CWA New Media is proud to be a key sponsor of New Zealand’s events around Software Freedom Day. Check out the website for the programme of open source fun and geeky get togethers on September 20th.
Software Freedom Day (SFD) is a worldwide celebration of Free and Open Source Software (FOSS). Our goal in this celebration is to educate the worldwide public about of the benefits of using high quality FOSS in education, in government, at home, and in business — in short, everywhere!
This year we got together with
- Unlimited Potential,
- New Zealand Open Source Society (NZOSS),
- SuperHappyDevHouse,
- WellyLUG,
- Cafenet,
- Catalyst IT
- and Sun Microsystems
to organise a local event to be held at the Wellington Convention Centre – Civic Suites 1 & 2 in Wellington from 12pm – 6pm.
There are two main parts to the schedule- an opensource barcamp and a hackfest.
Register here and come along and celebrate Software Freedom Day by taking part. There will be free wifi, coffee all day at the venue, and pizza and beer as things wrap up at 6pm.
It’s no secret that CWA is a company that loves connecting the dots between people, knowledge, information and resources. What may not be so well known is our ongoing commitment and work in ensuring that those who are making contributions to an open and connected learning world are acknowledged and have their rights communicated.
CWA’s long-standing relationship with New Zealand’s Council for The Humanities - and its associated initiative The Humanities Research Network - has recently enabled us to collaborate on bringing the Creative Commons Aotearoa New Zealand project (CCANZ) to life. We worked with the team to communicate the arrival of New Zealand’s Creative Commons licences on the scene – participating in sector workshops earlier in the year, and building the newly launched CCANZ website
The international Creative Commons movement is about an internet-friendly, open copyright model and it is embraced in more than 40 countries. Its generic licences are available to everyone, and New Zealand now has a set which reflects our legal jurisdiction. New Zealand is among the first countries in the world to be using the new generation version 3 licence.
The Creative Commons Aotearoa site has been designed to enable our designers, artists, authors – in fact anyone who has something to share – to choose how they protect their work. The site is the first stop for finding New Zealand’s Creative Commons contributions and includes case studies, information about the licences, and even a google map to help locate the contributions in cyberspace.
We like what Brian Opie, the Executive Director of The Council for The Humanities has to say about Creative Commons:
“Innovation societies depend upon open access to knowledge. Creative Commons is an important initiative, providing New Zealanders with a means of gaining recognition for their work while encouraging its use by others.”
