Re: [Foundation-l] Use of moderation

[Brianna Laugher]

2009/9/13 Henning Schlottmann :
> This whole issue is one of information processing. Everyone has to learn
> how to deal with information in large amounts and on different media.
> But there have been a few generations of experience we can plug in,
> there are best practices and web boards are not among them.

It's not just information processing.
Everywhere conversations take place, that place has a tone.

My feeling is, having robust, challenging conversations is important.
But does that require the present tone of f-l? From what I've seen on
other mailing lists -- Not at all. So why tolerate it, when it causes
people to disengage, and discourages them from engaging at all?

Brianna

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[Foundation-l] RegioWikiCamp - September 25-27, Germany

[Brianna Laugher]

Hi,

I just heard about an unconference event called "RegioWikiCamp". I
imagine it will be of interest to lots of folks living near Germany
(if you are not all conferenced out after Wikimania!).

http://wiki.regiowiki.eu/RegioWikiCamp_2009

"It will be from September 25th to 27th. The event is located in
Furtwangen the middle of the beautiful Black Forest in Germany. It is
organised by the European Regiowiki Society, location host is the
faculty of Digital Media of the Furtwangen University of Applied
Science."

I see that some of the attendees include WMDE, Wikia and Semantic
MediaWiki, so it must not be a completely unknown event, although I
didn't find it mentioned on these lists yet.

cheers
Brianna

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Re: [Foundation-l] moderate this list

[Brianna Laugher]

2009/8/29 Anthony :
> If you'd like to start a moderated foundation-l, in addition to the regular
> foundation-l, that might be useful.  But it's considerably inappropriate for
> you to sign up for a mailing list that many of us have been enjoying for
> years and in one month decide you want to alter it to suit your tastes.

"Enjoying"? Maybe more accurate for many of us is "barely tolerating".

I am with Anders. It is not just a matter of learning to use an email
client properly. Considered posts are soon piled under dozens of
back-and-forth-over-minor-details responses.

But it doesn't seem the culture of foundation-l at this point would
allow moderation to make it a more proportionate place. Which is a
shame as in theory it is our main Wikimedia-wide channel of
communication, and must be terribly off-putting for newcomers.

Brianna

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Re: [Foundation-l] GLAM-WIKI report

[Brianna Laugher]

Thanks for your report Tim.

A minor correction,

2009/8/12 Gerard Meijssen :
> Liam has a point when he suggests that we typically do not need the highest
> resolutions to illustrate our Wikipedias . But I
> really like the idea of Brianna where we hotlink and cache pictures from the
> GLAMs themselves. I can appreciate why Tim did not get into that... It is a
> lot of work, complicated work as well. Questions like what to do when the
> GLAM is off line are only part of it.

This was not my idea! It was suggested by GLAM people (a couple of
times) and like a good facilitator I made sure it was recorded. The
aim was to brainstorm, not debate the merits of every suggestion at
the time it was suggested.

The suggestion was also made that Wikimedia should revisit its
restriction on NC material, and it was written down too, although I
think I was thinking the same thing as every other Wikimedian in the
room...

Re GLAM repositories as a MediaWiki repo, I don't know enough on the
tech side to know if it is even a remotely feasible idea. But on the
'social' side it did make me think about our insistence (currently
technically necessary) that everything is in MediaWiki format,
essentially under the Wikimedia branding somewhere, before we will
effectively work with it. We want the GLAMs to let up some control,
but essentially so material can come under our control. A different
kind of control, certainly, but definitely control. Let's not kid
ourselves - not a neutral ground. Maybe it is not a bad idea for us to
think about how we can embrace collaboration or resource sharing that
might wear someone else's badging.

cheers
Brianna

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[Foundation-l] UNESCO "Open Educational Resources: Conversations in Cyberspace"

[Brianna Laugher]

Hi,

I just found out from the Open Source Business Report
() that UNESCO has published a report called
"Open Educational Resources: Conversations in Cyberspace". It's
licensed CC-BY-NC-SA and available for download:


I haven't downloaded/read much of it yet, but if anyone does and they
find some interesting tidbit, please report it back :)


cheers
Brianna

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[Foundation-l] Any Wikimedians going to the Free Culture Forum?

