Bio
Hi, hallo, hola, مرحبا!
I’m Michelle. I work for Mozilla as a global event strategist, aiming to grow communities around open web projects through live events. We host small meet-ups, to larger design jams and hackathons, to an annual festival.
For several years I was the International Project Manager at Creative Commons, coordinating over seventy countries (jurisdictions) worldwide to localize Creative Commons tools and to promote legal sharing and Free Culture.
I organized the Free Culture Research Conference, an event dedicated to exploring the commons and hybrid economies, and co-chaired Mozilla’s Drumbeat Festival on Learning, Freedom, and the Web, bringing together disruptive technologists and educators to forge the future of education. I’m a trustee of the Awesome Foundation Berlin, a lightweight association to fund small projects. As a believer in making and doing things, I also helped “chaordinate” the DMY Maker Lab and other DIY projects in Berlin and around the world.
I hold a B.A. in Critical Social Thought and German Studies from Mount Holyoke College, where I completed an honors thesis on authorship, originality, and American copyright law. I’ve also studied at the University of Leipzig and grew up in Heidelberg, Germany.
Contact
Publications
Presentations on SlideShare.
An Open Web. Commissioned by transmediale. Berlin: 2011. Contributors: Adam Hyde, Alejandra Perez, Bassel Safadi, Christopher Adams, Mick Fuzz, Jon Phillips, and Michelle Thorne. (Editable version) / Creative Commons Attribution Unported License Version 3.0.
Thorne, Michelle and Cobcroft, Rachel. “Capturing the Commons: (Ways Forward for) The CC Case Studies Initiative”. Free Culture Research Workshop, Harvard Law School, 23 October, 2009. (PDF) / Creative Commons Attribution Unported License Version 3.0.
“Strengthen the Commons – Now!”. Manifesto from the Interdisciplinary Political Salons of the Heinrich Böll Foundation‘s Time for Commons. Berlin: 2008-2009. Translation: Michelle Thorne, Silke Helfrich, David Bollier. (PDF) / Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike Germany License Version 3.0.
Thorne, Michelle. Copywritings: Technology, Authorship, and Originality in American Copyright Law. Honors B.A. thesis, Mount Holyoke College, 2007. (PDF) / Creative Commons Attribution Unported License Version 3.0.
Thorne, Michelle. Copywritings: A Eulogy for Authorship. Mount Holyoke College Senior Symposium 2007, South Hadley: Mount Holyoke College. April 2007. (PDF) / Creative Commons Attribution Unported License Version 3.0.
Apologies
If you were expecting to find the homepage of my Googlegänger, the more infamous Michelle Thorne, you’d be mistaken here. Alas, I am not a woman of her…um, *ahem*…caliber. But I am trying to beat her Google rankings.
Guestbook?
Kilroy was here.
Hey!
Viele Grüße!
Ich erinnere auch gerne mal wieder an Ali G ;-)
Keep It Real!
John
Hello Michelle,
I would be glad to see you at the opening of the Hard Copies exhibition of my new Open Designs (CC licensed) at the Appel Design Gallery,
Tor Str. 114, 10119 Berlin, on Nov. 1 2008 from 16:00-23:00.
Thanks,
Ronen
Wanted to find out more about your webpage picture of the person on chair with a mask on the side and angel wings- stucco wall behind them gives a textured appearance- tell more about that please
For the life of me I can’t work out to _actually_ email you via your blog…
It was great talking with you at Open Everything, I won’t be around again until May for the Open Education event. Until then, keep well!
Dear Michelle, I’m a fan of open workspace and Hallenprojekt, … and now of your blog!
I just saw your follower request for twitter labs_open. This is a Telekom internal series of event announcements, so I’m sorry to decline your request. Feel free to follow me at twitter.com/hartenthaler
Best regards
Hermann
compliments for your very special website.
Hope to see you one day in Berlin.
Best regards from Venice
hanns
Hi Michelle
We are an online Arabic language teaching website with a new approach to teaching conversational arabic. Could I possibly ask that you include us in your blog ?
Many thanks
Rafic
[…] zum Urheberrecht und zu den Creative Commons aufgekommen waren, konnte uns Michelle Thorne als Free Culture Advocate der Creative Commons mit Ihrer Präsentation Informationen aus erster Hand liefern (Link zur […]
Hi Michelle, I think your writing / thinking / doing is awesome. Do you have a story idea? Would love to publish you in Shareable Magazine.
-Neal Gorenflo
Publisher
Shareable Magazine
ps. say hi to Jay, Maren, and Eric at Betahaus / ODC
Would like to see folks promote ideas for supporting senior citizens and those with disabilities for who need support- examples canes that are multiple purpose- walkers with baskets, elevated toilet seats for those that can not stand properly and need grab bars to pull themselves up from seated positions- etc. Many things on the market are high priced and those needing them are taken advantage of-
Hi Michelle,
Good times at Meeting Hub in Aalborg. I like the color scheme here! See you.
H