This year, we’re focusing on re-engaging with the CC community and building new relationships, especially as emerging technologies like AI reshape how people create and share. We want to ensure CC’s tools, training, and resources evolve to meet real community needs, and we’re committed to being transparent and realistic about what we can offer in support. This is happening during a period of economic uncertainty for organizations in the open movement, so we are focusing on delivering sustainable pathways for community engagement at CC.

From CC Global Summit to New Ways of Connecting 

One big change you may have noticed is that we haven’t announced the next CC Global Summit. Unfortunately, CC’s budgets over the last two years have not allowed for such a significant expense, and most of the past Global Summits ran at a deficit. Without sufficient funding to support participant attendance, the Global Summits cannot be as inclusive as we aspire for them to be.

But this doesn’t mean we can’t spend time together – quite the opposite! We believe that supporting more regional gatherings for in-person engagement and virtual gatherings for increased inclusion will help to meet these challenges. Interested in exploring collaborating on an event in your region or in your community? Let’s chat. 

The CC Community in 2025

Earlier this year, we shared some of the history of the Creative Commons Global Network (CCGN), and talked about the importance of an expanded view of the CCGN. 

In thinking about the future of our community, the shared sentiment is that the CC community is much more expansive than the formal structures of the CCGN; the CC community is anyone who uses, advocates for, or supports the infrastructure that enables open licensing or who supports and believes in the power of the commons.

To enable this broader community, we are evaluating the existing (though currently inactive) membership process of the CC Global Network and how we support country chapters. Our goal is to strengthen our community engagement spaces and create clearer, more accessible pathways for people to get involved with CC.

Let’s Get to Work!

We are excited to reconnect and hear about your experiences and vision for the future of the CC community. Your input will help shape future decisions around governance, community infrastructure, communication tools, and engagement spaces. Please fill out the CC Community Survey by May 30:

• Creative Commons Community Survey – English
• Creative Commons Community Survey – Español
• Creative Commons Community Survey – Français

Our commitment is to make CC a space where collaboration thrives, knowledge flows freely, and communities feel empowered to shape the future of the commons. Stay tuned for opportunities to share your input, connect with others, and co-create what comes next.

The post The Next Chapter: Strengthening the Creative Commons Community Together appeared first on Creative Commons.

We called for proposals and invited the community to vote on the activities. The projects needed to have a focus on building community through outreach and helping institutions move toward open. Here are the four projects that are being funded. We look forward to sharing more about the projects when they are complete.

Public Domain Digitization Advocacy across GLAM Institutions in Nigeria

Àlàáfíàbámí Ọládipúpọ̀

The Public Domain consists of materials from which society derives knowledge and inspiration to create new cultural and creative works. Having a great interest in the Public Domain, Free Knowledge Africa has tasked itself with organizing a series of events and projects fashioned to promote Public Domain works in Nigeria. In doing so, we have been able to document over a thousand works in the Public Domain database we are currently building and have been able to digitize a few of them.

This proposed activity, funded by the Creative Commons Open Culture Activity fund, seeks to advocate for the Public Domain within GLAM Institutions across Nigeria. Our primary goal is to inspire these institutions to embrace openness and digitize the valuable works within their collections. Building upon our established connections with the National Library of Nigeria, developed through previous projects, we aim to extend our outreach to 5 state branches and encourage the adoption of Open Access practices.

Beyond advocacy, our initiative includes the identification and digitization of approximately 100 Public Domain works from each library, totalling at least 500 digitized works. Subsequently, we plan to upload these digitized materials and create Wikidata Items for a minimum of 500 Public Domain Works in Nigeria.

Expected outcomes include heightened awareness and acceptance of Open Access principles among GLAM Institutions, leading to increased digitization efforts. The project aims to significantly contribute to the preservation and dissemination of cultural heritage, making a substantial impact on the accessibility and appreciation of Public Domain materials in Nigeria.

The Gateway to Amazonian Knowledge: A Project for Openly Disseminating Cultural Collections from Belém

João Alexandre Peschanski

“The Gateway to Amazonian Knowledge” project intends to openly disseminate cultural collections from Belém — especially connected to biodiversity and traditional culture — emphasizing the crucial role of open knowledge in preparing for COP-30 in Belém. This initiative involves a collaborative process to enhance content donation from local institutions, with a particular focus on strengthening partnerships with the Emílio Goeldi Museum. By fostering open access to cultural resources, the project seeks to enrich understanding and appreciation of Amazonian heritage while promoting collaboration and knowledge sharing on a global scale. This specific project will be part of a broader campaign called Wiki Loves Pará, that is especially geared towards contributing textual content about the Brazilian Amazonian Forest into Wikipedia.

Unearthing Ghana’s Hidden Heritage: Exploring Historical Artifacts in Northern Kingdoms

Mohammed Awal Alhassan

The northern half of Ghana, steeped in a rich and often overlooked history, harbors a treasure trove of undocumented artifacts. Within its borders lie the ancient Dagbon, Mamprugu, and Waala Kingdoms—custodians of a cultural heritage spanning centuries. Our project aims to explore and document these artifacts, increasing awareness through Wikipedia articles and images/videos on Wikimedia Commons. Additionally, we will create structured data for these artifacts using Wikidata, which could be utilized in the future to develop visualization tools and other resources.

