OpenMoko, the world’s first integrated open source mobile platform, released the artwork for their phone interface under a CC BY-SA 3.0. It is important to note that the software stack on the OpenMoko tries to completely run on Free Software, so that an owner has the freedom to do what they like with their OpenMoko hardware. Sean Moss-Pultz, project lead states this about the OpenMoko mobile interface:

Personally, I feel that one of the most important areas for this project
is the development and exploration of the mobile user interface. The
human-machine interface is the intersection of art and technology. Great
interfaces blend the visual with the technical. They balance simplicity
with complexity. Often times, I feel, really great new interfaces are
not immediately intuitive. They are not instantly natural. In fact, I
would even argue this can be detrimental to improving interface design.
If an interface is to be superior it must be different. Therefore it
can’t be intuitive, that is, familiar. A better metric, perhaps, is the
learning time it takes until the interface feel’s natural and intuitive.

Now that we have freed phones, everyone can contribute to an improved
baseline interface. This is our collective challenge. Can we create
something truly different? Can we lead this incredibly important field?

This is super cool and underlines some other projects Creative Commons has been working on this summer, such as liblicense, a software library for handling content licensing on various desktops (gnome, kde, olpc’s sugar, etc). One of the considerations for liblicense, in addition to adding licensing to the OLPC, is for the OpenMoko.

While Creative Commons is focused on providing the world with free content licenses, we also spend a good deal of time developing tools to support this endeavour. Stop for a minute and consider what a device like OpenMoko or OLPC would be if you can’t get access to great content, the archives of human knowledge, free and open content? Also, what about how these devices are also content recorders now? One should also be able to put this content up on a site like flickr or blip.tv simply and easily. LibLicense helps with this goal. It is a great project that you will hear more about in the ongoing days.