The fourth global iSummit was held in Sapporo, Japan from 29 July to 1 August, 2008. iCommons in association with Digital Garage, Creative Commons Japan and the City of Sapporo brought together pioneers of the free Internet from 40 countries around the world. Inspired by Japanese innovation and hosted in a city fast becoming recognised for its modern, creative, technology-orientated approach to business and public initiatives - this year's iSummit was a ground-breaking event that showcased pioneering approaches to furthering digital culture around the world.

The Commons in the Corporation: The challenge of raising awareness within media corporations Concepts such as Open Source and Creative Commons are usually foreign to most corporations. Mohamed will share his experience with championing these concepts within a media company and discuss how Al Jazeera is aligning these philopsophies to their strategic goals.

Ready to Share: Fashion and the Commons More than any other industry, fashion treats most of its creative output as a commons - shared resources that can be freely reused, recreated and recombined. How does the fashion industry manage to thrive with virtually no copyright protection?

Status of the Commons Creative Commons has evolved from a great idea to a series of licences to a global movement of a variety of projects quickly becoming ubiquitous in technical, social and academic circles. Ito will provide an overview of Creative Commons and its projects and explore the opportunities and challenges ahead.

Language as a Commons The commons is not a new idea, but rather one that has been assisting in the generation of meaning since human beings developed the ability to recognise and replicate signs. Erin McKean, the best-dressed lexicographer in the business, explodes the myth of the commons as a digital phenomenon.

Dr. Kitano has created a massive project called "Payao" which uses networks to allow a large number of researchers to collaborate and share information about biological networks and systems. In his talk, he will describe the increasingly complex nature of research in his field and how it would be impossible without sharing between researchers using open source, open networks and open knowledge. In addition, he will describe how biological networks are in many ways similar to the Internet and other networks in which commons-based peer production occurs.

Enclosing the Commons - for Dummies: Creativity, citizenship and media ownership Both the Wiley "for Dummies" and SAB Miller "Black Labour White Guilt" cases offer insights into corporations' tendencies to employ narrow understandings of IP to protect their own interests - often at the expense of the public interest. However, we should be wary of reducing both media incidents to 'David and Goliath' struggles. The story of commons enclosure and limitations on free speech is not always as dramatic. Media ownership offers one example of the ways in which democracy is perverted and the South African media landscape is no exception in this regard.

"Building connections in the Literacy Community" Many believe that the Internet can play an important role in promoting literacy and education efforts worldwide. It was with that aim that Google, LitCam, and UNESCO's Institute for Lifelong Learning launched The Literacy Project, which provides a platform through which literacy organisations and teachers can connect and share best practices, tools, and information. This talk will look at the promotion of best practice sharing through the site, as well as address some of the challenges faced across this field, including Internet connectivity, new media literacy, and cultural and language differences.

"Free Culture and Free Speech: Why strong and vibrant free culture communities are important for freedom of expression" In the democracies of today freedom of expression is often taken for granted when it is particularly fragile. It is a right that needs to be continually exercised, because if it isn't, the space that society provides for it shrinks until the next time someone exercises that right. The communities that subscribe to the ethos of the Commons are important actors in the creation of the space for free expression. See the slides from this presentation here: http://www.slideshare.net/rmackinnon/isummit-keynote-free-culture-free-speech/

Collaborative Creativity: How innovation together has stood the test of time Innovation as a product of an ivory tower of individual ownership is not so much a thing of the past as an obsolescence. Many minds sharing freely solve problems faster. See the slides from this presentation, here: http://www.slideshare.net/iCommonsiSummit08/collaborative-creativity-how-innovation-together-has-stood-the-test-of-time-by-rishab-ghosh-presentation/

Social Movements on the Commons The Commons is one of many social movements active in the world today. Many of them share characteristics with the Commons, but there are significant differences. What can the Commons learn from other social movements and vice versa? Is there a more effective way of doing things and has someone been doing it for ages without the Commons noticing?

"No License for These Territories" As innovative and forward-looking as the Commons is, the real world is still one step ahead. As comprehensively as open content is documented, there are territories of sharing that have yet to be pinned down by lawmakers of any description and it is here where the cutting edge of the Commons has yet to be felt. Who's going to get there first? This video is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported license http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/