Tangible items such as traditional woven fabrics like “smock” clothing, handmade beads, wooden sculptures, swords, bows and arrows, traditional drums, and handmade pottery items such as bowls, jars, and decorative pieces all reflect the region’s historical connections to weaponry and hunting practices, and as well reflect the local craftsmanship and cultural heritage making them valuable artifacts that reflect local craftsmanship and traditions.

Open access to cultural heritage/GLAM Rwanda

Nyirahabihirwe Clementine

In Rwanda there is a lack of awareness and understanding about open cultural practices in GLAMs.

Some proposed activities of this project are:

1. CC Chapter Rwanda aim to reach out new members online and offline and reach over 40 members for a baseline of  15 members, these will be achieved through special 4 online events and active social media engagement
2. CC Chapter Rwanda aims to reach out new members offline specifically in 10 GLAM institutions, through 3 workshops which will be held in 3 different districts (Huye, Nyanza, Kigali City) with 40 participants from different communities, districts and GLAMs. These workshops will enhance collaborative dialogue methodology among stakeholders, which will be designed as part of the project for its sustainability.
   • Explain them the importance of the  visibility of GLAM collection on online,  identify together the challenges and way forward for promoting them and increase their engagement in open GLAM practices.
   • Make the Rwandan community aware about Creative Common licenses/tools: Online training  on Open practice, the use of Open CC licenses & attributions to increase the online visibility of GLAM collections.
   • Document taken pictures from GLAMs in Rwanda on Wikimedia Commons and improving Wikipedia articles.
   • Making resources from different GLAMs available to be used by anyone around the world through Creative Commons tools and licenses.
   • Provide Wikimedians around the World with Rwandan digitized resources to contribute to the continued improvement of Wikimedia projects such as Wikipedia and its sister projects (WikiSource, Wikidata, WikiCommons…).
   • Creation and engagement GLAM community: Offer opportunities for members to participate in meaningful activities and events that build GLAM community and foster engagement, seek out collaborations with other groups and organizations to increase the size and diversity of the community.
   • Encourage and support community members to take on leadership roles and responsibilities. In total we will have +30 participants (20 from five GLAM institutions + 10 CC Rwanda members + others who will be interested).

We plan to report back at the end of the year with the results of each project. Congratulations to the winners!

Learn more about CC’s Open Culture Program, and if you’d like to get more involved, check out the Open Culture Platform.

The post Open Culture Platform Activity Fund Winners 2024 appeared first on Creative Commons.

The CC Open Education community had a busy 2023!  Five project teams, spanning nine countries, worked on open education projects ranging from developing STEAM, interactive, and climate change-related OER, to international curriculum alignment and translation work. Community members also worked on multimedia resources supporting the UNESCO Recommendation on OER, and presented in CC’s biannual Open Education Lightning Talks. Community members reflect on their accomplishments, lessons learned and what is next below. CC staff lightly edited text for clarity.

Building a K-12 Interactive Open Textbook

Update from Werner Westermann: This project developed a K-12 Open Textbook in the subject of Civics and Citizenship subject for 11th and 12th Grade, aligned to the official K-12 curriculum of Chile. With the CC funding, we made 60% progress on one Open Textbook for 11th grade, surpassing our initial goal. We worked with teachers, creators of the interactive resources and a graphic designer on all four learning units of the 11th grade Open Textbook, as defined by Chile’s official curriculum for Civics and Citizenship. To help others’ open education projects, we share some lessons we encountered:

• This type of community engagement requires specific and explicit guidelines and benchmarks for quality. Like any book development, this Open Textbook required a general editor to orchestrate community contributions, manage expectations, and enforce quality guidelines and benchmarks. 
• Standardized workflows are necessary.  It was most efficient to load content, then follow up with graphic and interactive resources, rather than focus on those specifics first. We tested an AI Smart Import tool that creates H5P interactive resources in seconds, in order to save up to 50% development time.  
• Community adoption of a tech tool (the H5P editor in our case) requires flexibility to adapt to the tool for mastery. We had a lot of discussions about what H5P could and could not achieve. For better results, postpone specific expectations and work on what is editor enabled.

What’s next? The next step is to complete the 11th grade Open Textbook development and publish it, pending funding.  We also await an AI tool for Spanish support to speed up production.

Popularization of OER in Ukraine: Small steps to a big goal

Update from Tetiana Kolesnykova: Polytechnic University of Milan and the Ukrainian State University of Science and Technologies (USUST) partnered to translate and localize a MOOC on OER: “Using Open Educational Resources in Teaching.” This OER provides equitable and inclusive access to education amidst full-scale war in Ukraine. Despite the war, the project achieved its aim: there is now a version of the MOOC for Ukrainian learners. Our lessons from this work included: listening to each other, negotiating where needed, and compromise. We were not looking for perfection but for a good result to be achieved within all limitations. With teamwork and strong motivation, we solved the challenges of the project together; and the end result exceeded our expectations. As a result: All MOOC subtitles for each video, the course description and all tests were made available in Ukrainian, ensuring participants gain a better understanding and support with the final assessment. We also created eight additional instructions and illustrations in Ukrainian. We developed a mock-up of the Certificate of Completion of the course “Using Open Educational Resources in Teaching” adapted into Ukrainian. Several faculty and librarians tested the MOOC in Ukrainian.

