[Telecentres] Asia Commons: Call for Papers + Participants

[Sunil Abraham]

Asia Commons: Asian Conference on the Digital Commons
April 18-20, 2006
Bangkok, Thailand
http://www.asia-commons.net/

During the last 20 years or so, the level, scope, territorial extent,
and role of copyrights and patents have expanded into new sectors. There
has been much discussion and debate on the impact of copyrights and
patents at a micro level of economic activity while at a macro level,
policy dialogue in several international fora, not least of which is
WIPO, has been addressing barriers posed by copyrights and patents.

Asia Commons: Asian Conference on the Digital Commons invites:
- researchers working in the area of copyrights and patents,
- promoters of collaborative models,
- development practitioners engaged in collaborative content creation
and dissemination, and
- custodians of public information
to go beyond the current dialogue and debate to explore key issues and
ideas related to access to knowledge and culture in Asia.

Participants are invited to explore key themes and questions related to
the Asian Commons:

- What is the relationship between infrastructure and copyrights on
access to culture and knowledge?
- How do software and business process patents affect innovation?
- What are the impacts of patents on software innovations in Asia?
- What are the emerging Open Business Models for content production in
Asia?
- Given existing legal, cultural and infrastructural environments both
within and outside of Asia, how can we contribute to increasing access
to knowledge and culture through an Asia Commons?

While we will be inviting a number of speakers who are seen as
thought-leaders in the field of Access to Knowledge and Culture, we will
also look to innovative approaches to ensure a high degree of
interaction among participants in spaces and sessions which are designed
to maximize the exchange of experiences and ideas.

Conference Fees, Registration, and Scholarships:

There are no fees for participation in the conference which is supported
through funding made available by the International Development Research
Centre's (IDRC's) Pan Asia Program (http://www.idrc.ca/panasia).

If you are interested in participating, please register online at
http://www.asia-commons.net/conf_registration/add or email
registration at asia-commons.net to receive a registration form which can
be submitted through email. Please register before March 8, 2006.

Thanks to the generous support of IDRC's Pan Asia
(http://www.idrc.ca/panasia) and UNDP APDIP's IOSN (http://www.iosn.net)
there are also a number of scholarships available for participants in
need of financial support. Please visit
http://www.asia-commons.net/participate for more information.

Call for Papers:

Asia Commons invites paper abstracts of original papers for sharing your
work and experiences during the discussions at the conference. Papers
should fall within the conference themes:

- Access to Knowledge and Culture in Asia
- Models for Collaborative Knowledge and Culture
- Towards a Healthy Asia Commons

Themes are fully described at: http://www.asia-commons.net/about

Please submit paper proposals to papers at asia-commons.net by February 24,
2006. Proposals should include the title of the paper, an abstract and
contact information of all authors.

Paper writers will be given the opportunity to present their papers at
Asia Commons and will be fully funded to attend the conference.

Paper proposal deadline: February 24, 2006
Proposal acceptance: February 28, 2006
Full paper submission: April 1, 2006

For more information, please visit: http://www.asia-commons.net/papers

Can't Join Us?

For those unable to join us physically during the event, we invite you
to participate through the participants discussion list and visit
http://www.asia-commons.net for outputs during the conference itself.

To subscribe to the participants discussion list, send an email to
participants-request at asia-commons.net with the word subscribe in the
subject.

A special issue of i4d Magazine (http://www.i4donline.net) will be
produced in June 2006 based on the conference and its themes.

We look forward to seeing you at the Asia Commons.

Your Organising Committee:
Shikha Shrestha, Bellanet Asia (in partnership with SAP International)
(http://www.sapint.org)
Sarah Kerr, Bellanet International Secretariat (http://www.bellanet.org)
Jaya Chittoor, Centre for Science, Development and Media Studies
(http://www.csdms.in)
Sunil Abraham, UNDP APDIP's International Open Source Network
(http://www.iosn.net)

-- 
Sunil Abraham, sunil at mahiti.org http://www.mahiti.org
"Vijay Kiran" IInd Floor, 314/1, 7th Cross, Domlur 
Bangalore - 560 071 Karnataka, INDIA
Ph/Fax: +91 80 51150580. Mob: (91) 9342201521
UK: (44) 02000000259