FC Discuss listPeople might remember Nina Paley Nina Paley from her Creative Commons-Licensed animated film Sita Sings the Blues. This particular animation was created to playfully illustrate some of the reasons that the Electronic Frontiers Foundation exists. (Original video page with description on the EFF website)
Students for Free Culture is proud to announce the inauguration its board of directors for the upcoming academic year.
It’s our pleasure to introduce the five members of the board:
Kevin Driscoll
Kevin is the most senior member of the board, having served two prior terms. This month, he will finish his first year as a Ph.D. student at the Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism in the University of Southern California.
Andrea Fassina
Andrea is currently in his third year of study doing a Master in Electronics at the University of York in England. Andrea recently started a chapter at U of York, and is leading an effort to bring SFC to the UK.
Adi Kamdar
Adi is a rising junior at Yale University, where he is pursuing a Science, Technology, and Society major. He initiated the Yale chapter of SFC, which has garnered national attention for several of its campaigns. He is an undergraduate fellow at the Information Society Project at Yale Law School and will be working at the Berkman Center this summer.
Parker Phinney
Parker is a rising junior at Dartmouth, majoring in Computer Science. Parker has founded two SFC chapters (one at his high school and another at Dartmouth), and has led the freeculture.org web team. He interned at Creative Commons last summer and worked this past Winter with SFC alumni on OpenHatch.org.
Aditi Rajaram
Aditi is a rising senior at NYU, double majoring in Journalism and Political Science. She has served as Secretary and Vice President of Free Culture @ NYU, and will be serving as President next year.
Special advisors
2009-2010 board members Kevin Donovan and Ben Moskowitz will stay with SFC leadership as special advisors to the board of directors.
Next steps
Please keep an eye out, or join our discussion list, as we share the next steps for SFC and its expansion in the 2010-2011 school year! If you are interested in starting a chapter, or supporting the organization, please be in touch with board@freeculture.org.
We recently unveiled the first members of the Students for Free Culture Faculty Advisory Board: Larry Lessig, Mike Nelson, Ed Felten, and Gabriella Coleman. As I mentioned in that post, formalizing ties with academic leaders is an important step as SFC continues to mature and grow. Today, we’re honored to announce four additional members of the FAB!
Pat Aufderheide, University Professor @ American University; Director, Center for Social Media
Professor Aufderheide examines the effects of the law on artists and the public interest. She is the author of Communications Policy in the Public Interest and Documentary: A Very Short Introduction. In recent years, she has promoted fair use through a series of important best practice guides for various industries. She is closely tied to the artistic community through past and present positions with Kartemquin Films, Sundance Film Festival, and Independent Television Service. Her tweets are here.
Wendy Seltzer, Fellow, Silicon Flatirons Center for Law, Technology, and Entrepreneurship; Fellow, Berkman Center for Internet & Society
Wendy Seltzer has played an influential role in promoting freedom in the digital world for more than a decade. She has taught courses on the intersection of technology, commerce, and law at American University, Oxford, Brooklyn Law School and Northeastern. As the founder of the Chilling Effects Clearinghouse she brought attention to the unfounded legal threats dampening free speech online. She serves on the board of the Tor Project to support privacy online and on the board of the World Wide Web Foundation to advance the web for human empowerment. Her prolific activities are chronicled on her Twitter account here.
James Boyle, William Neal Reynolds Professor of Law @ Duke Law School; Co-founder, Center for the Study of the Public Domain
Professor Boyle is a teacher and writer studying the rising conflict between the intellectual ecology of the public domain and the movement that seeks to enclose it through private means. His books include The Public Domain: Enclosing the Commons of the Mind and Shamans, Software, and Spleens: Law and Construction of the Information Society. Additionally, he co-founded both Science Commons and ccLearn to bring the work of Creative Commons to the specific domains of science and education. He is a frequent commentator in the media, notably through his regular FT column. The blog for his most recent book is here.
Henry Jenkins, Provost Professor of Communication, Journalism and Cinematic Arts @ the University of Southern California;
Professor Jenkins moved to USC in 2009 after a decade as the Director of MIT’s influential Comparative Media Studies program. He has written or edited twelve books that examine media, culture and the interplay between creators and consumers, such as Convergence Culture: Where Old and New Media Collide. He is a highly-respected researcher, receiving grants from the MacArthur Foundation and testifying before the American government. His blog, Confessions of an Aca-Fan, is available here.
[Aufderheide photo licensed CC BY by (fittingly) Wendy Seltzer; Seltzer photo licensed CC BY-NC-SA by foxgrrl; Jenkins photo licensed CC BY by deneyterrio.]
