Creative Commons

Tomorrow, September 1 at 3 pm UTC, Creative Commons and Local Contexts are hosting a virtual conversation with the authors of "Guidance for Indigenous Collections and Indigenous Data": Jane Anderson, Maui Hudson, Hop Hopkins, Corrie Roe, and Anne Young. The event will discuss the guidance and explore how cultural institutions can apply practical, community-centered approaches to Indigenous collections. Read the report before or after the event to deepen your understanding. If you can't attend, register for the event to be notified when the event recording is published! Register for the event: https://lnkd.in/gkBGyMrD Read the guidance: https://lnkd.in/g4Wt3ExR

Our legal counsel Sarah Hinchliff Pearson wrote this article reflecting on one of the most difficult dilemmas Creative Commons finds itself in as we advocate for better sharing in the age of AI: how do we continue putting our values first in a time when our community has become divided? Values do not necessarily fall into one camp or another; they often resist absolutes and demand more nuanced solutions that require holding multiple truths at the same time. Read Sarah’s full article here.

Creativity as civic infrastructure: CCIs, digital commons & Europe’s digital futures! As part of the Ars Electronica Festival 2026 in Linz, Austria, #ekip is pleased to invite you to its final Policy Lab. 📍 JKU medLOFT, MED Campus I, Linz 📅 September 9th Taking place in the context of this year’s festival themes, Future Begins and Negotiating Humanity, the Policy Lab will explore how Cultural and Creative Industries can contribute to stronger digital commons and more resilient, inclusive and participatory digital futures. The day will bring together perspectives from technology, cultural heritage, open knowledge and creative innovation, with three inspiring speakers: 🔹 George Oates | Software designer, entrepreneur and founder of the Flickr Foundation. As the first designer of Flickr and creator of the Flickr Commons programme, she has played a pioneering role in making cultural heritage collections more accessible online. Her work today focuses on digital preservation and the infrastructures needed to maintain our recent digital past. 🔹 Timid Robot Zehta | Director of Technology at Creative Commons, where they champion open content and digital infrastructure as tools for human rights and sustainability. With more than 20 years of experience in technology, their work connects open-source practices, digital systems and the communities that sustain them. 🔹 Rasa Bocyte 🍉 | Cultural heritage professional at the Netherlands Institute for Sound & Vision (Nederlands Instituut voor Beeld en Geluid), where she leads international research and innovation projects. Her work explores emerging technologies, questioning hype-driven narratives and creating space for more meaningful, critical and playful engagement with digital technology. Together, we will reflect on the opportunities and tensions surrounding digital commons, civic participation and innovation in Europe today, and on the role CCIs can play through the communities they engage, the knowledge they generate and the technologies and data practices they support. Join us in Linz for a day of learning, exchange and collective reflection at the heart of Ars Electronica Festival. 📌 Registration deadline: 4 September 2026 👉 Register here: https://lnkd.in/duUFup9W #CCIs #PolicyLab #ArsElectronica #DigitalCommons ekip, Technopolis Group, The University of Edinburgh

What does digital sovereignty mean in an open world? On September 21, a day-long symposium OPEN @ UNGA 81: A Conversation on Collaboration will bring together leading voices from open source, digital rights, and digital sovereignty for a day of conversation on how the two intersect. Sessions include: -Open Collaboration/Open Sovereignty, a panel featuring Vidisha Mishra, Liv Marte Nordhaug, Mitchell Baker, and Paul Samson -Open Hardware, a lightning talk featuring Michael Weinberg -Open Infrastructure, a panel featuring Kaitlin Thaney, Jan Gerlach, Yael Elmatad, and Ellie Bertani, moderated by Monica Granados -Open Data, a panel featuring E.M. Lewis-Jong, Jane Anderson, and Christopher Lewis, moderated by Angela Oduor Lungati -Open Source Software, a panel featuring Duane O'Brien, amanda casari, Madiha Zahrah Choksi, and Ben Moskowitz, moderated by Ilan S. -General remarks will be given by Tomicah Tillemann and Anna Tumadóttir Programming runs from 10 am–3 pm with a midday lunch break. Co-organizers include Project Liberty, Mozilla Data Collective, The AI Disclosures Project, Ushahidi, Public Knowledge, NYU Law Engelberg Center on Innovation Law & Policy, Invest in Open Infrastructure, and Global Solutions Initiative. Thank you to our event sponsor Siegel Family Endowment! Learn more and register (space is limited): https://lnkd.in/gVhhPRqz

How do open licensing frameworks interact with Indigenous data sovereignty? What tools and protocols help institutions work ethically with Indigenous collections? How can institutions move from policy commitments to meaningful practice? In partnership with Local Contexts, our September 1 webinar "Responsibilities, Ethics, and Access" will explore how cultural institutions can apply practical, community-centered approaches to Indigenous collections. The panel will feature Jane Anderson, Maui Hudson, Hop Hopkins, Corrie Roe, and Anne Young. This webinar will be presented in both English and Spanish (special thanks to Wikimedistas de Uruguay and Wikimedia Colombia!). Register: https://buff.ly/ieyp02B

Register for our next Community Office Hours! Our Sr. Manager of Community Strategy and Engagement will be online to answer questions about the CC community, how to get involved, and more. Plus, connect with other community members to share your ideas and learn from peers around the globe. https://lnkd.in/gas3tz7C

Join us to discuss open source and its impact on AI "sovereignty" on September 21 at NYU, led by Creative Commons. Panelists will debate if open source currently offers a decentralized alternative to the hardware, data, and software needed to run AI systems -- and if not what is needed to make it a reality. Register here: https://lnkd.in/gnGEm44e For background, we recommend Tim O'Reilly's substack piece on the subject: https://lnkd.in/ggX8sdCR

“We do research because we want to understand the world a little bit better. To get that information out, we need to have as few barriers as possible.” University of Toronto Faculty of Arts & Science featured our very own Monica Granados and her career making research free and accessible in a new article! We're a bit biased, but you should probably give this one a read 🦭 https://lnkd.in/e4h2muaG

The recent emergence of generative artificial intelligence has had a phenomenal impact on cultural heritage institutions (CHIs), threatening the economic stability of their infrastructure and clashing with the values and norms of the commons. Despite CHIs' public-interest mission of providing access to the heritage, these realities are creating a hesitancy to share. Our newest blog post outlines the challenges faced in the open heritage sector in the age of AI and how you can help. https://lnkd.in/eziqJr3D

Our next Legal Office Hours are on September 1 at 2 pm EDT/6 pm UTC! CC's Legal Office Hours offer the chance to ask all of your licensing, open sharing, and copyright questions to a member of our legal team. They are open to all, so register today and then get your questions ready! https://buff.ly/abimnTu