Grants/2lifeCast
Describe the project you are proposing as clearly as possible in just five sentences.
2lifeCast has been created with the intent to be a protected environment where authors, of any kind, can share their works under the Creative Commons framework. 2lifeCast's goal is to constitute a Syndication, defined as a system where any member becomes a broadcaster of all the works produced by other members, in order to gain, with pervasive use of the Internet and 3D worlds (i.e. SecondLife, OpenSim, etc.), wider visibility to all authors involved into the project, while ensuring the high quality of distributed works. 2lifeCast believes that Creative Commons license framework is the best way to share author contents ensuring the widest circulation and the growth of additional works around them, causing more authors' involvement and 2lifeCast to act as the perfect partner for creating cultural works and innovative formats in both education and entertainment.
Detail the tangible project output (e.g., paper, blog post, written materials, video/film, etc.; this would be in addition to the final written report that successful grant recipients will be expected to deliver to CC at the conclusion of the project).
2lifeCast project will mainly produce videos, movies, photos, slides and media materials. The more content and its additions, i.e. comments, tags, dissemination paths, etc., the more the project will be successful to us. The objective of the project is to gain syndication between all works, so the more these works will be shared, the more they will gain reputation by the authors community. Measuring tools about syndication is also one of the project goals, and are under development by the project staff, in a form of a web browser widget which will be able to track how these works are distributed, providing a report to the author and to the association.
Describe the community you are targeting. How would the project benefit the community?
The target of the project are all those who hold the intellectual property of a content and want to share it under the Creative Commons licenses. Thanks to their participation in the project, the authors obtain an increase of opportunities, the access to technological resources provided by the association (streaming video), the collaboration with other development partners for their projects, the access to common projects.br />
2lifeCast is made by his members. The staff has a coordination function. We are the best organization to lead this project because nobody in Italy has a similar project. Our experience is embedded into the staff that created 2lifeCast association, which is composed by artists, managers, entrepreneurs and technology consultants. We are driven by results and quality.
How will you measure and evaluate your project’s impact - on your main participants? Other contributors? On the larger community?
Evaluation "IS" the project, as we wish to create "measurable syndication" to authors who will join us. The tools and the methodology we will build will be the project result.
How many participants do you expect to be involved in your project? How will you seek and sustain their involvement?
We will start smoothly with half dozen of participants, but each of them have a network behind and are already active. We do expect to have at least 100 authors before project end. 2LifeCast is willing to always involve its members in projects with high visibility where there may be a financial gain, either from the public or from institutions.
Describe how your project will benefit Creative Commons' mission to increase the amount of creativity (cultural, educational, and scientific content) in "the commons".
The documentation of all no-profit works and events created by 2lifeCast is licensed under Creative Commons non-commercial share alike. This means that a huge amount of work is made freely available to the entire community. More than this we will use and apply CC+ whenever an author may deliver his/her creation to the profit world, thus maintaining "the commons" but extending it to the money sphere.
Describe what technologies and tools your project will use. What kinds of technical skills and expertise do you bring to the project? What are your technical needs?
The main tool used by 2lifeCast is streaming video. We are leader in Italy for streaming video in Virtual words like Second Life and OpenSim and the first one to cross real, web and virtual worlds at once. At the moment our work is based on QuickTime Broadcaster, but one of our aim is to find a simple way to broadcast from Windows using open source or cheap software. Then the distribution is made through "channels" and measured by the tools described above.
What challenges do you expect to face, and how do you plan to overcome them?
There are several challenges we do expect to come through the path to December: - build the wider distribution chain, and we will work together with PR an communication agencies to get as wide as possible; - work around the Apple broadcast monopoly, dedicating at least one resource to gain this result; - overcome skepticism around 3D worlds and the very low investment activity around them, using the wide variety of installations and simulations we already have and let world talk about them.
How do you plan to sustain your project after the Creative Commons funding has ended? Detail specific plans. How do you plan to raise revenue to continue your efforts in the future?
Well, we are creating a working machine, and thus we are constantly producing creativity which we wish to offer either as a non-profit or profit, depending the "customer" we are targeting. Both ways we are offering at a reasonable price, at least to maintain the maching working. To do this, there are plenty funds coming from foundations or institutions we can gain once the association will raise a level which communicate our solidity and trust. Association will have a "fund raising" dept. along with "sales" to promote our actions.
How can this project be scalable, or have a scalable impact?
At the beginning we will promote authors coming from Lombardy or North of Italy, in order to have the correct mix between proximity and virtuality, but then we like to widen our borders to Italy and abroad, involving authors coming from Europe and more, but still creating both "horizontal chapters", dedicated to such a mash-up of authors and "vertical chapters" dedicated to such specific branches of arts and creativity.
What resources and support do you expect Creative Commons to provide to your project to ensure its success (if any)?
Other than funds, we like CC to provide mainstream on legal and commercial aspects. We like a lot the CC+ licensing concept, and we would like to adopt it fully in our network of authors, creating visibility and sustainability at same time. CC has wider experience on this into english speaking countries, and we would like to introduce this into "latin" area, where these concepts are not so often well accepted or understood.
Describe how your organization currently communicates with its community members and network partners. (100 words)
2lifeCast communicates through his website and main social networks, but first of all through his representative (the staff indicated above, plus some nearby professionals), who mantain a regular relationship with all the members and partners of the association. We are planning to fix regular meeting in Second Life to discuss projects and check the work already done.
Legal
Yes
