Open House Seminar on Creative Commons

Creative commons: A means to expand flexible copyright and to enhance knowledge sharing?

Open house seminar – July 9th – CTA Headquarters

The Creative Commons (CC) is a non-profit organization devoted to expanding the range of creative work available for others legally to build upon and share. The organization has released several copyright licenses known as Creative Commons licenses. These licenses, depending on the one chosen, restrict only certain rights (or none) of the work.

CTA is pleased to invite you on July 9th at 10h30 AM to a presentation by Paul Keller, the CC representative in the Netherlands. The aim of the meeting is to learn more about a new way to protect online publications (print, audio, images and video) while allowing a wide public to use them.

Too often the debate over creative control tends to oppose a vision of total control (“all rights reserved”) and another one considered as “anarchical” — a world in which creators enjoy a wide range of freedom but are left vulnerable to exploitation. Creative Commons is aiming to use private rights to create public goods according to certain rules. Like the free software and open-source movements, their ends are cooperative and community-minded, but their means are voluntary and libertarian.

On line publishing (word, sound, and picture) is a central activity for many development agencies and NGOs (e.g. our own information products but also our partners’ productions in developing countries). Free licensing schemes such as Creative Commons might therefore be an interesting opportunity for all of us and we believe that you and other development organisations who are publishing on line will be interested in learning more about them.
What are the main difficulties we encounter with Web publishing and copyrights? How do Creative Commons licenses operate? What is the advantage of protecting your work with a Creative Commons license? What are the challenges and limitations of these free licensing schemes?

Open house seminar (CTA headquarters – Wageningen)
July 9th 10h30 – 12h30
General presentation followed by discussions and a light sandwich buffet

Location: Technical Centre for Agricultural and Rural Co-operation ACP-EU (CTA)
Agro Business Park 2, NL 6708PW Wageningen

Please confirm your participation to Mr. Fabian Kabashi
kabashi@cta.int or +31 317 467 172

Call for Web Developers

CTA is looking for experienced, skilled and creative web developers to work on its corporate website

CTA would like to establish a list of potential candidates who may be eligible to work on the CTA corporate website, www.cta.int.

The CTA website was created in 1997 and has been modified several times. It is now necessary to update the existing material on the site as well as to include more interactive elements to the site.

The Website is intended to: 1. Provide a source of current and accurate CTA information 2. Provide cutting edge information on thematic areas related to Information and communication technologies (ICTs) and agriculture and rural development (ARD) in Africa, the Caribbean and the Pacific (ACP).

The Contractor is required to work with CTA to update the information on the current site and to develop new CTA webpages. More information is contained in the Terms of Reference.

If you wish to receive more information, please contact Ms Karen Hackshaw, at hackshaw@cta.int before June 27th 2007.

• Download Terms of Reference

Call for expression of interest-Rural radio resources packs tender

This is a call for interest to help CTA to establish a short list of potential candidates who will be invited to tender for the production and distribution of the rural radio resources) packs (RRRPs) in English and in French.

The Centre has produced an average of 5 (RRRPs) a year and currently has over 50 packs in stock (see http://ruralradio.cta.int).

Each pack deals with a specific topic on rural and agricultural development in ACP countries – ranging from crop storage to cassava, small ruminants or soil fertility. The choice of topics is based on suggestions made by ACP partners and on the priority topics identified in CTA’s strategic plan. Each pack comprises the material necessary to produce a radio programme on a specific topic: interviews on tapes or CDs, a transcript of the text, suggestions for introducing each interview, technical information on the topic and advice on how to use the pack. The interviews are recorded by experienced African journalists from East, Central, West and Southern Africa. Typical interviewees include agricultural experts, extension workers, technical advisers working for NGOs, vets, personnel from Ministries of agriculture as well as researchers.

Users of the packs include rural radio program producers, extension workers and farmers. Currently more than 200 radio stations in Africa regularly receive the RRRPs.

The tender will cover the production and the distribution of the packs in French and in English for 3 years.

If you wish to receive more information and be invited to tender for the RRRP, please contact Ms Sarah Bel, bel@cta.int before June 25th 2007.