To celebrate the 20th anniversary of Creative Commons and our licenses, we partnered with Fine Acts to commission the “Better Sharing” collection. We are excited to share the collection with the world, which was unveiled last week at CC’s 20th Anniversary Celebration. The artworks are available on TheGreats.co to be enjoyed, used and adapted, and then shared again, by anyone, forever.

In developing this collection of artworks, we posed this question to 12 prominent global open advocates:

What does better sharing for a brighter future look like to you? 

Fine Acts selected 12 well-known international artists who have embraced openness to create a series of visual pieces under an open license, which are inspired by the theme, as well as the responses from the advocates. View the full collection >>

Our Theme: Better Sharing 

The unifying idea behind this collection is “Better Sharing,” which comes from Creative Commons’ strategic goal to accelerate Better Sharing — a cooperative effort that delivers open access to technology, education, science, culture and resources, and advances knowledge to solve problems and promote the public good. Beyond just sharing, better sharing includes:

• Sharing that is inclusive, just and equitable — where everyone has wide opportunity to access content, contribute their own creativity, and receive recognition and rewards for their contributions.
• Sharing that is reciprocal — where we rebalance the skewed world we live in now, in which a few produce and profit from works that the many consume.
• Sharing that is sustainable — where open participation in the public commons is the default, rather than the exception. 

The Better Sharing collection and our advocate & artist pairings

 

“Open Palms, Not Clutching Fists” by Burcu Köleli for Creative Commons & Fine Acts is licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0

Inspired by a quote from Maria Popova Writer, The Marginalian (formerly Brain Pickings)

“Never forget that an open palm is a greater platform of power than a clutching fist.” 

 

 

“Sharing Brightens The Future” by Teo Georgiev for Creative Commons & Fine Acts is licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0

Inspired by a quote from Biyanto Rebin, Chair (2016–2021), Wikimedia Indonesia

“Sedikit demi sedikit, lama-lama menjadi bukit (meaning: many a mickle makes a muckle).

An Indonesian proverb with the meaning of collaboration spirit, when we do a continuous effort little by little, it will eventually become bigger in the future. This is what happens when we share our resources, our works to the public, they will have a greater impact, since sharing can empower other people, sometimes the ones who are left behind, the underprivileged.”

 

“Better Sharing, Brighter Future” by David Espinosa for Creative Commons & Fine Acts is licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0

Inspired by a quote from Catherine Stihler, Creative Commons CEO

 “Better Sharing Brighter Future is happy and joyous open sharing where creativity, knowledge and innovation can prosper.”

 

 

“The More We Share, The More We Have” by Pietro Soldi for Creative Commons & Fine Acts is licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0

Inspired by a quote from Cory Doctorow, Science Fiction Author, Journalist and Tech Activist

“In my utopia, we figure out how to create and keep separate rules that regulate the relationships between creators and their industry

(e.g. writers and publishers, musicians and labels, etc); and rules that regulate the relationships between creators and their *audiences*. The things an audience does with a work — and the way that they relate to its creator — shouldn’t be a free-for-all; nor should the way that creators relate to those audiences. But whatever those rules should be, they will necessarily be very different from the way that the creative industries regulate interactions among their constituent actors.”

 

“The Future Is Open” by Preeti Singh for Creative Commons & Fine Acts is licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0

Inspired by a quote from Ebenezar Wikina, Founder, Policy Shapers, and Advocacy Coordinator, Foundation for Partnerships Initiatives in the Niger Delta (PIND Foundation)

“Better Sharing, Brighter Future means that as we continue to find better ways to share ideas, products and solutions on the internet, we’d directly be working towards a brighter future for ourselves and generations to come.”

 

“Share Freely, Openly, Like We Share Air” by Hust Wilson for Creative Commons & Fine Acts is licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0

Inspired by a quote from David Moinina Sengeh, Education Minister and Chief Innovation Officer of Sierra Leone; TED Senior Fellow

“To share anything freely and openly, much like we share air, is to be alive.”

 

 

“Better Sharing For Brighter Future” by Janice Chang for Creative Commons & Fine Acts is licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0

Inspired by a quote from Tyler Green, Author, Historian, Art Critic and Producer/Host, The Modern Art Notes Podcast

“It means understanding that sharing and open content is a means, not an end.

For me, it means understanding that sharing and open content is a means, not an end, that open content and open access policies aren’t an end in and of themselves. Although within the context of an individual project, it’s an excellent end. But what we get, we the community of scholars, we the broader community of people, what we get is an opportunity to understand how this material fits within the worlds around us, allowing new and different ideas to more fully inform us. My favorite example is always going to be the more art and visual material, whether it’s photographs or engravings in 19th century magazines. The more we understand how images have worked across histories, the more we will understand how impactful artists and visual makers, engravers, whomever have been. And so I think that open access is probably the primary and most important means through which we will understand how artists have impacted the world.”

