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Creative Commons: A Field Study In OpenSource
I've been trying to explain the ideas of OpenSource recently in terms not specific to programming code or some other technological jargon. I've been having a bit of a hard time trying to create an image of OpenSource as a model, but I think I've come up with a few examples that will help outline the basic principles. I'll do this by using CreativeCommons.Org as an Operating Platform. From this platform I'll demonstrate how OpenSource principles begin to take affect, and how real world examples are utilizing these. Keep in mind that OpenSource is not dependent on CreativeCommons, nor visa versa, they are a way to practice OpenSource, not The Way.
CreativeCommons: "...Creative Commons has developed a Web application that helps people dedicate their creative works to the public domain - or retain their copyright while licensing them as free for certain uses, on certain conditions." What does this really mean? Let me break down the techno-jargon part. Web-Application deals with the fact that the service is provided completely online. The way you license under CreativeCommons is the same way you access your Gmail/Hotmail, or read NyTimes.com: Through a Web-Portal (like Internet Explorer or Firefox.) But we can take this a little deeper. You might not use IE/Firefox to read your Gmail, you might use Outlook or Thunderbird. You could read NyTimes.com from an aggregator or newsreader. In this sense, those programs, Outlook or a newsreader, would be considered client-side applications. The service itself, Hotmail/NyTimes.com would be the server-side application.
We call most server-side applications API's or web-based API. The API, application program interface, is merely just how the program operates. NyTimes operates by posting information in a very uniform way, a standard known as XML/RSS. Newsreaders then use that standard to bring information to peoples desktops, without the need to use a webpage browser to visit nytimes.com. Same with email, the service or API, like Gmail, uses standards to allow third-party applications, like Outlook, to access that information and use it another way.
So we know CreativeCommons has developed a Licensing Web Application. We know that web apps, or API's can be used in a lot of different ways, on both the server-side and client-side (it's either Google's computer doing the thinking, or yours). Lets look at what is being licensed. I think the best example to date, at least the most widely used, will be Yahoo's Flickr.com photo sharing and publication service.
Flickr.com has built into their website the ability to use CreativeCommons to license any photo you post through their service. You could always put a picture on the Internet then go directly to CreativeCommons and license it, but that is redundant if you have the ability to do it simultaneously while posting. Flickr uses CreativeCommons web API to aide the usablity of their product. The fact that you can not only host your images online for free but at the same time put a "Some Rights Reserved" license on the photo itself... That's value, and value keeps users happy. Keep in mind... so far everything I've talked about is free.
Now Flickr is just a major player in the game, but there are others that have utilized CreativeCommons API in creative and productive ways. Groups like the Archive.Org have used the API to host open-content. OurMedia.Org is a group that uses InternetArchive in conjunction with CreativeCommons to host all different types of media in a very user-centric way. Both these groups operate under non-profit, OpenSource business models. Flickr is a semi-OpenSource model, they're owned by Yahoo! and in my book being a for-profit corporation will automatically stamp the "semi-" label to your OpenSource contribution.
Remember OpenSource is a principle or a model. It is also a term to describe the licensing associated with some type of media, media being information. The contrast to OpenSource in this sense is Proprietary. Proprietary for the most part means that there is some type of restriction to the access you have to the information. Think of the FBI warnings on Cd's telling you it's a federal offense to copy or redistribute the information on that disk. That is proprietary. Proprietary systems use old licensing models like Copyright, Trademark and Reserved. Patents fall into this category as well, but are used more on the software, code base side, rather than a pop-song or some other nonsense.
CreativeCommons creates a way to protect your media to an extent that makes it not proprietary. The major restrictions involved with CC licenses deal with preventing users to represent your work without proper credit and preventing users to use your work for some type of commercial purpose/gain. This is how it maintains the OpenSource integrity test. OpenSource encourages distribution as long as proper credit is given to the authors of the media. This opens the door to "Remix" ... which I'll go into at a later date, ie. next post.
Lets look at a few more specific examples of how CreativeCommons and OpenSource work together to help create what I've recently been refering to as the Great Information Society. CreativeCommons gives us a framework to license media that is compatible with OpenSource ideology. Services like Flickr, the InternetArchive and OpenMedia demonstrate tangible models of this relationship. The fact that both profit and non-profit models have found a way to use these tools is interesting in itself, but I think it is the non-profits that will help lead the way to a better tomorrow.
The technological backbone of the CreativeCommons web-applications are made available through a popular open source distribution site called SourceForge. These applications are used by developers that work for the Flickr's and OpenMedia's of the world. Those projects are funded by organizations that want to help develop this OpenSource philosophy. The Omidyar Network is an example of one of these groups. These folks first gave us Ebay, then helped fund nearly every project I've mentioned thus far, and a few prominent others like the Apache Group, Electronic Frontier Foundation, and the FreeBSD Foundation. Groups like OpenBusiness act as a marketplace of ideas for the entrepreneurs of the world to help develop new models that follow these OpenSource principles.
Keep in mind that everything I've talked about thus far is a free service. I think it's also worthy to note that I've been talking about the impact one tool has had on the OpenSource marketplace. Remember, CreativeCommons is not The Way, it is a way. It is a tool that can be used to facilitate a new way of doing business. We can use it to develop new ways to approach the distribution of media. It does it all under the guise of OpenSource. OpenSource is not just for programmers and the ubber tech savvy. It can, and I believe it should, be the way we create, exchange and use information. The models are starting to come together to form a really beautiful picture. We haven't even begun to scratch the surface of how this will impact our future society, lets change that. After all, it's free!
10.10.2005
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