The 2021 Creative Commons Global Summit took place between 20 and 24 September, gathering hundreds of leading activists, advocates, librarians, educators, lawyers, technologists and more who joined the event for discussion and debate, workshops and planning, talks and community building.
Frederick Noronha, co-founder of APC member Bytes for All Bangladesh, participated in the summit and has shared a few links to a selection of diverse and exciting initiatives that were introduced at the Summit.
Recognise handwriting: Where AI meets historical documents
The handwritten text recognition (HTR) tool Transkribus is a way of rendering historical manuscript material into machine-readable printed text. It allows one to upload document images to the platform, run automated features like line segmentation and layout/document analysis, as well as how to train an AI-enabled model to automatically transcribe text. Transkribus is a comprehensive platform for digitisation, AI-powered text recognition, transcription and searching of historical documents – from any place, any time, and in any language. Interested? More here.
Working with messy data
OpenRefine, a cross-platform open source tool for cleaning messy data. OpenRefine is a powerful tool for working with messy data: cleaning it, transforming it from one format into another, and extending it with web services and external data. Interested? More here.
Open source resources for endangered languages
This link leads to a list of open-source resources for the conservation, preservation, development and documentation of endangered, minority, and low or under-resourced human languages. Interested? More here.
With Indian mantras
In 2021, Ranjit Menon designed and built his own interactive heritage electronic audio with various Indian mantras inside: https://tinyurl.com/yfafujn2, which helped him to explore the overlap of digital fabrication with cultural heritage. Menon has also engaged with long lost archives from the E.A.T. (Experiments in Arts and Technology 1960s-1970s) that he stumbled upon at India's National Institute of Design, left behind in various places in the campus – prompting an interesting attempt to recover the archives by getting in touch with the original E.A.T. members and associates from the era. Interested? More here.
Bringing interactive practical science to students
The OpenScience Laboratory is an initiative of the Open University and the Wolfson Foundation. This online laboratory brings interactive practical science to students anywhere and anytime the internet is available. The laboratory features investigations based on on-screen instruments, remote access experiments and virtual scenarios using real data. Several activities are available to all, some only to registered users. Interested? More here.
Suite to create collaborative knowledge bases
Wikibase is an open-source software suite for creating collaborative knowledge bases, opening the door to the Linked Open Data web. Wikibase is a free, open-source software developed and maintained by Wikimedia Deutschland. Originally developed to run the free knowledge base Wikidata, Wikibase is now being developed as a software product in its own right. Why? Because it is a free, flexible and collaborative software solution that allows users to set up and maintain their own linked database. Wikibase is increasingly being used by GLAM (galleries, libraries, archives and museums), governments and research institutions to store and manage data. Interested? More here.
A wiki for small history
Wikidocumentaries is a wiki for small history – a place to pull together traces of history and turn them into stories. Start by searching for a topic of interest! What is Wikidocumentaries? Wikidocumentaries is a maker space for citizen historians. It combines information about topics – people, places, buildings, events and more. You can navigate between the topics by following any recorded connection such as family relations, locations, creators and creations or affiliation. A topic is illustrated with images and maps from connected museums, archives and libraries. In Wikidocumentaries, it will be possible to correct existing information and add new topics, bring in your own images and recollections, and use all the material for your own purposes. Interested? More here.
Open education
Open education is an educational movement founded on openness, with connections to other educational movements such as critical pedagogy, and with an educational stance which favours widening participation and inclusiveness in society. Open education broadens access to the learning and training traditionally offered through formal education systems and is typically (but not necessarily) offered through online and distance education. The qualifier "open" refers to the elimination of barriers that can preclude both opportunities and recognition for participation in institution-based learning. One aspect of openness or "opening up" education is the development and adoption of open educational resources in support of open educational practices. Interested? More here.
Open education @CC
The Open Education programme at Creative Commons works to minimise barriers to effective education, supporting the CC mission through education, training, advocacy and outreach on using open licences and open policies to maximise the benefits of open education (content, practices and policy). Its work spans all levels of education, industry and government. Interested? More here.
For kids, by kids
Project-based learning meets new media creation clubs and classes, for kids, by kids: Tract is an innovative edtech startup with education resources developed for K-12 students by high school and college students. The Tract materials are not the kind of free-for-all, low-value junk education videos that we’ve seen before. They aren’t just youthed-up video lectures with emojis and trendy music, but require students to engage with the material through tasks, projects and direct peer-to-peer connections. Interested? More here.
Documenting local voices and archives
Newspapers often represent the most extensive documentation of a community’s past. Across Canada, newspapers are struggling and many have closed. From local libraries and archives stewarding their community newspapers to provincial and national strategies, the GLAM community is responding proactively to the challenging local news landscape. Research on permissions for newspaper digitization and access in the GLAM sector, and the possibility of using CC licences, are being explored. Interested? More here.
OpenLearnX
Curriki and Red Hat are collaborating to launch OpenLearnX – the Education Technology Commons. They envision a community where educators, learners and organisations can build, share, publish and reuse active, open learning resources, and participate in open learning practices at a global scale. Interested? More here.
Coalition for creativity
C4C – a Declaration for Europe embodies a new approach to European copyright, an approach where everyone benefits, innovation is fostered, creativity is incentivised and rewarded, and access to the fruits of the European creative spirit is improved for all Europeans. Alongside the declaration, individual signatories have provided a set of examples of uses of creative works to illustrate some of the issues they believe should be discussed at EU level to achieve the objectives of the declaration. Those involved in this initiative believe that a debate about the law which isn’t focused on the practical application of the law is a missed opportunity. Interested? More here.
See more about the CC Summit here.