Introductions

hi all, i am a bit of a lurker on the CCANZ list but greatly appreciate all the work that goes on. i'm one of the organisers of UpStage, an open source web platform for cyberformance (live online performance) which is about to celebrate its 10th birthday in january (http://www.upstage.org.nz). it's an artist-led project and through this and my other work as a digital artist i have learned about open source & creative commons & am very passionate about this & particularly about digital artists understanding the tools we work with & the politics of hardware & software. http://www.creative-catalyst.com

Kia ora koutou,
I work as the Digital Services Coordinator at the University of Otago Library. My challenge is to help establish the framework to make our fantastic collection more open. This can currently be done via a few services http://otago.ourarchive.ac.nz/ (DSpace) and http://www.otago.ac.nz/library/for/staff/ourjournals.html (OJS) - though these are not perfect in regards to the content. We are also using another Open Source software Omeka for http://otago.ourheritage.ac.nz/. My goal is to do what Te Papa and NLNZ/DigitalNZ are doing with their collections :-)

Outside work I have been using CC for my own poetry and photos for 5+ years.

Tēnā koutou katoa, I'm Danyl Strype, environmentalist and digital rights activist, and passionate advocate of the commons in both the offline and online realms. I've been involved in CC ANZ since it kicked off, initially by establishing the CC-NZ email list and facilitating development strategy brainstorms, and more recently as a community advocate and general volunteer. I am going to not use the internet in 2014, and write a book about the experience and issues like the digital divide, but no doubt I'll see you all here in 2015.

Kia ora. I am Diane P McCarthy, and I am a course facilitator at CPIT, Department of Computing. I am interested in developing serious games to share to encourage people to enter the IT industry. I met Matt through his work in Creative Commons advocacy and he guest lectures by Skype in my BCIS206 Professionalism course. I enjoy Matt's fresh approach and I look forward to collaborating with other like minded digital divas and lords.

Hello! I am Conal Thompson, a (soon-to-be) recent graduate of the Law and Arts departments at the University of Auckland and Research Intern this summer at CCANZ. I came across Creative Commons in my Intellectual Property Law paper taught by Paul Sumpter and found that the work CCANZ does struck a particular chord in both my areas of study, Film and Law.
As the rapid force of globalisation is pushed forward by increased connectivity through the internet, I believe that we have the greatest opportunity in being able to share our knowledge and build on our collective strengths and weaknesses for the betterment of society. While it is important that creators should be able to reap from what they sow, this right needs to be balanced with the need for public access to knowledge and content to provide inspiration for further innovation.
I am attracted to the work of CCANZ because they help those creators who want to be able to share their knowledge with the world in an easy to understand and hassle-free way, in a manner that encourages others to do the same as well while also protecting and acknowledging their contributions. Their work is important to building a collective database of knowledge that others can access and use to create their own content and share with others. I’m excited to be able to contribute to an already-established global movement that looks forward to the future and to see so many like-minded people here already on board!

I've been lurking in this CC ANZ Loomio for a while now, and think it's time I put my hand up as a "Community Volunteer". I've read the draft volunteer page and the draft volunteer guidelines. I'm already known to Matt and Elizabeth, by way of private email communications, so herein I tender my introduction to the rest of CC ANZ, and outline my interest in the Commons.

I'm a digital content creator. As a self-professed untalented artist, whether of visual, audio, or multimedia arts, I rely on real artists to create first, then I remix. Heck, these days, everybody is a digital content creator, if you take remixing into consideration. Even 4chan members making pix to troll online forums with, are digital content creators. Some people aren't too concerned about where they obtain their original artwork from. I like to acknowledge those who have the talent that I lack. For this, Creative Commons licensing is ideal. Not only am I untalented as an artist, but also as a programmer. I self-identify as a "plagiarist programmer", or a "Master of Copy and Paste (MCP)". I know enough about software development to be able to make modifications, but I'm not skilled enough to create something from scratch. Once again, this lends itself nicely to Creative Commons attribution and open source software.

I have an interest in the maker movement and free culture. As a welfare beneficiary and long-term illness sufferer, I cannot afford to contribute much financially to anything, so I tend to try to volunteer for things, as my health allows, as recompense for the benefit I derive from other people's artistic and creative efforts. Over the last few years I've helped to deliver printed CC ANZ brochures to my local arts collective at Corban Estate and to local schools in the vicinity in Henderson, West Auckland. To find out more about me (probably more than you'd like to know), take a look at my LoveHendo digital media portfolio, which I've built using TiddlyWiki. It also contains an example of my implementation of CC licensing.