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A key change at iCommons
If you're not part of the iCommons mailing list, take a look at the letter that Heather Ford, Executive Director of iCommons, sent to the list yesterday:
Dear friends,
At the 2 August iCommons Board Meeting, the board decided to make some difficult but necessary changes at iCommons. It has become clear over the past months that our vision for iCommons is different from the... more
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Pioneering the Arab Poetry Commons: The Story of Dr. Rayan Helou
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http://www.rayanhelou.com CC: BY-NC-ND 2.5" href="http://icommons.org/wp-content/uploads/2007/03/Dr%20Rayan%20Helou.GIF">![Dr Rayan Helou. pic: <!-- BBCode auto-link start --><a href=]() http://www.rayanhelou.com CC: BY-NC-ND 2.5" src="http://icommons.org/wp-content/uploads/2007/03/Dr%20Rayan%20Helou.GIF" />Dr Rayan Helou is a Syrian academic, writer and poet who lives and works in Essen, Germany. He is also a pioneer of the Arab Digital Commons.
Dr. Rayan's journey with poetry started when he was 15 years old. Raised in a Syrian village well known for it's natural beauty and the innovation of its poets, he decided to develop his gift and embarked on a long and fulfilling trip into the world of artistic expression. Many of his poems were published and broadcast in Damascus. He continued to write poetry after he moved to Germany, focusing mainly on nationalism, society and romance.
His Story with the Commons
After 30 years of writing, Dr. Rayan decided to publish all his works, which he combined in four volumes. However, the process was not easy. He struggled to find an appropriate publisher in the Arab world and it was difficult to maintain the required level of communications from where he lives in Europe. In addition, the viability of print publishing was difficult to prove, especially since Dr Rayan's busy schedule prevented him from following the lengthy publishing and distribution process and the required promotion and advertising. The continuing deterioration of interest in printed publications in a world increasingly dominated by digital media was also a concern.
So Dr Rayan welcomed the idea of publishing his works electronically on a personal website (a gift from his brother Bassel) which would allow him to make these works available to the widest possible audience, at minimal cost. Wissam Tawileh, a CC evangelist and firm believer in the Arab Commons initiative was commissioned to develop the website. Wissam approached Dr. Rayan with the ideas of Creative Commons and explained why it makes sense to release his works under more open licenses. Dr. Rayan immediately decided to license all his works under an Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives license, within the Arab Commons initiative. Dr Rayan also found that the initiative aligned perfectly with his aims of making his poetry available to everyone, without any geographical, time or even legislative restrictions.
Dr. Rayan also confirmed his support of the Arab Commons initiative and committed himself to promoting the CC culture in the Arab world and encouraging the development of more open digital content in Arabic. He embarked immediately on an extensive outreach effort to communicate with Arab intellectuals and artists scattered around the world to introduce the concept of Creative Commons and to encourage them to enrich the Arab Commons with their creative, intellectual and artistic works. He also committed to releasing his upcoming volume of poetry under CC licenses, in addition to digitizing his medical works and innovations and publishing them under the Science section of the Arab Commons initiative. Dr. Rayan has several patents in psychology and gynecological medicine, some of which are taught today in Germany's top universities.
The Numbers
Since its official launch towards the end of 2006, Dr. Rayan's website has attracted a remarkable number of visitors. The site is largely frequented by Arab artists and poets from all over the globe. The website attracted 3000 visitors during the first month of its launch within the Arab Commons initiative.
When Dr Rayan talks about making arts and science available to everyone, it is obvious that he does not care about the financial gains. He firmly believes that the ultimate goal for publishing any work is to spread the benefit and joy that's inherent in artistic, literary and scientific works.
Many thanks for Dr. Rayan Helou for pioneering this uncharted area, in which he made a truly successful case for others to follow. The significant growth achieved by Arab Commons initiative over the past two months is just a teaser of what the Arab world's Commons will eventually look like.
Picture: Dr Rayan Helou. Pic: http://www.rayanhelou.com CC: BY-NC-ND 2.5
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