[Brianna Laugher]

Hi,

Are there any Wikimedians who know anything about this? 
Barcelona, October 29 - November 1 2009.

It might be something for some of the European chapters in particular
to be involved with.

cheers
Brianna

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Re: [Foundation-l] linux.conf.au Call for Papers are now open

[Brianna Laugher]

Hi everyone:

The linux.conf.au deadline is now on the 31 July at 0500 UTC (1700 New
Zealand time). Other times around the world can be found at
http://tinyurl.com/lca10cfp

---

Announcement from http://www.lca2010.org.nz/media/news/65

WELLINGTON, New Zealand – Friday 24 July 2009 – The LCA2010 Organising
Committee have been overwhelmed by the numbers and quality of the papers
submitted to linux.conf.au so far!

The success of the papers so far has put us in a generous mood. So we've
decided to give all you slackers out there an extension on the Call for
Papers by one week!

Call for Papers Now Closing: Friday 31 July 2009 at 17:00 NZST

Remember, to increase your chances of acceptance, check out the Papers
Info[1] page on our website before submitting your paper.

[1] http://www.lca2010.org.nz/programme/papers_info

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2009/7/19 Brianna Laugher :
> Hi all,
>
> I would not normally forward an open source conference CFP to this
> list, but I think this case has particular merit. The linux.conf.au
> 2010 Call for Papers closes this Friday. LCA is a free software
> technical conference, but one of the topics they are targeting this
> year is "Free Software and Free Culture topics, including licencing
> and Free and Open approaches outside software". Also, the first
> announced keynote speaker is Benjamin Mako Hill, who is on the WMF's
> advisory board. It's a really enjoyable full-on technical community
> conference, so if a trip to the southern hemisphere in January sounds
> OK by you please think about submitting a proposal. (see "Information
> for speakers" http://www.lca2010.org.nz/programme/papers_info to find
> out about benefits for speakers)
>
> It's on during January 18-23 2010 in Wellington, NZ. I am going to try
> and organise a meet-up the weekend before the conference.
> <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Meetup/Wellington>
>
> cheers,
> Brianna
>
>
>
> -- Forwarded message --
> From: Michael Davies 
> Date: 2009/6/29
> Subject: [lca10-papers] linux.conf.au Call for Papers are now open!
> To: linux SA list 
>
>
> -- Forwarded message --
> From: linux.conf.au Announcements 
> Date: 2009/6/29
> Subject: [lca-announce] linux.conf.au Call for Papers are now open!
> To: lca-annou...@lists.linux.org.au
>
>
> === linux.conf.au Call For Papers ===
>
> linux.conf.au ( http://www.lca2010.org.nz ) is pleased to announce the
> opening of its Call for Papers for the coming linux.conf.au, LCA2010!
>
> LCA2010 will be held from Monday 18 January 2010 to Saturday 23 January
> 2010 in Wellington, New Zealand.
>
> linux.conf.au isn't just a Linux conference. It is a technical
> conference about Free and Open Source Software, held annually in
> Australasia since 2001 - covering everything from the Linux Kernel and
> the BSDs to OpenOffice.org, from networking to audio-visual magic, from
> hardware hacks to Creative Commons.
>
>
> === Important Dates ===
>
>  Call for Papers opens: Monday 29 June 2009
>  Call for Papers closes: Friday 24 July 2009
>  Email Notifications from Papers Committee: Early September 2009
>  Registrations open: Mid September 2009
>  Conference Dates: Monday 18 January to Saturday 23 January 2001
>
>
> === Information on Papers ===
>
> The LCA2010 Papers Committee is looking for a broad range of papers
> spanning everything from programming and software to desktop and
> userspace to community, government and education but there is one
> essential:
>
>  The core of your paper must relate to open source in some way,
>  i.e., if it's a paper about software then the software has to
>  be licensed under an Open Source license.
>
> The LCA2010 Papers Committee welcome proposals for Papers on the
> following topics:
>    * Kernel and system topics such as filesystems and embedded devices
>    * Networking topics such as peer to peer networking, or tuning a
>      TCP/IP stack
>    * Desktop topics such as office and productivity applications,
>      mobile devices, peripherals, crypto & security and viruses and
>      other malware
>    * Server topics such as clusters and other supercomputers,
>      databases and grid computing
>    * Systems administration topics such as maintaining large numbers
>      of machines and disaster recovery
>    * Programming topics such as software engineering practices and
>      test driven development
>    * Free Software and Free Culture topics, including licencing and
>      Free an