 

“Sharing Is Growing” by Olga Mrozek for Creative Commons & Fine Acts is licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0

Inspired by a quote from Medhavi Gandhi, Founder of The Heritage Lab

“To me, with better (open) sharing, comes the promise of equality.

 In every culture around the world, there exist traditions that promote generosity/sharing — and so, it is only natural that the value of sharing becomes part of our ‘digital culture’ as well. To me, better sharing means enhanced relationships, collaborations between people, and an opportunity to build a world free of barriers/boundaries. South Asian history is revealing of what happened in a world where knowledge was ‘owned’ by a select few; with better sharing, there comes a possibility for building equal access to knowledge and participating in conversations that help heal a fractured world. In the end, positive sharing & contributing to others’ knowledge/experiences helps make us better people, not to mention the multifold benefits that come when you start a sharing circle.”

 

“Open Is Beautiful” by Tetiana Korniichuk for Creative Commons & Fine Acts is licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0

Inspired by a quote from Cecília Oliveira, Executive Director, Fogo Cruzado

“The powerful hide important data to prevent us from demanding change. This is true with armed violence in Brazil, but is also true where you live on issues that you care about. Find a way to use open data to make changes in your society.

To me, Better Sharing Brighter Future means… a city where people aren’t afraid of being shot. I created Fogo Cruzado because the authorities were not sharing important data, and they did it to prevent accountability. And, unfortunately, there were no institutions out there who were ready to fill in the gap. So I decided to do it myself. We had offers to make money off of selling our data, and we had others who were taking our data and using it poorly, but we knew that the ONLY way to make this situation better was to make our work open and free and easy to access for everyone. Our focus is armed violence, but really our mission is about fighting secrecy.”

 

“Better Sharing, Better Future” by Maria Picassó i Piquer, Spain for Creative Commons & Fine Acts is licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0

Inspired by a quote from Kyle Smith, CC Canada member & member of LexDAO and Fellow in Gitcoin’s KERNEL incubator

“Better Sharing, Brighter Future means continuing Jobs’s “bicycle of the mind” dream with modern “IoT” general purpose machines like Raspberry Pi…

so we can unleash the latent power of humanity and innovate ourselves out of this fossil-fuel-driven climate crisis.”

 

“Shared Knowledge, Shared Future” by Luisa Brando, Colombia for Creative Commons & Fine Acts is licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0

Inspired by a quote from Molly Van Houweling, Chair, Board of Directors, Creative Commons

“Better sharing for a brighter future means that the world is wrapped in a living connective tissue of shared knowledge, culture, and insights that spread joy and alleviate suffering.”

 

“Blessed Is The Hand That Gives” by Sakina Saïdi for Creative Commons & Fine Acts is licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0

Inspired by a quote from Liz Lenjo, Entertainment & IP Lawyer and Founder and Managing Consultant, MYIP Legal Studio

“Blessed is the hand that gives.

The CC license gives opportunities to creators to share their work with the world and to show off their prowess, their skills, and to announce to the world that they are here and that they are present. My tip for a brighter future for African artists and creators; let’s be generous with our creations. Let us aim to share one or two works through a CC license. The world has barely experienced what Africa has to offer. Let us share it, and it will without a doubt open up opportunities for very lucrative collaborations. Let us use the CC license also to better our societies, let the works created have a social conscience and a social cause. We can use the CC licenses to give back to our communities. These efforts seldom go unnoticed or unappreciated.”

 

Better Sharing is essential for creating a more just, equitable, and thriving world!  

As we look toward the next 20 years of Creative Commons, we are committed to building a world where everyone, everywhere, has access to free and open knowledge. Will you join us? Donate to Creative Commons today! 

The post Introducing the “Better Sharing” Illustrations — A Creative Commons & Fine Acts Collaboration appeared first on Creative Commons.

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Launched in 2018, the Creative Commons Certificate program has trained and graduated 1255 people from 65 countries to date.  We celebrate the incredible projects in open knowledge and culture led by the graduates of our program. CC Certificate alumni have used the Certificate course knowledge in a number of ways—read about how alumni have worked on an open access policy for a cultural heritage institution working with digitized art works, or developed open licensed content for a bachelor of business program in Bangladesh and Masters courses in the US. Or read about alumni testimonials here. 

