Event report: Creative Commons Joint Seminar with #EDSG
Creative Commons Singapore thanks Ngee Ann Polytechnic Library, for hosting the event, and Mr Preetam Rai for helping with the venue arrangement and providing the images for this article.
The following article was written by Michael Tegos who has released it under a CC-BY-SA license. He can be reached at https://michaeltegos.wordpress.com/.
On 29 May I had the opportunity to attend the joint seminar on Creative Commons at the Ngee Ann Polytechnic Library. It was organized by volunteers from Creative Commons Singapore and educators’ community #edsg. The purpose was to get the discussion going about Creative Commons and its use among educators, and spread awareness on the potential of open source licensing for learning and collaborating purposes.
I’ll admit I wasn’t sure how successful the event would be. Creative Commons is an area that most people seem to ignore, maybe because it seems arcane to them. If it’s not the tech jargon that gets them, it’s the legalese. Which is a shame, because Creative Commons is a way to overcome both barriers, enabling a rich creative and sharing culture.
Turns out I needn’t have worried. I was happy to see the event venue was almost full with people interested in finding out more about CC. More than 50 attendants, mostly from an education background but also some enthusiasts, turned up and sat through the presentations on offer.
Artist and Creative Commons Singapore volunteer Ivan Chew started off the event by covering the basics on Creative Commons. He talked about what the difference is from copyright and fair dealing, and then went to introduce CC and talk about the different licenses available.
NUS’s Chan Hsiao-yun and physics teacher Wee Loo Kang then explained how one can find CC resources across the web and correctly attribute and license them, in order to incorporate them into their work.
Finally, IP lawyer and Creative Commons Singapore volunteer Lam Chung Nian and academic N. Sivasothi discussed the issues arising from using CC content, and addressed questions from the audience in this regard.
Resources for all the presentations can be found at the event site, appropriately licensed under CC!
I feel this is a very positive step in building people’s interest in CC, especially for educators willing to learn more about it and pass that knowledge to their students. Fostering an open-source sharing creative culture amongst young learners is essential to highlighting the impact CC can have on the proliferation of knowledge and creativity. Further events could delve deeper in the issues and use of CC, and help spread awareness in Singapore’s creative community as well.
Creative Commons Singapore 
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