Creative Commons recently offered catalyst grants to help spur awareness and use of Creative Commons.
Two grants have been proposed from Austin, one studying the music scene and one promoting the literature scene.
You can support either of the projects in the dicusssion part of the page describing the full project.
Mapping Austin’s Music Ecosystem
The following proposes the examination of Creative Commons (CC) licensing and its adoption among musicians in the Austin area, often called the live music capital of the world. The study attempts to answer the following question: What considerations determine whether musicians adopt CC licenses for their work? While there are a handful of related works and case studies that bring to light, “how many use CC licenses”, there remains a considerable gap in volume and quality of content. We propose to expand the research and to examine the local music ecosystem in-depth
This project would produce a web site hosting CC and public domain fiction allowing derivative works. Inpiduals will be able to borrow a character, place, creature, thing or theme from a story and create a derivative work. You will also be able to view the creative DNA of a work, much like CC Mixter, by seeing where a character or work originated and who has remixed it.
When: May 20th, 2010, 7pm-midnight
Where: Amelia’s RetroVogue and Relics, 2213 South 1st Street, Austin
Cost: $10 donation to EFF-Austin, a Texas nonprofit
You all know Cory from his science fiction novels, his prolific and wonderful blog posts at bOING bOING, his website at http://craphound.com, and his articles on many subjects for diverse publications. In a past life, Cory was also online activist for the national EFF and former member of the EFF-Austin Board of Directors.
Cory’s in Austin May 20th to sign copies of his latest young adult novel, For the Win, at Book People. In keeping with “support local” ethos, he’s agreed to hang out with and speak to local geeks and makers afterward at the Austin Independent Business Alliance’s South First Biz District anchor store, Amelia’s RetroVogue and Relics, 2213 South 1st Street in the 78704. WhuffieFest is presented by EFF-Austin and Plutopia Productions. Beer provided, also delicious food from Somnio’s Cafe, and coffee and tea from Fair Bean. We’ll also have networking, riotous fun, and music and visuals by Dr. Strangevibe. As this is a fundraiser for EFF-Austin, we are asking for a suggested donation of at least $10. 7pm – Midnight. We’re asking for at least $10 to cover costs and to fill EFF-Austin’s coffers – more gratefully accepted so we can bring you more great events.
Note that Cory will be at Book People from 7pm-9pm, then will be coming to Amelia’s, where Whuffiefest will already be in full swing.
About EFF-Austin
EFF-Austin advocates establishment and protection of digital rights and defense of the wealth of digital information, innovation, and technology. We promote the right of all citizens to communicate and share information without unreasonable constraint. We also advocate the fundamental right to explore, tinker, create, and innovate along the frontier of emerging technologies.
We are an independent nonprofit civil liberties organization concerned with emerging frontiers where technology meets society. We are a group of visionary technologists, legal professionals, academics, political activists and concerned citizens who work to protect digital rights and educate the public about emerging technologies and their implications.
About Amelia’s Retro-Vogue & Relics
Amelia’s Retro-Vogue & Relics focuses on items and clothing dating from the mid-1800’s to the mid-1900’s. Well organized, well lit, and well edited, Amelia’s enjoys an international reputation for the quality of it’s stock. Long used as a resource by designers with the film, theater and fashion industries, the shop has housewares, clothing and accessories that span America’s history. Whether you are looking for examples of the flamboyance of the 1890’s, the incredible details of the early 1900’s, the amazing fabrics of the 20’s, the simplicity of the dust bowl era, the glamour and strength of the 40’s, the exuberance of the 50’s or the energy and optimism of the early 60’s, Amelia’s will have something to intrigue and delight you.
Located in the heart of the South First ABIA I-Biz District, Amelia’s Retro-Vogue & Relics is a must for anyone who appreciates the best in vintage clothing and accessories.
About Somnio’s Cafe
Somnio’s Cafe is a seasonal and local, farm supplied restaurant that also adopts an environmental friendly business practice. We use an eclectic style to showcase sustainable food in fresh and healthy dishes. We are vegetarian friendly while simultaneously serving humanely treated (or non-tortured), locally produced meats. We strive to support other local independent businesses in a community based approach to eating out.
Last week, Lawrence Lessig gave a fantastic presentation on how government policies for broadband, cybersecurity and copyright have been corrupted by special interest lobbying. Lessig does a great job explaining why reclassification caused American broadband to fall so far behind the rest of the developed world. This video is well worth your time.
Matthew Henry is an EFFA board member and a partner at McCollough|Henry, PC
Privacy is central to American law. And in 1986, Congress applied that principle to electronic communications by setting limits on law enforcement access to Internet and wireless technologies. It was a laudable law at the time, but cellphones were still oddities, the Internet was mostly a way [...]
Google Fiber for Communities Project Nomination of EFF-Austin
We at EFF-Austin have submitted our Google Fiber for Communities nomination. Our letter will be included in the City of Austin’s official nomination package. We think Austin, as a community and a broadband market, is the perfect place for a FTTH network and we hope that Google [...]
The SXSW Film Festival is screening a documentary about the open Internet and Net Neutrality called Barbershop Punk at the Austin Convention Center on March 15th and 18th. The title refers to Robb Topolski’s 2007 investigation of Comcast’s network management practices after having trouble sharing public domain barbershop quartet music files. Topolski discovered that the [...]
The University of Texas’ student newspaper, The Daily Texan, covered last night’s panel on the 20th anniversary of the Secret Service raid at Steve Jackson Games.
“I got a phone call one morning saying, ‘Steve, the office is full of Secret Service agents, and they’re not letting anyone in,” Jackson said. “They were chasing a demon [...]
NOTE: Live streaming at http://www.ustream.tv/channel/effaustin!
Austin was a hotbed of pioneering Internet activity in the early 1990s, and one event that put us on the Internet map was the March 1, 1990 Secret Service raid at Steve Jackson Games, an Austin company that produced role playing games with science fiction themes. All the company’s computers were [...]
Google just announced that they plan on rolling out a 1Gbps fiber-to-the-home (FTTH) Internet access service in a number of trial locations. To give some perspective, a 1Gbps Internet access service would be over 65 times faster than Time Warner Cable’s fastest Road Runner tier available in Austin and over 165 times faster than AT&T’s [...]
To contact EFF-Austin, send email to info at effaustin.org
Mission
EFF-Austin advocates establishment and protection of digital rights and defense of the wealth of digital information, innovation, and technology. We promote the right of all citizens to communicate and share information without unreasonable constraint. We also advocate the fundamental right to explore, tinker, create, and innovate along the frontier of emerging technologies.
Austin Broadband Information Center
Austin Broadband Information Center is a community resource for Internet users in the Austin area, currently focusing on the Time-Warner Cable plan to deploy metered Internet service.
Open Austin
OpenAustin is a community-based effort to crowdsource the requirements and development for the new City of Austin web site using local software developers, marketing experts, and graphic designers that have been displaced from their jobs due to the current economic downturn. This will produce a superior web site for the citizens of Austin at a fraction of the cost of the city's lowest bid. [Link]
