The keynote speech by Denis Noble (Emeritus Professor of Cardiovascular Physiology, University of Oxford) will deal with the new conceptual foundations and the structure of global collaborations, particularly addressing the “meeting of Biology, Mathematics and Computation”.
Having broken the human organism down into his smallest components, the 25,000 genes and maybe 100,000 proteins, biology of the 21st century faces the challenge of how to put it all back together again. The Human Physiome Project aims to do this, using collaborations worldwide between mathematicians, computer scientists, physicists, engineers, biochemists, physiologists and even experts from the social sciences. The challenge is vastly greater than sequencing the genome. It raises big questions on the conceptual foundations of biology, and it requires unusual forms of collaboration. The analysis will first explain the principles of this area of science and then describe how the collaborations have been established to make it possible.

Please click here for the Conference complete programme. [26june09]

Jerome H. Reichman (Duke University Law School) will explain how today's research community in a Microbial field which is outgrowing its “small science” institutional structures, must increasingly come to terms with commoditizing pressures within developed economies.
These pressures restrict the conduct of public-sector research through strong intellectual property rights and related contractual restrictions on access to and use of materials, publications, and data. At the same time, restrictive policies in developing countries under the Convention on Biodiversity complicate research uses of microbial materials held in public repositories ex situ, and make it increasingly difficult to access the vast in situ materials these countries control.
These trends have led to a proliferation of diverse licensing strategies and techniques, which collectively have elevated the transaction costs and other barriers for even relatively simple cooperative research projects. In order to avoid such obstacles, the research community goal is to use liability rules to promote the exchange of materials: the redesigning a “soft” infrastructure able to better manage publicly funded research resources, without compromising downstream commercial applications and fruitful partnerships between the public and private sectors, or between developed and developing countries.

Please click here for the Conference complete programme. [25june09]

Hans F. Hoffmann, Geneva's CERN honorary member, will discuss the “Open, global collaborations in particle physics”.
A new project at CERN will create matter and observe it as it existed very close to the violent developments immediately after the big bang. This requires apparatus of unprecedented complexity, invented, elaborated, built, operated and exploited by global collaborations over decades and served by global e-infrastructures, also produced in the context.
Common clear objectives, mutual respect, complete sharing of all available knowledge, know-how, and necessary technologies within the collaborations, critical mass, flat hierarchies, rigorous quality assurance and the pledge of best efforts by the participating scientific institutes and funding agencies are the important ingredients of such collaborations.
They are brought to life by a continuous, (self-) structured and “accessible to all” communication at all levels. While immediate gainful applications are not the first priority, the collaborative model presented and implemented in this project can be applied to other large efforts and great challenges.

Please click here for the Conference complete programme. [24june09]

Fiona Murray (Associate Professor of Management Technological Innovation & Entrepreneurship Group, Sloan School of Management, MIT) will focus on “Institutional foundations of scientific progress: implications for collaboration and participation”.
Today's knowledge is exchanged and accumulated within and across both formal and informal scientific institutions (libraries, journals, databases, etc.) that also include intellectual property rules and their licensing practices.
The way we choose to structure these institutions is critical in shaping collaboration and, more importantly, participation in scientific progress. Specifically, if access to knowledge is critical for full participation in scientific research, then the way we shape the rules of these institutions has profound implications for who participates and who is left behind.
The landscape of formal and informal institutions will determine whether innovation and knowledge production becomes truly democratized and is a much more robust and lasting mechanism for ensuring broad participation in science than simply mandating collaboration. There is a variety of quantitative evidence and research projects that do substantiate these claims, thus providing positive implications for scientific progress and the society at large.

Please click here for the Conference complete programme. [23june09]

Under the title "Global Science and the Economics of Knowledge-Sharing Institutions", the Second COMMUNIA International Conference 2009 is scheduled for Sunday 28, Monday 29 & Tuesday 30 June 2009 in Torino, Italy.

The event will address the conceptual foundations and practical feasibilities of contractually constructed “commons” and related bottom-up public domain initiatives (joint policy guidelines, common standards, institutional policies, etc.) capable of offering shared access to a variety of research resources, identifying models, needs and opportunities for effective initiatives across a diverse range of research areas. [19june09]

The application process for ten new network members is now open.

Network members are expected to attend the official COMMUNIA workshops and conferences, to participate on a voluntary basis in working groups of their interest (and the corresponding meetings, if any), and, more in general, to share their experience, knowledge and contacts to promote the advancement of the understanding of the role of the public domain in our societies.

Application deadline: 10 June 2009 at 18:00 CET [21May09]

"How shall we govern the commons?": this was the main question addressed by David Bollier in his recent luncheon talk at Harvard's Berkman Center for Internet & Society - member of the COMMUNIA Network. Bollier and the Center faculty discussed his new book, Viral Spiral: How the Commoners Built a Digital Republic of Their Own, where he traces the origins of free software, Creative Commons licenses and the online “sharing economy”. They also examined how commoners assert differing notions of freedom, community boundaries, social norms and reliance on law to protect the integrity of their shared resources.

Blogging live from the event, Ethan Zuckerman reports that according to Bollier, "until roughly 2000 the public domain was the closest we had to the commons. Copyright traditionalists saw it as a junkyard, a wasteland of government documents and old sheet music." While David Weinberger, in another live post highlights the fact that "We have to find respectful relationships among private businesses and commons. Maybe we need new revenue models." In other words, concludes Bollier, "we need a new taxonomy of digital commons, in order to find ways to protect the integrity of the shared resource and the community itself."

Listen or watch the entire talk here (71 min). [14may09]

A landmark study by the Institute of European Media Law (EML) found that a levy on Internet usage legalising non-commercial online exchanges of creative works conforms with German and European copyright law, even though it requires changes in both. The German and European factions of the Green Party who had commissioned the study will make the “culture flat-rate,” as the model is being called in Germany, an issue in their policies. The global debate on a new social contract between creatives and society is getting more pronounced by the day. Two models are emerging: a free-market approach based on private blanket licences and voluntary subscriptions, and a legal license approach based on exceptions in copyright law and mandatory levies, that now has been proven legally feasible and appropriate by the EML study.

Download here a pdf article (1.1MB, 30 pages) with more details and findings about the study. [12May09]

It is now time to register for the Second COMMUNIA Conference (Torino, 28-30 June 2009): the fillable online form is ready here.

Also available are detailed procedures for booking your hotel (at special rates).

Please note that COMMUNIA members will not be charged the registration fee, but they need to pay for the gala dinner if attending. It is also essential to submit your online registration form by 12 June 2009: for organizational reasons, we need to know the exact number of participants at that date.

For more information and/or to register, please click here. [06may09]

Against widespread dissent and controversy, yesterday the European Parliament voted to allow sound copyright term extension to pass a first reading. The proposal now moves forward to the Council of Ministers where it is currently blocked by member states.

The press-release issued by The Open Rights Group and Sound Coyright explains: "4 out of the 7 main groups (ALDE, GREENS/EFA, NGL, IND/ DEM) together with a cross party platform of MEPs voted to reject the proposal. Internal opposition threatened the group positions of the two largest parties (PSE and EPP) as several national delegations and key MEPS also joined the fight to reject. We understand that, in total, 222 voted in favour of rejection, 370 against. The final vote was 317 in favour, 178 against, 37 abstentions. A key amendment to ensure benefits accrued only to performers was also rejected. [24apr09]