The venue

This year’s iCommons Summit takes place in a country that many consider to be the heart of global free culture and home to one of the most successful Creative Commons projects proudly hosted by the Center for Technology & Society (CTS) at the Fundação Getúlio Vargas (FGV) Law School in Rio de Janeiro. The following description of the city is taken from Wikipedia.

Rio de Janeiro is a city famous for the samba, its hotel-lined tourist beaches of Copacabana, Ipename and Leblon, its mosaic sidewalks, the giant statue of Jesus, known as ‘Christ the Redeemer’ (’Cristo Redentor’) atop the Corcovado mountain, and for its yearly Carnival celebration. It also has the biggest forest inside an urban region, called ‘Floresta da Tijuca’.

The population of the City of Rio de Janeiro is about 6,150,000, occupying an area of 1256 km². It is Brazil’s second-largest city after São Paulo and was the country’s capital until 1960, when Brasília took its place. Residents of the city are known as Cariocas. The city’s current mayor is Cesar Maia. The official song of Rio is “Cidade Maravilhosa“.