OPEN 2009 – Helsinki – November 2009

I just got home from Wikimania 2009 – the conference I am willing to call THE free culture conference (now when iCommons seems to be history, why?). The Wikimedia Foundation’s conference was just as good as I was expecting it to be: The energy and the good will was all there, more and better academic and research talks, honest and open keynotes: Richard Stallman’s rant, Jimmy Wales’ enthusiasm and Sue Gardner’s “reformulation” of the Foundations’ vision:

Imagine a world in which every single human being can freely share in the sum of all knowledge. That’s our commitment . . . “and we are not achieving it”.

Admitting the facts is the origin of wisdom, said Juho Kusti Paasikivi – the first Cold War era president of Finland.

The open and free culture movement is growing and doing pretty well. In a way it is slowly reaching some level of establishment where people know what it is and why it is important. For example open educational resources (OERs) are becoming part of national policies in many parts of the world – although not in Finland, but in some more advanced information societies, like California, Netherlands and Catalonia.

Actually, the free culture is doing well in Finland, too. However, it is still more academic and activists who keep on talking about it – not politicians, decisions-makers or business people.

Open 2009 symposium will be THE event of free culture in Finland, although the theme is not limited to “free” (a problematic term) but will discuss specifically about “open”. From the website:

“The OPEN Symposium is an event for all interested parties who want to understand the recent shift from an industrially organized era to an era of networks and open information and social production.

What does this mean for …
… organizations?
… consumers?
… citizens?
… research?
… business?
… design?
… culture?
… art?
… society?
… environment?
… you/me/us/everone else?

The event is naturally open and free for all.