Here’s the session description from the BookCamp website:

Artefatica: An Open Publishing Experiment. Christine Prefontaine, Artefatica. Everything Artefatica produces — from original works to remixes to new versions of the classics — is distributed under a Creative Commons Attribution Share-Alike license. The vision: Projects that bring people together around a compelling theme, spur creativity and dialogue, and contribute to the commons. Collaborative teams producing a series or artefacts — books, swag, artworks, websites, events. Readers as participants, engaging, contributing, and building on each work. But is it really possible to create books without boundaries? This session will review what we’ve learned in the process of creating our proof-of-concept project.

There were about 40 participants and, despite it being waaaay too early in the morning, I was really pleased with the way it went. Especially because I’m terrified of public speaking and really wanting to get over that and practice my facilitation skills. And overall BookCamp was an amazing success. Great organization, speakers, and participants. Here are but a few of the post-conference blogs.

The Book Oven debrief (Hugh McGuire)
Books on the Radio
418QE (James Cadwell)
Sir Wilfred Laurier Press
The National Post
Annick Press
The Library Bazaar (Fiacre O’Duinn)
Confessions of a Science Librarian (John Dupis)
Mark Blevis
Threepress Consulting (Liza Daly)

My favorite though is we all went nuts using Twitter. The tag #bcto09 was shared ahead of time and well-publicized. This made real-time social reporting a snap, which led to fun, back-channel conversations that made it easy to connect with others afterward.

New York in June. So nice. And wouldn’t it be great to attend the Open Video Alliance‘s Open Video Conference? Here’s what they’re all about:

Open Video is a broad-based movement of video creators, technologists, academics, filmmakers, entrepreneurs, activists, remixers, and many others. …Open Video is the growing movement for transparency, interoperability, and further decentralization in online video. These qualities provide more fertile ground for independent producers, bottom-up innovation, and greater protection for free speech online.

… online video lacks some of the essential qualities that make text and images on the web such powerful tools for free speech and technical innovation. Email, blogs, and other staples of the open web rely on ubiquitous and interoperable technologies that have low barriers to entry; they are massively decentralized and resistant to censorship or regulation. Video, meanwhile, relies on centralized distribution and proprietary technologies which can threaten cultural discourse and innovation.

Conference participants will discuss the legal and social norms surrounding online video, creators’ ability to license their works, media consolidation and decentralization, and fair use. Should be great.

This autumn, Sylvain Carle and I would like to organize an event — Open Montreal / Montreal Ouvert — that gathers our community to share and discuss these issues. I’m hoping it will be affiliated with the OpenEverything series of events. As a first step, we invite you to join us at Station C on April 3, 2009, for an informal get-together to check in with each other, set a date, have some drinks, and start to co-create our vision for the event.

The event will be facilitated in French. Learn more at MontrealOuvert.ca.