Philippine Commons

The Document Freedom site¹ provides in its “About” page:

Document Freedom Day (DFD) is a global day for document liberation. It will be a day of grassroots effort to educate the public about the importance of Free Document Formats and Open Standards in general.

Complementary to Software Freedom Day, we aim to have local teams all over the world organise events on the last Wednesday of March. 2008 is the first year that Document Freedom Day is being called for, and we are looking for people around the world who are willing to join the effort.

DFD’s main goals are:

• promotion and adoption of free document formats
• forming a global network
• coordination of activities that happen on 26th of March, Document Freedom Day

Once a year, we will celebrate Document Freedom Day as a global community. Between those days, DFD will be focused on facilitating community action and building awareness for issues of Document Freedom and Open Standards.

There are three (3) DFD teams in the Philippines so far. We hope that you will join the DFD community.

Activities ongoing:

Korakora Proyekto: Open On-Line Dialogue “Surfers or Serfs: Digital Freedom or Digital Feudalism?” From 26 February - 26 March 2008 http://korakora.org/proyekto/dfd08/

An on-line event organized in conjunction with Document Liberation and Open Standards 26 March 2008 Document Freedom Day http://documentfreedom.org/

In response to efforts of promoting, adopting and raising awareness for Free Document Formats and Open Standards, the Philippines-based art initiative Korakora.org is organizing an open on-line dialogue entitled “Surfers or Serfs: Digital Freedom or Digital Feudalism?”

Within the context of issues addressed within the free, open-source, and open-standards community, “Surfers or Serfs” seeks to investigate realities of Freedom within the Culture of Ignorance: Are humans being turned into machines so others can exploit them without them questioning their own slavery? Why do we consider somebody “computer literate” when they can only operate the controls of a commercial computer system?

“Surfers or Serfs” also seeks to interrogate the methodologies of “free, open-source, and open-standards” from a broad philosophical perspective, in particular, the celebrated shift from the image of the computer as a complex rule based simulation system to a simple communication device that has enabled the computer to be commercially and politically exploited as a (postmodern) propaganda machine.

“Surfers or Serfs: Digital Freedom or Digital Feudalism?” opens 26 February and runs until Document Freedom Day March 26, 2008. The on-line dialogue is created and facilitated by Fatima Lasay (PH) and Trevor Batten (UK). To participate, go to http://korakora.org/proyekto/

Philippine DFD Teams:

AsiaSource-Pilipinas (Lungsod ng Maynila)

AsiaSource-Pilipinas was formed to gather delegates of Asia Source 1 and 2 from the Philippines (vernacular: Pilipinas). Asia Source camps are source camps that focused on capability-building and empowerment with Free/Open Source Software. Asia Source 1 was held in 2005 in Bangalore (India) and Asia Source 2 in 2007 in Sukabumi, Indonesia.

AsiaSource-Pilipinas was created and formally launched as a team (with the same name) for the Software Freedom Day 2007 and actively took part in the day’s activities in collaboration with other F/OSS groups in Manila, Philippines.

The group continues to promote the source camp concept and F/OSS in other activities and events organized by the International Open Source Network ASEAN+3 (IOSN ASEAN+3), a F/OSS advocacy group established by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) under its Asia-Pacific Development and Information Programme (APDIP) initiative.

AsiaSource-Pilipinas is gearing itself for the planning and organizing preparations for the forthcoming Asia Source 3, which will be hosted by the Philippines in 2009.

MABUHAY AsiaSource-Pilipinas!

JEDI (Lungsod ng Quezon)

UP Java Research & Development Center is a group of faculty members and students developing free and open Computer Science and IT course ware using Java. Our materials are all in Open Document Format.

Korakora Proyekto (Lungsod ng Quezon)

Korakora Proyekto is an arts initiative focussed on language-making. Proyekto encourages: The Commons. Free and Open Source Software as philosophy and pragmatic methodology. Creative, bootstrapping systems. Integration of knowledge, understanding, research and practical experience. “Traditional” social debate about political alternatives and choices.

