creative commons

How to share your work openly

Posted by on July 24, 2012 in Uncategorized

credit: Alec Couros

credit: Alec Couros

The world of sharing is so rich because so many great people choose to share freely.

Would you like to share your work in a way that others can easily make use of it? Here are some tips.

  • License your work under a Creative Commons license.
    This means that you are saying to others “It’s ok to use my stuff without asking first.”
    The easiest way to do this is to just write “Copyright [your name], licensed under CC BY” (or whatever license you choose) on your work.
    You can also use the Creative Commons license chooser. Once you choose a license, it will give you a bit of HTML code to paste in your web site. This will make your works more easily found by search engines.
  • Post your work on sites that make sharing easy.
    Here are some of my easy-to-use favorites:

    These sites all support Creative Commons licensing.

  • Use formats that make remix easy.
    This means avoiding things like PDFs and using files that folks can easily edit.
  • Tell the world you are sharing.
    Tweet, post, yell it from the rooftops.
  • Spread the word about sharing.
    Tell others about the benefits of using a Creative Commons sharing license. The more we all share, the better life is.
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“What if it’s not really open?

Posted by on May 29, 2012 in Uncategorized

I talk to folks a lot about open licensing and Creative Commons. Most folks have no familiarity with these topics, but I’m happy to say that the awareness level is rising. One question I’ve gotten several times lately is “What if you use something that is marked with an open license but it really isn’t?” (e.g. an uploader has posted something that they don’t own and that is actually all rights reserved).

Interesting question.

Like most questions related to digital content, there is an non-digital analogue. :) We know how to recognize pirated movies or books through physical signs — they often don’t look like their authentic sources. This can be true for digital piracies as well. Here are some tips to help you make sure the content you think is open really is:

  • Get your open content from reliable sources. Sites like Wikipedia closely monitor content that is posted under an open license to make sure it is truly open.
  • If something looks like it probably isn’t open licensed, don’t use it. (If, for example, you find a purportedly open licensed video from a commercial movie like “Ferris Bueller’s Day Off,” it probably isn’t really open.)
  • If the creator and the uploader are obviously two different people, be skeptical.
  • When it doubt, double-check and ask.

Mostly this comes down to having good judgement, a 21st century skill if there ever was one (timeless even, one hopes).

And I suppose for the still concerned, no one is going to find too much fault with you if you resuse a resource that was posted as open but in fact wasn’t.

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