[Foundation-l] Fwd: linux.conf.au Call for Papers are now open

[Brianna Laugher]

Hi all,

I would not normally forward an open source conference CFP to this
list, but I think this case has particular merit. The linux.conf.au
2010 Call for Papers closes this Friday. LCA is a free software
technical conference, but one of the topics they are targeting this
year is "Free Software and Free Culture topics, including licencing
and Free and Open approaches outside software". Also, the first
announced keynote speaker is Benjamin Mako Hill, who is on the WMF's
advisory board. It's a really enjoyable full-on technical community
conference, so if a trip to the southern hemisphere in January sounds
OK by you please think about submitting a proposal. (see "Information
for speakers" http://www.lca2010.org.nz/programme/papers_info to find
out about benefits for speakers)

It's on during January 18-23 2010 in Wellington, NZ. I am going to try
and organise a meet-up the weekend before the conference.


cheers,
Brianna



-- Forwarded message --
From: Michael Davies 
Date: 2009/6/29
Subject: [lca10-papers] linux.conf.au Call for Papers are now open!
To: linux SA list 


-- Forwarded message --
From: linux.conf.au Announcements 
Date: 2009/6/29
Subject: [lca-announce] linux.conf.au Call for Papers are now open!
To: lca-annou...@lists.linux.org.au


=== linux.conf.au Call For Papers ===

linux.conf.au ( http://www.lca2010.org.nz ) is pleased to announce the
opening of its Call for Papers for the coming linux.conf.au, LCA2010!

LCA2010 will be held from Monday 18 January 2010 to Saturday 23 January
2010 in Wellington, New Zealand.

linux.conf.au isn't just a Linux conference. It is a technical
conference about Free and Open Source Software, held annually in
Australasia since 2001 - covering everything from the Linux Kernel and
the BSDs to OpenOffice.org, from networking to audio-visual magic, from
hardware hacks to Creative Commons.


=== Important Dates ===

 Call for Papers opens: Monday 29 June 2009
 Call for Papers closes: Friday 24 July 2009
 Email Notifications from Papers Committee: Early September 2009
 Registrations open: Mid September 2009
 Conference Dates: Monday 18 January to Saturday 23 January 2001


=== Information on Papers ===

The LCA2010 Papers Committee is looking for a broad range of papers
spanning everything from programming and software to desktop and
userspace to community, government and education but there is one
essential:

 The core of your paper must relate to open source in some way,
 i.e., if it's a paper about software then the software has to
 be licensed under an Open Source license.

The LCA2010 Papers Committee welcome proposals for Papers on the
following topics:
   * Kernel and system topics such as filesystems and embedded devices
   * Networking topics such as peer to peer networking, or tuning a
     TCP/IP stack
   * Desktop topics such as office and productivity applications,
     mobile devices, peripherals, crypto & security and viruses and
     other malware
   * Server topics such as clusters and other supercomputers,
     databases and grid computing
   * Systems administration topics such as maintaining large numbers
     of machines and disaster recovery
   * Programming topics such as software engineering practices and
     test driven development
   * Free Software and Free Culture topics, including licencing and
     Free and Open approaches outside software
   * Free Software usage topics, including home, IT, education,
     manufacturing, research and government usage.

