Philippine Commons

Note Verbale: Open education empowers
by Jaime N. Soriano, CPA, MNSA

With the age of information technology at the center stage of human interaction, there is an emerging global consensus for collaboration in providing access to learning and knowledge and developing a wide range of educatinal resources in cyberspace that are free and open for everyone to use outside of the traditional models. It is referred to as “open education.”

The Cape Town Open Education Declaration in September 2007 and now signed by over 1,500 individuals and more than 150 organizations all over the world urges educators and learners participation in the open education movement, and the promotion of open education resources and open education policies (see www.capetowndeclaration.org).

Open education operates on different frameworks, such as Open University, e-learning, open content to wikis, e-books, legal commons or open coursewares. And these methods are not necessarily mutually exclusive.

Sir John Daniel, president and CEO of the Commonwealth of Learning (COL), in a speech before the William Flora Hewlett Foundation Grantees Meeting in a symposium on Open Learning Interplay at the Carnegie Mellon University on March 12, 2008, said:

“Open education broke open the iron triangle of access, cost and quality that had constrained education throughout history and had created the insidious assumption, still prevalent today, that in education you cannot have quality without exclusivity.”

“Open as to people, open as to places, open as to methods, and open as to ideas. That is a good framework to think about open education.” quoting and paraphrasing a 1969 address of The Economist editor, Geoffrey Crowther, an early advocate of open education whose speech was still probably written in a typewriter.

In the first forum dubbed as “Open Education: Are we ready and where are we?” held on April 23, 2008, the Philippine Commons and the e-Law Center of the Arellano University School of Law advanced the idea that “open education” should refer to any scholarly, academic or guided initiative that promotes access to learning and knowledge in a free, open and collaborative environment using the tools and infrastructure of information technology.

Open education is an initiative whose time has come.

In the words of Kristine Mandigma, editor in chief of Vibal Foundation: “In leading economies, technology and knowledge are the critical factors of economic growth.” She emphasized though that innovation is the key.

Greg Moreno of Bayanihan Books believes that open education would eventually fill the gaps in the educational system as technology attempts to address the issue of content quality and commercial viability.

Lawyer Michael Vernon Guerrero of Philippine Commons submits that open education empowers people. He thinks that open content is the first step toward collaboration as international endeavors in this respect continue to grow, develop and mature.

Miriam Coprado of the Department of Education shares the view that while government continues to pursue the integration of information technology in the educational system, the contribution of the private sector remains a most important element.

But the societal significance of open education was best expressed by Siegfried Herzog, resident representative of the Friedrich Naumann Foundation in the Philippines, during the forum when he said:

“Remember, knowledge is power. Whenever access to knowledge is restricted, there is an issue of power behind it—a ruling elite will control knowledge in order to maintain power. If we truly believe that power should be vested in people, not in elites, anything that increases access to knowledge and deepening of knowledge is welcome. Open education is thus not just a nifty tool to enhance skills. It is a way to build a freer society.”

Certainly, open education empowers because it is built upon a platform of collaboration, equal opportunities, and open access to knowledge that could shift the paradigm of conventional educational systems that are perceived to be discriminating.

• This article appeared on print at the Manila Times, and alternatively available at the website of the said newspaper. Atty. Jimmy N. Soriano’s website is available at www.soriano-ph.com
• An article, entitled Philippine Commons Holds Conference on Open Education, and the speech delivered by Herr Sigfried Herzog are available at the Friedrich Naumann Foundation website.

23 April 2008

830-900 :: Registration

900-915 :: Invocation

915-1000 :: Introduction to Open Education
Speaker/org: Creative Commons Philippines
Atty. Jaime “Jimmy” Soriano
1000-1015 Q&A

1015-1030 :: Break

1030-1115 :: Creative empowerment and liberal education
Speaker/org: Friedrich Naumann Stiftung fur die Freiheit
Mr. Sigfried Herzog
1115-1030 Q&A

1130-1215 :: The public direction of Philippine education (primary and secondary)
Speaker/org: Department of Education
Atty. Geronimo “Indy” Sy
1215-1230 Q&A

1230-130 :: Lunch Break

130-215 :: Private initiatives towards open education: International/Local
Speaker/org: Creative Commons Philippines
Atty. Michael Vernon “Berne” Guerrero
215-230 Q&A

230-315 :: Private initiatives towards free and open books
Speaker/org: Bayanihan Books
Mr. Greg Moreno
315-330 Q&A

330-345 :: Break

345-430 :: commercial/business reaction to open content
Speaker/org: Vibal Foundation
Ms. Kristine Mandigma
430-445 Q&A

445-500 :: Closing remarks

Event Info
Name: Philippine Open Education forum
Tagline: Are we ready and where are we?
Sponsor: Philippine Commons
Host: e-Law Center, Arellano University School of Law
Type: Meetings - Club/Group Meeting

Time and Place
Date: Wednesday, April 23, 2008
Time: 8:30am - 5:00pm
Location: Arellano University School of Law
Street: Taft Avenue corner Menlo street
City/Town: Pasay City, Philippines

Contact Info
Phone: 639215173631
Email: guerrero +AT mydestiny +DOT net

Description

The mini-conference aims to inquire upon the feasibility and development of private initiatives to contribute in the Philippine educational or learning system, as alternative else collaborating actors in this matter.

