Submissions/Promoting Commons to publishing houses

After careful consideration, the programme committee has decided not to accept the below submission at this time. Thank you to the author(s) for participating in the Wikimania 2013 programme submission, we hope to still see you at Wikimania this August.

Submission no.: 2039
Subject no.: B8

Title of the submission: Promoting Commons to publishing houses

Type of submission: discussion

Author of the submission: Łukasz Golowanow

Country of origin: Poland

Affiliation: Wiatr od Morza

E-mail address: lukaszkonflikty.pl

Username: User:Airwolf

Personal homepage or blog: http://wiatrodmorza.com/

Abstract: With ca. 17 million files, Wikimedia Commons is able to cater to the needs of publishing houses. They seem, however, to be unaware of the benefits, or even possibilities, of using Creative Commons/Public Domain photographs. I wish to present my experience with promoting CC/PD to publishing houses in Poland and through discussion search for a more systematic approach which would be valid not only in Poland, but around the world (the presence of participants who share similar experiences would be most welcome).

Detailed proposal

With ca. 17 million files, Wikimedia Commons is able to cater to the needs of publishing houses. They seem, however, to be unaware of the benefits, or even possibilities, of using Creative Commons/Public Domain photographs. I wish to present my experience with promoting CC/PD to publishing houses in Poland and through discussion search for a more systematic approach which would be valid not only in Poland, but around the world. My experience with two publishing houses in Poland suggest that publishers would be willing and happy to use CC/PD materials, but they are not aware of such possibilities. This, of course, highlights a much wider problem of public awareness to the existence of CC/PD.

Thus, we have two causes which may help each other. On the one hand, there is the issue of encouraging the use of CC/PD materials and release of freely licensed content. On the other hand, publishers want to save money (let’s face the facts: in times of financial difficulties preserving quality while cutting down spending is of utmost importance). I hope that throughout the discussion we will be able to find ways of encouraging publishers around the world to use the resources of Commons with more courage. I intend to focus the discussion on methods achieveing this goal from the outside, i.e. when one is not an employee of a publishing house, which is understandably more difficult and would require a visible support by local Wikimedia chapters.

Track

Cultural and Educational Outreach

Length of presentation/talk: 25 minutes

Language of presentation/talk: English

Will you attend Wikimania if your submission is not accepted?: Yes

Slides or further information (optional): None

Special requests: Due to my time of arrival the best day for me would be Sunday. However, this is not a must, Saturday is also OK.

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Jean-Frédéric (talk) 21:13, 5 May 2013 (UTC)[reply]
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