Wednesday 8 December 2010

Open Source Sharing - the new arts democracy

This evening I was fooling around on the internet and came across a very cool site. It's called Creative Commons, "for licensed works that you can share, remix or reuse". "Well, hmmmmm"!, I thought. "If I want people to cite my work (and I do!), then maybe I should license The Four Walls of My Freedom with these folks. So I did!

Over here in London, everyone is talking about Wikileaks. Julian Assange and company are at one end of a spectrum of a drive for the free and open sharing of information. "No secrets" could be their motto. Every day recently, we read about those who would support smashing all the walls of security for information systems and let the 'chips' fall where they may. As for many good ideas with extremist defenders, I believe the way forward lies in the spaces in between.

When I am searching for new ideas, I gravitate to the arts. And artists are REALLY interested in technology. So, let's have a look at some of the writers and musicians who have signed up to Creative Commons in order to put their work 'out there' for free sharing (use it, just credit it): the rock band Nine Inch Nails for one, www.whitehouse.gov for another. Of course, wikipedia and google both use Creative Commons, but you may be surprised to know that MIT does too. These are all organizations or artists who are sharing for the greater good.

So, after registering my book on Creative Commons, I decided to have a beer and continue fooling around on the internet. That was when I found that one of my favourite organizations POPTECH had registered all their podcasts on C. Commons.

Wikileaks aside, I think I made a good decision. I look forward to seeing quotes and pictures from The Four Walls of My Freedom in other books, blogs, songs, plays, articles or poems. Bienvenue!

And for all who, like me, are trying to understand how to change mass behaviour to be kinder, healthier and more social, have a listen to Sinan Aral at Poptech speaking on Social Contagion. And feel free to quote it!

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