This is pursued especially in light of the developments on Open Education in the international stage (see http://www.capetowndeclaration.org/read-the-declaration ; among others).

Considerations on the development of such initiatives locally would necessarily include the reception (either reactions and plans) of the government and the corporate providers regarding the matter, and thus would necessitate their participation in the mix.

Guests are allowed to bring friends to this event. Please inform us whether you or your friends are coming so that we can make the necessary headcount. No registration fees, by the way. Thank you.

Local electronica group DRIP (Beng Calma-Alcazaren, Malek Lopez, Arvin “Caliph8″ Nogueras, Ian “Morse” Magbanua), Mark Laccay, and Creative Commons Philippines (Atty. Jimmy Soriano and Atty. Berne Guerrero) were guests in the RockEd Radio session (hosted by Lourd de Veyra and Gang Badoy), entitled “Dripping Creativity” on 13 April 2008, 2000H +0800 at the NU107 studio in Pasig City.

Besides performing three of their songs live on the show, DRIP provided audience the rationale why they licensed their second full length album “Identity Theft” under Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Philippines license. Creative Commons Philippines provided a short orientation on copyright and Creative Commons licensing by answering inquiries on the matter during the show.

More pictures at Facebook.

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.

Regional Trial Court (RTC) Judge Maria Elisa Sempio Diy is attending ACIA (Asia and Commons in the Information Age) conference. She is set to perform in the ACIA Concert (”CC Asia Mega Mix!”) at Riverside Cafe, Taipei, Taiwan on the evening of the 19th. She is releasing two of her compositions under Creative Commons Philippine licenses (”I choose you” and “Isama mo ako”).

About Lisa Diy. RTC Judge Sempio Diy (or Lisa Diy as she is known in the Philippine music industry) is a lyricist and composer. She has written and composed at least twenty popular and best-selling songs for top Filipino singers/artists like Jaya, Lani Misalucha, Regine Velasques, Sharon Cuneta, Roselle Nava, Agot Isidro, Melissa Gibbs, Pops Fernandez, Gabby Eigenmann, Zsa Zsa Padilla, and Dennis Trillo. One of her songs, “To Reach You” achieved a Platinum Award in the Philippine recording industry. She has been designated as CC-PH’s resident artist on music.

Incidentally, Atty. Jaime Soriano and Atty. Michael Vernon Guerrero are in Taiwan, also to participate in the ACIA . They are scheduled to talk about Legal Commons on the 20th, Sunday, during the session on “Case Studies and project showcases,” chaired by Catharina Maracke, Director of Creative Commons International.

Image: (c) 2008. Berne Guerrero. CC BY 3.0 Philippines

Bayanihan Books has signified their intent to be one of the active proponents towards Open Content.

Interestingly, Greg Moreno of Bayanihan Books wrote the article, “How to solve our textbook problems and give every Filipino a better education”, a concern shared by the CC-PH deputy project lead in “An opportunity arising from the new Philippine DepEd policy on public school textbooks”. These articles were written independently, and the two authors were only introduced to each other, over email, by Jun Asis of the Philippine e-Learning Society and MagandangBalita.com, a week before the CC-PH license launching.

Bayanihan Books is a project that aims to solve the textbooks problems in public education using community-based collaboration and a copyright license that promotes sharing and reuse (i.e. Creative Commons) of educational content. Its goals are to (1) Produce textbook materials for every subject in every grade level and make it available on the Internet; and (2) Convince the government to adopt these materials, and print and distribute them to public schools. Currently, Bayanihan Books have the initial text for two books. It has the outline for all subjects but it still needs authors to lead the writing. The links to these books are available at its website, www.BayanihanBooks.org.

Necessarily thus, Bayanihan Books aims to write textbooks in the open where contents are made available on the Internet from initial outline to final manuscript. This would allow every teacher, parent, student, professional, DepEd official, virtually anyone, to review the textbooks even before they get published. It aims to release the textbooks under a license that would permit everyone to use and publish the textbooks without paying royalty to anyone. Thus, saving the government of content development costs and allowing more publishers to fulfill the demands of public (and even private) schools. [ Read more ]

The launch of Creative Commons Philippine jurisdictional licenses have been amply covered by Philippine media.