Most presentations and tutorials will be technical in nature, but
proposals for presentations on other aspects of Free Software and Free
Culture, such as educational and cultural aspects are welcome.

LCA2010 is pleased to invite proposals for three types of papers:
   * Presentation -  45 minutes
   * Tutorials - 1 hour and 45 minutes (short)
   * Tutorials - 3 hours and 30 minutes (long)

Presentations are 45 minute slots (including questions) that are
typically a one-way lecture from you to the audience - the typical
conference presentation.  These form the bulk of the available
conference slots.

Tutorials are either 1 hour and 45 minutes, or 3 hours and 30 minutes
in length, and work best when they are interactive or hands-on in
nature.  Tutorials are expected to have a specific learning outcome for
attendees.

To increase the number of people that can view your talk, LCA2010 may
video the talks and make them publicly available after LCA2010. When
submitting your proposal you will be asked whether materials relating
to your paper can be released under a Creative Commons ShareALike
License.

For more information, see:
http://www.lca2010.org.nz/programme/papers_info

=== About linux.conf.au ===

linux.conf.au is one of the world's best conferences for free and open
source software! The coming linux.conf.au, LCA2010, will be held at the
Wellington Convention Centre in Wellington, New Zealand fr

[Foundation-l] Fwd: [Internal-l] WMF board election - inspiration for candidates

[Brianna Laugher]

Hi,

There are just 3 days left for community members to nominate
themselves as candidates in the upcoming Board election.


Stu West, who is the Board's Treasurer and has served on the board
since April 2008, wrote this piece, below, about why serving on the
Board is rewarding and he has kindly said I can share it more widely.

I hope that it may serve as some inspiration for any potential Board
candidates who are considering running but having trouble answering
"...Why?"

Please think of who you know in our communities that may be a good
candidate and encourage them to consider standing. Let us support
candidates that are as truly diverse as the communities themselves.

cheers,
Brianna


===

Brianna's request got me thinking about why 15 months ago I was
excited to join the board and why now I'm still enjoying it.  Of
course I'm intent on supporting the projects in general, and think the
community is accomplishing amazing things with our free knowledge
projects and having an incredibly positive impact on the entire globe.
 And just being around the energy, idealism and internationalism of
our community is positive for me and balances a world that seems too
full of recession and war and other negatives.

On top of these general interests that many get by participating in
our community, serving on the board is worth it for me personally for
a few reasons:

- I have a strong interest in organizational development and
sustainability. Serving at the board level allows me to focus on
policy development, organizational structure and other high-level
issues to help ensure our projects are still thriving and pursuing the
mission in 100 years.  I'm also intellectually interested in the
challenge of maintaining a community's culture even as it grows and
succeeds (my day job at Silicon Valley startups is also about this).

- I believe my particular skills (organizational development, finance,
operations, negotiating) are really useful to the foundation right now
and being able to put those to work -- and to see impact -- is very
satisfying.

- I'm one of those people who typically prefers the big picture view
and enjoys understanding how all the different pieces tie together
(again, this also applies to my day job).  For example, I think my
edit count is highest on meta.  This is a natural fit with a board
role.

- I'm really passionate about a few things related to our community
(including developing world education, usability, and operational
efficiencies), and the Board gives me a position to understand these
and at times advocate for them.

=


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Re: [Foundation-l] Three new chapters

[Brianna Laugher]

2009/7/6 Michael Snow :
> I just want to quickly catch everyone up on some of the board's work in
> June. In addition to the 2009-10 Annual Plan, which we approved after an
> IRC meeting with Sue and Veronique, the board passed resolutions
> recognizing three new local Wikimedia chapters. Our newest chapter
> organizations are in Portugal, Ukraine, and Denmark. Welcome to all three!

Welcome to the fold, all three.

