International conference, seminar, and public evening programs

The Netherlands Institute for Sound and Vision will host Economies of the Commons 2 , an international seminar on Open Video, a two-day international conference and two-evening public program at De Balie, a center for culture and politics in Amsterdam.

The event is the second of its kind, and builds on the successful Economies of the Commons conference of April 2008.

The event will examine the economics of online public-domain and open-access resources of  information, knowledge, and media – the “digital commons.”

The organizers – the Netherlands Institute for Sound and Vision, Images for the Future Consortium, De Balie, and the Institute of Network Cultures at the University of Amsterdam – note that while advocates of open access praise its low-cost accessibility and collaborative nature, critics complain that it lacks a reliable business model and undermines established gate-keeping functions of authors, academe, and professional institutions.

The event will propose, analyze, and gather economic models that can promote and safeguard the digital commons and its functions, such as archiving, access, and reuse of online content.

Detailed program information is on the event website.

Confirmed speakers include Charlotte Hess (Syracuse University), Ben Moskowitz (Open Video Alliance), Simona Levi (Free Culture Forum), Bas Savenije (KB National library of the Netherlands), Yann Moulier Boutang (Multitudes), Peter B. Kaufman (Intelligent Television), Harry Verwayen (Europeana), James Boyle (Duke University), Jeff Ubois (DTN), Sandra Fauconnier (NIMK), Dymitri  Kleiner (Telekommunisten), Birte Christensen-Dalsgaard (Royal Library Denmark), and Nathaniel Tkacz (University of Melbourne).