The iSummit '08 programme was outcomes-driven and specifically targeted to the real needs of participants. Whilst previous summits provided participants with a fascinating pool of commons knowledge to dip into, this event allowed participants to focus within their various disciplines and encouraged the development of strong outputs that will be sustainable within the community over the next year.

The keynotes

Each morning and evening of the iSummit '08 was contextualised with the keynote addresses. Old favourites, such as Joi Ito, continued to inspire us as well as a new group of voices that described alternative perspectives. Adam Haupt, who spoke about copyright and the colonial inheritance and Erin McKean, who spoke about language as a commons, were just two of the new vanguard who challenged and inspired the audience.

Read more about our powerful keynotes of the commons here.

The Labs

There were five labs and one parallel track this year. The labs, which are in essence working groups, gathered for the duration of the summit - twice on Day 1, three times on Day 2 and once for a final wrap-up on Day 3.

The objective of the labs was to provide participants with progressive, insightful information from which practical tools, guidelines or policies could be built for implementation within existing projects or initiatives. Participants were encouraged to stick with a lab rather than dipping into a variety of labs in order to gain the most benefit to take home with them. Read the summit blog for feedback on many of the lab sessions.

The labs reported back to the entire summit audience on Day 3, at which time the outcomes (tools/ resources/ ideas) were shared with all participants. Read about the report back session here and here.

The Culture Programme フリー・カルチャー・プログラム

At the iSummit '08, participants found themselves immersed within cultural diversity literally from their first step into the summit space. Walk-through installations, images and multimedia exhibitions encouraged participants to experience other cultural contexts that might have been very different to their own.

All day long - A permanent photographic exhibition and multimedia installation was viewable alongside an oversized experiential drawing that called on participants' collaborative scribbling skills.

Conversation breaks - within the tea breaks there was a variety of Japanese skills-sharing sessions such as a Japanese calligraphy workshop, origami paper folding and a traditional tea ceremony.

Events - a concert featuring Japanese DJs and performers, a sushi awards ceremony at the Sapporo Mayor's reception and a trip to one of the most beautiful parks in Japan were some of the additional delights that iSummiters experienced.

The venue

The venue of the iSummit was the Sapporo Convention Center. See pictures and descriptions of the key areas that were hubs of commons activity during the event.

Partner events:

CCi legal day

A partner event run by Creative Commons International, this was a day-long meeting of Creative Commons legal and public leads on 29 July.

Pictures: Rebecca MacKinnon keynote by , CC BY 2.0, The iSummit '08 keynote venue by , CC BY-NC-ND 2.0, Open Education workshop by , CC BY-NC-SA 2.0 and LCGC workshop by , CC BY-SA 2.0.