Can anyone report if these chapters will have people at Wikimania or not?

cheers
Brianna

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[Foundation-l] NPOV as common value? (was Re: Board statement regarding biographies of living people)

[Brianna Laugher]

Hi,

I think the Board's statement is quite commendable if unremarkable
(which is I guess part of the reason for the silence - nothing new,
which is as it should be!). Only one comment actually surprised me.

2009/4/21 Michael Snow :
> The Wikimedia Foundation takes this opportunity to reiterate some core
> principles related to our shared vision, mission, and values. One of
> these values which is common to all our projects is a commitment to
> maintaining a neutral point of view.

I find it a bit strange to talk of Wikimedia Commons as having a NPOV
policy. Like Wikiquote, our "unit" of interest is something that
typically has a strong authorial voice rather than being a synthesis
of multiple contributions. (Unlike WQ, it does in some circumstances
make sense to edit a file, unlike a quote -- but usually if the edit
radically changes the meaning, it should become a separate, derived
work.)

We are also, like WQ, bound by the creations of others, especially in
relation to past events. If there is some past conflict, where the
(free) media is available only represents one side of the conflict,
there is nothing we can do to "balance" that. So there is an external
limit on how "neutral" we are able to be.

I also find there is some tension between the views of 1) "Wikimedia
Commons as a service project" and 2) "Wikimedia Commons as a project
in its own right".
According to 1), the files in Commons are "context-free", waiting to
be used somewhere and given context. And context is a major part of
NPOV. As a service project, it would not be up to us to decide
questions of "proportional representation", because that would all
depend on how they are used in the projects.
According to 2), the Commons community would have a role to play in
deciding appropriate proportional representation, and we would assume
the Wikimedia Commons itself is a context of use for the files.

This plays into the question of how much autonomy the Wikimedia
Commons community has. If we have a curatorial role beyond being
"license police" and enforcing our necessarily very broad project
scope, then that must be negotiated between these two views. I
definitely believe it is not Common's role to decide "for" projects,
which free media they should use. So this is something of a constraint
for (2).

It *may* make sense to talk to NPOV for Wikimedia Commons, but I don't
think it is necessarily obvious, or that it should be assumed everyone
has a shared understanding of what that means.

Of interest: 


cheers,
Brianna

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Re: [Foundation-l] Alternating sitenotices is kinda confusing

[Brianna Laugher]

2009/4/22 Casey Brown :
> On Tue, Apr 14, 2009 at 10:09 AM, Brianna Laugher
>  wrote:
>> Could we please have both at once
>
> We now have a combined notice running.  Hopefully, this is a better
> way of doing it (even though it's not as pretty).

Thanks Casey and whoever else helped resolve this!

Brianna


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Re: [Foundation-l] Alternating sitenotices is kinda confusing

[Brianna Laugher]

2009/4/15 Erik Moeller :
> 2009/4/14 Michael Snow :
>> That's okay, my previous reply was a little snarky itself. I don't know
>> that we have a perfect solution, but I think the mixed messages are
>> worth fixing.
>
> Agreed, and this is an issue that will occur again when we have
> overlapping important announcements. My intuitive take is that
> stacking messages, or moving them into different places, aren't
> scalable solutions. It might be desirable to have a minimal "tab"
> interface to switch between multiple active notices. We'll kick around
> some ideas, but if anyone wants to create mock-ups or make
> suggestions, please do :-)

Tabs are for stuff you care about. It doesn't make sense to use them
for unbidden "notices".

The notices could be briefer, I mean they could be "Licensing update -
vote" and "Wikimania scholarships - apply". Then combining them would
not be so bad.

A long term resolution is a good idea, but to resolve the current
problem, could we please at least combine the messages for the term of
the licensing vote?

Brianna

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[Foundation-l] Alternating sitenotices is kinda confusing

[Brianna Laugher]

Hi,

I think having alternating sitenotices (between the licensing vote and
the Wikimania CFP/scholarships) is confusing for some people who
expect to see a link there for voting. See the comments at
http://creativecommons.org/weblog/entry/13967 for example.

