Forum on Creative Commons and Open Educational Resources hosted by Creative Commons China Mainland and supported by OpenCourseWare Consortium took place on Oct 17^th in Renmin University of China

The Forum brought together representatives from various fields and organs devoting to promoting open educational resources such as the Center of the Excellent Curriculum Resources (JingPinKe) of Ministry of Education, the National Science Library (NSL), the Computer Network Information Center of Chinese Academy of Sciences(CNIC), the Department of Digital Resources of the National Library of China (NLC), China Education and Research Network (CERNET) and universities like Renmin University of China, Tsinghua University and Shanghai Jiaotong University, as well as famous Internet enterprises, like Mozilla Online, Netease, Sina, ifeng, together with other users and promoters of CC licenses and OER such as Kong Bohua Chinese Medical School, NGO 2.0, Science Squirrel, Social Learn Lab, YaoRui Education Consulting Co., ltd, and HackerSpace. The participants conducted an in-depth discussion on a series of topics including how to share educational resources by open licenses, the significance of CC licenses to OER, the domestic OER practice, the experiences in construction of the open platforms to share OER, and how to initiate legal sharing in the OER domain and promote the prosperity of society and culture. There were almost 70 participants in the forum, which made it a grand get-together in the field of OER. The forum was broadcasted live on Creative Commons China Mainland’s microblogs of Sina and Netease.

Keynote Speeches by the Guests on the Forum

The Project Lead of Creative Commons China Mainland, Professor Chunyan Wang of the Law School of Renmin University of China introduced the background on the forum and stated in her opening address that CC and OCWC share the common spirit of opening and sharing. And CC makes the open sharing of educational resources possible by providing the legal tools. There is a close cooperation between CC and OER. (For more information on CC China Mainland, see http://cn.creativecommons.org/) The Executive Director of OCWC, the supporter of the forum, Mary Lou recognized the work of Creative Commons China Mainland in OER, and stated that the primary intension to create OER is to provide more people with the access to educational resources and knowledge as well as a more convenient approach to improve their work, study and life. (For more information of OCW Consortium, see http://www.ocwconsortium.org/ )

Mr. Wangli Dong, the Senior Consultant of the Center of Excellent Curriculum Resources (JingPinKe) of the Ministry of Education, introduced to the participants the current situation and the future development of the Integration Project and the Center of the National Excellent Curriculum Resources and shared his thoughts and inspirations in the operation of OER. (For more information of JingPinKe, see http://www.jingpinke.com/)

Mr. Lingqian Kong, the representative successor of the intangible cultural heritage of Kong Bohua Chinese medicine family, CEO of Kong Yi Tang Technology Limited (Beijing) gave a speech on “Chinese Medicine Culture and OER”. He elaborated from three aspects: sharing knowledge leading to a society of harmony and integrity; to be people-oriented and society-oriented; OER in Chinese Medicine. (For more information of Kong Yi Tang, see http://www.kongyitang.com/)

Mr. Lianglin Hu, the Senior Engineer of the Center of Scientific Statistics, Computer Network Information Center (CNIC) of Chinese Academy of Science, gave a speech on “Sharing the Scientific Statistics”. He firstly introduced the history, current situation and the future plans of the Center of Scientific Statistics, and raised the problems exiting in the citation of scientific statistics. He also expressed the willingness to have further discussion and cooperation on Science Commons with Creative Commons China Mainland. (For more information of CNIC, see http://www.cnic.cn/)

Ms. Aiping Jiang, the Deputy General Manager of CERNET said in her speech on “CERNET and the Sharing of Educational Resources” that CERNET has set up the platform of sharing educational resources (www.oer.edu.cn) and provides access services. CERNET is trying to make full use of the educational resources of the universities to make further contribution to the sharing of knowledge. (For more information of CERNET, see http://www.cernet.edu.cn/)

Ms. Ruobing Zhang from Department of Digital Resources of the National Library of China (NLC) introduced the application of CC models in the construction of digital resources in libraries from the following aspects: the development of CC models, the application of CC in libraries, the significance and construction of CC models in the digital resources in libraries. (For more information of NLC, see http://www.nlc.gov.cn/)

Professor Chunyang Wang gave a speech on “Creative Commons and Open Educational Resources”. The transition from traditional education to open education calls for a flexible and free authorization model, which is the very reason why CC attracts partners from different fields and communities. Open license is a kind of contract, which allows for the open access to the relevant resources. One of the important roles of CC China Mainland is to promote the application of CC licenses in the OER domain. She also introduced the practice of CC China Mainland in OER, including the cooperation with UNESCO and an OER volunteer plan.

