Welcome to the September 2006 edition of the Free Culture events newsletter - A joint project of Free Culture UK and iCommons. Free Culture is a movement that extends the logic of free software into the world of art, advocating free creativity, sharing and appropriation. There will be thousands of events with this ethos going on around the world, but the listings below are brought to you by activists and advocates of the free culture movement. You can add your events and reviews to this newsletter on the iCommons wiki.

Europe

Upcoming events

Hackmeeting 2006

• What: public meeting (workshops, screens, debates) of communities, fellows and cultural movements about technology, free knowledge, sharing culture.
• When: 1st, 2nd and 3rd of September.
• Where: Parma, Italy. The place is a TAZ and it will be defined in next days.
• More information.

London Copyfighters’ Drunken Brunch and Talking Shop

• What: A picnic in the park followed by an outing to Speakers’ Corner.
• When: The last Sunday of every month.
• Where: Hyde Park, London.
• More information.

Remix Reading open media lab/workshop

• What: Free workshops in graffiti, DJing and circus skills for local youth groups, alongside an open media lab with machines running Kubuntu Linux stuffed with arty free software. Come along to help the kids take photos, fix them up in The GIMP and upload them to Remix Commons, or just to refine your own skills!
• When: 9th and 23rd September 2006.
• Where: Rising Sun Arts Centre, Silver St, Reading, UK.
• More information.

Wizards of OS 4 International Conference

• What: The Wizards of OS are concerned with the emerging knowledge order of digital media. Their focus is on the potential of PC and internet for fostering free communication and open collaboration in the creation of knowledge.
• When: 14th - 16th of September 2006.
• Where: Columbia-halle, Berlin, Germany.
• More information.

Computer Law World Conference

• What: Registration is now open for the VI Computer Law World Conference, which will take place in Edinburgh 6th - 8th of September 2006. The 2006 Conference will be hosted by the AHRC Research Centre for Studies in Intellectual Property and Technology Law, located in the School of Law at the University of Edinburgh. The conference brings together legal academics and practitioners from around the world to consider and debate all aspects of information technology law. Previous years’ conferences have fostered links between educational institutions and legal practices across the globe, reaching out to a wider international audience each year.
• Who: Keynote presenters include Professor Michael Geist (University of Ottawa), Mia Garlick (Creative Commons) “Creative Commons: Five Years On”, Dr Patricia Akester (University of Cambridge), Professor Lilian Edwards (University of Southampton), Nic Garnett (WIPO), Ray Plzak & Steve Ryan (American Registry for Internet Numbers ARIN).
• When: 6th - 8th September 2006.
• Where: The School of Law, University of Edinburgh, UK.
• More Information.

Netaudio’06 - Netlabel Festival in London

• What: London’s first festival dedicated to free internet music. It will celebrate the creative output of netlabel activists and musicians with talks, workshops, showcases and parties. As part of the open source/open culture movement, Netlabels are online music labels offering free music as a download. Music is typically released within the liberal Creative Commons copyright framework, where sharing and re-mixing are encouraged.
• When: 15th and 16th September 2006.
• Where: Candid Arts Centre and Electrowerkz, Torrens Street, London EC1V 1NQ.
• More information.

Free culture in the news

Public Domain Works Database - Call for Volunteers

The Public Domain Works Database is an open registry of artistic works that are in the public domain. It is focused on recordings (and their underlying compositions) because a term extension for recordings is currently being considered in Europe. In the future it will expand to cover all types of cultural works which are covered by copyright. The Database is a joint project of Free Culture UK and the Open Knowledge Foundation.

Assistance is required in two main areas:

• Development of the public domain works database and web application. At present we are working on doing a first iteration using Python and the Django web application framework. Help is required with all and any of the coding, web development, testing and usability.
• The obtaining and entry of data on works. We need to find and enter data on recordings along with information on the artists who authored and performed those works.
• More information.
• Participate.

New Groups

Free Culture Dundee are starting up and are looking to form a network of free culturalists in Scotland and Dundee. See their blog, “Common Ends” for details.

North America

Upcoming events

CopyCamp: an unconference for artists about the internet and copyright

• What: Topics to be discussed include licensing content on the internet; Creative Commons and the public domain; Open Source and digital culture.
• When: 28th - 30th September 2006.
• Where: Ryerson University’s Student Campus Centre, Toronto, Ontario, Canada.
• More information.

South America

Upcoming events

International Festival of Mobile Creativity in Brazil

• What: MOBILEFEST is the 1st Brazilian Festival of Mobile Art, based on the sociological implications that mobile phones and mobile technologies have been promoting in our culture.
• Call for Papers! MOBILEFEST 2006 seeks paper and presentation proposals responding to the Symposium themes: How can Mobile Technology contribute to democracy, culture, art, ecology, peace, education, health and third-sector? Deadline: 31st of August 2006. More information.
• When: September 2006.
• Where: Sao Paulo, Brazil.
• More information.

Public Presentation

• What: Cultura Libre Projects CD Libre - Compilation CD of content licensed under Creative Commons Peru & Community Networks - The First Free Wireless Mesh Network in Peru.
• When: 16th of September 2006.
• Where: Campus PUCP, Lima, Peru.
• More Information.

Africa

Upcoming events

Highway Africa Conference

• What: Highway Africa is an annual ICT conference hosted by Rhodes University which is situated in Grahamstown, South Africa. Each year, more than 500 delegates from across the globe attend the conference to discuss issues relating to internet governance, ICT policy and media for democracy. A highlight is the Digital Citizen Indaba on Blogging, to be held during the Highway Africa conference.
• Where: Rhodes University, Grahamstown.
• When: 11th - 15th of September 2006.
• More information.

Trade Law Centre for Southern Africa (Tralac)’s Annual Conference

• What: The focus of the event is Economic Partnership Agreements (EPAs).
• Where: Cape Town.
• When: 5th and 6th of October 2006.
• More information.

Conference on Information Technology in Tertiary Education (CITTE) 2006

• What: This biennial conference is the key research and networking event for researchers, strategists, academics, technologists and practitioners in ICT in Higher Education. The theme for this year’s conference is ICT: Enabling Collaboration and Transformation in Higher Education.
• Where: St George’s Hotel, Pretoria.
• When: 18th - 20th of September 2006.
• More information.

International

Upcoming events

OneWebDay

• What: Celebrate the way the internet has changed your life - from the way you work, to the way you communicate!.
• When: 22nd of September 2006.
• Where: Worldwide.
• More information.

Software Freedom Day

• What: Software Freedom Day is a global, grassroots effort to educate the public about the virtues and availability of free and open source software.
• When: 16th of September 2006.
• Where: Worldwide.
• More information.

@LIS DAY

• What:The @LIS Day is an initiative organised within the European Commission @LIS Programme aiming at gathering all the energies, ideas and collaboration interests from Europe and Latin America in fields such as e-health, e-inclusion, e-learning, and e-government on a specific day, during which many activities will take place, showing the importance of strengthening the bridges between the two continents towards a more cohesive and inclusive Information Society for all.
• Where: Latin America and Europe.
• When: 28 September 2006.
• More information.