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Today, Creative Commons (CC) joins the Digital Public Goods Alliance (DPGA) as a new member. The DPGA is a multi-stakeholder initiative with a mission to accelerate the attainment of the sustainable development goals in low- and middle-income countries by facilitating the discovery, development, use of, and investment in digital public goods (DPGs).

“We are thrilled to welcome Creative Commons to the Digital Public Goods Alliance. Their licenses and legal tools are pivotal for enhancing the sharing of DPGs, enabling more open, accessible tools to tackle global challenges. Similarly, Creative Commons’ commitment to training and capacity building supports governments and institutions in adopting open policies and practices, enriching the DPG ecosystem and equipping advocates with the needed knowledge. Their Open Climate Campaign and Open Climate Data project, is a testament to the power of open access in addressing critical issues like the climate crisis and biodiversity preservation. Together, we look forward to making significant strides towards a more open and sustainable world.” – Liv Marte Nordhaug, Chief Executive Officer, DPGA Secretariat

CC is delighted to be contributing to this mission. Solving the world’s most pressing challenges requires the open licensing and sharing of digital knowledge and cultural heritage assets about those challenges. By advocating for the use and implementation of DPGs, global communities can work together in prioritizing and mobilizing resources to help solve these challenges. CC’s legal tools and our programs play a critical role in helping to achieve the DPGA’s mission and advance the DPG ecosystem overall.

CC’s work aligns with that of the DPGA in the following ways, which will be included as part of the DPGA’s Annual Roadmap. CC will:

• Enable the sharing and use of DPGs via International Creative Commons Licenses and Public Domain Tools. CC provides and stewards the CC licenses and public domain (PD) tools that give every person and organization in the world a free, simple, and standardized way to grant copyright permissions for creative and academic works; ensure proper attribution; and enable others to copy, distribute, and make use of those works. CC legal tools are the digital public infrastructure that make better sharing of DPGs possible.
• Open Up Knowledge and Culture to Help Solve the World’s Most Pressing Problems. In 2024, the Open Climate Campaign will advance open access to climate research to accelerate progress towards solving the climate crisis and preserving global biodiversity. We are also looking to open educational resources about climate change for everyone to learn, discover, and contribute. A parallel project on Open Climate Data will help facilitate the opening and sharing of climate datasets and data models to spur additional research and learning. And as cultural heritage is directly at risk of irremediable loss due to climate change, open access to cultural heritage helps put scientific, historical, and socio-cultural knowledge into context and fosters the creation of new knowledge. With open culture, we can raise awareness about SDGs, using cultural heritage as a medium, and empower people with the knowledge to collaborate on a global scale to solve the world’s most pressing problems.
• Provide Commons Training and Consulting. CC offers the public a variety of training, including regular CC Certificate courses (in-depth courses for people interested in becoming experts in creating and engaging with openly licensed works), office hours with our legal team, as well as customized consulting and facilitation. Through our consulting, we help governments and institutions develop and implement open policies, work toward greater open practices, build capacity in open licensing, and connect with open advocates to promote the creation and sharing of openly licensed DPGs.

For us, being a member means working with other DPGA members and CC’s extensive member network to build capacity, develop practical solutions, and advocate for better open sharing of knowledge and culture that serves the public interest. When the world uses CC legal tools to share their knowledge, everyone has access to DPGs including: open educational resources, open access research, open cultural heritage assets, open data, and AI algorithms and models.

For any inquiries on Creative Commons please reach out to Cable Green: Director of Open Knowledge. For more information on the Digital Public Goods Alliance please reach out to hello@digitalpublicgoods.net