The Canadian Federation of Students has put together a really great video promoting better copyright policy in Canada. You can learn more about their campaign here.
The SFC election is underway. This Sunday, May 9th at 9 PM EST, we are hosting a public Q/A session in IRC. This is your chance to meet and consult with nominees before voting. Voting tokens will be distributed Monday 10th morning via email.
Details:
Sunday, May 9th at 9 PM EST (GMT -5)
irc.freenode.net
#freeculture
For help with IRC, visit http://wiki.freeculture.org/IRC
To see the nominees for the 2010-2011 board of directors, visit http://wiki.freeculture.org/Board10/Nominations
Our friends at Public Knowledge write to let us know that they have a new job opening that would be a great opportunity for a recently graduated student excited about promoting free culture.
“The Web Content and New Media Associate will work with Public Knowledge (PK) outreach and legal staff to ensure that PK’s website is regularly updated, relevant, timely and widely dispersed through the use of social media platforms (Twitter, Facebook, Tumblr, YouTube). Public Knowledge is a growing, internationally prominent consumer advocacy group based in Washington, D.C. that works to defend citizens’ rights in the emerging digital culture.”
The job is an opportunity to promote free culture through “translating” legal issues into layperson’s terms, generating content for the general public, and assisting in the planning of public events and initiatives (such as their successful World’s Fair Use Day). PK is looking for a college graduate with a passion for technology, public policy, media reform and activism. Candidates should have strong communications skills, be a quick learner and able to produce high-quality results on tight deadlines. Basic web design (HTML/CSS), graphic design, video production, social media, Drupal, and web activism experience is a plus. Compensation is competitive with excellent benefits and opportunities for professional growth.
It’s a great time to be in D.C. so interested candidates should provide a cover letter, resume, and writing sample of less than 1,000 words to Mehan Jayasuriya (mehan [at] publicknowledge [dot] org).
The flyer is available here.
Students for Free Culture is voting on its new board of directors. Nominations have been extended through Friday, April 30.
Head over to the Nominations page to nominate someone you think will help advance the organization in 2010-2011. Candidates must accept nomination and offer biographical details no later than April 30.
Between April 30 and May 10, candidates will answer questions from the community and participate in one live Q/A session.
Chapters will receive e-vote tokens by email on Monday, May 10th, and must cast their votes by Friday, May 14. The results will be announced on Monday, May 17th.
Students interested in technology and information policy will likely be interested in two new opportunities for internships.
These should be great opportunities to learn about the policy work of issues SFC cares about. If you have any other internships ideas, be sure to get in touch.
On February 25th, 2010, Lawrence Lessig will deliver a talk on fair use and politics in online video from Harvard Law School in Cambridge, MA. Open Video Alliance and the Harvard Berkman Center are teaming up to provide a live webcast—you can tune in at http://openvideoalliance.org/lessig, or attend in person at one of many screening events. For free culture chapters, it is a great opportunity to bring your group together—check out the list of screenings or arrange your own.
Use this as an opportunity to convene a discussion, or start a workshop, or get your group off the ground!
Lessig’s talk will explore copyright in a digital age, and the importance of a doctrine like fair use. Fair use allows limited use of copyrighted material without requiring permission from the rights holders, and is essential for commentary, criticism, news reporting, remix, research, teaching and scholarship with video. As a medium, online video will be most powerful when it is fluid, like a conversation. Like the rest of the internet, online video must be designed to encourage creative expression and political participation, not just passive consumption.
If you want to host your own screening, fill out the form at http://openvideoalliance.org/event/lessig-registration/. Small grants are available to pay facilities fees, refreshments, or materials. If you have questions or comments, or if you’d like to get more information about hosting your own event, you can contact the event organizers at conference@openvideoalliance.org.
Free Culture X is only two weeks away. If you have not yet registered, now is the time to do it! Register now!
Give a dollar, $25, $100—it’s up to you. 100% of the proceeds will fund future Students for Free Culture projects. To sweeten the deal for you, we’re announcing some cool gifts:
•If you register at $50 or more, get a DVD with the complete Free Culture 2008 videos archive
•If you register at $75 or more, get a signed copy of one of these books:
•If you register at $100 or more, get one of these badges of coolness:
Just register by February 9th at your chosen level and we’ll contact you to get your gift preferences. Gifts are cumulative, so if you register at $100 or more you get a DVD, a signed book, and a badge of coolness. Gifts apply to all previous registrations, too.
Questions? Email board@freeculture.org.