Free Culture Forum

The Free Culture Forum (fcforum) is an international encounter of civic society actors on free culture, digital rights and access to knowledge. It took place in Barcelona for the first time from October 30 to November 1, 2009 and second time From the 28th to the 31st of October 2010. It took place jointly with the oXcars, a free culture festival.

What is the Fcforum

The Fcforum is a major international meeting of the most relevant organizations and individuals working on the international scene, who are engaged in reflecting on the social and economic challenges of the dissemination of culture and knowledge in the digital age.

FCForum 2009

The main objectives of the Forum 2009 were, on the one hand, building networks to optimize the efforts of the different groups and setting common demands against the proposals from industry and governments in their eagerness to control culture and information; and on the other hand reinforcing the self-organization of tools and infrastructures to support free culture. The first edition of the Forum was organised by Exgae, Networked politics and the Free Knowledge Institute. The Forum 2009 ended up with the definition of the Charter for Innovation, Creativity and Access to Knowledge. The Charter has been disseminated and implemented worldwide, including the 26th Chaos Communication Congress in Berlin and the Free Culture X Conference.

Official observers from the European Community's Commission for Culture and Education (Valerie Panis), the European Community's Commission for Consumer Protection (Katrine Thomsen) and Government of Brazil (through its Department of Digital Culture) (José Murilo) were present.

The second edition (Fcforum 2010) was focus on economical models. The second edition was organised by La-EX, Simona Levi Mayo Fuster Morell and Yproductions, and the advise of Felix Stalder. It resulted on a Declaration and How to Manual on sostenibility of creativity on the digital era. The declaration was signed by more than 80 organizations and personalities of the free culture scene, such as Richard Stallman.

Main thematics of the Fcforum 2009

The working program was on five working lines:

• Education and Access to Knowledge
• Organizational Logic and Political Implications of Free Culture
• Free Software and Open Standards: Knowledge Sharing Hacker Philosophy and Action Technical Ware
• Economies, New P2p Models and Sustainable Distribution
• Legal Perspectives and User Access

List of participants Fcforum 2009

• Legal perspective and users access: Consumers International / Jeremy Malcolm, Electronic Frontier Foundation, eXgae, La Quadrature du Net, Pirate Party, Knowledge Ecology International / James Love, European Digital Rights, Franziska Heine, Scambioetico, Fundación Karisma, Carlos Sanchez Almeida, Hispalinux, Asociación de Internautas / Javier Cuchi, David Maeztu, ASACC / Carmen Zapata, Spanish Network of Music Schools / Lluis Cabrera, Josep Jover, Patricia Vila, Javier Candeira, IT-Political Association, Open Standards Alliance, ScriptumLibre, David Hammerstein. Moderators: Simona Levi (eXgae), Jeremie Zimmermann (La Quadrature du Net), Paolo Brini (Scambioetico) y Maddish Falzoni (eXgae)

• Economies, New P2P models and sustainable distribution: Jeremy Rifkin (Videoconference), John Howkins, P2P Foundation / Michel Bauwens, Koleman Strumpf (Videoconference), Joost Smiers, Dmytri Kleiner, Safe Creative, Traficantes de Sueños, Platoniq, Yproductions. Moderators: Elena Fraj (eXgae), Olivier Schulbaum (Platoniq), Ignacio Castro.

• Education and Access to Knowledge: Anne Ostergaard, Students for Free Culture, FLOSS Manuals, Communia, Maria Paula Meneses, Kim Tucker, Open Knowledge Foundation, Free Knowledge Institute, Creative Commons España / Ignasi Labastida, Alqua, Wikimedia / Frank Schulenburg, Epidemia / Pablo Ortellado, La Casa Invisible / Florencio Cabello, Universidad Nómada. Moderators: Wouter Tebbens (Free Knowledge Institute), David Jacovkis (Free Knowledge Institute), Maja Kalogera (Center for Synergy of Digital and Visual Arts)

• Free Software and Open Standards: Knowledge Sharing, Hacker Philosophy and Action Technical Ware: Richard Stallman (Videoconference), Pirate Bay + piratbyran.org, Miro / Participatory Culture Foundation, Homi Bhabha Centre for Science Education / Nagarjuna G. (Videoconference), Foundation for a Free Information Infrastructure / Alberto Barrionuevo, Dyne / Jaromil, Hackmeeting, Margarita Padilla, Guifi.net, Isaac Hacksimov. Moderators: Josianito Llorente (eXgae) and Isaac Hacksimov

• Organizational Logic and Political Implications of Free Culture: David Bollier, Hilary Wainwright, Felix Stalder, David Evan Harris, Jamie King, Networked Politics / Mayo Fuster, Vittorio Bertola, Joan Subirats, Marco Berlinguer, Exit. Moderators: Mayo Fuster Morell (Networked Politics)

FCForum 2010

The second FCForum was held in Barcelona from October 28 to 31, 2010 and focused on new models of sustainability for the digital era and the implications of the European Court of Justice ruling against the private copying levy.

Topics

Participants in the FCForum split into working groups focusing on the following topics:

1. Economic Sustainability and Governance of Open Online Collaboration
2. New models of sustainability for the creative sector
3. Tools for politiy reformers
4. Open public sector information

Sustainable models for creativity in the digital age

In February 2011, two documents drafted by FCForum participants were released: Sustainable Models for Creativity and the How-To Manual for Sustainable creativity, addressed at political reformers, citizens and free culture activists. Both documents are based on an understanding that current royalties management and cultural distribution systems have become obsolete in the digital age, and the conviction that free software and peer production and distribution is not incompatible with market strategies and commercial distribution. The How-To Manual sets out a series of alternative commercial and non-profit models. It insists that the Internet must remain free and open in order to allow online collaboration models to develop, and it must be recognised as a tool that promotes contact between creators and the public. The manual offers an overview of new models that are already operating in a variety of fields, such as freemium, crowdfunding and micropayment systems in which users make small financial contributions to projects that are looking for seed funding through platforms such as Kickstarter and lanzanos.com or to existing initiatives that are given money depending on the number of users who vote for them (such as Flattr, created by Peter Sunde and Linus Olsson). It also claims that the creators of commercial cooperative platforms should share their profits with the creators of the content they publish.

References

• The Free Culture Forum 2010

See also

• La-EX
• Copyright
• Open source licenses
• Free software
• Private copying levy
• Net neutrality
• Telecoms Package
• Public domain
• P2P

External links

• FCForum official website
• Video: FCForum 2009
• Charter for Innovation, Creativity and Access to Knowledge
• Networked Politics: Collaborative research on new forms of organizing http://www.networked-politics.info
• Exgae: http://www.exgae.net
• http://wiki.creativecommons.org/International_Forum_on_Free_Culture_and_Knowledge
• p2p Foundation : http://p2pfoundation.ning.com/profiles/blogs/international-forum-on-free
• ScambioEtico: http://blog.tntvillage.scambioetico.org/?p=4279
• http://bandaancha.eu/articulo/6914/carta-innovacion-creatividad-acceso-conocimiento (es)
• http://www.guiasinformaticas.es/archives/1606 (es)
• Declaration and How to Manual on sostenibility of creativity on the digital era.