New Annual Report and Strategy Document

Creative Commons has grown tremendously since we started. As we approached the milestone of our 10th birthday, and with a new CEO on board, we began an intensive review of our progress and priorities. Sometimes you need to use big milestones to stop and see where you are, and occasionally you find that decisions made to meet immediate demands don’t always hold up against long-term ambitions. The world is changing pretty quickly, and to remain effective, CC needs to do more than just keep up.

During our review, we spent a lot of time asking questions and listening to our Affiliate Network members around the world. We hired some consultants to help run a process and to talk to people outside of the organization about how they viewed the role of Creative Commons. As navel-gazing goes, we gave it a solid effort. We also realized how important it is to declare our mission, vision, and priorities for action. The resulting publication, The Future of Creative Commons (2.7 MB PDF), lays out priorities for each area in which we work. These overall priorities are already guiding staff in how they use their time and set targets for each program area. They also give us a good base to measure how well we are doing.

As a companion piece, we offer this annual report, Dispatches from the Commons. In it, we call out some of the big accomplishments of the past year and highlight organizations and people who are doing powerful and innovative things with our licenses.

The whole process of evaluating our place in the world and projecting our ambitions for the future repeatedly reminded us of how much we rely on supporters, allies, and friends. Creative Commons is a small staff connected to the whole world through our affiliates and a global community of open advocates, volunteers and creators. Only together are we Creative Commons. You are a powerful engine for change that seems to run on an endless supply of renewable energy!

We hope that this strategy document and annual report help you understand where CC is headed and where you can play a role. Thanks for your sharing. Thanks for your support. Thanks for coming along on this amazing ride.

10 thoughts on “New Annual Report and Strategy Document”

  1. Congratulations with the 10th birthday and all that you have achieved! The idea of an open culture does sound good in our ears, and there is no doubt that the Internet is the perfect place to start. A digital copy does not cost anything to make, which means that more people than ever are able to enjoy the work and art of other people. Isn’t democracy about being able to live, learn and love even if your financial income is low? Humans have always shared with each other. Sharing – and having the freedom to give – is so valuable in any culture that want to bloom and grow. We still have a long way to go, and we should not be afraid of trying, failing, correcting and developing these ideas further. I am concerned about protecting art and the rights of the artist, too. As I spend a lot of time and money composing and recording my own music, I hope there will be even more security in the future than it was in the past. I love the Creative Commons’ philosophy that because I am the creator of my own work, I am the one who should decide if I want to share my work for free, for a fee – or like we see some web sites are already are practicing: let the listener pay what he or she wants to pay (www.bandcamp.com). Creative Commons = Democracy!

  2. It’s amazing what has been achieved. In 1996, we drafted what amounted to a CC BY (see how easy it is to explain!) paragraph for Australasian Conference on Information Systems papers – working in relative ignorance. Today, there is a well thought out scheme that can cater for virtually every contingency (well, I can’t think of any!) that makes this task routine and clearly understood by all parties. A wonderful advance under the banner of Creative Commons.

  3. Thanks Cable and Harmon.
    Would go through the document, in detail, soon.
    Hoping to have my place, too, somewhere, in the creative world……
    VKK

  4. Dear Sir,
    Greetings. As I have been associating myself with the Net forum on OER ever since 2002 when the IIEP, Paris organized such a Forum on OER. Hence, I am every sure, the Creative Commons current publication would be immensely helpful to all who have been enthusiastically responding to invitations coming from elsewhere.

  5. I know and understand that my country Indonesia is used to be labelled as one of “piracy” country. But, thanks to this Creative Commons make us see an opportunity to elaborate and exchange a lot of things, licensed around the globe.

    I would like this opportunity to share, that we plan to use the license, CC among to all of our product such as a student text book and else…

    Dian

  6. all who have been enthusiastically responding to invitations coming from elsewhere.As I have been associating myself with the Net forum on OER ever since 2002 when the IIEP, Paris A wonderful advance under the banner of -the Internet is the perfect place to start. A digital copy does not cost anything to make, which means that more people than ever are able to enjoy the work and art of other people. Isn’t democracy about being able to live, learn and love even if your financial income is low? Humans have always shared with each other. Sharing – and having the freedom to give – is so valuable in any culture that want to bloom and grow. We still have a long way to go, and we should not be afraid of trying, failing, correcting and developing these ideas further. I am concerned about protecting ..,

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