Dear members of the Wikimedia Foundation,
I'm very pleased to extend a very warm invitation to
you all to attend
the annual iCommons Summit taking place this year in
the heart of free
culture - Rio de Janeiro, Brazil - from the 23rd to
the 25th of June.
We're hoping to have very strong participation by
the Wikimedia
Foundation in the event - along with communities
from Creative
Commons, Science Commons, Ubuntu, open access and
others.
This year's Summit is set to be one of the most
exciting events for
creative and knowledge commons pioneers from around
the world and is
structured around three major themes:
1. Tools. Developing effective, relevant tools to
assist other
creators, authors, scientists and researchers to
develop and showcase
their creativity and innovation.
2. Policy. Strategies to ensure international,
regional and local
policy fora that are conducive to the development
and nurturing of the
commons.
3. Practice. Learning from the experience of others
to develop
effective models for the development of open content
in societies
around the world.
The goals of iCommons are to build the Summit into a
launch-pad for
global cooperation around commons projects and to
provide an open,
creative space for practitioners to learn from best
case practices and
to showcase new ideas. With iCommons' strong
institutional
partnerships, we will continue to nurture these
alliances throughout
the year, providing the tools and spaces for
commoners to build on the
friendships and shared experience of the event, and
building a united
global commons community.
The three-day program will have a mix of formal
presentations,
roundtable working groups, practical workshops and
community-driven
program slots that enable participants to gain
strategic insights and
practical techniques as well as play a critical role
in shaping the
emerging global commons movement.
With keynote speakers including Larry Lessig, Jimmy
Wales, Joi Ito and
James Boyle who will inspire participants with a
vision of a living,
thriving commons, to members of the expanding
iCommons community
showcasing their ideas and inviting participation in
key projects,
this year's Summit is proving to be a must-attend
for anyone engaged
in the growth and development of the digital commons
of the future.
We sincerely hope that as many Wikimedia Foundation
members can attend
as possible - and I look forward to receiving your
suggestions for
presenting the work of the Foundation at the event.
I will send more details when we launch the website
later this week,
but please diarise in the meantime :)
Best wishes,
Heather.
--
Heather Ford
Acting Executive Director: iCommons
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