During the final plenary session of the iSummit '08, participants from each lab did a report back on what was achieved in their meetings and workshops over the last three days, and what their plans are for the future. The iSummit reporters collaborated on a final article to share their feedback here.

Open Education lab feedback - Simon Dingle

The open education track found language barriers a challenge at first, but enjoyed the commonality all attendees found in their interests related to education. A strong aim of the lab was to study the promotion of a culture of sharing and exchange in education. One key highlight was the process used in the track for working through issues. This collaborative workshop approach was inherently participatory, based on the model developed at the iSummit 2007 in Dubrovnik, Croatia. The open model allowed the sessions to address real issues and encouraged participation.

Branding was identified as important to help people understand what open educational resources are. This precipitated discussions surrounding open standards and other mechanisms for driving awareness and the development of open educational resources. Incentives were studied for participation too, as opposed to just 'access'.

Peer review was a vital part of what is proposed going forward. Ideas had to be practical and regionally applicable. The Cape Town Declaration provided a good foundation for discussion, but the open education track decided that other big achievements needed to take place in the next year.

Open Business lab feedback - Paul Jacobson

A continuing challenge for this group was how to define "Open Business". The group had presentations detailing a range of business models and ultimately concluded that "Open Business" is business that implements open methodologies. The parallel example is that there are no green companies per se but rather companies that implement green policies.

The future goal of this lab is to 'do' business with the aim of gathering together more case studies and to share the experiences arising out of these case studies.  The Open Business group invited members of the iCommons community to share their thoughts, and case studies. Because "Open Business" remains undefined, the best tool is the open methodology to facilitate further sharing.

Research Workshop on Free Culture feedback - Paul Jacobson

The Research group met to discuss the way forward after a valuable process at the iSummit.  The group began with a discussion about common research projects with a view to developing an agenda going forward.  The group quickly came up with a means of disseminating its work online through tools like wikis, journals and visualisations to better communicate its work.

The group declared its desire for a bigger and brighter convention next year and may even have a venue and funding in place already. The members of the community were invited to continue contributing towards and inspiring those people on the Research track.

DIY Video lab feedback - Simon Dingle

The DIY video track at the iSummit '08 studied collaborative culture, sharing and the commons in terms of video. The lab worked on identifying a definition for 'open video' and looked at how the Internet and the new web reality has changed the video landscape, particularly through the likes of Youtube. Copyright, fair use and Creative Commons in terms of video and sourcing footage was also discussed. It was decided that best use principles in terms of licensing and fair use are vital understandings for video makers.

Various platforms for video dissemination, creation and promotion were also studied, particularly in how they can be combined and used in conjunction with other tools and platforms. The importance of transparency in video creation and licensing was also discussed. For example, making it clear in accompanying texts and metadata what licensing has been applied to your work.

Frontiers of Openness in Japan lab feedback - Wojciech Gryc

Frontiers of Openness had discussions specifically focusing on Commons-related work being done in Japan.

There were four panel discussions, which focused on education, business, technology, and policy. The overarching theme of the panels was how to bridge the players working from a top-down position, such as corporations and institutions, with the grassroots, such as amateur users and content creators. To facilitate interaction between the two groups, it is necessary to have iCommons work as a networking organisation that brings the various groups together at conferences, meetings, and through the web.

For example, to explore how such collaboration can take place, Creative Commons Japan had a contest where users could submit a logo for the Commons. A second attempt was a music video competition through five Japanese video sharing services - the focus here was to promote chains of creation, so users could submit raw content or finished videos.

Over all, the conference saw many locals take part in workshops on Creative Commons licenses. Numerous discussions took place, and a great deal was shared on how people can collaborate both within Japan, and globally.

Local Context, Global Commons: Open Publishing lab feedback - Wojciech Gryc

The Local Context, Global Commons group saw discussions focus on four major groups of people: producers, publishers, consumers, and advocates. These are not disparate groups, and iCommons should act as a facilitator and networker between members of the groups - creators should be discussing with advocates, consumers with publishers, and so on.  The iCommons community can provide content, but also needs to develop discriminatory tools to help consumers not only find new artists, music, and other forms of media, but also find high quality and trustworthy content.

Participants decided that within the next year, iCommons should specifically showcase best practices in media creation, indexing, and discovery. This should result in a wish list of tools and resources for the community of creators, publishers, and consumers, such as ones that facilitate the translation, localisation, and finding of content. A related suggestion is to create a case studies resource for the Asia Commons.

Eventually, the broader iCommons community can work together to develop the tools and technologies needed to promote openness and sharing of media and content.

Open Education, LCGC, Open Business, DIY Video and Research lab photos by , CC BY-NC-SA 2.0. Frontiers of Openness lab photo by , CC BY 2.0