Mini-presentation: Sharing the Experiences of the Communities

In the second section, many representatives from universities, online communities, NGOs and internet enterprises which promote OER projects gave mini-presentations to share experiences. Professor Zeyu Chen from Shanghai Jiaotong University introduced the origin, current situation and future plans of OER in Shanghai Jiaotong University.(See http://ocw.onlinesjtu.com/) Mr. Yuanzheng Guo, the General Manager of Mozilla Online, a long-term partner of CC China Mainland, introduced the Drumbeat platform of the open source community of Mozilla Online (See http://www.mozilla.org/drumbeat/), which supports users’ online sharing.

Ms. Jingsong Mei, the Director of the Educational Channel of Sina.com, gave a presentation on “OER in the Age of Microblog”. The open course project of Sina has accomplished the application on all platforms from webpages, blogs to mobile devices. This project has achieved a leap in the development by promotion on the microblog platform, combination with the hot issues, and independent translation of courses. (See http://edu.sina.com.cn/video/open/)

Professor Xueyong Gu from Tsinghua University shared his opinions on “How to Design Integrated Learning Activities with Open-sourced Resources”. By open-sourced resources, engineering education is integrated with humanistic education, and engineering technology transforms humanistic experiences. This kind of opening and sharing brings us a new structure of knowledge, which leads to a new society. (For more information of Professor Gu’s project on open source hardware, see http://toyhouse.cc/)

Ms. Xiuli Zhuang, the founder of the Social Learn Lab and teacher of the School of Educational Technology, Beijing Normal University introduced the practice of Social Learn Lab in OER. Based on Web 2.0, the Social Learn Lab provides the students with a cyber environment of open experiences. (For more information of the Social Learn Lab, see http://sociallearnlab.org/)

Mr. Kui Zhou, a member of the NGO 2.0 Project and teacher of Tsinghua University, talked on the topic “Grassroots Public Welfare in the Age of Web 2.0”. NGO 2.0 is a project initiated by Professor Wang Jin of MIT New Media Action Lab in 2008, which is dedicated to improving the media literacy and creative thinking of grassroot NGOs in China. The training courses and materials of NGO 2.0 are shared under CC license. (For information of NGO 2.0, see http://www.ngo20.com/)

Mr. Kang Li, a cyber culture scholar, discussed with the participants the practice of CC. His speech is based on two main words in the theme of the forum, commons and open, to illustrate different levels of opening and sharing. And advocate a proper and positive philosophy of opening and sharing in the promotion of OER.

Mr. Hengxin Chen，an editor of Netease open course project, introduced the practice of Netease open courses. Netease became a member of OCWC in 2011, as the only Chinese enterprise member of the consortium. So far, Netease has invested 15 million RMB in to this project and issued more than 6000 volumes of open courses. (See http://open.163.com/)

Ms. Jingjing Li, a senior editor from ifeng open course project shared ifeng’s experiences on OER as a new comer to the community of open courses. This project tries to provide users with the best, most various and most popular contents, which does not only provide the videos of the courses, but also the background, logics, relevant opinions and experiences, to make comprehensive open courses. (See http://v.ifeng.com/gongkaike/index.shtml)

Orange, a senior member of Science Squirrel, a long-term user of CC license, talked on the topic “Building the Bridge of Sharing Science”. (For more information of Science Squirrel, see http://songshuhui.net/) Mr. Wang Tian, the CEO of YaoRui Education Consulting Co., ltd made a speech on “Chinese OER- a Cloudy Future”.

Meena Hwang, the Director of Community Outreach of OpenCourseWare Consortium, gave a conclusion speech for the forum. She firstly thanked Creative Commons China Mainland for building the platform of communication for OER users and promoters and recognized the practice of CC China Mainland in OER. She was inspired by the practice of OER in China, and she had full confidence in the future of OER cause in China.

Professor Chunyan Wang stated at the end of the forum that CC China Mainland will continue its efforts in the OER domain to further promote the development of OER in China. CC China Mainland will also make further endeavor to build platforms of communications and cooperation for open course communities and promote the open sharing of knowledge and educational resources.

In the afternoon of November 14, 2010, founder of Creative Commons, world-renowned scholar Professor Lawrence Lessig was invited to Yifu Conference Center of Renmin University of China(RUC) to deliver a lecture: Creative Commons’ Role in Copyright’s Future.

This event was hosted by the Law School and Intellectual Property Academy of RUC, and was organized by Creative Commons China Mainland. Mozzila Online, Hudong.com and ChinaLabs, the leading institutions in open source and internet culture, have contributed their support to this event. Following the lecture, Professor Lessig participated in a conversation with the leaders of various media and internet initiatives in China, to share his thoughts and ideas on digital copyright and knowledge innovation. More than 400 participants from various fields including government sections, colleges and universities, science and research institutions, IT enterprises, media, culture and art joined this event.