We started promoting the Ukrainian localisation of the MOOC “Using Open Educational Resources in Teaching” in October. Politecnico di Milano (METID) and the Scientific Library of the Ukrainian State University of Science and Technologies (USUST) presented our collaborative project at international conferences, national webinars, publications, and on the website of the USUST Scientific Library.

While it is too early to measure the success of the Ukrainian MOOC “Using Open Educational Resources in Teaching,” we know it is already raising awareness of OER opportunities among the wider Ukrainian academic community. 

What’s next?  We will continue our teamwork, and ignite new OER adaptations in a sustainable way.

STEAM Ahead with OER in South Africa project

Update from Dan McGuire: This collaborative project between Ghana, South Africa and the US created, curated, and sourced OER content aligned to Ghanaian and South African education standards.  

Our colleague, Peter Amoabil observed that using the MoodleBox and OER materials provided learning opportunities for students without the need to rely on the internet, which is very useful in Ghana where over 95% of schools don’t have internet access. Students were able to use the digital content for all subjects and especially for reading in their mother tongue, Dagbani. Reading materials in Dagbani have previously been very hard to acquire.

In South Africa, we were able to translate both reading materials and math assessments from English into isiXhosa for students in grades Pre-K through 1st grade. Students were excited to learn using WIFI devices.

What’s next? Translating educational materials into the students’ mother tongue is especially valuable and innovative. We plan to expand the professional development for use of digital OER materials aligned to national standards to more teachers in both Ghana and South Africa. This project helped us establish a process to create and deliver learning materials to Pre-K — 6th grade students. We will also be making the OER professional development courses and instructional content available via open repositories.

Climate Change: OER integrating SDG components in Education in two Southeast Asian Countries

Update from Dr. Suma Parahakaran: This project worked with the Malaysian Ministry of Education as well as Malaysian and Laotian schools, creating OER and experiential learning activities. Primary and Secondary school students engaged in cross disciplinary, technical, and integrated learning activities, such as setting up solar panels on rooftops. They got to attend workshops and brainstorms with international experts and teachers. Students also created videos, brochures and other resources focused on ethics, climate change and sustainable development education. Finally, students then entered a competition related to Climate Change and Sustainable Development OER. For more information and results of the competition, view the project website. 

What’s next? While there are private Youtube links to the videos, they will be made public soon. Project lead: Dr. Suma Parahakaran

Alquimetricos

Update from Fernando Daguanno: Alquimétricos is an OER project that uses connectors and sticks to build geometric structures for STEAM education. Through experiential learning, the project develops students’ spatial, mathematical and kinetic understanding. The Alquimétricos Kit Zero is already published online and available to purchase: see our repositories for ready-to-print and fully editable CC BY files, including content, packaging and labeling. 

During 2023 we developed a new product line of elementary-school-oriented kits, drawing from eight years of experiences and research. The kits include a deck of cards with guidelines, a bunch of hubs and sticks that help educators make Alquimétricos’ activities dynamic in the classroom. The new kit was developed and introduced as part of the (FADU-UBA) DiJu post degree “Toys and Games Design” course 2023. It was launched in Argentina at the Open Education Meeting in Bariloche – Argentinian Patagonia, presented at the OpenEd Conference 2023 and displayed at the CC Global Summit in Mexico City.

What’s next? Next steps include translation to Portuguese and English and sharing the project in global OER repositories. We will seek support proofreading and sharking Kit Zero in a community call in early 2024. 

Global Commons: Unlocking Open Education with Creative Commons

Update from Lisa Di Valentino and John Okewole: This project developed a short animated video describing Creative Commons and how CC licenses support the implementation of the United Nations Recommendation on OER. We currently have a first version of the video created by Brainboxx Studios for which we will re-record the English narration. We have also solicited translations of the transcript from other subgroup members in the nine other UNESCO languages, and have offers for translation in Arabic, Chinese, Hindi, Italian (of which we now have a draft), and Spanish. 

What’s next? We will finalize the English video and determine how to translate the video text.  We will also design handouts in the various languages explaining the benefits of using Creative Commons licensing for open educational resources.

CC Open Education Lightning Talks

Lightning Talks are seven-minute presentations on a given area of expertise or work. Based on community demand, CC hosted Open Education Lighting Talks online in February and in-person, at the CC Summit in October. Community members’  presentations ranged from explorations of OER for social justice to practical applications, such as using machine translation algorithms for OER translation and recommendations for digital publishing. CC also presented a forthcoming microcredential course on which we are partnering with the University of Nebraska Omaha, in effort to bring more open licensing expertise to new audiences. 