1. http://www.documentfreedom.org/About ; licensed under GNU FDL [↩]

DRIP is scheduled for a radio guesting on the show RockED Radio at NU107 FM on April 13, 8PM at NU107, AIC Gold Tower on Ortigas Avenue, Pasig City. The show features current issues in music and what not, and on occasions, bands or groups also perform live on air. As it was deemed necessary, Creative Commons Philippines was invited to talk about the Creative Commons license and how it works, its application to the Philippines and beyond, and other related topics, in the same session.

Creative Commons Philippines is pleased to announce the release of the maiden issue of the Creative Commons Philippines newsletter, covering January and February this year.

The cover of the newsletter, present and subsequent, will feature the vibrant culture of the Philippines. This issue’s cover features the Sinulog Festival, which is held every January in Cebu City in honor of the Santo Niño (i.e. the infant Jesus).

It includes the following articles: (1) Philippine Launch Celebration: a vibrant member of the global commons, (2) Share, Remix, Reuse — Legally, (3) Strides towards a Philippine Commons — Concept and Direction, (4) Strides towards a Philippine Commons — A sampling, (5) Nightcap: the CC-PH Mini-Concert, (6) The Past Two Months at Creative Commons International, (7) ACIA (Asia and the Commons in the Information Age): Asia Commoners meet in Taipei, (8) Introducing the Arellano Law Singers, (9) Introducing Lisa Diy, (10) The Philippine Legal Commons, (11) Creative Commons Newsletters 1-5, and (12) Bayanihan Books, an Open Textbook Initiative.

Cover: © 2008. Berne Guerrero. “Sugbu.” CC BY-SA 3.0 PH. Includes an image “Magellan’s cross” from his 2 February 2008 trip to Cebu and images from nick kulas/Nicholas Manuel. “sinulog 1.” CC BY-SA 2.0 http://www.flickr.com/photos/nickulas/2225804287/ “Festival Queen of San Carlos.” CC BY-SA 2.0 http://www.flickr.com/photos/nickulas/2216666645/ “sinulog 4.” CC BY-SA 2.0 http://www.flickr.com/photos/nickulas/2225803797/ “sinulog 3.” CC BY-SA 2.0 http://www.flickr.com/photos/nickulas/2225803933/.

Local electronica group DRIP will be launching their independently produced 2nd full length album entitled Identity Theft on 15 March Saturday, 8pm (+0800) at Magnet Café High Street, Bonifacio Global City, City of Taguig, Metro Manila, Philippines. Special guests Us-2-Evil-O, Corporate Lo-Fi, Yosha, and Mark Zero will also be performing. Copies of the CD will be sold for the first time on the event.

This album introduces a first in the Philippines—the enhanced CD contains shared files of some of the song’s elements that DJs and remixers can use to create their own remixes of the songs. The DJs and remixers from all over the world can now use these songs in their sets and can claim them as their own remix provided that they provide a share-alike attribution to the original DRIP songs that they are remixing. This explains the tag line “SOME RIGHTS RESERVED” on the album in lieu of the usual “ALL RIGHTS RESERVED”. The full legal license can be viewed on the Creative Commons website at www.creativecommons.org. DRIP becomes the first Filipino music group to release a Creative Commons licensed full-length album.

What is DRIP?

It’s the classic trip hop set-up: three quiet Filipino guys in the background to tweak knobs and play instruments, with a hot Filipina female vocalist to enthrall the audience with her voice. But Drip goes beyond mere trip-hop band clichés: they are meta-glamorous, a little dark, and seductively experimental. “Capable of giving you simulated bliss,” wrote the Manila Times about the quartet. With an EP independently released in August of 2003 and constant live performances, Drip’s cult status grew with Manila’s musical cognoscenti. Drip’s 1st full-length album called “Far Side of the World” is still out from Terno Recordings and is also available on the CDBABY.COM website.

DRIP is Beng Calma-Alcazaren on Vocals, Malek Lopez on live keyboards, sound design & programming, Arvin “Caliph8″ Nogueras on Turntables & FX and Ian “Morse” Magbanua on beats, samples & programming.

Learn more about DRIP at http://dripmanila.multiply.com, www.myspace.com/dripmanila, www.deeprockdrive.com/artist/drip, www.friendster.com/drip and http://amp.channelv.com/drip

Press release and image from Caio Cadiz, marketing and promotions manager for the local independent electronica group DRIP. Image remains in full copyright.