Could we please have both at once, or if not, just the licensing one?
I think the licensing vote is important enough that everyone should be
given the best possible opportunity to participate.

thanks,
Brianna

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Re: [Foundation-l] [Commons-l] Wikimedia Commons Picture of the Year 2008 voting now open

[Brianna Laugher]

2009/2/17 Florence Devouard :
> Hello,
>
> I did not even realise it had not been announced and I already voted a
> few days ago :-)
> My two cents
>
> * great images. Really top stuff
> * but the voting system... SO unpractical :-(

If you voted early, I think the voting system has been improved since
then. You should take another look (while logged in!). There is just
little buttons and text fields below each image to let you vote and
leave a comment, and if you have already voted you get a message "You
have already voted for this image". I think it's really great.

> I have meant to ask what happened with the toolserver (or the team
> dealing with the toolserver) so that it could not be used this year ?

Bryan & I ran the comp last year, and were too busy to commit to
running it this year. This year I am just a cheerleader. ;)
I think it was just difficult communicating all the needed info about
galleries, etc, because Bryan wasn't too involved. In future years if
Bryan is involved or someone else comfortable with the toolserver that
software can be used again, if they want.


> Alternatively, if you really want to keep voting pages separately for
> each image, it would have been easier to vote on a separate page rather
> than at the bottom of the description page (long to load + generous
> scrolling of numerous languages description).

I think the voting actually does happen on a separate page, it just
has a huge introduction in many languages. :)

A good place to leave comments for the organisers (and future
organisers) to see, would be
.

cheers
Brianna


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[Foundation-l] Wikimedia Commons Picture of the Year 2008 voting now open

[Brianna Laugher]

Hi,

I didn't see it announced yet, so here goes - voting for the 2008
Wikimedia Commons Picture of the Year is now open.



Voting eligibility: all Wikimedians who were registered before 1
January 2009 and with at least 200 edits on any Wikimedia project (at
time of voting)

Voting period: Round 1 closes on Feb 26.

Images: There are 501 images, which were made Featured Pictures during
2008. They are arranged into 11 categories (14 galleries). The top 10%
from each category will go to Round 2, the final round. There will be
category winners as well as the overall "picture of the year".

More coverage: 


cheers,
Brianna


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Re: [Foundation-l] Wikimedia IdeaTorrent?

[Brianna Laugher]

2009/1/29 Erik Moeller :
> If you haven't seen it yet, Ubuntu is running an interesting
> brainstorming software called IdeaTorrent to think collectively about
> common problems and solutions:
>
> http://brainstorm.ubuntu.com/
>
> The software:
>
> http://www.ideatorrent.org/
>
> I wonder - would people consider it useful to set up something like
> brainstorm.wikimedia.org using this software, or would it be too
> duplicative of BugZilla and listservs? The benefit of IdeaTorrent is
> that it's very straightforward for non-technical users to contribute
> ideas and solutions. And, of course, it could be used for
> non-technical problems as well.

Sounds wonderful. I would strongly support it. I did not yet notice an
accepted procedure for MW feature requests or roadmap type stuff.

Is there a way to separate requests e.g. for different projects?
Wikimedia Commons, Wikibooks, Wikinews, Wikisource, Wikipedia. Plus a
general/default section for stuff that benefits multiple/all projects.

/me has a look at the demo...
when you submit a request, you can choose a category... and you can
view by category as well, cool. Well that is my suggestion for that.
:)

cheers
Brianna

-- 
They've just been waiting in a mountain for the right moment:
http://modernthings.org/

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[Foundation-l] Fwd: Video contest on information sharing -- win $1, 000!

