a multidisciplinary group of academic peers and practitioners, identify the most important research opportunities and challenges, and attempt to chart the future of Free Culture.

Our aim is to provide an opportunity for scholars and practitioners to discuss their findings, experiences, and vision for a Free Culture with peers whose backgrounds extend beyond individual disciplines, because we believe that the wider participation in the creative process (and consequently in the formation and dissemination of our modern culture) enabled by new Internet technologies, innovative legal solutions and new business models, are far-reaching and therefore deserve to be examined through the lens of multidisciplinary inquiry. More specifically, this year's workshop will be focused on:

(a) participant interaction and joint reflection on key findings from cutting edge research in the field (b) the development of a research agenda, with the identification of key topics for future research (c) facilitating research collaborations and exchange of ideas between different academic institutions engaged in Free Culture research (d) fostering useful academic outputs over the next 12+ months (e) considering policy recommendations or a policy orientation that may emerge as a result of Free Culture research and scholarship

Program design and participant selection will be guided by these objectives, as set by the organizing committee in consultation with the host institution.


Agenda

The event will consist mainly of sessions oriented towards discussion and idea generation. The organizing committee will therefore strive to convene those parties that will be most helpful in engendering dialogue and providing perspectives on the future of free culture research. To that end we will do our utmost to convene academics and others who have already made an impact with their works and actions in shaping the landscape of free culture. An open call for short essays (similar in length to an extended abstract, for details see below) will complement this effort and provide opportunities for wider participation and discussion. Submitted essays will be reviewed by the program committee and the authors of accepted submissions will be invited to attend the event. We will only be able to accept a small number of participants through the open call given the small size of the event, and we seek your understanding in this respect. Every accepted essay will be disseminated before, during and after the workshop and will provide useful inputs for the structuring of the discussions and working sessions to take place during the event. However, we wish to emphasize that the focus this year will be on participant interaction and idea generation rather than on traditional podium presentation. Being invited to the workshop is therefore also not a guarantee that you will be able to present your own work, but rather an invitation to contribute your expertise and perspectives to the discussions and outcomes that the workshop will foster.

This is a draft agenda and will change as we approach the date of the workshop. As we mentioned in the invitation, there will be few formal talks, rather, but with your help, we are confident that everyone will have both an interest in and ability to participate meaningfully. To that end, we will identify moderators for sessions 2-4 listed on the wiki who will help lead discussions around the emergent themes identified and clustered with related essays.


All sessions will take place in Hauser Hall Room 104 at Harvard Law School. (Map: http://map.harvard.edu/level3.cfm?mapname=camb_allston&tile=F6&quadrant=C&series=N)


09:00 - 09:15 Welcome: Introduction to event and reiteration of workshop's aims


09:15 - 10:45 Session 1: Master class on free culture research led by 1-2 senior academics


10:45 - 11:00 Break


11:00 - 12:30 Session 2: Lessons from Practice


  • What are successful models of organization and motivation in online communities that focus on commons-based peer production?
  • How successfully have Creative Commons and other similar initiatives managed to mobilize resources, as well as set and communicate their agenda at a global level?
  • What is the real impact and user perceptions of open licensing around the world and how do these differ from (local and global) expectations?


Related essays: (note: essays often raise multiple related issues and thus often do not fall squarely under one theme - this categorization is for practical purposes only)


12:30 - 13:30 Lunch


13:30 - 15:00 Session 3: Free Culture and the Marketplace


  • Do creators operate differently in commercial vis-a-vis non-commercial environments? How can we best explore how social psychological, hedonic and financial motivations for production and participation play out in practice?
  • Is it possible to reconcile private property and intellectual commons without falling into contradiction, or is the commons-based paradigm of production destined to antagonize the logic of markets?
  • How much control does the market need to operate effectively and how much freedom can it tolerate?


Related essays: (note: essays often raise multiple related issues and thus often do not fall squarely under one theme - this categorization is for practical purposes only)


15:00 - 15:15 Short Break


15:15 - 16:45 Session 4: Free Culture in Society


  • Can Creative Commons be reconceptualized as a social movement? Is Free Culture the goal of this movement and if so, what does it mean really? What are the implications of regarding CC and related efforts as elements of a social movement? Or are there better ways of thinking about CC and Free Culture?
  • What are the broader social and political implications of efforts towards a Free Culture and how are these perceived by third parties? Also, how can we develop a more nuanced understanding of 'freedom', that is more inclusive of different perspectives?
  • How do we envision a future of social engagement around issues of freedom and control on the Internet? What will be at stake and how can advocates of more open models of production and self-expression be more effective in influencing policy?


