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Jennie Rose Halperin — Open Culture VOICES, Season 2 Episode 25

Jennie says “one thing that I love about the internet is that it has allowed us to do things we weren’t able to in the past.” In this episode we learn about the differences between digital and physical collections and what it means to be open to the public online as well as in real life when the mission of the institution is to serve the public interest and share cultural heritage.

Open Culture VOICES is a series of short videos that highlight the benefits and barriers of open culture as well as inspiration and advice on the subject of opening up cultural heritage. Jennie Rose Halperin is the Director at the Library Futures project at NYU Engelberg.

Jennie responds to the following questions:

  1. What are the main benefits of open GLAM?
  2. What are the barriers?
  3. Could you share something someone else told you that opened up your eyes and mind about open GLAM?
  4. Do you have a personal message to those hesitating to open up collections?

Closed captions are available for this video, you can turn them on by clicking the CC icon at the bottom of the video. A red line will appear under the icon when closed captions have been enabled. Closed captions may be affected by Internet connectivity — if you experience a lag, we recommend watching the videos directly on YouTube.

Want to hear more insights from Open Culture experts from around the world? Watch more episodes of Open Culture VOICES here >>

Generative AI and Creativity: New Considerations Emerge at CC Convenings

This week, Creative Commons (CC) convened 100+ participants during two events in New York City to discuss the important issues surrounding generative artificial intelligence (AI), copyright, and creativity.

For many years, we at CC have been examining the interplay between copyright and generative AI, exploring ways in which this technology can foster creativity and better sharing, i.e. sharing that is inclusive, equitable, reciprocal, and sustainable — and it is through this lens that we strive to tackle some of the most critical questions regarding the potential of generative AI tools for creators, cultural heritage institutions, and the general public.

In search of answers we have been holding community consultations over the past months to consider how best to maximize the public benefits of AI, to address concerns with how AI systems are trained and used, and to probe how AI will affect the commons. These two NYC events come within the scope of these wider consultations aimed at assisting us in taking action with informed intention.

On 12 September, we ran a workshop at the offices of Morrison Foerster to unpack the multiple issues that arise once generative AI enters the creativity cycle. If all creativity remixes the past — which needs to be responsibly preserved and cared for — is generative AI a game changer? This was the question an interdisciplinary mix of participants approached with insight and empathy throughout the afternoon’s dynamic sessions. History teems with examples of how humans dealt with technological disruptions in the past (from the printing press and oil painting to photography), yet many participants pointed to the need to think differently and imagine new structures for AI to deliver on its promise to enhance the commons. Issues around attribution, bias, transparency, agency, artistic identity and intent, democratization of AI, and many others, peppered the discussions in small and large groups. While no definite pathways emerged, participants embraced the uncertainty and relished the prospect of generative AI being used for the common good.

The conversations flowed through the following day’s symposium, Generative AI and the Creativity Cycle, at the Engelberg Center at New York University. 100 participants attended the event, which brought together experts from various fields — including law, the arts, cultural heritage, and AI technology — speaking on seven panels covering a wide range of issues at the nexus of creativity, copyright, and generative AI.

Running like red threads across the panels, here are some of the key themes that surfaced throughout the day’s lively conversations:

Although the above summary does not do justice to the depth and thoughtfulness of the event’s discussions, it does give a flavor of the topics at stake and should help inform those thinking about AI development, regulation, and its role in supporting better sharing of knowledge and culture in our shared global commons.

A special thank you to our workshop participants and symposium speakers and moderators. We are grateful to have had the opportunity to connect with many of you and share diverse perspectives on this complex topic. We are grateful to Morrison Foerster for supporting the workshop, donating space and resources. We’d also like to thank our lead symposium sponsor Akin Gump as well as the Engelberg Center on Innovation Law & Policy for publicly hosting these important conversations.

View symposium video recordings

Subscribe to CC’s email newsletter to stay informed about all our work with AI, culture and creativity, and more.

Continue the discussion on AI and the commons at the CC Global Summit during 3–6 Oct 2023 in Mexico City >

Check out these images from different panels during the symposium!

Fred Saunderson — Open Culture VOICES, Season 2 Episode 24

“New content thrives on reuse and remixing of old content which is increased when you have an open approach to culture.” Fred believes that open culture simplifies many aspects of culture preservation, sharing, and creation by making things clearer and easier to manage for institutions and individuals and that open culture solves challenges for future generations by making information accessible.

Open Culture VOICES is a series of short videos that highlight the benefits and barriers of open culture as well as inspiration and advice on the subject of opening up cultural heritage. Fred is the Rights and Information Manager at the Library of Scotland where he works to make the vast collections of Scotland accessible to the world.

