Hello, This seems like an interesting event that it may be useful to have Wikimedians attending. cheers, Brianna http://www.communia-project.eu/conf2008 The First COMMUNIA Conference 2008 is scheduled for Monday 30 June and Tuesday 1st July 2008 in Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium (30 km south of Brussels). It is co-organized by the Communia Thematic Network and the GICSI-EU initiative. The main theme is the Assessment of economic and social impact of digital public domain throughout Europe. The Conference aims at initiating a "stock taking exercise" of the impact of public domain initiatives in the fields of public sector information, libraries, archives, scientific research and creative works in Europe. The event is mainly aimed at promoting the public domain by building capacity for scientific assessment of social and economic impacts, and promoting analysis of legal impediments. The conference will draw upon the extensive information on open access practices that is available, although often in an informal manner, within major networks and stakeholders in Europe. The following issues will be specifically addressed during the conference: - What are the objectives of the open access commons? - What are the existing legal, institutional and normative mechanisms that are adopted in different open access initiatives in the fields of public sector information, libraries, archives and creative works in Europe ? - How to assess the economic and social impact of selected cases ? We welcome papers submission particularly related to the following topics: 1. Libraries and archives 2. Public sector Information 3. Creative works 4. Scientific research 5. Publishing intermediaries 6. Emerging Issues 1. The aim of the call for papers is threefold: to build a repertory about the usage of open access licenses (under different forms) in EU, 2. to evaluate social and economic benefits of open access initiatives, and 3. to discuss proposals for mitigating economic and legal obstacles. http://communia-project.eu/conf2008/cfp Submission by 30th March 2008 The acceptance of abstracts for the conference will be notified the 20th of April. Instructions will be given concerning the format of the final papers. Authors accepted must submit their papers before the 15th of June. Papers accepted will be compiled and published in the Conference Proceedings. -- They've just been waiting in a mountain for the right moment: http://modernthings.org/