Case Studies/Pietro Pensa Archive
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Overview
The Pietro Pensa Archive is a collection of historical documents, parchments, images, photos, drawings, maps, books and gray literature created by Pietro Pensa and the Pensa family. The archive is focused on the areas of Lake Como, Adda river, the Alps, Valsassina and Esino Lario and on the provinces of Lecco, Como, Sondrio, Milano, Bergamo.
The documentation goes from from XV century until today. The archives also includes a wide collection of over 170 parchments, photos and part of the Serbelloni Sfondrati Archive (the archive of the villa where there Rockefeller Foundation Bellagio Center is located). All inventory of the archive are availably online with reports, essays and thematic selections.
The archive also includes the new documentation produced from its related initiatives: researches, essays, publications, recordings, audio, art works.
The Pietro Pensa Archive is managed by the Associazione Amici del Museo delle Grigne Onlus and it is directed by Alex Valota (nominated in 2011).
License Usage
The Pietro Pensa Archive adopted in 2006 a Creative Commons attribution-share alike license on all its documentation, at first on its website, and little by little on all the projects, publications and documents.
The experience of the Pietro Pensa Archive was applied by the Associazione Amici del Museo delle Grigne onlus to all its policies (contracts and partnerships) and on Ecomuseo delle Grigne and Centro di documentazione e informazione dell'Ecomuseo delle Grigne (an institution managed by Associazione Amici del Museo delle Grigne onlus, based in Esino Lario and created with Esino Lario city council in 2008).
Motivations
The license Creative Commons attributions share-alike was adopted on the Pietro Pensa Archive for several reasons
- It is compatible with Wikipedia. Images, and after 2009 also texts, could be uploaded or copied on Wikipedia.
- It requires the attribution which gives visibility and credit
- The archive is managed by the Associazione Amici del Museo delle Grigne Onlus which doesn't have the structure, the management capacity or the vocation to gain commercially from its rights.
- It facilitates distribution (and it doesn't require the institution to directly promote it or monitor it).
- The catalogue of the Pietro Pensa Archive photos was developed partially on Wikimedia Commons in the frame of the project Valorizzazione del fondo fotografico dell'Archivio Pietro Pensa.
Impact
The license Creative Commons attribution share-alike is simple tool to allow a better circulation of information and documents produced or preserved by small institutions. Small institutions don't have the managing capacity nor, often, the vocation, to gain commercially from rights; they can only guarantee a certain amount of initiatives (researches, conferences, publications, etc). The use of an open license allows the documentation to circulate more easily and it allows others to organise initiatives related to it. The license benefits the users and potential users of the documentation (who can use it) and the documentation itself (which is promoted, studies, distributed). This impact reinforces the very mission of the institution which adopt the cc-by-sa license.
The Pietro Pensa Archive receives the Wikimedia Italy award in 2009. The experience of the Pietro Pensa Archive allowed the Associazione Amici del Museo delle Grigne onlus to produce new and transparent policies, contracts and partnerships. The policies were adopted in 2008 also to all the documentation of Ecomuseo delle Grigne and Centro di documentazione e informazione dell'Ecomuseo delle Grigne (an institution managed by Associazione Amici del Museo delle Grigne onlus, based in Esino Lario and created with Esino Lario city council). The experience of the Pietro Pensa Archive origined the project Share Your Knowledge promoted by lettera27 Foundation.
Technical Details
To be able to adopt the license also on current documentation the Associazione Amici del Museo delle Grigne onlus created contracts and partnerships which specify the license and it published books with the printed license. The text specifitied in the publication was revied by SeLiLi Servizio Licenze Libere, an Italian office which provides legal and technical on open and free licenses.