What’s next? We look forward to learning more from the open education community in future CC Open Education Lightning Talks!

Creative Commons extends our gratitude to the inspiring CC community members making a difference in their educational contexts. We look forward to continued open education collaborations in 2024! If you would like to join our Open Education community, visit the CC Open Education Platform site for more information.

The post CC Open Education Platform Activities: 2023 in Review appeared first on Creative Commons.

“Plant Circuits” by Creative Commons was generated by the DALL-E 2 AI platform with the text prompt “vines and digital circuit boards in the style of Erté.” CC dedicates any rights it holds to the image to the public domain via CC0.

We’re nearly halfway through 2023 and this year has already been an eventful one for generative artificial intelligence (AI), presenting unique challenges and opportunities for the Creative Commons (CC) community of creators who embrace open sharing.

From the community and beyond, we are seeing urgent demands for support in navigating AI’s implications for the commons.

CC has been hard at work developing our thoughts on the intersection of copyright and generative AI inputs and outputs. In February, we kicked off a public consultation with our community members and a wide range of stakeholders to learn about their thoughts on generative AI and to contemplate ways to move toward a positive future with this promising technology.

We believe AI can work in the public interest, and want to be part of the solution in navigating to that reality.

We use “artificial intelligence” and “AI” as shorthand terms for what we know is a complex field of technologies and practices, currently involving machine learning and large language models (LLMs). Using the abbreviation “AI” is handy, but not ideal, because we recognize that AI is not really “artificial” (in that AI is created and used by humans), nor “intelligent” (at least in the way we think of human intelligence).

What We Heard From You

We talked to creators, artists, publishers, policymakers, and legal experts. There are a wide variety of uses of these new tools, and just as wide a variety of points of view. As with previous technologies like the camera and Photoshop, generative AI is providing new tools for creativity, empowering both professionals and the public at large to make new works. At the same time, we listened to creators who worry about how their works are used to train AI and produce content that may compete with their works. For instance, if someone can generate works in the style of a previous artist, is that fair to the original artist? If people can use ChatGPT to get answers gleaned from Wikipedia without ever visiting Wikipedia, will Wikipedia’s commons of information continue to be sustainable?

Hearing these diverse voices helped reinforce and clarify our view that we need to think about a diverse set of solutions to support our strategy of better sharing in a world with AI. While we think it’s important that copyright continues to leave room for people to study and learn from past works to create new ones, including by analyzing past works using automated means, copyright is just one lens to think about AI. It’s still important to grapple with legitimate concerns about this technology and consider solutions that support responsible development and use.

Importantly, we heard interest in such solutions not just from creators, but also from developers of AI. With laws varying around the world and cases in the midst of active litigation, some developers are uncertain about whether and how to proceed in building AI. Moreover, regardless of what the law permits, some developers want to work with creators to find ways to respect creators’ wishes and support the commons through clear norms and technical solutions. For instance, we met with developers actively working on opt-in and opt-out solutions for creators regarding training of AI, and we talked to many developers who see using openly-licensed content for AI training as in line with their own aspirations and values.

We also spent time consulting with developers of open-source AI tools. Open source can help grow the commons, improve transparency in AI, and democratize access to the technology. At the same time, people have raised concerns about how open source may lower the barriers to harmful uses such as deepfakes or disinformation, and we’re starting to see proposed regulatory approaches that may go too far, hindering open approaches to AI. It is critical that, as an organization and a voice for the public interest, we continue to support appropriate regulations and practices that strike a balance among essential concerns, including open access, transparency, incentives for creativity, and protecting the commons and digital rights .

Additionally, we spent time talking to legal experts from academia and from private practice. Our thoughts about using AI in the public interest are rooted in our understanding of the legal frameworks involved and the way CC’s licenses and legal tools interact with them. We want the advice we share with our community and the policy approaches we advocate for to be informed by the most thoughtful analyses of the current and evolving legal situation, and we’ll provide further insights about AI and CC’s licenses in a future post. (For now, you can find additional details in our FAQ.)

What’s Coming Up for CC

With new developments in generative AI coming daily, and with increasing debate worldwide about how best to regulate AI, it is time for CC to look to the future and to consider our place in the ongoing conversation around generative AI.

We will continue to convene critical conversations and bring together stakeholders who may not typically sit across the table from each other. If you know of events where the CC community should be engaged, please share.

Upcoming opportunities to engage in-person on these topics include:

• Expert roundtables in London in mid-July

• Wikimania in Singapore in August

• Convening in New York in September

• Policy workshops in DC in September (to be confirmed)

• CC Global Summit in Mexico City in October, with a specific focus on AI and the Commons, including participants from diverse communities around the world, not just people in the centers of power and privilege who already dominate conversations about AI

Additionally, anyone may join our community Copyright Platform and participate in its community advisory group on AI.

The CC team is dedicated to loud listening as we thoughtfully consider our stance and foster an exchange of ideas and knowledge.

Our consultation is not an end in itself. Knowledge exchange through convenings will inform our intentions, and guide our actions.

