Minutes 2/7/08
Our last FC meeting was a lot of fun. Thanks to all the regulars who showed up. The baked goods (I thought) tasted a little better this time, and we got a lot accomplished.
Thursday seems to be a good day (again, please email me if you can’t make a meeting — even if you’ve never come to one(!) — so I know you’re interested). Some people thought 9pm was better, others liked 9.30. I’m going to try to set this meeting at 9pm this week: Thursday, Feb. 14 in Kohlberg Coffee Bar. I’ll bring (hopefully more improved) food.
1. Films
Free Culture is having a film series! We’re going to be showing “movies” rather than documentaries (though we may show one later in conjunction with an event) that are in public domain. We’re trying to pick movies that are good (rather than “schlock”), but that aren’t popular or shown in film classes. We brainstormed about movies like Charade, Dementia 13, Buckets of Blood, Santa Claus Battles the Martians, Ed Wood films, etc. There are lots of lists online, so please suggest movies!
Our first film will be Friday, Feb. 22 @ 4:30pm. We haven’t picked a film yet. We’re thinking about changing the day/time for each movie so different people can come.
We’ll hopefully be working with the film dept. and/or the Film Society. I was thinking of calling the series “Free Culture: Free Movies.”
2. Michener
I met with Maurice Eldridge about releasing a James Michener novel under CreativeCommons. We’re currently picking a novel and specific license, and then things should progress. This will be a major accomplishment for the Free Culture community.
3. ITS
I met with Gayle Barton, the new ITS director. The meeting went very well, and she’s a wonderful person with our interests in mind.
The most important thing we talked about was regular log rotation/deletion in order to protect students from RIAA attack. This is a complicated issue, but we talked with some other people in ITS and it seems a 30 day deletion is completely feasible. It will be Free Culture’s responsibility to promote knowledge about this change and gain student support (a petition?). More about this as it develops.
4. Media Server
I’m currently trying to figure the details out with SCCS about getting a media server together (the funding is there already).
Regarding software, we had previously thought about DSpace, but Gayle suggested we also look at Fedora Commons, which looks like a great choice! We’ll have to discuss these two possibilities.