As announced on the CC SA blog, I have accepted the nomination to take over as Project Lead for Creative Commons South Africa. My primary objectives in this role are to develop knowledge, awareness and use of Creative Commons licenses in South Africa, to nurture the growing CC community here, and to help co-ordinate the development of up-to-date versions of the license.
Creative Commons is a non-profit organization devoted to expanding the range of creative works available for others to legally build upon and share. It does this by offering a range of free licenses, which offer as much or as little protection as a person wants for their work.
This facilitates the sharing, remixing and pass-along of creative works like pictures, videos, writing and music which so many of us in the online space want, and need. This video explains it well:
I have big shoes to fill in this role. Heather Ford, executive director of iCommons, has done an absolutely outstanding job during her tenure as CC SA project lead. If I can do even half as well as her then we can look forward to an more creatively accommodating web environment in South Africa.
A couple of weeks ago Nic and Matt posted pics and commentary about the world first public screenshots of the Wikia Search project (also picked up by Mashable and TechCrunch) that were recently shown in Johannesburg. Well, now I see that iCommons has released the video of his whole talk (here). I’ve edited it down to a short clip just about the Search project:
In the clip, Jimmy explains that Wikia is developing a freely licensed search engine, using open source software, to compete directly with Yahoo, Google and all the big search players. It Aims to match or exceed the quality of the major search engines
He also makes a strong “political statement” that it’s not healthy that so much power is in the hands of a few search companies who are secretive about how the information is ranked (other’s think so too).
Lastly, he showed screenshots of the Facebook-like contributor interface, dubbed by others as his “Socialpedia”.
When last did you get to hang out with one of the people rated by Time magazine as one of the 50 most Influential in the World? Well, if it’s been too long, I recommend that you book your place at the iCommons Innovation Series cocktail party in Joburg next Tuesday, and have a chat with Jimmy Wales, the founder of Wikipedia.
Jimmy will be talking about his vision for Wikipedia, Wikia, and the Academies he’s launching here next week. This is important stuff. This man gets the sharing economy, and is worthwhile learning from. Heather Ford puts it nicely:
Wikipedia is not exciting because its the biggest encyclopedia in the world. Its exciting because it gives us the opportunity to write our own history, our own textbooks, our own view of the world. Wikipedia is a practical expression of what makes the Internet special. And practicing contributions to Wikipedia is what makes us realise what the Internet is really for. It’s not just about using, its about being active participants in the creation of meaning about the world around us.
On Saturday night in Cape Town we had the second of 50 fabulous parties with Jimmy Wales and Heather Ford. The idea is that these will be held bring together the open-content communities in various cities around the world.
Heather made a very exciting announcement at the event:
There is going to be a free culture house built in Cape Town. Imagine a place you can pop into for coffee, and be exposed to the latest multi-media and open content, create and remix using the latest tech and open software, learn about and organise free-culture events, or just meet other enthusiasts to work on new projects. It’s going to be the first of many around the world.
I'm a Digital Media and Marketing educator based in Cape Town, South Africa.
If you're interested in booking me for a talk or workshop you can check out my formal profile on the
About page.
When last did you get to hang out with one of the people rated by Time magazine as one of the 50 most Influential in the World? Well, if it’s been too long, I recommend that you book your place at the iCommons Innovation Series cocktail party in Joburg next Tuesday, and have a chat with 