At 5:30 p.m., Professor GUO Shoukang, a famous legal scholar of RUC announced the opening of the event. Professor LIU Chuntian, president of Intellectual Property Academy and Professor WANG Yi, Deputy Dean of Law School of RUC, gave welcoming remarks on behalf of the hosts. Professor LIU Chuntian indicated that the Creative Commons movement is positive and sustainable. He expressed the interests of RUC researchers on this movement, as the project lead of CC China Mainland, Professor WANG Chunyan is herself a scholar of Law School of RUC. He said that the intellectual educational and researching institutions of RUC welcome Creative Commons’ concept and activities, and that CC will have a bright future both in China and in the world. Professor WANG Yi stressed the importance of conversations between leaders of various internet initiatives for resolving issues concerning conflict of interests. He recognized the social impact of Creative Commons in balancing the interests between different parties, and extended his wishes for CC to be as popular as the most played online games to common Chinese people.

After that, Professor Lessig started his lecture. He began with several interesting stories to describe the history and status in quo of U.S copyright system. He indicated that during the last century, the complicated copyright laws are becoming more and more technical and difficult to understand, and the control of copyright essentially applies to the common lives of most people. On the other hand, media technology such as discs and recorders increased the distribution of professional artists’ work, but decreased the chance of participation of amateurs in creative activities. And the culture therefore became a passive, “read-only” culture in the past 100 years. However, in this century, the new technology enabled the general public to be able to participate again to various form of creations, and to reproduce a “Read & Write” culture. He then presented several most wonderful remix fine works to the audience, and indicated that the current copyright system no longer suits the digital age.

In a digital era, every single use of online works means copying the original work, which made many problems for the current copyright laws. The amateur creative culture is reviving, but the law doesn’t support it well. For these reasons, Lessig said that WIPO should lead a process to fix the architecture of copyright law, and the countries like China should push this process. In short term the volunteer licensing of creative works should be encouraged to show respect and balance the copyright regulations, and this is exactly the objective of Creative Commons. He also introduced a number of CC-licensed websites to the Chinese audiences, and stressed the importance of establishment of CC China Mainland.

As for the future of copyright system, Professor Lessig summarizes his expectation that the law shall be simple, efficient, effective and realistic and be regulated selectively. As the war against piracy will never have an end, a better way is to adjust the law to have a balanced peace, not killing technologies such as P2P.

After the lecture, Project Lead of CC China Mainland, Professor WANG Chunyan started the conversation session; she introduced several top leaders of internet, culture and art initiatives to discuss with Lessig on several important issues.

Director of Board and CEO of Mozzila Online, Dr. GONG Li raised the first question. He said that the fact is that the copyright protection in China is far from being perfect, and asked what China’s role will be in this context. Profess Lessig answered that CC licenses actually encourage more respect to copyright. China is already doing great job in copyright protection, and it is the U.S being too extreme to force China to accept a very strict copyright law. A reasonable legal system should “make more sense”, not to be extreme.

From ChinaLab, Dr. FANG Xingdong highly praised the academic achievements of Professor Lessig, and asked about Lessig’s own experience from Stanford to Harvard. Lessig humorously described this experience and introduced his new focused topic – the institutional corruption in the U.S – to the audience.

Founder and CEO of Hudong.com, Dr. PAN Haidong asked Professor Lessig whether and how CC will provide technical protection for copyright works. Lessig explained that CC helps people to identify copyright status, but does not provide technological means of protection. He also extended his worries about the instability of digital media, while DRM is so abusively used by many large enterprises.

Well-known curator, artist OU Ning’s requested Professor Lessig to comment on the extreme controls of patent by large enterprises in DNA technologies. Lessig answered that the extreme control of patent, as well as the extreme control in copyright, is not good for innovation. Many of the basic technology of our age, such as computer programs and computer itself, are totally free. Extreme controls are only good for lawyers and “big players” in a certain field, but do not encourage innovation.

Considering the impact of the Western IP system, especially the U.S. IP system, on the Chinese IP system, the audience are specially interested in the Eldred v. Ashcroft case, Professor WANG Chunyan then requested Professor Lessig to give some comments on the Eldred v. Ashcroft case, in which he challenged the constitutionality of the 1998 Sonny Bono Copyright Term Extension Act. Lessig stressed that the continuous extensions of term of existing copyright “make no sense”, and are not good at all for creative incentives. However, this case is a beginning of the free culture movement, and is also one of the direct reasons that CC was found.

Dr. ZHANG Xiaoxing, Chief Engineer of the National Cultural Information Resources Sharing Project, requested Professor Lessig to share the short-term plan of CC and to put some comments on Google lawsuits for its digital library. Lessig said in two years CC will be more transparently used by the large internet initiatives such as Facebook, Twitter and Microsoft, and try to become a part of the infrastructure of the internet. As for the Google lawsuit, Lessig described the approaches of Google in resolving copyright issues and again indicated that the architecture of copyright is no longer appropriate for a digital age.

Through the lecture, the audience had much deeper understandings in openness and innovation, copyright reform and the international Creative Commons movement. The participants actively expressed their recognition of the concept of Creative Commons, and their interest in participation in CC movement. We believe that with the combined effort of all participants from various fields, Creative Commons will ensure a great future of better copyright system in China.

