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.

Mr. Kong Lingqian

Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) is an essential component of traditional Chinese culture. Its importance is not only clinically proven in the medical field of China, but also progressively recognized by the outside world. The culture behind this science is also getting more and more attention. Now Kong Bohua Clinic and Kong Bohua TCM school have made the decision to release all their teaching materials under CC Licenses, in order for better promotion the TCM culture. These two organizations are founded by Mr. Kong Lingqian, grandson of Mr. Kong Bohua who was among the four greatest TCM masters of Beijing,

Liu Ping, journalist of CCQ just had an interview with Mr. Kong Lingqian, president of Kong Bohua Clinic and Kong Bohua TCM School, for his ideas towards the inheritance and development of TCM culture.

CCQ: First of all, everyone is very curious about your decision of joining CC, what was your consideration to make this decision? And could you please share with us your experience with CC?

KONG: Personally, I was receiving my education in a traditional Chinese way. This kind of education features openness, same as what is promoted by CC: the spirit of share. My environment has convinced me the greatness and delicacy of Chinese culture, and the importance of inheritance and development of this culture. This is my personal inner reason of joining CC. And there is also an exterior reason, that it is the mission for every single Chinese to promote our great oriental culture abroad. Especially as I am an inheritor of TCM culture myself, I am bound to make my own efforts. For now I will publish my new book under CC licenses: Kong Bohua TCM Family Educational and Clinical Chronicle. And from now onwards, all educational materials on the website of our TCM school will be released under CC licenses.

CCQ: What is the initial consideration that triggered you to found Kong Bohua TCM School?

KONG: Initially it was my affections. And secondly it is that health preserving and TCM, inseparable as they are, form an important component of the traditional culture of our country. Different from text-book theories, their effects are clearly observable and provable in the practices on our bodies. Further, the basic principle of TCM – “heal those who are not yet sick, instead of healing the sick” – is a very advanced ancient philosophy which deserves to be displayed. Our school is now a pool of talent, which has the disciples and descendents of my grandfather, and many great TCM masters of Beijing. Its hardware may not be the most advanced, but its “software” is the best. Except for those TCM masters we have, the important thing is that the tradition is well exercised. And the tradition is actually about conducting oneself.

As for the features of Kong Bohua Clinic, I think the first thing is that it’s based on a cultural brand. It is a humanistic feature, or we can say it has such an inclination. Secondly we preserve and develop the spirit of TCM: we focus on the patient, only patient themselves, without considering richness or poverty. What’s more, the TCM has no secret prescriptions. All are public and all are fair; and healing people is the first priority, it’s beyond the money. That’s why it is very common that in Kong Bohua Clinic, the medicine is always charged lower than registration. Also we have lots of GOOD doctors here, for “good” I mean in their philosophy, not their fame. More importantly we founded Kong Bohua TCM School, which takes our advantage in clinical training to cultivate TCM talents.

CCQ: How do you think of the importance of TCM culture, of this quintessence in our society?

KONG: As for the diagnosis and treat, first it is the good efficacy, especially the dialectical guiding principle which is intended to eliminate diseases from the very beginning. What’s more, the lower price and simplicity made TCM available for every single person of this society. Our government pays much attention to TCM, and is now applying World Intangible Heritage for it.

From a cultural view, TCM is the integration and crystallization of the experience from human beings’ long battle against diseases. It is a precious crystallization of experience that we refer to as humanity, and a culture. And culture is among the triggering factors of the development of a society. Therefore, no matter past or present, we’ll have to always emphasize our culture.

CCQ: As the descendent of one of the four greatest TCM masters of Beijing, how do think of TCM as a culture other than as a social function of healing people?

KONG: For this question I would like to start from the four TCM masters. All the four masters are sharing something in common, that they all adhere to high standards of medical ethics. Doctor is a quite unique profession; one who want to become a doctor must have to learn about morality first. This is what Confucius always advocated, and is also the quintessence of Confucianism.

Another thing they have in common is that they all engaged themselves in promoting education. My grandfather and Xiao Longyou founded Peking TCM College, which existed for 13 years and contributed nearly a thousand graduates, who had mostly become the mainstay of TCM field. This is also an inheritance of culture rather than a medical conduct. In TCM there is a proverb “saving a person equals saving a country”, I believe this can be the best interpretation for TCM culture.

CCQ: In your opinion, how would your readers associate TCM with the concept of CC?

KONG: For this I would like to explain from several aspect. Firstly, our ancestors refer to the world as “under heaven”, which means that TCM belongs not only to China, but also to the world. My grandfather has written to Chairman Mao like this: ‘Why bothering choosing Chinese way or western way? Both are about saving lives and they share one purpose, distinguishable only through their respective logic and techniques. I wish my effort could perfect it and spread it worldly; but this could be done only through the cultivation of talents.” From here we can see two issues: spreading it worldly and talents cultivation. What I need to stress here is that the traditional education spirit is not like the current lecturing system, neither the multi-subject and multi-category approach, it is a system with equality in gender, age and nationality.

