Over 100 high-profile specialists from 20 countries participated in the Free Culture Forum in Barcelona (Oct 29 - Nov 1, 2009) convened by EXGAE, Networked Politics and the Free Knowledge Institute.

The Forum began an unprecedented civil society campaign in defence of fundamental rights in the digital era. These rights include: the right of free expression, the right of access to culture and knowledge and the right to an equitable distribution of copyright benefits. The inviolability of communications, privacy and neutrality of internet access are necessary to defend these rights and to serve as levers for economic, political and social transformation.

After three days of intensive work a European "Free Culture Forum Charter for Innovation, Creativity and Access to Knowledge: Citizens' and Artists' Rights in the Digital Age" has been released in advance of the Spanish Presidency of the European Community which has stated regulation of the digital environment as one of its flagship initiatives.

The charter, which will be disseminated worldwide, defines the basic principles for a 21st century society that makes use of new Information and Communications Technologies for a freer, more supportive and fair environment.

The Charter will urge policy changes and be delivered to more than 1000 institutions and governments from WIPO to the Obama administration, through the European Commission and national governments. Official observers from the Ministry of Culture of Brazil and two representatives of the European Commission among others were present for the development of the Charter.

The campaign begins by challenging the Spanish government to consider the Charter within 10 days of its delivery (in person to Infanta Cristina). Meanwhile the campaign will spread worldwide to raise awareness and inspire action.

The Forum received extensive media coverage. It opened with the second edition of the oXcars Gala, the largest free cultural event of all the time, with a full house at the Sala Apolo in Barcelona. Exciting music, inspiring videos, poems, Tony & Ridley Scott's production company (of Aliens etc) who presented their plans for a Creative Commons licensed project in Hollywood, Duquende (flamenco), Cosmonauta co-production of a new movie, etc.

The full programme of the oXcars and streaming video can all be consulted in the website.

High resolution pictures can be found here: 1, 2. The presentations during the Forum have been recorded on video and are on the GISS.tv distributed video streaming network. During the plenary presentations at the Forum, summary reports in various microblogging services can be found in English, Catalan and Spanish. See identi.ca, twitter. The Forum used identi.ca as that is a microblogging platform that is distributed and completely based on Free Software, as opposed to Twitter. Nevertheless, all messages were replicated automatically at Twitter, so also the users of that service could engage easily. This way several people who were not physically present during the Forum followed and participated from a distance.

While the authors of the Charter are now editing the last details it will be next week when it will be finished. Stay tuned to receive the full Free Culture Charter. From then on those who support the general vision, demands and recommendations can adhere to it and join in the worldwide campaign.

This is only a small step towards global awareness for the open, free, more inclusive and sustainable model. We'll have to continue working together to expand that vision!