There are things we must do urgently to help bring clarity to our community and support for creators. We must:

• Clarify how the legal structures supporting the commons, including CC licenses and legal tools, interact with generative AI today.

• Empower creators, engaging even more deeply with those whose voices are being excluded from mainstream media coverage and policy debates. One question raised by creators rests on moral rights (non economic rights) which vary between jurisdictions, creating uncertainty over reuse.

• Collaborate with builders and innovators who share our values and our vision for generative AI in the public interest, to develop, test, and potentially co-create solutions that tackle challenges like transparency, credit, consent, and choice.

Join us

Please join us on this journey of discovery through our platforms, community, network and in person at our Global Summit.

• Participate in the CC Global Summit: Register to join us in Mexico City during 3–6 October 2023, where our theme will be AI and the commons.

• Join our community Copyright Platform and participate in its community advisory group on AI.

• Learn more about how CC licenses and legal tools intersect with AI inputs and outputs, and current understandings of the legal and regulatory landscapes.

• Subscribe to our newsletter: Never miss an update or CC event! Subscribe to our mailing list and get all the latest CC news and invitations delivered straight to your inbox.

• Follow us on social media: Keep up with all things CC by following us on your preferred social platform. We’re active on Facebook, Mastodon, LinkedIn, and Twitter.

• Get involved with CC on slack: Engage directly with our team and fellow CC enthusiasts. Join our Slack community for real-time discussions and updates.

The post Update and Next Steps on CC’s AI Community Consultation appeared first on Creative Commons.

“Input” by jputman, here slightly cropped, is licensed via CC BY-SA 2.0.

Over the last year, innovation and use of generative artificial intelligence (AI) has proliferated, providing new ways for people to create content from art to zines, and everything in between. At CC, we’ve been watching these experiments in creativity while considering what it all means for what we call better sharing: sharing that is contextual, inclusive, just, equitable, reciprocal, and sustainable. What will generative AI mean for CC’s mission to overcome legal obstacles in sharing knowledge and creativity to address the world’s most pressing challenges?

Supporting community-driven solutions has always been at the heart of CC’s approach to sharing and creativity. In February, we held open meetings with our community to start to explore what CC might do new or differently in a world filling with AI-generated creations. Over 65 people registered to participate in the conversation from all over the world, including artists, educators, lawyers, librarians, policymakers, scholars, scientists, students, technologists, and more.

To get the conversation started, we asked participants to consider some framing questions:

• How can CC and its community help to ensure AI participates in better sharing for all and contributes to a public interest commons?
• How can CC best enable creators to shape how their works contribute to training AI?
• How can CC clarify the copyright status of works generated using AI?

The conversations were wide ranging, touching on some of the specifics of how generative AI actually works, how current copyright laws intersect with AI inputs and outputs, and ideas around where CC and our community might focus, including expanding CC’s educational offerings and policy advocacy on AI topics, mechanisms for rightsholders to opt in and/or out of AI training datasets, and mechanisms to better record and cite the provenance of works generated both by humans and AI. You can read and comment on the raw notes from all three community meetings.

Going forward, CC will house community conversation about generative AI within our Copyright Platform, where you can learn more about how anyone can join and contribute to work at the intersection of generative AI, better sharing, and CC’s mission.

We thank everyone who has contributed to the discussion so far, not only in these meetings, but in the AI webinars we held during Nov 2022, and all the other ways we’ve been in touch. We encourage you to keep helping us think through the complex questions that AI technologies and practices raise for all of us who are working to support a commons in the public interest.

Stay in touch with CC: subscribe to our mailing list, follow us on social media (Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, Mastodon & Twitter), or join CC on Slack.

The post CC Community Input: Better Sharing for Generative AI appeared first on Creative Commons.

Sharing matters. Thanks to the digital revolution, we share things like never before, from scientific research to family photos, from day-to-day life to college courses — and all instantaneously. The variety and volume of sharing today was unimaginable even just a decade ago. Now social media and publishing platforms, smartphones, cheap data, and expanded internet access have enabled more sharing, both in forms that bring us joy and connection, and in the spread of lies, hate and misinformation. Our digital life reflects human nature in all its complexity, highlighting both the good and the bad.

All this sharing has created a flood of new copyrighted works — practically everyone is now a published author, many times over, when we think of all our social media postings — but is the current copyright paradigm working in our interest?

Copyright law is a strand of intellectual property law that affects us all, helping decide what we can read, listen to, watch and share online. It impacts creators, innovators and users of content. We all agree that creators should be fairly rewarded for their works. The economic argument that stronger protection for authors’ rights will inevitably lead to more gains for individual creators may appear convincing in the abstract. However, in practice, the economic argument does not turn out to be persuasive, because extending copyright terms from a few decades to life plus 70 years has not materially increased earnings for the majority of individual creators. Instead, it has generated greater monopolies, benefiting select corporations whose profit motives lift only a few star players. The vast majority of creators do not experience the benefits of the current copyright system first hand. When culture is paywalled, rented and held for profit, when knowledge is locked away, when our libraries are threatened and educators diminished, there’s a chill cast on how our society interoperates, and ultimately on the health of our democracy.

