Free Culture Forum and new models for a
               sustainable creativity

                                   Jaron Rowan

                     Free Culture Forum/YProductions/La-Ex
                                jaron@ypsite.net,
                             http://fcforum.net/es



      Abstract. During the talk I will introduce the work carried out by
      the FCF and engage in some of the debates that have taken place in
      this arena. I will focus on the idea of cultural commons and how the
      creative industries have tended to use this pool of common knowledge
      as a resource that doesnt need to be cared off or looked after. I will
      look into business and social forms of organization aimed at producing
      culture acknowledging social production and the creative basins that lie
      at the centre of cultural development. After all it is our responsibility,
      as civil society, to oppose practices that plunder this common heritage
      and to block its future development. We need to defend and expand the
      sphere in which human creativity and knowledge can prosper freely and
      sustainably.


1   Content

The FCForum brings together key organisations and active voices in the spheres
of free/libre culture and knowledge. It responds to the need for an international
arena in which to put together and coordinate a global framework for action.
    Standing up to the powerful lobbies of the copyright industries, the FCFo-
rum is a space for creating tools and strengthening civil society in regards to the
creation and distribution of art, culture and knowledge in the digital age. After
an initial phase in which free/libre culture emerged, grew and expanded, there is
now an urgent need to re-think the existing economic structures for the produc-
tion, financing and funding of culture. Many of the old models no longer work.
They have become unsustainable and detrimental to civil society. We need to de-
fine and promote innovative strategies that make cultural practices sustainable
and empower the wealth of society in general.
    Our work aims to be useful for the following: To provide arguments for
policy reformers: as a tool with which to lobby policy makers, institutions and
governmental agencies, in order to influence the legislative changes that are
currently in process. To offer individuals, as active subjects, tools for dealing
with the paradigm changes that are taking place in the fields of knowledge and
creative and cultural production. To create a network of affinity and global
collaboration, based on a common interest in defending free/libre culture.
    At the first FcForum in 2009, we analysed a series of reforms that would
have to be applied to existing legislation in order to ensure that the digital age
is beneficial to artists, citizens and entrepreneurs. Our conclusions and proposals
are published in the Charter for Innovation, Creativity and Access to Knowledge.
For the 2010 edition, we shifted the focus to the economic aspects of culture
and knowledge production, exploring the way in which benefits in the sense of
economic profit, but also social and cognitive benefits can be generated in such
a way that they lead to a sustainable culture.
    This debate has to be approached through three core questions: How should
culture and knowledge be produced in the digital age? How can the time and
resources required to create them be made available, in the current context?
How should value that is generated collectively be accessed and managed?
    During the talk I will introduce the work carried out by the FCF and engage
in some of the debates that have taken place in this arena. I will focus on the
idea of cultural commons and how the creative industries have tended to use
this pool of common knowledge as a resource that doesnt need to be cared off or
looked after. I will look into business and social forms of organization aimed at
producing culture acknowledging social production and the creative basins that
lie at the centre of cultural development. After all it is our responsibility, as civil
society, to oppose practices that plunder this common heritage and to block its
future development. We need to defend and expand the sphere in which human
creativity and knowledge can prosper freely and sustainably.


2    About the Author

Jaron Rowan Cultural producer and researcher, I am one of the founding mem-
bers of YProductions (www.ypsite.net) and I am also member of La-Ex (http://la-
ex.net/) a platform specialized in helping citizens against abuses of royalties
management societies and cultural industries lobbies. I was one of the coordi-
nators of 2010 Free Culture Forum (http://fcforum.net/es) and co-drafted and
co-edited the Sustainable Models for Creativity in the Digital Age document.
I have recently published the book Emprendizajes en Cultura (Traficantes de
Sueos, 2010) a research into the discourses and problems derived from the im-
plementation of cultural entrepreneurship programs in Spain.