Photos of the event:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/41288223@N02/sets/72157625271924083/

On November 14, 2010, Professor Lawrence Lessig, a world-renowned scholar and the founder of Creative Commons, will come to Renmin University of China to deliver a fascinating lecture on Openness and Innovation – the Relationship between New Technology, Culture and Innovation. Following his lecture, Professor Lessig will participate in a conversation with the leaders of various media and internet initiatives in China, to share his thoughts and ideas on digital copyright and knowledge innovation.

Date and Time:   18:00 ~ 20:00, November 14, 2010 (Sunday)

Location:  The Lecture Hall of Yifu Conference Center, Renmin University of China

Hosts:  Law School of Renmin University of China and the Intellectual Property Academy of Renmin University of China

Organizer: Creative Commons China Mainland

Supporters:  Mozilla China, Hudong, Chinalabs

Keynote: Lawrence Lessig,

Participants:  FANG Xingdong, GONG Li, GUO He, PAN Haidong, OU Ning

Moderator:  WANG Chunyan, Project Lead of Creative Commons China Mainland and Associate Professor of Renmin University of China Law School

Language: English and Chinese (simultaneous translation provided)

Admission:  Free

Agenda

Please send e-mail to reg@cn.creativecommons.org or send private message to @知识共享中国大陆 through Sina Twitter (t.sina.com.cn) for registration.

To register, please include your: Name, Email address, Telephone and Affiliation

This CC-licensed book is written by Mr. WU Shiqiu, a 74-years-old retiree in Qingyuan, Zhejiang Province. WU has been a worker in a small local factory until he retired in 1996. He has never had higher education than elementary school, yet he managed to finish this great study all by his own effort.

In 1996, WU learned that two Japanese scholars had come to his town for a research in Qingyuan dialect, as it is a unique dialect that reserved an abundance of ancient Chinese idioms and pronunciations. WU was greatly impressed and he then decided to make a study himself.

From then onwards, WU spent all his energies on this study. He walked every street in Qingyuan, visiting old folks, listening to and recording quarrels, bargaining and any other conversations made in public. Without a printer, scanner or even a computer, WU finished most of his work by handwriting. He studied linguistics, philology and phonetics, and international phonetic alphabet to mark his beloved dialect.

The book is published in May, 2010 and is highly regarded by scholars home and abroad. And Mr. WU has embraced Creative Commons, he decided to publish this book under CC-BY-NC-ND.

Open Party is a monthly social activity co-organized by a number of Beijing communities with technical background. It is intended to create a platform whereby all the participants can express and exchange their ideas through a special means of “Unconference”. The topics of these activities are however not technical-limited, subjects like living, traveling, art, entrepreneurship, business, investment and marketing are also welcomed here. Its March gathering was named “Warmth of a Bright Spring”, which took place in ThoughtWorks Office in Beijing Guohua Plaza, Dongzhimen. Project member of Creative Commons China Mainland, Zhu Handong and He Xiaolin was invited to take part in this gathering.

Open Party takes an “unconference” form, which features freedom, openness and interactiveness. The guests and participants are made equal in delivering their ideas in an open atmosphere. For each gathering of this activity, there are invited guests providing fresh topics for participants to decide which one to take part in. While the speakers sharing the topics, the listeners are free to participate in any brainstorm any time they want. They are encouraged to join whatever topic discussion they are interested in, or to walk along through different groups and just listen to the discussions. They can also write down their own topics that may just jumped into their minds and call for a discussion themselves. Their pace in the venue are essentially a resourceful pool of creativity, offering more and more new ideas.

It’s the second time CC participating in Open Party gatherings. This time, in the “Warmth of a Bright Spring”, Mr. Zhu Handong of CC China Mainland shared his understandings in the impact of Internet sharing movement to artistic creations, as he is an active artist himself. He also gave introductions of the artistic promotions of CC China Mainland. A good many participants had certain knowledge of CC licenses, especially those from LUPA(Leadership of Open Source University Promotion Alliance), who had already embraced CC’s concept of share, remix, reuse – legally. The people with IT background were also highly interested in this global CC trend, for its task of resolving the controversy between information distribution and acquisition, and its mission to realize a productive interaction between creation and distribution. The participants had quite illuminative and delightful discussion with CC project members.

(For more information of this gathering, please click: http://www.beijing-open-party.org/)

Hosted by Songzhuang Art Center, the 2010 Screenage Art Document Exhibition will open on April 18, 2010. The exhibition is composed of multiple sections including the Field, the Domain, the Emotion, Natural – Unnatural, and Gathering – Recalling. After the opening ceremony, a forum of Contemporary Image Authoring and the Oriental Cultural View will take place in the Academic Hall of Songzhuang Art Center.

A number of CC-licensed photographic and video works are to be shown in this exhibition; and Creative Commons China Mainland, as one of the supporting organization of this event,  will have its representatives to present in the opening ceremony. Your support to this event will be highly appreciated.