Interviews with Atty. Soriano by GMA-7 and RPN-9 were aired. Articles on broadsheets, such as in the Manila Bulletin (page E3) and the Daily Mirror (page A3), both 17 January 2008 issues, were published. The Manila Bulletin article was written by Mindy of WikiPilipinas.org.

Atty. Soriano is scheduled for an interview, on Creative Commons, in another TV network after he returns to Manila after the ACIA conference.

The Creative Commons Philippine jurisdictional licenses and the Philippine Commons have been successfully launched on Monday, 14 January 2008.

The series of talks, entitled “Strides towards Philippine Commons,” were warmly received by the participants, with ample inquiries thrown the way of the speakers. Prof. Engels Antonio,¹ of Bluepoint Institute of Higher Technology Foundation, ² provided the talk on “Linux and FOSS,” distinguishing the models of proprietary software, free software, and open source software, and emphasizing the community that develops in this kind of initiative. Prof. Leandre Andres S. Dacanay,³ President of the Philippine e-Learning Society,⁴ provided the talk on “Teaching and Learning through e-Learning.” He provided the full details in pursuing e-Learning systems, and the challenges and the solutions in meeting those challenges. Atty. Michael Vernon M. Guerrero, deputy project lead of Creative Commons Philippines, provided a small orientation on the thrust of the “Philippine Commons” and emphasized the need for collaboration among stakeholders, and persuading the participants to take the opportunity to develop the network of those, initially, who are present to grace the event. Participants were from various sectors. Besides the organizations represented by the speakers, representatives from the International Rice Research Institute, the Asian Institute of Management, the National Book Development Board of the Department of Education, Filipiniana.net / Wikipilipinas.org, Bayanihan Books, the Foundation for Media Alternatives, legal practitioners, and law students, among others, were present.

The launch proper was conducted in the Review Hall of the Arellano University School of Law. The Arellano Law Singers opened the launch with rendition of the invocation and the National Anthem. Atty. Erik Lazo provided the opening remarks. Three videos explaining the origin and the rationale of Creative Commons were presented. Atty. Guerrero explained the rationale for the porting process. Atty. Jaime Soriano, Atty. Gabriel dela Pena of the Arellano Law Foundation, and Dr. Florentino Cayco III of the Arellano University system proceeded with the launching of the CC-PH licenses and CC-PH related projects. The Arellano Law Singers sang two of the songs (”Lawyers’ Oath” and “Bill of Rights”) they have released under the CC BY-NC-SA 3.0 Philippine licenses. Subsequently, Atty. de la Pena explained the role of the Arellano Law Foundation and the law school in Creative Commons. Dr. Cayco expressed the continuing support of the Arellano community in the endeavors of CC Philippines. Atty. Soriano closed, explaining further the Creative Commons’ mission and recognizing those who have attended the ceremony.

Seven bands performed during the CC Concert. Almost all the rock music pieces performed that night were originals of the bands, emphasizing the capacity of the Philippine youth to generate their own creative musical content. Eugene Marfil, of New Born Audio and a member of the popular Philippine band “True Faith” also sang two of his original works. The affair ended at 10:30 in the evening.

Photos and videos to follow.

1. Engels started playing with Linux® in 1991 and obtained his Red Hat Certified Engineer (RHCE) and Red Hat Certified Examiner (RHCX) certifications in 2002. He is in charge of Total Linux®, Linux Kernel Internals®, Perl & Python Programming, and Extreme PHP curriculum and instruction development of Bluepoint Foundation since 1999. Engels is also a Fedora Ambassador and an OpenVZ developer. [↩]
2. Bluepoint is a non-profit Open Source education and development center. It is the first organization in the Philippines that focuses on Linux and Open Source training [↩]
3. Andre finished his undergraduate degree from the University of Santo Tomas in Education, major in Computer Technology, and now pursuing his masteral studies on educational management. Currently, he is the Internal Project Manager of the Educational Technology Center, eLearning Access Program, also from the University of Santo Tomas.

   Serving as President of the Philippine eLearning Society (PeLS), he has been a participant in a number of international eLearning trainings. From the California Virtual Campus, USA, APEC eLearning Training by the Institute of APEC Collaborative Education in Pusan National University in Busan, Korea and eLearning Development and Implementation (eLDI), this time with the Global Campus 21 InWent-Germany.

