Social Media And Open Content

October 19, 2009 by Taran Rampersad

Since I wrote The Media and Social Media On The Web In Trinidad and Tobago: The Beetham Incident, I've been pondering why it is that social media's presence wasn't seen more effectively. There are a multitude of reasons I came up with and I'm tackling them one by one. This entry has nothing to do with those reasons but has everything to do with those reasons.

Quite simply, open content allows content to spread virally. Open content is simply a way of licensing copyright while permitting others to use the same content as the creator specifies.

In Trinidad and Tobago, as I wrote earlier, copyright culture is confused. Fortunately, most people who are creating content on the Internet from Trinidad and Tobago seem to at least have a clue about how copyight works. But even with that, a lot of people don't realize the power of open content. Instead of running to a lawyer when you want to use something, you can check the copyright license and see if you're allowed to do something - thereby allowing you to use the content of others with their implicit permission, and others to use your content.

Some say that it's important for the ongoing democratization of knowledge.

Creative Commons is the golden standard of open content - even Wikipedia has switched over to the Creative Commons licensing. This site uses such a license. In fact, all of my sites and images do.

How Is This Helpful?

Lets say that you post some pictures on a site like Flickr - if you do not select a Creative Commons license, people need to contact you directly about using your images. This takes time for it to happen - maybe you're on vacation or maybe you're one of those people who checks email once a year. Whatever it is, your image is not going to be used - or if it is, not legally. This could be good if you don't want others to use the image.

It can be bad when you want others to see and distribute what you're trying to communicate - maybe you have images of some abuses that you actively want to share. By selecting a Creative Commons license, you can assure that people can use your images with your implicit permission. In fact, you can stop others from using the images for commercial use with the same license - it's very flexible.

Using Creative Commons licensing is very simple, very easy and allows information to be spread virally. If you want your content to have more impact, just pick a Creative Commons license and go from there.

Or don't. And your message won't spread nearly as quickly unless you or someone else spends a lot of money and time on it.

Your choice. Make an informed one.

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