Subject: 2010 Screenage Art Document Exhibition – the Field, the Domain, the Emotion, Natural – Unnatural, Gathering – Recalling

Art Director: Li Xianting

Curator: Wu Qiuyan, Zhang Haitao

Forum Project Lead: Teng Yuning

Opening Time: 2:30 p.m. April 18, 2010(Sunday)

Exhibition Venue: Ground floor and 1^st floor of Songzhuang Art Center

Exhibition Hours: April 18 ~ May 25, 2010 (including Sunday and Monday)

Supports: China Central Academy of Fine Arts, China Academy of Art, Creative Commons China Mainland, Center for Visual Studies of Peking University, Ullens Center For Contemporary Art, White Space, Wenjin International Art Center, China Digital Art Association, Cao Chang Di Workstation, Chinese Media Art and Technology Association

The focal position of images in contemporary art has experienced several deconstruction and shock from the social value. As a result, a number of new artist begin to show some practical exploring spirit. It seems that the flow of visional thinking foretells a powerful memory of the era. Trying to explain the standing question of WHAT IS IMAGE ART, this exhibition will make an attempt to analyze and frame the system of contemporary image art. Western and oriental context, implanted, will mix up and re-build a derivation of cultural system for every single natural person.

The five sections of this exhibition: the Field, the Domain, the Emotion, Natural – Unnatural, and Gathering – Recalling, although presented in various forms including experimental film, conception recording, abstract images, body recording of dancing and conception photography, they share a consideration based on humanity ecology. They are intended to reveal more intersections and resonances in between the respective creating directions of different generations of artists.

The forum of the opening ceremony is also based on this consideration. In the process of cooperation with various art organizations, the forum will offer a good many topics from culture rather than artists themselves. A series of exploring academic exchange will focus on the interact from authoring, criticism, research and tutoring, and try to offer more experimental social values in the publication of this event.

Sections:

The Field: Prelude of thinking, appears in a manner like our expectation and fantasies to the world; the new birth of animation and drawings, opens endless dimension of conceptions.

Artists: Miao Xiaochun, Zhang Xiaotao, Bai Chongmin, Ma Yongfeng, Bu Hua, Wu Junyong, Huang Xinjian, Ye Dan, Dai Hua, Pi San, Chen Xuegang, Sun Lei, Zhang Yanxiang, Li Jie, Lei Lei, Liu Qianyi, Vincent

The Domain: Seemingly the oriental civilization is wise and open-minded enough to break the bounds of the philosophy of materialization. Observing this grotesque and gaudy planet, it appears that the conversation between individuals actually deliver more mentalvoice.

Artists: Sui Jianguo, Liu Xuguang, Zhang Meng, Gao Fuyan, Tan Qi, Wu Qiuyan, Ding Xin, Sheng Jie, Wu Shaoying, Ma Qiusha, Gu Zhenzhen, Zheng Dafei, Huang Rongrong

The Emotion: If, it turns out that visual observations are incapable of explaining the source conception of images, we’ll have our faith in the thinking under subconsciousness of us. All are perceivable and senses connect all.

Artists: Feng Jiangzhou, Wang Dongsheng, Zhang Haitao, Tian Miaozi, Zhu Handong, Deng Dafei, Lei Benben, Zhang Minjie, Li Ming, Chen Zhou, Li Fuchun, Cao Shu, Liu Shiyuan, Shen Yi, Wen Jie, Zeng Duo, Huang Ying, Hu Xiniao, Zhao Yu, Zhang Mengqi, Double Fly Palace(Cui Shaohan, Huang Liya, Li Ming, Li Fuchun, Lin Ke, Sun Huiyuan, Yang Junling, Zhang Lehua)

Gathering, Recalling – the New-sharp

Artists: Xia Peng, Li Long, Huang Qifei, Sun Nan, Zhang Yi, Ye Yuanyuan, Chen Xi, Wen Qiang, Guo Wei, Zhao Bozuo, Hao Shuren, Bu Fan, Zhang Zeyan

Natural, Unnatural

Artists: Chi Peng, Wang Tiewei, Guan Shi, Tong Dazhuang, Gao Yuan, Jia Youguang, Lu Yanpeng, Alessandro(Li Shan), Wu Weihe, Chen Zhuo and Huang Keyi, Liu Ren, Du Hanyu, Lin Shu, Tian Taiquan, Yu Lei, Tan Haishan, Li Xinmo, Lin Wei, Zhang Wei, Luo Wei, Ren Hang, Xing Peng, Yan Zhou, Yuan Susu, Zhang Xiao, Zhang Yingnan, Du Yuan, Hu Jianwen, Chen Haoyang, Jin Wei, Kenzaburo Fukuhara, Gao Yuan, Lei Yang(Huandao), Lu Jun, Sun Ou, Zhang Youliang