In this interview, we were delighted to speak with Jennifer Miller, a graduate of the CC Certificate for Educators with over 10 years experience teaching and doing research in public policy and public management. She is a civic technologist and open knowledge advocate. Here is the Q&A:

Thank you for joining us today. Starting off with a personal question, what’s one thing people might be surprised to learn about you?

I’ve lived in states on four of the five U.S. coasts.

So, you’re quad or tetra-coastal – that’s fun! Alright, switching gears: I know you presented “Open Syllabus: UNESCO Recommendation on Open Science” Lightning Talk for the CC Open Education Platform earlier this year. Tell us a bit more about the Open Syllabus project and how it supports the UNESCO Recommendation on Open Science. 

The Open Syllabus for Open Science provides a complete but flexible way for early career researchers to learn about open science. Compared to many of the other materials being developed around open science recently, the course takes an educational approach to thinking about principles rather than focusing on specific tools. It also grounds the whole course in the principle of a human right to science, something that tends to be neglected in our STEM education.

In addition to the UNESCO Recommendation, we were heartened to see the White House Open Access Mandate, requiring that all federally funded research and data in the US be available for the public to freely access and re-use in agency-designated repositories without any embargo or delay after publication. ¹ Seems like this is the right time to be focused on Open Science for a number of reasons. What do you expect to see in the field of open science in the future? 

It is exciting to see this momentum! I think it’s important for this message to get to educators, and from there to students. In the past, students often learned to use statistical software, data, and peer-reviewed research as part of their studies, but found that these were not accessible to them after graduation. Students could take a “never going to use that after graduation” attitude, and they weren’t entirely wrong. Now, though, software, data, and research publications are widely available for free and under open licenses. With all of the open science resources available now, graduates can’t afford to ignore it; whatever their field, the information is available to their competitors as well.

“With all of the open science resources available now, graduates can’t afford to ignore it; whatever their field, the information is available to their competitors as well.”

In terms of publications, the way some policies use the term open access doesn’t always mean openly licensed, though. One area where this difference is especially important for open science is translation of scientific publications. An article under copyright made available to access for free still requires permission to create derivatives or adaptations, including plain language summaries or translations.

What got you into open education and open access in general?

My first experiences with open education and open access were with openly licensed materials for teaching economics and public policy. I was especially impressed with the CORE Economics curriculum, which eliminated textbook costs for my students and presented the material in a way that felt more humane and helped more of my students see their lived experience in the material.

What inspired you to take the CC Certificate for Educators, and was the training useful to you? 

I saw a presentation about it at the 2019 Open Education conference. The timing to take the course in early 2020 worked out perfectly!

Has the CC Certificate training been useful to you? If so, in what ways? 

Yes, definitely! It has allowed me to confidently share open licensed work in my civic technology activities and advocacy in open science and open education. It also opened my eyes to the wealth of open information available. Resources like the Directory of Open Access Books really open up the world.

Any advice for people who want to get involved in open education or open science?

If you are a scientist or educator who was part of the so-called “Great Resignation,” or wave of retirements associated with the pandemic, consider how open knowledge movements can help you contribute what you’ve learned to a global knowledge commons. The Creative Commons Certificate program can be a great place to start that journey!

Notes

1. While the mandate does not require open licensing, both policies support better sharing of the knowledge we collectively produce and use.

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Artificial intelligence (AI) has been exploding across the digital landscape — from people sharing text and images generated by AI platforms, to new policy that tries to shape a future where AI is expected to play an even bigger role — all while we aren’t really sure yet even how to define AI, much less understand all the impact it will have.

Here at CC, we’ve been thinking about what AI means for the commons we support, both in our strategy for better sharing and for our collaboration for a better internet. Are all these new works generated by AI part of the open, public commons? Should they be? If someone does hold copyright for an AI work, who is it? The technologists who created the AI tool? The person who uses AI to generate a work? The countless creators whose works trained the AI? The machine itself? Or should works generated by AI live in the public domain, as they do in many interpretations of established law?

Going beyond AI’s outputs: How do and should human works participate in training AI? Currently, AI platforms are using untold amounts of existing content to train their systems. Not every creator welcomes their work being used in AI, especially when AI is put to life-changing uses that could amplify biases, like predictive policing, facial recognition, job recruiting, insurance claims, or loan approvals. At the same time, if AI inputs are limited, AI could be based on a more narrow view of the world that could also perpetuate biases and block insights. How can we best ensure AI is trained to support creators and good outcomes?

As we form our positions at CC, we are bringing together people with diverse perspectives to participate in broad discussions about how AI intersects with open sharing in a commons that serves the public interest.