Onerous copyright rules, benefiting the few and not the many, obstruct our access to culture, the knowledge we share, and the society we care about. In order to empower individual creators and safeguard our democracy, Creative Commons (CC) has developed an alternative system to the onerous all rights reserved copyright rules, enabling a commons of knowledge and culture which is freely accessible to everyone, everywhere. We offer a set of open licenses and public domain tools free for anyone to use — a new system where creators get to make their own choices about which rights they want to keep and which rights they want to share. By making their own choices for sharing, creators can reach new and expanded audiences, and people across the planet can access works and ideas to build new creations. Our licenses are now the global standard for sharing content, for creators, researchers, educators, librarians, archivists and governments.

As CC celebrates 20 years of facilitating the sharing of content across the planet, it is important to reflect on what we have learned.

Firstly, our strategic shift away from sharing just for sharing’s sake to working for better sharing, helps us address the careful balance between sharing that is in the public interest, and sharing which is not. This is important at a time when all the benefits that the internet has brought to us seem to be so quickly forgotten, and the predominant narrative is around “harm” rather than public interest. At CC, we want to shift this narrative back to the importance of why sharing matters and how we can do it better. This is why we are an organizing partner in the nascent Better Internet movement, and are actively advocating around the world to ensure that human values and public interest are front and center in our online world.

Secondly, time and time again, we see digital public infrastructure and goods taken for granted. At a time when the public interest often stands in direct contrast to the commercial interest of the creative industries and large tech firms, we need public investment in the structures that underpin the open commons. If we are not careful, the internet will be just a collection of those company towns, where you get paid in company scrip, can only buy from the company store, and only hear the company line and see the company viewpoint. With democracy already in a fragile state and open societies threatened, we need investment in the infrastructure that protects the public interest. Creative Commons is part of this public infrastructure. Without it, we will be poorer, less open and less democratic.

Thirdly, CC needs to be better at publicizing and promoting our work, to reach more people, so that our tools and services can be used to help expand the open commons of knowledge and culture even further. Our impact dwarfs our resources. Even though people use the open commons daily, the vast majority of the public have never heard of CC, or if they have, they are either surprised there is an organization behind the licenses at all, or they think that we are the size of Wikimedia — when in reality CC has a staff of 20, and Wikimedia over 550. We at CC recognize this challenge, and this is why we are already working with our existing network to build a new community of young and emerging leaders who can carry the torch of open knowledge and culture forward into the future.

Catherine Stihler” by Martin Shields is licensed under CC BY 4.0

Finally, the world we live in today is different from the one when CC was first created. Looking forward, as I mark my 2nd anniversary at CC, I see our challenges and opportunities are to recognize and consolidate the impact we’ve made in supporting the growth of the commons, but also to continue that impact in this emerging era of AI, big data, and web3 to effect positive change in our world. We have reshaped the copyright regime in 20 years, becoming the global standard for open content sharing. Now we stand at the cusp of the next 20 years, encountering new places and spaces for dialogue, and championing a new generation of practitioners and advocates, but most importantly, continuing to build a commons of knowledge and culture that is accessible to everyone, everywhere. I look forward to working with you all to make this vision a reality.

Will you join us? Subscribe to our newsletter to stay informed about the commons, make a donation to support CC’s work, join our global network to get more involved, or get certified to deepen your open practices.

The post Sharing Matters: What We’ve Learned at Creative Commons appeared first on Creative Commons.

“Catherine Stihler” by Martin Shields is licensed under CC BY 4.0

Dear CC Community,

It’s a very special day — today marks the 20th Anniversary of Creative Commons’ founding!

Twenty years ago, Creative Commons started with a simple, radical idea: to save the internet from “failed sharing” and create a world where everyone has access to knowledge and creativity.

What began as a simple idea and dream is today a reality worldwide. Over the past 20 years, Creative Commons has powered a global movement spanning 86 countries, developed and stewarded legal tools and licenses, and unlocked over two billion works that can be openly and freely shared.

But we didn’t get here on our own — as we’ve grown and evolved over the last two decades, we’ve built a vibrant global CC Community of advocates, activists, scholars, artists, and users working to strengthen the Commons worldwide. In 2017, we established the CC Global Network to help coordinate and provide leadership in the global Creative Commons movement. And today there are 48 CC Chapters around the world!

While we stay grounded in the vision of our founding, we also look toward the future. And for us, and many others, the future includes Better Sharing – the type of sharing that serves the public interest, creates the world the internet promised, and one where everyone has access to culture, science, and knowledge. We invite you to support our Better Sharing campaign below.

And the good news is that the celebration isn’t over yet! The 20th Anniversary of CC licenses is December 16, 2022. So throughout the year, we will continue conversations with influencers who are adding to the open movement, share insights and innovations from CC staff and partners, and host special events of celebration for our global community. Keep an eye on the CC Blog, our monthly newsletters, and on social for exciting announcements and new content.