Forum: Contemporary Image Authoring and the Oriental Cultural View: Forum of Chinese Screenage Art (I)

Forum Host: Teng Yuning 

Date: 4:00 p.m. April 18, 2010(Sunday)

Venue: Academic Hall, Songzhuang Art Center

Host: Songzhuang Art Center (www.artda.cn)

Co-organizer: Artda.cn

Address: Songzhuang Art Center, Xiaopu Street, Songzhuang

Services: Li Qiang, Cao Ying, Hou Lina

Tel: 010-89578040

E-mail: artda@126.com   cafa@qq.com

The opening ceremony started by 3:00 p.m. Opening remarks were then given byProf. Chunyan Wang of Renmin University of China, Project lead of Creative Commons China Mainland,; Mr. Hong Wu, curator of the exhibition and founder of Artintern ; Dr. Kathleen Hartford, Programme Officer of the Ford Foundation; Dr. Haidong Pai, CEO of Hudong.com; Dr. Tyng-Ruey Chuang of Institute of Information Science of Academia Sinica, Project Lead of CC Taiwan; Mr. Escher Tsai, artist and curator from Taiwan and Prof. Yahong Li of Hong Kong University, and other distinguish guests also presented at the opening ceremony.  Prof. Chunyan Wang offered welcome remarks and addressed to the audience about the purposes of organizing this exhibition together with the art circle: to start and promote legal share of local art works, to encourage creative activities and to promote creative collaboration. She indicated that the CC licenses are intended to promote the concept of share under a series of reasonable guidelines, and emphasised that the creativity of a society is always based on the abundance of existing knowledge achievements. She also introduced the various promotional activities of CC China Mainland since its establishment. The project is devoted to the promotion of Creative Commons in various fields, including education, science, culture, art, etc. This exhibition has received wide responses from contemporary artists. The acceptance of these licenses by artists illustrated that this flexible copyright option has gained significant recognition in the circle of contemporary art in China.

Curator of the exhibition, Mr. Wu Hong introduced the concept of the event: as the Internet brought about an integration of creative works from all over the world, made available that netizens worldwide spontaneously organize these works to develop new content, the Internet is becoming a knowledge platform with the spirit of “share, remix and reuse – legally”. Everyone is the user and at the same time the contributor. What’s more, the history of human beings witnessed that the development of civilization is based on existing knowledge achievements. In order to protect the interest of innovators and authors, and to promote the advancement of human knowledge properly, with the background of modern contract spirit, the human beings now choose to step to a new era of legally share, remix and reuse.

Professor Kathleen Hartford, Programme Officer of the Ford Foundation explained the significance of a balanced copyright protection by quoting the principles of American copyright law, and emphasised the importance of legal share and reuse as promoted by CC China Mainland. CEO of Hudong.com, one of co-organizers of this event, Dr. Pan Haidong addressed the collaboration between Hudong wiki and CC China Mainland and the distinctive feature of Hudong wiki – the public participation, and its integration with Creative Commons.
In the end, Mr. Zhu Handong, co-curator of the exhibition and project manager of CC China Mainland announced the list of participating artists.

Also, the whole project team of Creative Commons China Mainland presented in the ceremony to extend their gratitude to the artists and the public. Because of a strong recognition of open copyright protection and of legal share of knowledge achievements by the society, the team worked collaboratively with Creative Commoners, devoting themselves to CC promotional works during all off-hours. What’s more, a lot of CC volunteers are also active in this occasion. They have contributed to the preparation, the opening ceremony and the forum. It is the collaborative devotion from volunteers and the project team that ensured the success of this exhibition.

“Remix and Share” Cross-Domain Forum
After the opening ceremony, Artists and members from CC China Mainland, joined by project leads and representatives from Creative Commons Asia-Pacific Region including Taiwan, Hong Kong and Australia, convened a forum under the theme of the exhibition: “Remix and Share”.
The forum was chaired by Curator of the exhibition, Mr. Wu Hong and Vice-director of Tsinghua Institute for Internet Behaviour, team member of CC China Mainland, Dr. Li Xu. It focused on the concept of “remix and share”, with an additional special session for experiences sharing between CC Asia-Pacific regions’ project teams in promotional activities. Representatives from the regions introduced and discussed the promotion of CC in their own jurisdictions, with special focuses on the exploration and practices of “art and share”.
In this forum, Mr. Kong Lingqian, board member of the advisory Board of CC China Mainland and founder of Kong Bohua TCM School, delivered a great speech to the audience. He started by analyzing the soul of share with theories of Confucius, and shared with the guests the ideas in cultural phenomenon of “remix” and “share”.

