The Commons, a pilot project launched last January based on the principle of "no known copyright restrictions", is gaining a very positive response. This partnership involving The Library of Congress and Flickr has two main goals: to increase access to publicly-held photography collections, and to provide a way for the general public to contribute information and knowledge.

Out of some 14 million prints, photographs and other visual materials at the Library of Congress, more than 3,000 photos are being made available on the new Flickr page, to include only images for which no copyright restrictions are known to exist.

The First COMMUNIA Conference 2008 is scheduled for Monday 30 June and Tuesday 1st July 2008 in Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium (30 km south of Brussels). It is co-organized by the Communia Thematic Network and the GICSI-EU initiative.

The main theme is the Assessment of economic and social impact of digital public domain throughout Europe.

The Conference aims at initiating a “stock taking exercise” of the impact of public domain initiatives in the fields of public sector information, libraries, archives, scientific research and creative works in Europe. The event is mainly aimed at promoting the public domain by building capacity for scientific assessment of social and economic impacts, and promoting analysis of legal impediments. The conference will draw upon the extensive information on open access practices that is available, although often in an informal manner, within major networks and stakeholders in Europe.

A report of the conference is available here, and slides as well as summaries of some sessions can be accessed from the download section of the website as well as directly below in the programme [27oct09]