::fibreculture:: Creative Commons

[stephen at melbpc.org.au]

Why Creative Commons ..

 <http://thepowerofopen.org>


The world has experienced an explosion of openness.

>From individual artists opening their creations for input from others, to 
governments requiring publicly funded works be available to the public, 
both the spirit and practice of sharing is gaining momentum and producing 
results. 

Creative Commons began providing licenses for the open sharing of content 
only a decade ago. Now more than 400 million CC-licensed works are 
available on the Internet, from music and photos, to research findings, 
and, entire college courses. 

Creative Commons created the legal and technical infrastructure that 
allows effective sharing of knowledge, art and data by individuals, 
organizations and governments. 

More importantly, millions of creators take advantage of the Creative 
Commons infrastructure to share work that enriches the global commons for 
all humanity. 

"The Power of Open" collects and shares the stories of these creators. 

Some are like ProPublica, a Pulitzer Prize-winning investigative news 
organization that uses CC while partnering with the world’s largest media 
companies. Others like nomadic filmmaker Vincent Moon use CC licensing as 
an essential element of a lifestyle of openness in pursuit of creativity. 

The breadth of uses is as great as the creativity of the individuals and 
organizations choosing to open their content, art and ideas to the rest 
of the world. 

As we look ahead, the field of openness is approaching a critical mass of 
adoption that could result in sharing becoming a default standard for the 
many works that were previously made available only under the all-rights-
reserved framework. 

Even more exciting is the potential increase in global welfare from the 
use of Creative Commons’ tools and the increasing relevance of openness 
to the discourse of culture, education and innovation policy. 

We hope that The Power of Open inspires you to examine and embrace the 
practice of open licensing so that your contributions to the global 
intellectual commons can provide their greatest benefit to all people. 


Joi Ito, CHAIR Creative Commons
Catherine Casserly, CEO Creative Commons. 

Download the book here: <http://thepowerofopen.org/downloads>

--

Happy trails,
Stephen Loosley
Member, Victorian
Institute of Teaching