Dr. Tyng-Ruey Chuang, research fellow of Institute of Information Science of Academia Sinica and Project Lead of CC Taiwan delivered a presentation titled Collaborative works and Public License to describe the practices of CC Taiwan. After that, another guest from Taiwan, well known new media artist Mr. Escher Tsai shared his experience from the aspect of new media with a speech titled Path of CC. He also made an introduction of the Playaround Workshop 2009 activity, an event currently taking place in Taipei, and discussed with the audience on how to view the concept of share.
Shen Yi, a participating artist also shared her opinions on “remix” as an approach of authoring, and on the importance of share to young artists. The artists strongly recognized the concept of “Remix and Share”, which they believed to be an embodiment of the vigor of contemporary art communities in China.

Legal Lead of CC Hong Kong (CCHK), Professor Li Yahong from University of Hong Kong introduced the general situation of CCHK. . Project team member of CC Australia, Mr. Sampsung Shi introduced the development of CC Australia in 2009, and shared with the participants their experiences In the end, Ms. He Xiaolin of CC China Mainland introduced the local project’s promotional activities and achievements since the release of CC China Mainland version in 2006.
In this occasion, guests, artists and other participants were coming from various regions and having different professional background; their brainstorm has perfectly illustrated one of CC’s principles: Public Participation. Professor Wang Chunyan addressed that CC China Mainland will continue to organize activities like this forum, and extend to all coverable fields. She welcomed the support of CC China Mainland and promotion of CC’s concept from everyone.

CC Global Birthday Celebration

After that, the project team offered the global birthday party as a surprise to visiting CC supporters. Following the cross-domain forum, CC China Mainland project team invited artists and other participants to dinner. Instead of the Chinese-style dinner party of previous years, the team presented this time a Chinese cuisine buffet. Guests comfortably gathered into several groups, discussing CC and its development while enjoying the dinner. The lights were warm and Christmas tree shone brightly, laughter and applause were heard while kids’ playing around the venue…

All the sudden all lights faded and songs began to be sung: ”Happy Birthday to you, Happy Birthday to you, Happy Birthday to CC, Happy Birthday to you…”Then with much enthusiasm, project team member of CC China Mainland, Ms. Liu Ping announced : “Now it is the time for CC’s Global Birthday Party. In the coming week, CC project teams in different time zones of the world will celebrate the 7th anniversary of CC licenses respectively.”

Two fruit birthday cakes, surrounded by volunteers and children, were presented with big letters “Happy 7th Birthday CC” on their top. With applause and blessings, CC China Mainland Project Lead, Professor Wang Chunyan, Professor Li Yahong from University of Hong Kong, Mr. Wu Hong, curator of the exhibition and Professor Tyng-Ruey Chuang from Academia Sinica of Taiwan cut the cake together for all the participants. . Happiness was seen on everyone’s face. Filled with orange light and warm scent of the cake, the venue provided a more harmonious atmosphere to make everyone even happier.
We are reason to believe that, with the active participation and warm attention of creators and users, and the help of its affiliate institution, Law School of Renmin University of China and other supporting organizations, Creative Commons China Mainland will continue its path on promoting the open copyright concept, in a more active and innovative manner to improve the legal share and reuse of the society.

Translated by Yang Fei,  Photo by Feng Qian and SOS

Co- Organizer: Creative Commons China Mainland,  Artintern

Coopration:Inter Art Center、Hudong Online、MASH4

Curator: Wu Hong, Zhu Handong

Advisor: Na Risong

Opening Ceremony: December 13, 2009 (Sunday) 15:00

Exhibition Duration: December 13, 2009 – December 27, 2009

Location: Inter Art Center, 798 Art Zone, Beijing

Co- Organized by Creative Commons China Mainland, and Artintern with additional support from Inter Art Center, Hongdong.com and mash4, the Remix and Share: CC Art Exhibition will be open on December 13, 2009 in Inter Art Center, 798 Art Zone, Beijing.

The CC licensed Artworks exhibition received overwhelming response – more than 200 artists submitted their works during just a one month period. Submissions are in various forms including new media, device, video, easel painting, etc. Works presented in this exhibition are from more than 60 artists and are selected from hundreds submission. Some well-known Chinese artists including Cao Fei, Yao Dajun, Yan Jun, Wu Xiaojun, Liu Wei are also invited to present their CC licensed works at the exhibit.

The acceptance of CC licenses by artists illustrates that this flexible copyright option is gaining significant recognition in the field of contemporary art in China.  The licenses are optional, they facilitates the public to identify the author’s attitude towards his/her work, and reduces procedures of unnecessary communications to improve distributions to be wider and faster. Its core value exists in encouraging the authors to voluntarily share his/her authoring with the public while completely understanding his/her rights, and contribute his/her work as a material of authoring by granting certain copyright to the public. This will improve the share and distribution in culture and art to a greater extent, and finally create a social atmosphere where people are sharing knowledge achievements of the others legally. The promotion of CC licenses will help the artists to re-evaluate his/her copyright and to respect the knowledge achievements of the others. More importantly, it will also spread the concept of share, cooperation and remix to further promote the creativity in artistic languages and artistic behaviours, exerting a profound influence on the art field.