   He was the conference chair of the recently concluded 6th National eLearning Conference with the theme “Learning About Technology, eLearning with technology for the Academe and Industry” last October 2007. His interests include educational technology, e-Learning and project management. [↩]

4. The Philippine eLearning Society (PeLS) was founded on July 30, 2003 in Manila with the objective of promoting substantive content, appropriate pedagogy, and appropriate use of technology for eLearning, guided by ongoing research activities. PeLS serves as a venue for: Promoting research on the effective use of eLearning, sharing of eLearning experiences, developing standards of excellence, promoting interoperability of eLearning systems, encouraging collaboration in the development of substantive content, cooperating with international eLearning groups, and promoting public awareness and appreciation of the nature and uses of eLearning. [↩]

San Francisco, CA, USA and Pasay City, Metro Manila, Philippines — January 14, 2008

Following the unveiling of the Philippine localized Creative Commons licenses in December, citizens of the archipelago will gather today in Manila to celebrate in full the public launch of its completed licenses and the country’s strides towards fostering the global commons movement.

Attorney Jaime N. Soriano, Creative Commons Philippines Project Lead and Executive Director of the e-Law Center, announces that the launch activities are scheduled to take place on January 14, 2008 from 1:00pm to 9:00pm at the Arellano University School of Law.

The event will consist of three parts: 1) an orientation to projects by stakeholders in the Philippine Commons, with the aim of developing a local collaboration promoting alternative licensing, free and open source software, open education, and free culture; 2) the public presentation of the CC Philippine Licensing Suite Version 3.0, which has been available online since its soft launch December 15, 2007; and 3) the CC Philippines Concert featuring more than six local rock bands.

Atty. Soriano and Atty. Michael Vernon M. Guerrero, Deputy Project Lead of CC Philippines, are both pleased to also announce the public launching of the Philippine Commons website, available at www.philippinecommons.org, and the adaption of a CC license to the LawPhil Project, the most popular and comprehensive website on Philippine law and jurisprudence.

The localized CC licenses will also be applied to the Arellano Law and Policy Review; the law school’s IT Law Journal, whose first quarter issue features all articles devoted to Creative Commons; and the original works of the Arellano Law Singers. These materials will be presented and shared at ACIA: International Workshop on Asia and Commons in the Information Age, held on January 19-20 in Taipei, Taiwan.

About Arellano University School of Law

The law school Arellano University School of Law, a non-stock non-profit institution, is named after the First Chief Justice of the Philippine Supreme Court, Cayetano S. Arellano, and established in 1938. Today it boasts more than six decades of providing quality legal education. The foremost objective of the school is to create global lawyers: practitioners who are deeply educated in the law, practice-ready, and devoted to service not only in the local but also the international community. Arellano Law prides itself for being one of the most populous law schools in the Philippines with faculty members who have distinguished themselves in law practice, the judiciary, government service, and the academe. The law school furthermore is one of the few schools in the Philippines that produces the most number of lawyers in the annual bar examinations administered by the Supreme Court.

For more information, please visit http://www.arellanolaw.edu/.

About the e-Law Center at Arellano University School of Law

The e-Law Center was founded in November 2002 under the auspices of the Arellano University School of Law, following the launching of the school’s LAWPHiL Project, which is considered one of the most popular on-line and electronic databases of Philippine law and jurisprudence that is accessible for free to the general public. The Center is pursuing projects in research, publication, policy initiatives and advocacy, capability building, academic support, and linkages in the field of information and communication technology as it affects the Philippine legal system.

About Creative Commons

Creative Commons is a not-for-profit organization, founded in 2001, that promotes the creative re-use of intellectual and artistic works, whether owned or in the public domain. Through its free copyright licenses, Creative Commons offers authors, artists, scientists, and educators the choice of a flexible range of protections and freedoms that build upon the “all rights reserved” concept of traditional copyright to enable a voluntary “some rights reserved” approach. Creative Commons was built with and is sustained by the generous support of organizations including the Center for the Public Domain, the Omidyar Network, The Rockefeller Foundation, The John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, and The William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, as well as members of the public.

For more information about Creative Commons, visit http://creativecommons.org.

Contact
Dr. Catharina Maracke
Director
Creative Commons International, Creative Commons
catharina@creativecommons.org

Press Kit
http://creativecommons.org/presskit
http://creativecommons.org/international/ph/

Image: “Remix.” © 2008. Berne Guerrero. Some Rights Reserved. Except when otherwise noted , this work is licensed under Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Philippines. This was built upon the works of [1] Beth Kanter (cambodia4kidsorg). “What A Second Grader Knows About Creative Commons.” CC BY 2.0 Generic. http://www.flickr.com/photos/cambodia4kidsorg/2042494952/; [2] Peter Shanks (BotheredByBees). “CC swag XI”. CC BY 2.0 Generic. http://www.flickr.com/photos/botheredbybees/2101568605; [3] Emil Alviola. “scratch-this”. CC BY 2.0 Generic. http://www.flickr.com/photos/21328364@N06/2070594652/, and [4] Creative Commons “About” text. CC BY 3.0 http://creativecommons.org/about/