From another point of view, TCM is a science based on a culture of humanity, therefore we can say that TCM is supposed to be available wherever man exists, for TCM is humanity. And since TCM is also a form of culture, it should be sharable. Culture is created by human beings. Like language and writing, which is also a form of culture, they’re available for everyone and everyone is entitled to master it. So is TCM. Further more, as we are trying to introduce TCM to the whole world, I believe that the TCM culture should go first. People can only accept something like this when they accepted the culture first.

CCQ: The medical techniques of Kong Bohua family is already recognized as an intangible cultural heritage of Beijing. What is your opinion towards the many vanishing intangible cultural heritages? TCM is among these heritages and what is its situation? And what do you think is the proper way for us to save, or we can say, to protect them?

KONG: From a more impersonal view, applying for Intangible Cultural Heritage recognition is the last choice we can make. “Intangible” means they’re supposed to be heritable only through living generations, not through text books. As we all know, human being is the most complicated being in the universe. Men are constantly changing and therefore TCM diagnosis and treat are always evolving. And this evolution, along with the law governing it, are only heritable with the attendance of the master, the apprentice and the patient. The modern educational system of TCM focuses class lecturing, and the most precious clinic process are barely touched. As for its inheritance, there’re even more problems. So far as I know, many of the inheritor of Intangible Cultural Heritage just passed away soon after the approval is issued by the authorities.

The science of TCM is the heritage from our ancestors’ precious experiences; it’s an important component of our culture. Applying for Intangible Cultural Heritage recognition just evidenced that the protection thereto is powerless. Furthermore, the important thing is that it requires more from the understandings and support of our this society; only the government’s effort are not going to work it out.

by Liu Ping, Xin Xingzhi

CAO Fei, born in 1978 in Guangzhou, one of the most internationally famed Chinese contemporary artists, is among the earliest renowned Creative Commoner artists in China. From year 2000, she started to gain a significant position by a series of exquisite works including San Yuan Li Project, Cosplayers, HiP Hop Guangzhou, Hip Hop Fukuoka, Hip Hop New York, PRD Anti-Heroes, Father and Whose Utopia. From 2007 she started to create I. Mirror and RMB City based on Second Life, an online 3D virtual world. Those works have received international recognition, being praised as epics describing the digital era.

CC China Mainland interviewed Cao Fei, for her own world of art, her stories with CC and her ideas towards art in a digital era.

CCQ: How is your first contact with CC, and from when you started using CC licenses?

CAO: In 2007, I spent half a year playing the online 3D virtual world Second Life. There I met Robin Linden from Linden Lab(which is the designer and operator of Second Life), who is the first one told me about CC. Then later in the middle of June it was also her who recommended me to participate in the CC international conference of the year in Croatia.

The first time that I license my work under Creative Commons is for I, Mirror, which was presented in Venice Biennial – International Art Exhibition in June, 2007.

CCQ: What is your opinion of CC’s impact in the distribution of artworks? Do you think porting CC will help in the development of Chinese contemporary art(new media art)?

CAO: Firstly, artists using CC licenses in China are not the majority. Because the principle of copyright for most of artworks is to prevent duplicating, to limit the amount of copies. And many artists are not having the awareness of openness in distribution and in copyright. First they don’t rely on the internet, for they primarily use traditional means likes exhibitions; the second is that they have no idea of CC or they have not yet benefited from CC, and they have not yet realized the effect that CC licenses may have in publicizing their works.

CCQ: You have released CC-licensed works in albums, blog, videos and other forms. Do you have a standard or some means to decide on which kind of works to be licensed under Creative Commons?

CAO: For normal publications and videos I usually choose BY-NC-ND; and for video publications I would select BY-NC-SA.

CCQ: Did CC licenses help in the distribution of your works?

CAO: Actually I didn’t feel if I really got some big help since I started using CC. But still I choose it because I want to be bound to the spirit of share. I want to raise the awareness of open copyright in the public, who are used to accept the traditional copyright protections. It will help in the future, for us to get a more loosely comfortable atmosphere in creations and communications. And I believe that it will be a process from porting CC to a universal recognition and broader usage.

CCQ: When you’re selecting CC licenses for your creations in Second Life, do you have any different feeling than licensing your real-world albums?

