[cc-community] Public domain search engines - is Appropedia's the only one?

Terry Hancock hancock at anansispaceworks.com
Fri Feb 8 11:40:33 EST 2008


Chris Watkins wrote:
> Is anyone aware of any public domain search engines? I couldn't find one, so
> I created one, at
> http://www.appropedia.org/Appropedia%27s_Public_Domain_Search - still in
> early stages, but already giving worthwhile results.

Extremely useful idea if it can deliver.

How exactly are you determining that material is public domain? PD is
kind of a default state into which material eventually falls
(unfortunately now after a ridiculously long time). There are also
materials which are "assigned" to the PD and US government materials
which are PD by statute.

So are you only finding PD-assigned materials, or what?

I guess this would work great if CC0 started being widely implemented,
though.

> I have plans to do a lot of work to improve it, including doing something
> with cc tools/metadata. However, I thought I'd check first whether there
> were any other active projects that I'd missed.

One thing I think needs improvement is your differentiation on the front
page. You have to be *extremely* clear about these issues because there
is so much fuzziness and misinformation about the actual licensing state
of many materials out there. You have to establish your credibility with
knowledgeable users by demonstrating that you properly know how to use
and distinguish these terms and you need to induct newcomers to the
taxonomy of licensing-regimes (and where your site fits in).

You refer to at least four different licensing regimes: Public Domain,
CC-Attribution, CC-NC-Attribution, and "GNU FDL" (notably overlooking
CC-Attribution-ShareAlike). Because you throw these terms around with a
poorly-defined term "Open Content" (well, at least your usage doesn't
agree with mine, as I don't count "NC" work as "Open Content"), the
result is a bit disorienting.

I think if you genuinely are interested solely in *Public Domain* work,
you need to clearly position yourself in the spectrum -- distinguishing
yourself from "Free" or "Semi-Free" sites. For example, you say at one
point that GNU FDL work is "compatible" with your site. What does that
mean? Also you list this as the license for the site. What does that
mean? Perhaps that the site content itself is GNU FDL, but the indexed
material is solely Public Domain?

I mean I *think* I understand what you're trying to do here, but a
casual reading of the front page doesn't, IMHO, convey it concisely.

Are you in fact clear on the taxonomy of licensing states? I.e.:

"Public Domain"           = Not under copyright
"CC0"                     = Possibly copyrighted, but unrestricted"
"Attribution"             = Licensed with only attribution requirements
"Attribution+Copyleft"    = Attribution and retention of license

"...Non-Commercial..."    = Usage-restricted material

And assuming you are, where are you drawing the line for indexable
material and/or site content? (Right after CC0, for indexing and after
Attribution+Copyleft for site content?)

Then I think you should write a statement of purpose or vision statement
that clearly and concisely establishes where you want to be in this
framework and make that your front page. (Why, for example, do we need
you, if we have Wikisource and Project Gutenberg? What's the difference
between this and CC-enabled search engines, etc.)

Assuming your goal is what I think it is, and you can clarify that
introductory page, I'd anticipate you'll get some interest in helping to
improve the site overall.

Cheers,
Terry

-- 
Terry Hancock (hancock at AnansiSpaceworks.com)
Anansi Spaceworks http://www.AnansiSpaceworks.com



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