#1GIMP is the GNU Image Manipulation Program. It is a freely > distributed piece of software for such tasks as photo retouching, > image composition and image authoring. > It works on many operating systems, in many languages.

The Arts Council England and OpenBusiness.cc announce the release of a report, which represents the results of a six-month study into artists’ attitudes towards copyright, creativity and alternative licensing practises, in particular Creative Commons (CC). Although the number of UK artists using open licensing has been growing for the last decade there had been no investigation into how or why such licences were being used.

Collaboration between distributed users online is widely recognized as one of the key next steps in software development. The products available for collaboration are becoming increasingly light weight, powerful and easy to use. Two companies that we’ve found entering into this market with compelling, but markedly different, products are ConceptShare and Thinkature. Both products let users create shared visual workspaces that can be marked up and chatted in. If you are a visual designer, someone planning events or otherwise looking to stop emailing or faxing visual objects back and forth - one of these two services might be just what you are looking for. Thinkature is simpler, free and available now. ConceptShare is more powerful, subscription based and due to come to market in a few weeks.

We wanted this conference to not only celebrate the familiar forms of the media but also make us consider and experience other, newer forms of the media. The challenge is to use these forms ourselves, to use them in our teaching and as part of what we teach about.The question in the conference title asks us to consider the wider implications of these forms, who owns them, uses them and what this means for our students, teaching and society in general. The notions we have had of how media is constructed, who owns it, who can access it and what it can be used for are all challenged by these new forms of media use. They are also having a profound impact on the more traditional media forms of newspapers, magazines, television and film.This site will give you some links and places to go that can provide you with ideas, information and new ways of teaching. It also gives you a way to create your own online learning directories and spaces for you and your students.