Free Culture Conference

The George Washington University
Washington, D.C.
1957 E. St. NW
Washington, DC 20052

The vision is to bring together student activists and free culture luminaries to discuss free software and open standards, open access scholarship, open educational resources, network neutrality, and university patent policy, especially in the context of higher education.

February 13th

8:00—9:00am

Registration and welcome
Coffee served

9:15am
Introduction
Students for Free Culture

9:30—10:45am (1hr15min)
The Politics of Open Networks
Neutral, open, competitive—which characteristics should we promote in our networks? Is regulation the appropriate course? How do university networks fit in, and what's happening on the Hill?

Moderator: Michael Nelson, Visiting Professor / Georgetown Communication, Culture and Technology

Panelists

  • Steve Worona, Director of Policy and Networking Programs / EDUCAUSE
  • Chris Riley, Policy Counsel / Free Press
  • Timothy B. Lee, Member / Center for Information Technology Policy, Princeton University

10:50—11:20pm (30 min)
The Floating Public Domain: Fair Use and How to Use It
Copyright law contains a remarkably flexible and adaptable escape hatch from ownership rights, designed specifically for creators of new culture. It creates a "floating" public domain for currently copyrighted material, and it permits remixes, mashups, sampling, critique and parody. Dormant for decades and disparaged by large content companies, it's back and college students are in the vanguard of reviving it. Pat Aufderheide, a fair use expert, walks us through the basics of fair use and shows how it affects academic integrity (no-cheating) codes, homework assignments, and what gets posted and doesn't on Blackboard and other electronic course platforms. Finally she shows how you can stand up for fair use in classes, on campus, on Facebook and YouTube.
Pat Aufderheide, Director / American University Center for Social Media

11:30—12:45pm (1hr15min)
Open Access and Access to Knowledge
Knowledge is essential for so many human activities and values, including freedom, the exercise of political power, and economic, social and personal development. The A2K (Access to Knowledge) movement takes concerns with copyright law and other regulations that affect knowledge and places them within an understandable social need and policy platform: access to knowledge goods.

Moderator: Heather Joseph, Executive Director / SPARC

Panelists

  • Nick Shockey, Director of Student Advocay / SPARC
  • Claudio Ruiz, President / Derechos Digitales Derechos Digitales
  • Sherwin Sly, Deputy Legal Director / Public Knowledge

12:45—1:45pm (1hr)
Lunch (BYOB—bring your own burrito)

1:45—2:15pm (45 min)
Keynote: Gigi Sohn, Public Knowledge
Gigi Sohn is president and co-founder of the public interest and technology group Public Knowledge. She is a Non-Resident Fellow at the University of Southern California Annenberg Center, and a Senior Fellow at the University of Melbourne Faculty of Law. She has been an Adjunct Professor at Georgetown University and at the Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law, Yeshiva University.

2:30—3:45pm (1hr15min)
Open Educational Resources
Educational paradigms are changing. The Internet has profoundly altered the ways in which information is accessed and shared. One of the most exciting new trends is the growth of open educational resources (OER): free, authoritative educational resources that can be easily accessed, shared, and modified by anyone at any time.

Panelists

  • Eric Frank, Founder / Flat World Knowledge
  • Garin Fons, Open Education Specialist / Open.Michigan, University of Michigan
  • Timothy Vollmer, Open Policy Fellow / ccLearn
  • Steve Anderson, Director, Media Arts & Practice / USC

4:00-4:15pm (15 min)
Notes on unconference and workshops

4:15-5:15pm (1hr)
Keynote: Jonathan Zittrain, Berkman Center
Jonathan Zittrain is Professor of Law at Harvard and co-founder of the Berkman Center for Internet & Society. He is the author of The Future of the Internet - And How to Stop It and co-editor of Access Denied: The Practice and Policy of Global Internet Filtering. His research interests include battles for control of digital property and content, cryptography, electronic privacy, the roles of intermediaries within Internet architecture, and the useful and unobtrusive deployment of technology in education.

8:00pm
Party TBA
Music and kicking it

February 14th
Unconference and workshops