The internet is everywhere: at work, at home, and on the move. And if the federal government has its way, it will soon be in every school.

But despite its ubiquity, we know very little about how the net is used, where and by whom. The World Internet Project is attempting to answer these questions and the Australian arm of the project has just released its initial findings with some surprising results.

Innovation: management, policy and practice is the international journal for innovation research, commercialization, policy analysis and best practice. The forthcoming issue on 'Innovation policy in the creative Industries' is being guest edited by CCI's Jason Potts based at the School of Economics, The University of Queensland.

The Australian Communications and Media Authority has just announced that four new members will be joining its Communications Consumer Consultative Forum (CCF) including CCI's Julian Thomas. Julian is Professor of Media and Communications at Swinburne University of Technology and heads the International Creative Content Cultures and Australian Advantage program at CCI.

CCI and the The Open Access to Knowledge (OAK) Law Project of Queensland University of Technology are pleased to present a free seminar with leading international and national experts. What is "Open Education" and what does it mean for the future of learning? What role can Australia play? Featuring guest speaker Melissa Hagemann (pictured right) from the Open Society Institute and Soros Foundations Network.

A new report, Between a hard rock and a soft space: design, creative practice and innovation, argues that Australian innovation can be enhanced by bringing design into the mainstream of policy and industry thinking. It calls for the formation of a National Council for Design and Creative Practice, as a body where industry, research and government can work together to contribute to innovation policy.

According to a leading US academic dubbed the "21st Century’s Marshall McLuhan", Western education systems are radically out of touch with the needs of students and the future they face.

One of America's foremost authorities on the digital media era, Professor Henry Jenkins, will visit Australia next week to speak at the Creating Value conference hosted by the ARC Centre for Creative Industries and Innovation.

Rock group Nine Inch Nails caused a sensation in the music world recently - and it wasn’t for their front man’s antics. Every day, artists and consumers are finding new ways to engage with each other in a virtual world: traditional copyright rules are out; new business models are in. NIN’s online release of their current album under a Creative Commons (CC) licence which lets others share, burn and even remix their songs is just the latest example of artists allowing their fans to access and use creative product outside the powerful grip major corporations have traditionally held over distribution.

A new book, edited by Professor Brian Fitzgerald, Professor Fuping Gao, Mr Damien O’Brien and Mr Sampsung Xiaoxiang Shi, focuses geographically on the Asia-Pacific, and particularly on China and Australia, but addresses universal themes about the law of copyright and its adaptation to the Internet in the 21st century said the Hon Justice Douglas at the launch in Brisbane yesterday.

Researchers at CCI were recently awarded an ARC Linkage grant to begin a major new research project into youth wellbeing and participatory media. Led by Professor Stuart Cunningham, the researchers working on the project will include Dr RJ King, Associate professor JC Drennan, Dr K McWilliam, Dr JM Burns and Mr C Kuddell. The title of the project is "Promoting youth wellbeing through participatory digital media: A multidisciplinary assessment of the mental health outcomes of cyber‑participation".

The program for CCI's upcoming international conference is now available including full details of all the panel sessions. The conference features six panel sessions running contiguously over most of the three days, along with keynote presentations from an impressive line up of international guests. Full details on the Creating Value conference page. Register today - Creating value is great value!

CCI researchers Amy Barker and Elliott Bledsoe have been funded by Story of the Future - an initiative supported by the Australia Council for the Arts in partnership with the Australian Film Television and Radio School - for their project "Remix My Lit".

A new book has been launched by current and former researchers from QUT’s Intellectual Property: Knowledge Culture Economy program led by Professor Brian Fitzgerald. Copyright law, digital content and the Internet in the Asia-Pacific, edited by Brian Fitzgerald, Fuping Gao, Damien O'Brien and Sampsung Xiaoxiang Shi, provides a unique insight into the key issues facing copyright law and digital content policy in a networked information world.

A number of keynote speakers at the Creating Value conference being hosted by CCI in June this year have been confirmed. The list of eminent intellectuals and journalists includes:
Henry Jenkins, an international authority on the cultural implications of technological convergence, the digital economy and user-generated creativity;
Mark Deuze, advocate for citizen journalism and public communication, and theorist of creative and cultural labour;

2020's focus on traditional arts funding came at the expense of our creative growth sectors, writes Creative Australia delegate Stuart Cunningham. The Australia 2020 Summit brought people from the heights and the streets together to meet and exchange ideas. It was an exciting concept that produced many valuable ideas.

Stuart Cunningham, director of the ARC Centre for Excellence in Creative Industries and Innovation will be attending the Australia 2020 summit. Stuart will be participating in the 'Towards a creative Australia' session.

In this, the third CCI annual report, the centre's director, Stuart Cunningham introduces the report with an outline of the achievements of the centre over the last year while John Hartley discusses the implications of current policy for creative industries research in Australia.