To the entire CC Community, CC staff and board members (past and present), our 20th Anniversary Committee, CC friends, partners and donors — I thank you for your continued commitment to Creative Commons and our mission. Simply put, we wouldn’t be celebrating 20 years of CC without you.

Here’s to another 20 fantastic years! 

Sincerely,

Catherine Stihler,
CEO of Creative Commons
On behalf of the CC Team

Check out our special 20th Anniversary episode of CC’s Open Minds podcast, featuring Creative Commons founder Lawrence Lessig! Lessig reflects on how CC began, what it has accomplished, and what he hopes to see in the next twenty years and beyond. 

The post A message from our CEO to the CC Community on Creative Commons’ 20th Anniversary appeared first on Creative Commons.

Generally, the Platform is a space for copyright and open movement advocates and practitioners to identify, plan and coordinate policy-related activities. The Platform acts as: 

• a forum to exchange good practices, case studies and practical examples;
• a network of contacts, local focal points and experts;
• a place to collaborate on projects and activities.

This year, the Platform created four working groups to address four policy themes and find solutions to problems affecting the open ecosystem from a global perspective: (1) artificial intelligence and open content; (2) platform liability; (3) copyright exceptions and limitations; and (4) the ethics of open sharing. 

Each working group will publish an article encapsulating its outcomes in the CC Medium Publication in Fall 2021. Each of them will also present their work at a public webinar on November 9, 2021, in order to inform CC Global Network members, practitioners, policymakers and the general public of any proposed solutions so as to contribute to and influence wider policy discussions. I’m very excited to introduce you to our fantastic leads. Over to you, Mahmoud, Emine, André and Josie!

Working Group 1 — Artificial Intelligence and Open Content — Max Mahmoud Wardeh 

I’m deeply interested in the ways technology impacts the world. My work includes building digital technology platforms as well as teaching about them as a part-time lecturer in digital technologies at Loughborough University in London. I’m also interested in exploring different ways of creating and sharing knowledge. Over the years (my first open source contribution was last century!) I’ve been involved in various open knowledge projects and have been a member of the Creative Commons community for over a decade. This Working Group intersects with many areas of my professional and personal interests and I’m very excited to be leading it. I’m particularly grateful for the opportunity to work with the members of the group and eager to see how their ideas and contributions to the WG’s topics will develop. As well as authoring the position paper, we’re aiming to create a wider set of resources related to the topics we’ll be exploring. These will include the use of CC/openly licensed material in training AI, the copyrightability of algorithmically generated content, and more. Our hope, and goal, is that the community will find these resources useful to learn from, build on, and contribute to.

Working Group 2 — Internet Platform Liability — Emine Yildirim 

I’m a doctoral researcher at a prominent Belgian institute, working at the intersection of freedom of expression and thought and technology. I hold law degrees both from Turkey and the US. I also had a chance to work for the Wikimedia Foundation as a legal fellow for a while. Working for the WMF further ignited my passion for the access to information and open knowledge movement. As my doctoral research also aims to conduct a comprehensive analysis on how platform liabilities affect freedom of expression and thought, it is quite intriguing for me to lead this working group. I anticipate that this WG’s policy recommendations will add another invaluable resource to the open movement literature by explaining how platform copyright liability legislation intentionally or unintentionally chills the right to freedom to share, especially concerning open licenses, such as CC licenses. I’m honored to be a part of this great WG, which has members joining from different parts of the world with rich and valuable experiences.

Working Group 3 — Exceptions and Limitations to address Global Challenges — André Houang 

I am a researcher at InternetLab, a Brazilian independent research center focused on internet policy and an institutional member of the Creative Commons Global Network. I am currently a master’s student at the University of São Paulo, where I studied law. My research is focused on copyright reform at the Brazilian national level. I am especially interested in studying how interest groups try to influence Congress into importing foreign copyright legislation. I was attracted to lead this Working Group because I believe exceptions and limitations can serve as important instruments for promoting access to knowledge and culture worldwide. At a global level, they can help us achieve a more just society, one in which access to the world’s intellectual creations and knowledge is not contingent on wealth or nationality. I hope our WG will help Creative Commons in setting up references on how exceptions and limitations can be drafted so as to achieve this goal. 

Working Group 4 — Beyond Copyright: the Ethics of Open Sharing  — Josie Fraser 

My work focuses on equitable and inclusive digital transformation. During the last 18 years, I have advised and represented major organizations and governments nationally and internationally. I am currently Head of Digital Policy at the National Lottery Heritage Fund, the UK’s largest funder of heritage. My work includes leading on the Digital Skills for Heritage initiative, designed to drive up digital skills and confidence across the sector, and equip organizations to make strategic and effective use of technology. Prior to this, I worked for the Department of Culture, Media and Sport as Senior Technology Adviser, leading across a range of policy areas including open data, online safety, and international digital policy. I was awarded Honorary Life Membership by the Association for Learning Technology in 2017 in recognition of the impact and scope of her work as an educational technologist, particularly in relation to digital literacy.

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We really look forward to seeing what the working groups will achieve and to welcoming you to our public webinar on November 9, 2021 — mark your calendars, more information will follow soon! 

