News & updates on Creative Commons in Singapore

Here’s a quick update (as reported by Ivan Chew, i.e. this isn’t formal Minutes).

The Creative Commons Singapore ‘team’ met at Toa Payoh Public Library on 6 March.

I say ‘team’ because CC-SG isn’t a formal organisation. There’s no one person in-charge, now that the license has been ported over.

[Click on the image to see names of attendees (a few others couldn’t make it to the meeting)]

Well, that was one of the agenda items discussed at the meeting. Whether there was a need — legal or otherwise — to register the Creative Commons Singapore as a formal entity.

Pros and cons were discussed. Also what other jurisdictions (i.e. countries) practiced; what could still be done even if CC-SG wasn’t formally registered. It remained an open-question at the end of the meeting. Which means, in a way, there wasn’t an urgent need for this at this stage.

Here’s what I doodled on the whiteboard, by way of summarising the main discussion thread:

About the ‘People’ part, it was confirmed that Chung Nian and Giorgos would be the Legal Lead and Public Lead respectively. That’s as ‘official’ as things. For me, the simplest way to explain their appointments is that if formal organisations like IPOS wanted specific clarifications about CC-SG license, then those two guys would be it! :)

Other appointments were also deliberated and decided. For instance, Harish and Ivan (that’s me) would be the ‘Community Managers’. This meant that we could help look out for suitable events (i.e. the Platform part in the diagram) to spread the word about Creative Commons.

For instance, Harish as CC Evangelist (with focus on OSS) and Elizabeth as CC Evangelist (with no specific focus for now). Ivan (that’s me) would be the ‘Community Manager’, i.e. help look out for suitable events (i.e. the Platform part in the diagram) to spread the word about Creative Commons. Or organise events in partnership with others.

Ideas included a “Creative Commons SG Day” and “Creative Commons Saloon” (kinda like meetups with food and drinks).

The discussions were friendly, cordial, informal but utterly professional (I found it fascinating to hear Anil and Chung Nian talk about the Legal nitty-gritty involved… I guess that makes me some sort of CC-geek!)

Seriously though, it was grassroots advocacy blended with professional work. Most of the participants, including myself, were attending the meeting wearing both professional and personal hats, so to speak.

As I wind up this post, I realised the goal for the CC-SG team was left unsaid. But I think this was something already internalised by everyone at the meeting. If not, we weren’t be in it.

I’ll state it anyway: To raise awareness and advocate the adoption of Creative Commons in Singapore.

Come to think of it, I think this presumption might be a roadblock for CC-SG team’s efforts. I think in Advocacy work, one cannot assume that the benefits are apparent. Personally, what I think what we might want to come up with are a set of materials to explain “Why CC-SG” or “Why CC at all?”

~ Ivan Chew
p.s. Associate Professor Anil Samtani, formerly the team’s Legal Project Lead, promised to write an ‘origins’ piece on “how CC-SG came to be”. I think it’ll be an important piece of CC-SG heritage.