If you provide or create content online, you should know about Creative Commons. The short explanation, from their blog is, “The Creative Commons licenses enable people to easily change their copyright terms from the default of “all rights reserved” to “some rights reserved.” It’s a good way to share info – whether you’re the creator, borrower or buyer.
Bernadine Joselyn sent me an article that highlights the need for and application of Creative Commons and talks about how the Creative Commons opens a door to innovation. It’s a good example of how the Internet (and broadband) have changed traditional business models. Before the Internet, everyone seemed to work in silos; since the advent of the Internet, most successful businesses work more collaboratively. Google is the prime example. Google creates tools that are intended to work in most environments for free, such as Gmail, Google Maps or Google Analytics for web statistics. They have gone so far as it open up some of their code to developers around the world, making it possible for developers to make improvements to Google tools as well as create entirely new tools.
Before the Internet, businesses seemed to think that such openness would devalue their products or services; in a post Internet world, openness adds value. Businesses that have understood and acted on that shift in openness have flourished; those who are still playing according to the old rules are dying on the vine. The Creative Commons has been able to step in to help some businesses take advantage of the openness.
I thought about that transition into openness last weekend when I was at the TMCA Fall Conference. We heard from several traditional media resources that are creating intriguing media web sites that encourage reader interaction. That focus on interaction is great and a nod at the changes brought about by the Internet – but most of the sites we saw stopped short of being truly open. They will not be opening up their code at this point and they are not creating ways to interact with other web site. I contrast this with the new media tools – Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, blogs – which seem to be finding more and more ways to work seamlessly together – or at least allow users to work seamless with multiple tools.
If you think about broadband a lot, it’s tough not to make the connection between this story and net neutrality. What we need is a new business model that makes sense for broadband providers and users. To quote the article on Creative Commons, “while the technology is frictionless, the collaboration faces another hurdle”.