How does the proliferation of AI connect to better sharing: sharing that is inclusive, just and equitable — where everyone has wide opportunity to access content, to contribute their own creativity, and to receive recognition and rewards for their contributions? How does the proliferation of AI connect to a better internet: a public interest vision for an internet that benefits us all?

Join us to engage in this discussion at two free, public webinars: one focused on how open works and better sharing intersect with AI inputs — works used in training and supplying AI — and another focused on how open works and better sharing intersect with AI outputs — works generated by AI that are, could be, or should be participating in the open commons.

Webinars

AI Inputs and the Public Commons: 5–6pm UTC Wednesday 9 November 2022

(check the time in your local timezone)

Join us for a free, public webinar on how open works and better sharing intersect with AI inputs — works used in training and supplying AI — with panelists:

• Abeba Birhane, Senior Fellow in Trustworthy AI, Mozilla Foundation
• Alek Tarkowski, Co-Founder and Director of Strategy, Open Future Foundation
• Anna Bethke, Principal Data Scientist, Salesforce
• Florence Chee, Associate Professor, School of Communication, Director, Center for Digital Ethics and Policy, and Director, SIMLab, Loyola University Chicago
• Moderator: Stephen Wolfson, Associate Director for Research and Copyright Services, School of Law, University of Georgia

Register now to join the webinar live. Can’t join live? Register anyway to hear when the recording is available.

AI Outputs and the Public Commons: 4–5pm UTC Thursday 10 November 2022

(check the time in your local timezone)

Join us for a free, public webinar on how open works and better sharing intersect with AI outputs — works generated by AI that are, could be, or should be participating in the open commons  — with panelists:

• Amanda Levendowski, Associate Professor of Law and Director, Intellectual Property and Information Policy Clinic, Georgetown University
• Daniel Ambrosi, Artist
• Mark Riedl, Professor, School of Interactive Computing and Associate Director, Machine Learning Center, Georgia Institute of Technology
• Meera Nair, Copyright Specialist, Northern Alberta Institute of Technology
• Moderator: Kat Walsh, General Counsel, Creative Commons

Register now to join the webinar live. Can’t join live? Register anyway to hear when the recording is available.

The post Webinars: AI Inputs, Outputs and the Public Commons appeared first on Creative Commons.

This week, the international community celebrates 30 years of the UNESCO Memory of the World Program. At Creative Commons (CC), we applaud the program’s achievements in enhancing preservation and access to documentary heritage from galleries, libraries, archives and museums (GLAMs) around the globe. We laud the multitude of efforts enlisting documentary heritage to promote inclusive, just and peaceful societies. 

UNESCO’s work is important now more than ever, as climate change, global health crises, and violent conflicts are posing some of the greatest threats to documentary heritage and the memory institutions that hold it. For example:  

• The COVID-19 pandemic has wreaked havoc on the cultural sector: many institutions had to close their doors, reorganize their workforce, and face drastic drops in attendance and harsh declines in revenue. 
• On any given day, a site, a monument, or an artifact can be irremediably damaged or lost due to extreme weather conditions induced by global warming, something CC helps to address through our Open Climate Campaign. 
• Wars, armed conflicts, and violence in all its forms — notably in Ukraine, Ethiopia, Syria, Yemen and Myanmar — has heightened the importance of protecting cultural heritage, including GLAM collections, as embodiments of cultural identity and human spirit.

At CC, we believe that it is our collective duty and privilege to protect, preserve, safeguard, use and reuse, and celebrate heritage. That’s why through our Open Culture program, we influence policy, we maintain the world’s leading open infrastructure, made up of our licenses and tools, we support our community, and we build capacity to accompany open culture enthusiasts on their journey towards better sharing of cultural heritage. Our CC Certification in Open Culture offers professional development training for institutions or community groups engaged in cultural heritage. This course builds peoples’ capacity in opening access to cultural heritage ethically, and inclusively. Participants develop a deeper understanding of open licensing and copyright considerations with digitization projects, CC licenses and tools, Rights Statements, Traditional Knowledge Labels, working with the public domain, and more. 

As we work towards better sharing of cultural heritage and open culture, we will continue to be guided by UNESCO’s Memory of the World Program, as it fosters dialogue and mutual understanding between people and cultures. Here’s how you can join CC’s efforts: 

→ Register for a 2023 course with the following scholarship code, and receive 60% off course registration: Y2GLAMSCHOLAR60%. 

→ Join the Creative Commons Open Culture platform: https://network.creativecommons.org/cc-openculture-platform/ 

→ Become a member of the CC Global Network

→ Get in touch with us: info@creativecommons.org 

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