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Asia Commons: Asian Conference on the Digital Commons
Subject: Asia Commons: Asian Conference on the Digital Commons- 18-20 April 2006- Bangkok,Thailand
To: ind...@li...
From: Sunil Abraham <su...@ma...>
Date: Thu, 09 Feb 2006 08:11:24 +0530

April 18-20, 2006
Bangkok, Thailand
http://www.asia-commons.net

During the last 20 years or so, the level, scope, territorial extent,
and role of copyrights and patents have expanded into new sectors. There
has been much discussion and debate on the impact of copyrights and
patents at a micro level of economic activity while at a macro level,
policy dialogue in several international fora, not least of which is
WIPO, has been addressing barriers posed by copyrights and patents.

Asia Commons: Asian Conference on the Digital Commons invites
researchers working in the area of copyrights and patents, promoters of
collaborative models, development practitioners engaged in collaborative
content creation and dissemination and custodians of public information
to go beyond the current dialogue and debate to explore key issues and
ideas related to access to knowledge and culture in Asia.

Participants are invited to explore key themes and questions related to
the Asian Commons:

* What is the relationship between infrastructure and copyrights on
access to culture and knowledge?
* How do software and business process patents affect innovation?
* What are the impacts of patents on software innovations in Asia?
* What are the emerging Open Business Models for content production in Asia?
* Given existing legal, cultural and infrastructural environments both
within and outside of Asia, how can we contribute to increasing access
to knowledge and culture through an Asia Commons?

While we will be inviting a number of speakers who are seen as
thought-leaders in the field of Access to Knowledge and Culture, we will
also look to innovative approaches to ensure a high degree of
interaction among participants in spaces and sessions which are designed
to maximize the exchange of experiences and ideas.

Conference Fees, Registration, and Scholarships:

There are no fees for participation in the conference which is supported
through funding made available by the International Development Research
Centre's (IDRC's) Pan Asia Program (http://www.idrc.ca/panasia).

If you are interested in participating, please register online at
http://www.asia-commons.net/conf_registration/add or email
reg...@as... to receive a registration form which can
be submitted through email. Please register before March 8, 2006.

Thanks to the generous support of IDRC's Pan Asia
(http://www.idrc.ca/panasia) and UNDP APDIP's IOSN (http://www.iosn.net)
there are also a number of scholarships available for participants in
need of financial support. Please visit
http://www.asia-commons.net/participate for more information.

Can't Join Us?

For those unable to join us physically during the event, we invite you
to participate through the participants discussion list and visit
http://www.asia-commons.net for outputs during the conference itself.

To subscribe to the participants discussion list, send an email to
par...@as... with the word subscribe in the
subject.

A special issue of i4d Magazine (http://www.i4donline.net) will be
produced in June 2006 based on the conference and its themes.

We look forward to seeing you at Asia Commons.

Your Organising Committee:
- Shikha Shrestha, Bellanet Asia (in partnership with SAP International)
(http://www.sapint.org)
- Sarah Kerr, Bellanet International Secretariat (http://www.bellanet.org)
- Jaya Chittoor, Centre for Science, Development and Media Studies
(http://www.csdms.in)
- Sunil Abraham, UNDP APDIP's International Open Source Network
(http://www.iosn.net)