----------

Hi, Thanks so much for coming and giving me a chance to talk to you.

Since we are at a crowdfunding festival you probably already know that collaborating and making something happen together feels awesome. But what about sharing?

I love creative commons, but until recently I never used a Free Culture License.

Because even if you choose “share alike” you are still granting the rights for commercial use.

If I share something for free, and somebody else takes it to make money, and doesn't share that money with me.... well, that somehow just doesn't feel right.

So what changed my mind?

Why am I here wanting you to get you as excited as I am about the free Culture License?

There are so many women, who have done incredible things, yet most of us have never heard of them. I really wanted to help change that and started to share free coloring pages about these women, but I still checked “no commercial use allowed”.

But then at some point it hit me:

Here was a cause that, if someone took my free stuff and made money with it, that would make me happy. I would love that!

Why? Because it would help change the world in a way I want it to.

I wouldn't feel like somebody is taking advantage of me. I would feel like we are collaborating on a story together. A story I really want to be told.

With my project 'Amazing Women of History' I want to help people understand & use the power of collaborative art and storytelling to change how we think about gender.

We don't have to wait for Hollywood or the Game Industry to tell the stories we want to hear.

The free culture license and the web make it possible to create these stories together.

For example I would love to see a video game featuring Rosalind Franklin jumping the hurdles of sexism and finally winning the recognition she deserves.

The problem is, I don't have the skills to make this game. But maybe you do?

What I can do, is making Rosalind's animated character, a game sprite, that could inspire you to do the coding. Just because it's fun, and we both care about her.

And yes, somebody could take my artwork, and tell a story I am not happy to hear.

But would that matter? At least she would be out there, seen and talked about.

And if it got really rough, I am sure somebody else would respond to it, with a different story.

The more stories the better. Because we all understand the world through stories, and the more diverse stories are out there, the better chance we have to understand each other.

Emily Best said:

"the media is affecting our ability to imagine what we can become"

We now have the tools to shape that media and imagine future together.

I hope I made you curious to visit me outside. There is so much more I'd like to talk to you about.

----------

So that was my pitch, and I hope it makes my reasons a bit clearer, why I believe in the power of collaborative art and storytelling.

(I didn't use this pitch, because people told me it's too weak in explaining what my actual project is about, and why and what for we seek funding. But I still like it better, because I think it expresses much more why I am so passionate about the idea to create a community that uses the the free culture license to tell the stories we want to hear and see - but three minutes was the pitch limit, that's very short and decisions had to be made - you can check out the pitch I actually used and how it went here).

I also hope it makes you think about what other causes there are in your life, that would make you feel the same way about sharing and collaborating to create something bigger together. The free culture license is an incredible tool, we just have to start to use it together.

By the way, the Emily Best quote is from a great talk about #theconf I watched:

Emily Best: The Matrix Intro & The Matrix Summary

It's about how we can use what we learn at conferences together. It's really good.

Till soon, stay tuned for Rosalind Franklin's free game sprites for all your Remix needs!

I really wish the game I dream of, one day will be made.