Next year’s iCommons Summit will introduce some exciting new programme areas in response to this year’s final brainstorming workshop with participants. The iSummit will continue to showcase some of the world’s greatest visionaries in the commons arena and the iCommons Artists in Residence programme will again act as an alternative viewpoint on discussions, but next year we will introduce four new programme streams that capitalize on the successes and needs from previous years.

The most important of these is the ‘learn’ track. In this track, commons newbies or those who want to brush up on their knowledge in certain areas, will attend introductory sessions on key areas of commons theory and practice. In keeping with the spirit of the iSummit to deepen the impact of this important three-day gathering, the resources (high quality video of lectures and workshops, selected readings and tools, interactive exercises) will form the basis of a distributed curriculum that could be used by lecturers and teachers around the world as a basis for their own teaching of the creative and knowledge commons.

Incorporated into the ‘learn’ stream will be two single day programmes specifically aimed at Sapporo artists, creators and students, and a programme for creative business and academics.

Another new stream will be the ‘debating chamber’ where current, contentious statements will be deliberated. Participants will be invited to suggest topics and speakers for inclusion in this part of the programme.

The ‘create’ stream next year will be really exciting – especially since it is being held in one of the most creative nations in the world. The aim of this ‘stream’ is to enable participants to recognise the creative potential of all human beings and to better understand how creativity and innovation happens. Some of the current ideas include a workshop by the ever-popular C-shirt project, workshops by iCommons Magazine cover design company, Loftwork, and ‘node parties’ where iCommons nodes set up stations and invite participants to take a few minutes of their time to help them to do something valuable for their project. The iCommons Artists in Residence will help to coordinate this stream, assisting nodes in developing their interactive potential and in creatively expressing some of the core ideas from the Summit.

Next year, the iCommons scholarship programme will be centered around iCommons nodes. The community will be invited to vote for nodes, and a jury will decide on the top nodes from each continent who will send representatives to the iSummit.

The ‘show’ stream is inspired by the TED conference’s ‘conversation breaks’ during the traditional ‘tea time’ at the Summit. Here, projects will have an opportunity to display their current activities using posters, products or computer displays/demos, and to share some challenge or question that participants help them solve.

Finally, the ‘play’ stream will, once again, delight participants with a series of events – from dinner at the famous Okurayama Ski Jump where the Olympics were held in 1972, dancing and karaoke evening in the city, an incredible concert organized by Digital Garage, and an excursion to local areas of interest.

In January, a planning meeting will be held in Johannesburg to decide on the core themes of the event, to start work on the ‘learn’ curriculum and materials, as well as to workshop the look and feel, and mechanics of the various streams.

To help, join up at the iSummit Node.

tags: Sapporo Japan media-events summit-08 learn play create debate show inspire programme workshop

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