CAO: In the virtual world, your creations will gain much better acceptance if their copyright are very open. Like they can modified again and again, every time providing more ideas for other authors, users and players. It’s a dynamic and positive process of interdependent. When myself find such kind of stuff, I will be more than happy to share them with my friends. If we are about to create a new virtual object, these opened stuff will become the best choice of elements or references. And after I licensed my real-world album with Creative Commons, I have witnessed people forward its copies to each other, or upload a scan copy free for viewing. For that I think it’s an opportunity for more people to share the ideas and artistic achievements, providing proper and legal means in terms of copyright. However, the population of paper media readers are limited and are shrinking. Only opening the barriers of copyright can bring a creation to a positive circle of interactive development.

CCQ: Many of your works are very early to employ new pop elements like Cosplay and Second Life. Do you think CC’s concept of share and remix somehow associates to those of your works?

CAO: Remix is a very important key word in post-modern authoring. Even movie and music are constantly developing their Remix. For most of my past works, I just remix in the creative ideas: borrowing, appropriation, sampling, stitching, composition and parody. For example, remix of street people in Hip Hop, remix of real identity and role-playing, remix of reality and virtual world in Second Life. I believe that people spiritually breaking boundaries, opening mind in the art world or pursuing of multi-culture integrations, are actually the effort of making “free expressions”. And therefore, the sharing spirit of CC just provided the practical interpretation and working scheme for these creativities.

CCQ: What is your opinion towards the relationship between limitation of copy in artistic collections, and free copy with some-right-reserved as promoted by CC?

CAO: “Limitation” is an approach intended to defend the value of artworks, however, being over-protected will eventually limit the distribution of artworks, but completely opening copyright will do harm to the value of artists’ efforts. And how to find a balance between limitation, interest and distribution? I believe that the some-rights-reserved of CC is capable of solving such problems. The customizing selections can protect the author and his work, and at the same time show an openness.

CCQ: Did you have any questions or confusions when you are using CC?

CAO: There has been someone questioning me in my choice of NC license in some potentially commercial works. I made some study until I realized that NC is not that the author is not supposed to use his work commercially; the author is entitled the right of commercial use and it is the others who are not supposed to make commercial use of these works that attributed to the author. Therefore this license is protecting the interest of artists, rather than setting restrictions. Indeed we need to study these licenses, or we’ll be confused or have misunderstandings in the open value of CC.

CCQ: How is the progress of the RMB City project? And what will be your plans for next?

CAO: On January 10 of 2009 we finished the prophase of RMB City and we opened it completely. There’re many tourist coming to make photographs, and upload these pictures on their blogs or even publish them as their own works. We don’t have any problems for this, because a city is only sustainable when it is opened, tolerant and shared. To some extent, the city belongs to the public once it was found. Now we have started to run a Mayor program for RMB City, we appoint a new honored mayor every three month to be the leader of the city. We will start a “Virtual Life Flow” project in its urban village, to try to discover the very lifestyle of this city and to promote a new value for virtual life. This will include a virtual drama or movie in the year-end or next year.

(All images above are Ms. Cao Fei’s work, and are licensed under Creative Commons BY-NC-SA 2.5 China Mainland)

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

Yan Jun, music commentator, writer, poet and audio artist. Born in Lanzhou and now reside in Beijing. Founder of Sub Jam, presider of WaterLand Kwanyin, planner of Mini Midi, operator of Kwanyin Records, imaginative founder of Beijing Sound Planning Committee, and one of the major promoters of underground Rock & Roll in Beijing’s 1990s.

CCQ: Besides composing, what are the music you prefer?

Yan Jun: All sorts of stuff. As for recently, Liu Shaochun, Yao Bingyan, Sun O, Yao Dayun’s ForeTaste TwitteRadio, Incapacipants, V.A. CD Album from Japanese Jam Music magazines, Jason Khan，ONJO，Jaap Blonk, Gagaku,Christian Marclay, Chen Yi, Xu Cheng, The Specials, and some gift discs from my friends.

CCQ: Your listeners are having such an impression: your works mainly use noises, drones, human voices and field recording. What is your consideration when using these alien stuff in your works?

Yan: They’re not alien at all. They are collected from my own surroundings, they’re always with me like the air I breath.

I didn’t actually CONSIDER to use these sound. I take them from the sampling, which is a borrowing from the others; and from field recording, which is a borrowing from the nature. I’m not a composer, that’s why I always borrow the existing, and follow it to observe its evolutions. If possible, I would trigger the move at certain point. I do what I am able to do, not what I wish to do.

CCQ: Is it requisite to setup a designed background for experimental music live show? I have different feelings between enjoying stream and live music. Live actions have interactive between listeners and the author!

Yan: The rapid flow of information erases our perspective of time and space. However we still need close contact, we need touches, smells, temperature and feelings of moisty, we need expressions and privities, to share the atmosphere from our interactive.

Earphone itself creates an isolated world. If you’re using earphone on the street, the environment combines with the earphone environment and they form parallel worlds. Yet the live show is an open world with integrated persecutions of comprehensiveness, it’s a mixture of perspective of integration, remix and fuzzy.