In this occasion, we have specially invited a number of well known artists including Cao Fei, Yao Dajun, Yan Jun, Wu Xiaojun, Liu Wei to exhibit their works. This is the very first time for a large scale exhibition of CC-licensed art works in CCi (CC International) since the release of Creative Commons licenses 7 years before. On the opening day, project leads or representatives from CC International Asia-Pacific Region including Philippine, Korea, Taiwan and Hong Kong, will come to convene a forum under the theme of this exhibition with participating artists.

Remix and Share: CC Art exhibition will be supremely worthy of expectation in the end of year 2009.

Special thanks to the Ford Foundation who has generously supported Creative Commons China Mainland.

List of participating artists:

Videos:

Cao Fei, Cao Shu, Chen Hao and Li Xiaoyu, Chen Xuegang, Huang Ying, Lei Benben, Lin Fangsuo, Liu Wei, Liu Qiming, Shen Yi, Xia Shu

Devices and New media:

Chen Youtong, Chen Yun, Deng Zhongyun, Hai Yuan, He Xiaoquan, Huang Cheng, Xie Xiaobing, Lin Mo, Liu Xun, Liu Liguo, Ma Xiaoyu and Gao Ming, Wu Xiaojun, Yan Hang, Yan Jun, Yi Xuan, Yi Yan, Zhang Hao, Zhi Xin

Photography:

Chen Weiqun, Du Hanning, Feng Fangyu, Gao Yuan, Hu Zhengdong, Jiang Pengyi, Lin SHu, Lei Yang, Li Ming, Li Fang, Ma Kang, San Shui, Tian Taiquan, Wang Tiewei, Wang Tong, Yu Lei, Zhang Wei, Zhang Yin

Drawings:

Chen Lei, Jiang Peng, Liang Yue, Lin Guocheng, Liu Chang, Lu Ming, Ma Zhimin, Wu Yiqiang, Yang Wenping, Ye Qiang, Zang Kunkun, Zhang Jianjun, Zhang Lin

Venue: Inter Art Center, 798 Art Zone, Beijing

Contact information for consulting and media inquiries:

Mr. Zhu Handong, Mobile: 13601136018; Ms. He Xiaolin, Mobile 13466687857

E-mail：ccremix@cn.creativecommons.org

Website: http://cn.creativecommons.org/   知识共享.中国 (Chinese Domain)

Since its establishment, Creative Commons China Mainland has held a variety of salon events, which have done excellent promotion for CC concept in the public, CC licensing options among authors and the popularity of CC movement itself. But this is the very first time of volunteers’ salon. It is intended to strengthen the communication between CC volunteers, and to develop more volunteers in people willing to contribute to the project.

At the beginning of the event, CC China Mainland project lead, Prof. Chunyan Wang from Law School of Renmin University gave an introduction to the history of Creative Commons China Mainland, allowing the audience a deeper understanding of CC project, its licenses and current situation in China.

Then He Xiaolin presented a slideshow of images showing all events held by the project team since the release of CC China Mainland version: the CC Salons, CC Global Birthday Party, the two widely publicized CC photography contests, International symposium on Common Use Licensing for Scientific Literature and Data 2009, Knowledge Sharing and Protection of Intangible Cultural Heritage – Forum on Cultural Promotion of Traditional Chinese Medicine, and the interactive events between CC China Mainland and CC International.

Then afterwards, Project Manager Zhu Handong made an introduction of the year-end event: Remix & Share: CC Art Show, and invited volunteers to participate. The invitation received enthusiastic response. Then Liu Ping showed CCQ magazine to the audience. The magazine serves as a promotion platform for the project, designed to carry Creative Commons from “online” cyber world to the offline lives. Until now, there have been four CCQ magazines published, setting a lively and quite perceivable image for CC project, as it used to be seemingly complicated for common people. Unlike regular publications, CCQ is the teamwork of all volunteers. Its open team structure enables everyone to be its journalist or editor. The participants were so intensely interested and they volunteered to its acquisitioning and processing work eagerly.

Shu Jianwei and Yuan Zhiyong, Formal CC volunteers, shared with the participants their stories and gaining with CC. Volunteers and guests responded overwhelmingly and expressed their ideas.

The subsequent brainstorm is on the facilitation of CC open-copyright concept to legal share of knowledge resources by the society. Participants also offered constructive suggestions and ideas for the development of CC project: new ideas and new columns for CCQ magazine, sustainable promotion plan based on CC’s target and communication platform ideas for volunteers. In the end, all volunteers, new or veteran, extended their best wishes to Creative Commons.

This salon marks the launch of CC Clinic Program. In this program, CC China Mainland will rearrange the existing volunteer group and establish a relatively fixed team, to better support the upcoming activities, such as the exhibition Remix and Share – CC Art Show. In future, Creative Commons China Mainland will organize more communication activities for volunteers, to further promote CC licenses and its concept: Share, remix, reuse – legally.