Who We Are

From Florida Free Culture Wiki

Contents 1 The Sound Byte Explanation 2 The Principles Explanation 3 The Tangible Examples Explanation 4 Events We Do

[edit] The Sound Byte Explanation

Florida Free Culture is a student group at the University of Florida. Our mission is:

• to advance cultural participation, especially in areas of new technology, and
• to promote intellectual property policy in the public interest.

We are named for Lawrence Lessig's book, Free Culture[1], and are a chapter of FreeCulture.org[2].

[edit] The Principles Explanation

Florida Free Culture supports:

• a free, open society that encourages creativity
• the ability to innovate
• the freedom to tinker
• open access to information
• open standards for digital sustainability
• free speech
• Free/Open Source/Libre software
• the fight against technological, legal, and speech chilling effects

[edit] The Tangible Examples Explanation

Florida Free Culture supports:

• remixing culture
• blending barbies
• the ability to fast-forward
• hacking your Xbox
• fighting ridiculous patents
• controlling your digital media

[edit] Events We Do

Florida Free Culture

• has awesome speakers
  • Wikipedia co-founder, Jimbo Wales
  • FreeCulture.org co-founder, Nelson Pavlosky
  • Iran's first female blogger, Sanam Dolatshahi
  • the guys from Grooveshark
  • a UF professor who wrote a paper on network neutrality Professor Shubho Bandyopadhyay

• creates culture
  • (Re)Create was a collage-making event held at the Reitz Union colonnade which remixed old magazines into new art.
  • Open Art was an art show exhibited in the Reitz Union gallery featuring Creative Commons art created by UF students, faculty, and alumni.

• advocates for good causes
  • Free Your PC is an event held every semester where we explain the benefits of free/open source software and install programs such as Firefox, Thunderbird, and Gaim on the computers of passers-by.
  • the panel on open access had students, researchers, and librarians explain and advocate the concept of open access.
  • we participated in the Day Against DRM by painting the 34th St. wall and hosting a talk by security expert Jordan Wiens
  • Software Freedom Day is an international, grassroots effort to educate the general public about free/open source software. Florida Free Culture and GatorLUG, Gainesville's Linux Users Group, teamed up for the 2006 SFD and we plan to hold one for 2007 as well.

• has lots of fun
  • CopyNight Gainesville is a monthly gathering of people interested in intellectual property issues. The idea is to chat about the latest IP news over drinks, though we tend to veer off on wide tangents (it's always interesting, though). We (usually) meet every 4th Wednesday at 7pm at Tim and Terry's (1417 NW 1st Ave.).