One can experiment in single or multiple worlds.

Wormhole-Trip Souvenir sound sample, The Shop, 2008 ~ 2009, YAN Jun

CCQ: What is the current situation of Chinese experimental music? What are the international communication platforms in this field?

Yan: From a global view, China is becoming a hotspot, to which everyone is showing some concern in economy, politics and the rumored culture, and – maybe especially the strange values, thinking mode and attitudes towards life.

As per the French guy, a nationality unable to export its value will be “sorry”. Now the western world  are expecting to import certain Chinese value from a cultural exchange. And China is ready to express or export something to proof that she’s not an arriviste. Apparently, apart from talking ancient, we are realizing that the contemporary life, culture and music are important, although they’re something new-born.

Basically every week there’re visiting experimental musicians coming to Beijing, while seldom any Chinese musicians going abroad. Therefore the internet is very important. Face-to-face communications are high in cost and involve less people. Sub Jam and myself have cooperated with some foreign sectors to organize communication events in Europe, and next year there will be such activities. We may expect “a single spark start a prairie fire”.

CCQ: Sub Jam was found in 1998 and set its motto as “infectant thought, incessant movement”. What is the consideration of establishing such a studio with nearly no boundaries? What kind of musicians you wanted to attract?

Yan: Just drift with the tide. Those who believes he is born to be success, who cares for everything except for uninterested stuff, those who take integration as honor and professional as a shame. Before we actually started we don’t have an expectation or plan. Whoever attracted is accepted. Of course all the participants have something in common, they are mostly open-minded, emotional, unreliable, fantastic, unplanned, countrified, and are chaffy dish lovers.

CCQ: Also please introduce your projects, like Waterland Kwanyin and Sound Planning Committee?

Yan: WaterLand Kwanyin was founded in 2005. It’s a project for experimental music and Jam. In the first 3 years it’s a weekly event free of charge, and after that we charge and it’s no longer weekly. But it remained to be hold on Tuesdays and in 2kolegas Pub. This year we invited some special planner guests, including Xiao He and Feng Hao. This project belongs to everyone.Beijing Sound Planning Committee is a project organized by Ran Qianrui and myself. We made some pasters and T-shirts, and designed free tickets for listening sounds out on the streets. They’re all about public sounds or public life. Here we emphasize visual language, its rather a street culture than a form art.

CCQ: Since year 2005, Mini Midi Musical Festival has been held for four times. What is your original intention of this festival, and what you have planed for next?

Yan: In 2005, the president of Midi Music School, Mr. Zhang Fan was with me in Oslo to see the music festival there. He suggested that we shall add a small stage for Midi Festival after we go back to China. That year I started the stage and announced it as Mini Midi Musical Festival to the public.

My original intention was to release the experimental music and indie music to the public. However only after publicized I was shocked by the fantastic feelings of being public.

As for the next step, we don’t have a plan. We will rest for this year and we will continue in the following years.

CCQ: From where you learned about CC? What may be the compact of introducing CC to music authoring?

Yan: Around ten years ago from some European discs and the internet afterwards. Many indie sectors and independent artists use copyleft and embrace free copy, announce to give up copyright or release their works without declaring copyright.. I’m very interested. As for exact time I don’t really remember.

Wormhole-Trip Souvenir sound sample, The Shop, 2008 ~ 2009, YAN Jun

CCQ: Since the release of CC-licensed Noise is Free in 2008, is there any response in the music circle?

Yan: It seems that there are not much impact. I believe it’s because all these experimental musicians and indie musicians have never expected to make money out of music, and have never faced copyright infringement. They are pretty indifferent for copyright.

CCQ: How do you view the concept of Creative Commons in art field? Or how will it take effect in the distribution of contemporary experimental music, especially grass-root music and underground bands?

Yan: Knowledge is being managed and operated by the western world, from producing and consuming. And this trend is coming to China. I guess, in the future, the Chinese artists and this industry will be operated by an advanced instrument.. This will lead to rationalized behavior in artists and the artistic ecology.

Indeed, CC is having different impact on different kind of music. This took place at the big C system of a highly developed capitalist society. In China, I think the future is unpredictable. We can only say that the linear history is broken, as the big C and smaller C are embraced at the same time. So are the monopoly capitalism and post-capitalism, and authoritarian politics, anarchism tradition and fuzzy personal philosophy.

CCQ: What is your suggestion to CC’s promotion in experimental music circle? We hope that with your support, there will be more experimental music works be shared by the public under CC licenses!

Yan: First it’s a prerequisite to make Chinese experimental music profitable, then there will be a great future of CC. Therefore I anticipate that the CC project team could have some more effective cooperation, or become part of the existing system. To sum up, I expect more involvement.