Related essays: (note: essays often raise multiple related issues and thus often do not fall squarely under one theme - this categorization is for practical purposes only)


16:45 - 17:00 Short Break


17:00 - 18:00 Session 5: From ideas to results - how do we tackle the grand challenges?


19:00 - 21:00 Self Organized Dinners


Notes

  • Master Class: organizers will select 2-3 of the submitted essays for review and comment by 1-2 senior academics, followed by discussion on the issues raised by the submissions
  • Sessions 2-4: themes identified by organizers based on invited essays. A moderator will introduce the theme for each session and summarize the key points in related essays. Then all participants will be invited to discuss any and all issues pertaining to the theme.
  • Session 5: moderator will wrap up the key themes of the workshop and any issues that may have emerged during previous sessions. The floor will then open for all participants to provide additional comments and recommendations on actionable items that could help move research and practice on these issues forward.
  • Dinner: TBD

Written Submissions

Resources

Add links to articles, research, people and more.

Attendees

Please add your email address / contact info / updated affiliation if you would like to connect with other attendees.

  1. Philippe Aigrain | philippe.aigrain@sopinspace.com | Sopinspace, Society for Public Information Spaces
  2. Andoni Alonso | Commons Lab, Medialab-Prado
  3. Amar Ashar | ashar@cyber.law.harvard.edu | Berkman Center for Internet & Society
  4. Bodo Balasz | Budapest University of Technology and Economics
  5. Brian Ballentine | West Virginia University
  6. Yochai Benkler | Berkman Center for Internet & Society
  7. Giorgos Cheliotis | gcheliotis@gmail.com | National University of Singapore
  8. Tyng-Ruey Chuang | Academia Sinica
  9. Julie Cohen | Georgetown Law/HLS
  10. Gabriella Coleman | New York Univerity
  11. Juan Carlos de Martin | demartin@polito.it | NEXA Center for Internet & Society
  12. Leonhard Dobusch | Free University Berlin
  13. Judith Donath | Berkman Center for Internet & Society
  14. Melanie Dulong de Rosnay | University of Amsterdam
  15. Sonya Dunne
  16. Terry Fisher | Berkman Center for Internet & Society
  17. Brian Fitzgerald | Queensland University of Technology
  18. Marcos García | marcos@medialab-prado.es | Commons Lab, Medialab-Prado
  19. Urs Gasser | ugasser@cyber.law.harvard.edu | Berkman Center for Internet & Society
  20. Volker Grassmuck | vgrass@rz.hu-berlin.de | independent researcher, Universidade de São Paulo
  21. James Grimmelman | NY Law School
  22. Maria Haigh | UW Milwaukee
  23. Herko Hietanen | Helsinki Institute of Information Technology
  24. Mathias Klang | Lund University
  25. Ronaldo Lemos | Fundacao Getulio Vargas
  26. Lawrence Lessig | Harvard Law School
  27. Sheen Levine | Singapore Management University
  28. Colin Maclay | cmaclay@cyber.law.harvard.edu | Berkman Center for Internet & Society
  29. Mayo Fuster Morell | mayo.fuster@eui.eu | European University Institute and Free culture forum (Barcelona)
  30. John Palfrey | Berkman Center
  31. Lisa Petrides | ISKME
  32. Jhessica F. Reia
  33. Wolf Richter | OII
  34. Nagla Rizk | American University in Cairo
  35. Jan Philipp Schmidt | UWC/UNU-MERIT
  36. Aaron Shaw | Berkman/UC Berkeley
  37. Elizabeth Stark | elizabeth.stark@yale.edu | Yale ISP/ iCommons
  38. Yuri Takhteyev | University of Toronto
  39. Alek Tarkowski | alek@creativecommons.pl | University of Warsaw / CC Poland
  40. Anas Tawileh | Cardiff University
  41. Frank Tobia
  42. Prodromos Tsiavos | p.tsiavos@lse.ac.uk | LSE
  43. Ariel Vercelli | Universidad Nacional de Quilmes
  44. Eric Von Hippel | MIT Sloan
  45. Jude Yew | jyew@umich.edu | University of Michigan
  46. Zac Zimmer | Cornell University
  47. Jonathan Zittrain | Berkman Center for Internet & Society

Logistical Information

  • Participation Tools
    • Twitter / Identica hashtag:
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