Wikimania2006 Videos

Abstract: I will talk about the "open access" movement in scientific publishing that is working to make the world's scientific and medical literature a freely available public resource. Anyone who has tried to look for scientific or medical information on the Internet will find all sorts of information - some credible and some quackish. But, unless you are logged on from a major research university, you will find that the most reliable and comprehensive source of scientific and medical knowledge is locked behind subscription-controlled barriers of scientific publishers. I will talk about why things work this way, why it's ridiculous, and how the system can and is being changed by organizations like Public Library of Science (which I helped to found). I will also talk about how scientists and scientific journals are starting to head down a wikipedia like path, and why this is a challenge for scientists and our institutions. -- http://wikimania2006.wikimedia.org/wiki/Proceedings:ME1

synopsis from Peter Kaminski's blog: The storyline: The 20th century, with its read-only labor, culture and politics, was weirdly totalitarian. The 21st century is a revival of a different (normal, given history) way to organize and produce within society. To fulfill this, we all need to practice free culture, and demand support of it. He talked about a new thing, the problem that the various free culture licenses are not interoperable yet. (Interoperability - value diversity and opportunity over control.) This causes problems because it creates islands of free content that can't be mixed together. So he suggests we set up a body -- he recommends the Software Freedom Law Center -- that can certify licenses as "close enough" and then have the various license providers add compatibility clauses to existing licenses so derivative works can be relicensed to a "close enough" license. More: http://peterkaminski.com/2006/08/wikimania_plenary_larry_lessig.html Lessig bio is on conference proceedings wiki http://wikimania2006.wikimedia.org/wiki/Presenters/Lawrence_Lessig Lessig Blog: http://www.lessig.org/blog/ Production: Video was shot from last row of the audience with Canon Optura miniDV cam mostly balanced on my head in lieu of a tripod... not recommended for people subject to seasickness. No tapes were used... FireWire direct to iMovie. Minor snippets omitted while waking up the camera from tape-saver mode.

The Free Software Foundation's attorney and Larry Lessig talk about how to make open documentation and WikiMedia licenses interoperable/cross-licensable. Video shot from back row includes just first portion of talk.

Here's the podcast of Jimmy Wales' talk at the Wikimania conference. It's about 30 megs, so it may take a while to download depending on your connection. -andy tag: wikimania2006