Glenn Otis Brown Returns to Creative Commons as Board Member

Eric Steuer, July 24th, 2009

We are thrilled to announce that Glenn Otis Brown has joined the Creative Commons board of directors.

Brown was CC’s executive director from 2002-2005; as one of the core members of the CC team in our early days, he was critical in developing projects that provide the groundwork for the work we do today. Brown is currently YouTube’s music business development manager and works with major and independent labels, publishers, and artists to build new business opportunities. In the press release we issued today to publicize this news, Creative Commons CEO Joi Ito says this of Brown:

“We couldn’t be more thrilled to have Glenn join the board. As Executive Director of the organization in its early days, Glenn established many of the critical ideas and relationships that CC is built upon today. That background, combined with his experience in developing creative projects and partnerships at YouTube, gives him particularly valuable insight into the opportunities for Creative Commons in the worlds of business, media, and culture at large.”

Kutiman Talks to CBC; Interview Audio on ccMixter

Cameron Parkins, May 6th, 2009

If you’re interested in online culture, you’ve probably come across the amazing THRU YOU project from Israeli producer Kutiman (see this WIRED profile for some background). Kutiman mashed together various YouTube clips of people playing instruments (many of them instructional videos) to create something totally new and unique. The result was a collection of seven songs and videos that artfully demonstrate the potential of digital collaboration.

Last month, CBC Radio’s Spark talked to Kutiman about the project and posted the interview audio posted to ccMixter under a Creative Commons BY-NC license for producers to chop up and use in their own tracks. Check it out!

YouTube Tests Download and Creative Commons License Options

Eric Steuer, February 12th, 2009

YouTube just made an incredibly exciting announcement: it’s testing an option that gives video owners the ability to allow downloads and share their work under Creative Commons licenses. The test is being launched with a handful of partners, including Stanford, Duke, UC Berkeley, UCLA, and UCTV.

We are always looking for ways to make it easier for you to find, watch, and share videos. Many of you have told us that you wanted to take your favorite videos offline. So we’ve started working with a few partners who want their videos shared universally and even enjoyed away from an Internet connection.

Many video creators on YouTube want their work to be seen far and wide. They don’t mind sharing their work, provided that they get the proper credit. Using Creative Commons licenses, we’re giving our partners and community more choices to make that happen. Creative Commons licenses permit people to reuse downloaded content under certain conditions.

Visit YouTube’s blog for information. And if you’re are a partner who wants to participate, fill out the YouTube Downloads – Partner Interest form.

Muted on YouTube? Think CC!

Fred Benenson, January 14th, 2009

As you might have heard by now, YouTube has begun to mute videos containing ‘unauthorized’ music or audio. What does ‘unauthorized’ mean? We’ll leave that for the lawyers to decide, but it probably has something to do with negotiating permissions for the right to use music in advance from rights holders.

Instead of dealing with the suits, why not consider using Creative Commons music in your next YouTube video? Here’s a ccMixter playlist of 100 Attribution licensed music tracks that you can download and use freely so long as you give attribution to the original creator. YouTube has even been so kind as to include these tracks inside their AudioSwap feature, thereby enabling you to automatically add a soundtrack to your video even after it has been uploaded to YouTube.

Former CC General Counsel to lead Australian government digital economy push

Mike Linksvayer, September 16th, 2008

Congratulations to former Creative Commons General Counsel Mia Garlick, who has joined the Australian government to lead its digital economy initiatives:

iTWire has learnt that Mia Garlick, an Australian lawyer who was most recently product counsel for YouTube, has been appointed to head the Australian Government’s drive for the digital economy future, as assistant secretary in the Department of Broadband Communications and the Digital Economy (BCDE)

Her appointment is linked to communications minister Stephen Conroy’s announcement this week of plans to prepare Australia for the future ‘digital economy’. In preparation for this initiative the department advertised in May for “a talented and highly motivated senior manager to lead the Digital Economy Branch within the Department…[to provide] leadership and strategic direction to a branch with responsibility for the development of the digital economy in Australia.”

While at CC, Mia led development of the CC version 3.0 licenses and nearly every other project we undertook during her tenure, in addition to undertaking regular speaking engagements worldwide. Her intelligence, energy, and wit are certainly just what the Australian digital economy needs. Good luck!

It’s also worth noting that Creative Commons Australia has long been a leading CC jurisdiction project, especially in the field of public sector information. Just in the last week the National Innovation Review recommended CC and a minister immediately endorsed the recommendation.

Appropriately enough, a photo of Mia Garlick (far right) visiting Brian Fitzgerald, Stuart Cunningham, and Jessica Coates at CC Australia in 2006. Nic Suzor / CC BY-SA

Common Craft

Cameron Parkins, September 15th, 2008

Common Craft is a company that makes videos which are “short, simple and focused on making complex ideas easy to understand.” These videos range in topic – from Twitter to social bookmarking to electing the U.S. President – and are made using a technique Common Craft calls Paperworks, a whiteboard-and-paper format that they believe “is designed to cut out the noise and stick to what matters.”

Common Craft make their videos available online for businesses to license as educational tools, but also share the videos widely under a CC BY-NC-ND license. There are definite advantages for businesses in getting the licensed versions, most notably portability and quality. Outside of this, the CC licensed Common Craft videos have garnered heightened popularity on YouTube and other sharing sites, increasing their name recognition and ubiquity – two factors that have hopefully been instrumental in expanding their growing list of custom-video clients. Common Craft have a great video posted on their licensing process that explains it all clearly and simply – making it not only informative but also a great example of their production style.

An Anthropological Introduction to YouTube

Jane Park, August 7th, 2008

Michael Wesch, creator of the strikingly insightful videos “A Vision of Students Today” and “The Machine is Us/ing Us”, gave a presentation at the Library of Congress back in May on the anthropology of YouTube. The presentation was the third in a series called “Digital Natives,” natives being basically my and probably your generation if you’re reading this. It’s about the net and the people who grew up with a computer humming by their bed stands. Wesch delves into this phenomenon that is us—how we think and how we perceive and connect with the world differently due to the internet and new media like YouTube. 

“An anthropological introduction to YouTube” is where “traditional” academic research and the new media landscape intersect. It is the anthropological perspective and study of our generation’s fascination with YouTube, and is itself viewable on Wesch’s YouTube page. Check it out; I started watching it and couldn’t stop. The fifty-five minutes flew by like a lunch break. The video itself is licensed CC BY-NC-SA.