Creative Commons Aotearoa New Zealand discussion

[Leigh Blackall <leighblackall AT gmail.com>]

Well, it is a little bit of a worry - I would like to reference it in a paper I'm thinking to write.. but no worries, if you or anyone comes across something openly accessible, think of me :)

On Wed, Apr 21, 2010 at 2:45 PM, Jessica Coates <j2.coates AT qut.edu.au> wrote:

I agree – there is much more discussion behind the scenes than in public. But don’t worry – there is discussion.

 

Jessica Coates

Project Manager

Creative Commons Clinic

Queensland University of Technology

 

ph: 07 3138 8301

fax: 07 3138 9395

email: j2.coates AT qut.edu.au

From: cc-au-bounces AT lists.ibiblio.org [mailto:cc-au-bounces AT lists.ibiblio.org] On Behalf Of Leigh Blackall
Sent: Wednesday, 21 April 2010 2:41 PM

To: Creative Commons Aotearoa New Zealand discussion

Cc: cc-au AT lists.ibiblio.org
Subject: Re: [ccAustralia] [Cc-nz] CC parochial

 

Hi Jessica, thanks - I didn't know about CC US(A)

Good to here there is some talk about it going on... it seemed to catch people I spoke to at OER Vancouver by surprise.
Just in case this topic is causing others on the list to roll their eyes, I posted some thoughts about the inadvertent cultural colonisation of OER last year. In that post is a link to a probably better known critique of Creative Commons by Marco Fiorette in his article Tragedy of the Commons.

Sorry if this goes over old ground. I haven't encountered much public discussion on it in CC circles...

On Wed, Apr 21, 2010 at 12:07 PM, Jessica Coates <j2.coates AT qut.edu.au> wrote:

There is a ccUS (http://creativecommons.org/international/us/) - it's just not a particularly active office and doesn't have its own website (which a lot of the offices don't). Though it does have its own licences and separate public leads. Really, only about half of the 50+ offices have a public profile.

It's a criticism that has been made before, and there is certainly a US bias in CC - a bias it shares with other US-initiated online organisations, like Wikimedia, Google etc. It isn't helped by the fact that most of the action (and money) in the social media/web 2.0/OA space (both public and private sector) is still in the US.

But the CC head office has been working on this over the last few years, internationalising the licences, improving communication with its jurisdiction offices, adding the international news feed to the front page. There's constant discussion within the CC community about how to make the focus more international - so we'd love to hear any ideas anyone has.

And I definitely don't think the CC ideals are just cultural colonialism - while I agree some of the 'free' rhetoric can be a bit grating, if anything the open content ethic tends to favour those in niche markets (ie outside the US). Certainly things like open education and open government are very popular in South America, Asia and Africa.



Jessica

-----Original Message-----
From: cc-au-bounces AT lists.ibiblio.org [mailto:cc-au-bounces AT lists.ibiblio.org] On Behalf Of Leigh Blackall
Sent: Tuesday, 20 April 2010 8:20 PM
To: Creative Commons Aotearoa New Zealand discussion; cc-au AT lists.ibiblio.org
Subject: [ccAustralia] CC parochial

Has anyone on either the NZ or the AU list discussed the US geocentricism to Creative Commons? I brought the question up at the Open Education conference in Vancouver last year, challenging the CC crew on questions of neo colonialism and heavy words like that.

Its a bit related to how the whole Internet is geared. We have .com .org and .net and then we have .com.au, .com.nz and so on. Why isn't there a .com.us?

And Creative Commons.. Why is there no Creative Commons United States? Is Creative Commons International a project made up of... everyone else but the US?

Is this a non or minor issue worth no discussion? Or is Creative Commons in some ways a vehicle of cultural colonisation, after the free trade agreements get us all in line with All Rights Reserved, the US lefties come in and save us with Creative Commons, swamping us with US centric "free" content, and encouraging us to release our minor international voices under CC licenses as well.

I know that's not the intent, but it could in many ways be the result.

I'd love to see Creative Commons add United States to their name like all the other International sites do... a minor act of solidarity with the 'everyone else' out there.

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Leigh Blackall
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