Interested in joining the Copyright Platform? You can: 

• Join the #cc-copyrightreform Slack channel; and/or
• Join the Copyright platform mailing list.

The post Four Creative Commons Working Groups Will Explore Policy Issues. Meet Their Leads! appeared first on Creative Commons.

Over the past months, we’ve talked on the Creative Commons blog about the effect of the pandemic on science and education and asserted how important it is to share knowledge and culture as openly as possible, now more than ever. We also launched the Open COVID Pledge, a groundbreaking initiative founded on the idea that relevant scientific resources and intellectual property owned or developed in relation to COVID-19 should be made freely available to anyone in the world to use and build upon to end the pandemic.

Credit: “33962822768_a6f5d169b8_o” Sebastiaan ter Burg (CC BY)

Members of the CC community launched remarkable initiatives across the globe to support open education, open science, and open GLAM (Galleries, Libraries, Archives, and Museums). From New Zealand to Poland, from Brazil to the Netherlands and Italy, all over the world they have been leading inspiring actions to ensure the public interest continues to be promoted and protected in the midst of this global crisis.

We asked our community members to share what they were doing so we could contribute to Wikipedia’s effort to document the impact of the pandemic on different aspects of everyone’s lives and the measures taken to mitigate that impact.

You can read about the activities carried out in the field of:

• Education – for example, several initiatives were taken to facilitate access for students and teachers to openly licensed educational resources, and many organizations helped clarify how to navigate copyright rules related to teaching and learning activities (especially online) under such exceptional circumstances. 
• Science – for example, we shared different projects that highlight how open access to scientific research resources is key to quickly find a cure for the disease. 
• Culture – for example, some of our network members carried online training workshops and webinars for cultural heritage professionals to learn about relevant risks and exceptions to copyright when providing online services. Other organizations, e.g. in Australia, organized fact sheets to provide libraries and archives with basic guidance on how to deal with copyright challenges. 

Truth be told, the global health emergency triggered by the spread of COVID-19 brought into stark relief the belief that Creative Commons has been holding all along: by openly sharing knowledge and culture, we can better support scientists, researchers, teachers, students, cultural institutions, and society at large. The crisis also magnified the power of CC’s thriving community members, who continue to spin on a dime and quickly and directly support practitioners on the ground.

Interested in joining or supporting the CC Global Network? Learn more here. To support our work more generally, please donate here. 

? Stop the spread of COVID-19 by taking these steps outlined by the WHO, including washing your hands for at least 20 seconds and social distancing.

The post Our Community is Reducing the Impact of COVID-19 on Science, Education, and Culture appeared first on Creative Commons.

Almost a year ago, we announced that our community’s real time communications were migrating from IRC to Slack. As we pass 1,000 active users, we want to take a moment to give gratitude to our community for making it happen.

1,000+ active users

More than 450 of our users joined Slack in our first month and a half, an incredible lift for us. Read more about our first month of Slack on the blog.

We’ve grown consistently since then, but our next big influx of community came this week, when our Open Education Platform launched. #cc-openedu is now our most populous channel outside of #general and #announcements, with 167 participants collaborating daily in the channel. We expect an increasing number of people signing up in all our platforms with the launch of our exciting new Global Network Strategy.

Our community as a whole hosts 250 Weekly Active Users sending approximately 1,000 messages per day. However, certain days are definitely busier than others: after we sent out our invitation to our Global Summit attendees to join us on Slack, our engagement shot up to 1,700 messages in one day in April. The community is friendly and welcoming, and we try to say hello to every member who joins and posts!

35 Public Channels

35 public channels feels like a lot of channels, but the number of access points allows members to hop into (and out of) any of our global communities or programs with ease. The many channels allow us to open up our work to the world and facilitate communication between a variety of users on six continents. (We’re not yet in Antarctica – anyone want to start a chapter?)

In addition to our 1,000 members milestone, we’re nearing another important landmark: The CC Community has sent nearly 200,000 messages! We’re talking a lot between each other – more than 50% of our messages are sent via Direct Messages to develop our close-knit, relational culture of Community Builders.

To call out some of our favorite channels, #cc-openedu is acting as a catalyst and inspiration for other network-platform based communities, with more than 60 users regularly posting messages and a channel membership of 166. The #general and #announcements channels remain incredibly popular, with over 1,000 total members and 100 daily active users, as does, of course, #cc-animals, which provides all the cuteness from the commons. Want to learn more about how we work? #cc-culture-club has you covered! While most of our chatter is about the commons, we can also get silly in the #random channel.

We’ve also been excited to see the growth of users in global communities like #cc-europe, #cc-canada, and #cc-arabworld.

A vision for community growth

Our adoption of Slack has seriously grown our capacity as a network and as a community. We’ve been able to use the platform to chat, connect, and collaborate across disciplines. Through Slack, we’re privileging accessibility and community in order to reach our goals as a connected, growing network.

Our next steps include possible Slack chats, more fun, (like these Slack awards,) and frankly, who knows what else? Our community surprises us every day.

If you haven’t yet joined us, please do! We’d love to meet you.

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