ccSalon New York & San Francisco Events on Open Education

It’s been a busy couple of months working with Creative Commons. Back in March, Jane Park and I organized ccSalon New York and exactly one month later I was lucky enough to attend ccSalon San Francisco.

CC Salons are global, informal events focused on building a community of artists, developers, and creators of all kinds around Creative Commons licenses, standards, and technology. The first event took place in San Francisco in 2006 with the idea to replicate in other locations internationally. Since then salons have sprung up in cities around the world. Whether you're familiar with Creative Commons or are brand new to the concepts behind it, we encourage you to check out a salon near you.

The format for each event varies based on the location, but the overall concept is simple. CC Salons are open forums for people who are interested in the issues surrounding Creative Commons and global participatory culture. If you're interested in attending - check out the upcoming salons. If your city doesn't have one - feel free to start your own. Check out the resources for starting your salon for extra info.

Both salons were focused on Open Education, an area that I am very passionate about. I’ve spent the last two years focused on the intersection of technology and open education. Here are some of the highlights from each of the events:

New York - 4/3/2010ccSalon New York Announcement

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<dl>
<dt><a href="http://www.flatworldknowledge.com">Flat World Knowledge</a></dt>
<dd>Eric Frank, Co-Founder and Chief Marketing Officer spoke about the company's freemium business model for open college textbooks.</dd>
<dt><a href="http://p2pu.org">Peer 2 Peer University (P2PU)</a><dt>
<dd>Neeru Paharia spoke about P2PU and I gave a short talk on my course 'Mashing Up the Open Web'.</dd>
<dt>K-12 Educator Panel</dt>
<dd>Dave Bill, Arvind Grover, and Kerri Richardson Redding discussed integrating CC licensed content into the classroom and teaching students about copyright.</dd>
</dl>

San Francisco - 5/3/2010ccSalon San Francisco Announcement

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<dl>
<dt><a href="http://www.clrn.org">California Learning Resource Network (CLRN)</a></dt>
<dd>Brian Bridges talked about CLRN and the review of a number of open textbooks that meet California standards.</dd>
<dt><a href="http://www.ck12.org">CK-12 Foundation</a></dt>
<dd>Murugan Pal shared an update on the CK-12 foundation and the non-profits "FlexBooks"</dd>
<dt>OER Brazil & P2PU</dt>
<dd>Carolina Rossini brought us up to speed on the state of OER and P2PU in Brazil. (There are number of P2PU classes in Brazilian Portuguese with enrollment in the 100s!)</dd>
<dt>Panel Discussion</dt>
<dd>Brian Bridges, Amee Godwin, Murugan Pal, and Carolina Rossini discussed open education, specifically with reference to adoption of open textbooks and the future of the textbook.</dd>
</dl>

Both of these ccSalons were great venues to meet newcomers and reconnect with people I’ve met in the past. I was especially excited P2PU and Flat World Knowledge represented by multiple parties at both events. I even got to meet Tanushree, one of the Peers from ‘Mashing Up the Open Web’. Organize a ccSalon in your city!