Re: [LibrePlanet-US-MA] [cc-community] 4-YEAR PLAN ideas for LibrePlanet

Thanks for the feedback! This is great-- I forgot mention that we're also looking for ideas that might reach beyond the scope of free culture, but may be tangentially related. For example making more data open, as I mentioned, or even helping Hampshire improve their scattered and disorganized web services. Basically, making improvements to school infrastructure with a mindfullness of free software and free culture issues. Things that would make sense to do after turning Hampshire into a free culture school.

Anyways, could you explain the Open Knowledge space a bit more? Hampshire has a zine library as well as a freely licensed wiki called Hampedia. Are you thinking more of a library of physical copies of freely licensed work, or a hackerspace, or something else entirely? Physical spaces might be really difficult to esablish...but that's exactly the level of ambitiousness we want to be going for! [=

With regards to business models, what kind of exploration did you have in mind? As a student group, we are aware of services like Kickstarter and Flattr and other alternative payment models, but in what context do you imagine us applying this to Hampshire College? We do plan on promoting these platforms to students here, but we're really interested in permanent institutional changes that we can fight for.

We are looking for more speakers so we'll put Maddogg Hall on the list. One concern though: does he tend to come from this standpoint of "open" rather than "free"? We tend to be a little careful about openwashing. It has landed the FLOSS movement in a place where so-called "open" platforms are used to restrict freedom. Stock Android, the primary example of Linux gone mainstream, is based on free software, but is not distributed as such. Most popular eBook readers are also Linux-based, but you can't buy an eBook reader that doesn't come with DRM. We love Creative Commons, but we want to avoid promoting things that endorse the non-free CC licenses or take a wishy-washy stance as tends to happen with openwashing: http://freedomdefined.org/Definition

On Wed, Nov 30, 2011 at 17:18, Dorothy K. Gordon <address@hidden> wrote:

Dear Danny and team HampC, I am totally amazed that you are looking for more ideas after reading your really great list. But since you asked! I would say you should see if it is possible to get an Open Knowledge space both physically and virtually for HampC. I think you should also explore business models around CC and Open Culture in general. If you are looking for a good speaker you may want to contact Maddog Hall who is great on Open Source business models. Also explore links with other student communities in strong Open Culture locations such as Brazil and Kerala in India.

best regards

Dorothy K. Gordon
Director-General
Ghana-India Kofi Annan Centre of Excellence in ICT
Mobile: 233 244 311 348
BB : 233 265005712
Direct Line: 233 302 683579
Website: www.aiti-kace.com.gh

----- Original Message -----
From: "Danny Piccirillo" <address@hidden>
To: address@hidden, "Discussion of Free Culture in general and this organization in particular" <address@hidden>, address@hidden, "SFC Core" <address@hidden>, "LibrePlanet Massachusetts Team" <address@hidden>, "Open Knowledge Foundation discussion list" <address@hidden>, "gnugeneration-discuss" <address@hidden>, address@hidden
Sent: Wednesday, 30 November, 2011 7:53:21 PM GMT +00:00 Casablanca / Monrovia
Subject: [cc-community] 4-YEAR PLAN ideas for LibrePlanet/Students for Free Culture @Hampshire College

Hello!

Reporting in from Hampshire College's LibrePlanet/Students for Free Culture Chapter, we're just getting our team off the ground and after a couple of meetings there's been lots of ideas and excitement (check out some pictures from student group signup day here ).

We made a huge list of ideas (pasted below) and started talking about who we needed to get in contact with and other things needed to make them happen. What we realized is that lots of short term efforts even over a span of years may not add up to a cohesive and forward-thinking plan.

IDEA: DRAFT A FOUR-YEAR PLAN!

We're going to imagine what Hampshire College would look like as an ideal free software and free culture friendly school. We want to consider what would normally be considered impossible to accomplish. Our first compilation of ideas will probably happen on Tuesday. Form there, we'll combine similar ideas, rank them based on difficulty, and see what steps would have to happen before the change would be accepted. Ideas like requiring free and open formats for all assignments, using free licenses for all copyrights owned by the school, and making as much data as possible open.

What ideas do you have?

Is this a thing that more groups could organize?

From:	Danny Piccirillo
Subject:	Re: [LibrePlanet-US-MA] [cc-community] 4-YEAR PLAN ideas for LibrePlanet/Students for Free Culture @Hampshire College
Date:	Wed, 30 Nov 2011 19:13:47 -0500