The First COMMUNIA Conference 2008 is scheduled for Monday 30 June and Tuesday 1st July 2008 in Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium (30 km south of Brussels). It is co-organized by the Communia Thematic Network and the GICSI-EU initiative.

The main theme is the Assessment of economic and social impact of digital public domain throughout Europe.

The Conference aims at initiating a “stock taking exercise” of the impact of public domain initiatives in the fields of public sector information, libraries, archives, scientific research and creative works in Europe. The event is mainly aimed at promoting the public domain by building capacity for scientific assessment of social and economic impacts, and promoting analysis of legal impediments. The conference will draw upon the extensive information on open access practices that is available, although often in an informal manner, within major networks and stakeholders in Europe.

The COMMUNIA workshop in Torino was a small big success. First, in terms of participation: more than 100 attendees from many EU countries, and even someone from overseas, filled up the Politecnico's Aula Magna for the entire day. But it was also a great occasion for sharing ideas and fire up the discussion, with high quality presentations, stimulating comments, and good humour as well.

Here is the download page for the various presentations, papers and slides, while below we put together a short report.

A big thank you to everybody for making this event a success!