[Brianna Laugher]

Hm, I found out about this rather late... The deadline is in five
days. :) If there are some creative film-types out there they might be
interested in at least thinking about this for next year, if not
submitting this time.

cheers
Brianna


-- Forwarded message --
From: Gavin Baker <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Date: 2008/5/8
Subject: [cc-community] Video contest on information sharing -- win $1, 000!
To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]


(P.S. Could someone post this on the CC blog?)

SECOND ANNUAL SPARKY VIDEO CONTEST
SPOTLIGHTS STUDENT VIEWS ON INFORMATION SHARING

Competition showcases student productions,
offers instructors a fun and thought-provoking class assignment

Washington, DC – April 30, 2008 – Six library, student, and advocacy
organizations today announced the Second Annual Sparky Awards, a contest
that recognizes the best new short videos on the value of sharing and
aims to broaden the discussion of access to scholarly research by
inviting students to express their views creatively.

This year's contest is being organized by SPARC (the Scholarly
Publishing and Academic Resources Coalition) with additional
co-sponsorship by the Association of College and Research Libraries, the
Association of Research Libraries, Penn Libraries (at the University of
Pennsylvania), Students for Free Culture, and The Student PIRGs. Details
are online at www.sparkyawards.org.

The 2008 contest theme is "MindMashup: The Value of Information
Sharing." Well-suited for adoption as a college class assignment, the
Sparky Awards invite contestants to submit videos of two minutes or less
that imaginatively portray the benefits of the open, legal exchange of
information. Mashup is an expression referring to a song, video, Web
site, or software application that combines content from more than one
source.

To be eligible, submissions must be publicly available on the Internet –
on a Web site or in a digital repository – and available for use under a
Creative Commons License. The Winner will receive a cash prize of $1,000
along with a Sparky Award statuette. Two Runners Up will each receive
$500 plus a personalized award certificate. At the discretion of the
judges, additional Special Merit Awards may be designated. The
award-winning videos will be screened at the January 2009 American
Library Association Midwinter Conference in Denver.

Entries must be received by November 30, 2008. Winners will be announced
in January 2009. The Winner of the First Annual Sparky Awards in 2007
was Habib Yazdi, a student at University of North Carolina at Chapel
Hill, for "Share" (http://www.arl.org/sparc/media/08-0122.shtml).

"If the medium is the message, then a video competition is an apt means
of encouraging the YouTube generation to think about the challenging
intellectual property issues shaping their communication environment,"
said SPARC Executive Director Heather Joseph.

"This video contest is an excellent venue to engage students and to
explore with them the intricacies of re-using content," said Anu
Vedantham, Director of the Weigle Information Commons at Penn Libraries.
"The videos that emanate from this and similar contests provide vibrant
examples of student creativity and ownership of new media. At Penn, I
have noticed that mashup video contests and video classroom assignments
engage students and faculty in new ways with academic material, and that
video creation can be effectively integrated in many disciplines
including writing, history and language studies. Through involvement
with the 2009 Sparky Awards, libraries and new media centers have a
valuable opportunity to reach out to faculty and students."

"We're excited to be a part of the Sparky Awards again this year," said
Karen Rustad, Core Team Chair for Students for Free Culture. "More and
more students are having to manage issues of access and re-use in their
daily school work. It's a great time to talk about the potential for
open sharing."

The contest takes as its inspiration a quote from George Bernard Shaw:
"If you have an apple and I have an apple and we exchange these apples
then you and I will still each have one apple. But if you have an idea
and I have an idea and we exchange these ideas, then each of us will
have two ideas."

For details, see the contest Web site at http://www.sparkyawards.org.

# # #

SPARC is pleased to welcome these co-sponsors for the 2008 Sparky Awards:

Association of College and Research Libraries

The Association of College and Research Libraries (ACRL), a division of
the American Library Association (ALA), represents more than 13,500
academic and research librarians and interested individuals. It is the
only individual membership organization in North America that develops
programs, products and services to meet the unique needs of academic and
research librarians. Its initiatives enable the higher education
community to understand the role that academic libraries play in the
teaching, learning and research environments.

Association of