Fred responds to the following questions:

  1. What are the main benefits of open GLAM?
  2. What are the barriers?
  3. Could you share something someone else told you that opened up your eyes and mind about open GLAM?
  4. Do you have a personal message to those hesitating to open up collections?

Closed captions are available for this video, you can turn them on by clicking the CC icon at the bottom of the video. A red line will appear under the icon when closed captions have been enabled. Closed captions may be affected by Internet connectivity — if you experience a lag, we recommend watching the videos directly on YouTube.

Want to hear more insights from Open Culture experts from around the world? Watch more episodes of Open Culture VOICES here >>

Peter-Lucas Jones Será una Oradora Principal en la Cumbre Mundial CC 2023

[read this post in English >]

A headshot of Peter-Lucas Jones, smiling and wearing a rust top and tan jacket.

Peter-Lucas Jones” used by permission.

Tenemos un grupo increíble de personas preparadas para ser oradores principales en la Cumbre Global 2023, que se llevará a cabo del 3 al 6 de octubre en la Ciudad de México. Recientemente anunciamos a Anya Kamenetz y ahora, en nuestro segundo anuncio, damos la bienvenida a Peter-Lucas Jones, quien va a pronunciar un discurso a la Cumbre que surge de su trabajo como figura destacada en los medios Māori y sus colaboraciones para honrar el conocimiento y la cultura local y tradicional en un contexto global.

Peter-Lucas Jones (Te Aupōuri, Ngāi Takoto, Ngāti Kahu) es el director ejecutivo de Te Hiku Media y un gobernador experimentado en el ecosistema de medios Māori. Actualmente es presidente de Te Whakaruruhau o ngā Reo Irirangi Māori, vicepresidente de Whakaata Māori y presidente de Te Rūnanga Nui o Te Aupōuri. Como kaitiaki (guardián) de confianza de los datos Māori, Peter-Lucas negocia la responsabilidad de proteger los datos iwi (tribales) y Māori, al mismo tiempo que satisface las necesidades de los financiadores y las expectativas de los iwi y hapū (subtribus). Peter-Lucas tiene experiencia en transmisión terrestre y digital trabajando con kaumātua (ancianos) y marae (lugar de reunión Māori sagrado) para grabar contenido y brindar acceso a te reo ā-iwi (variación del lenguaje tribal), tikanga ā-iwi (variación cultural tribal), kōrero tuku iho (tradiciones orales) e historia iwi. Es un locutor de radio en idioma Māori galardonado que se centra en asuntos políticos y temas de actualidad. Esta experiencia ha visto el desarrollo de una licencia Kaitiakitanga para Te Hiku Media que proporciona un marco para guiar el uso de datos Māori desde una perspectiva haukāinga (gente de origen de marae). Te Hiku Media utiliza ahora estos datos para desarrollar herramientas de NLP y NLU para te reo Māori.

Al igual que Peter-Lucas, todos nuestros oradores principales se conectan directamente con las áreas de enfoque de CC, desde la creatividad contemporánea y el patrimonio cultural hasta los medios, la ciencia, la educación y el periodismo. Con el tema de la Cumbre sobre la IA y los bienes comunes, también esperamos enfrentar el desafío de perspectivas nuevas y renacidas que deberíamos considerar al pensar en la inteligencia artificial y su intersección con el conocimiento y la cultura abiertos. Todas los oradores principales de la Cumbre honrarán tanto la ubicación de la Cumbre en México como el alcance global de la comunidad CC.

¡Estén atentos para conocer a nuestros otros oradores principales! Te invitamos a unirte a nosotros en la Cumbre en la Ciudad de México para escuchar hablar a Peter-Lucas y muchas otras voces diversas. Nuestra esperanza es que los oradores principales, el programa completo de la Cumbre y nuestras conexiones informales en la Ciudad de México y en línea se combinen para permitirnos a todos cultivar la estrategia de CC de compartir mejor, un compartir que sea contextual, inclusivo, justo, equitativo, recíproco y sostenible.

Regístrese para la Cumbre Global CC >

Peter-Lucas Jones to Keynote CC Global Summit 2023

[lee esta entrada en español >]

A headshot of Peter-Lucas Jones, smiling and wearing a rust top and tan jacket.

Peter-Lucas Jones” used by permission.

We have an incredible group of people lined up to be keynote speakers at the 2023 CC Global Summit, to be held 3–6 October in Mexico City. Recently we announced Anya Kamenetz, and now in our second announcement, we welcome Peter-Lucas Jones, who will address the Summit with a keynote that grows out of his work as a leading figure in Māori media and his collaborations to honor local and traditional knowledge and culture in a global context.

Peter-Lucas Jones (Te Aupōuri, Ngāi Takoto, Ngāti Kahu) is the CEO of Te Hiku Media and an experienced governor in the Māori media ecosystem. He is currently the Chair of Te Whakaruruhau o ngā Reo Irirangi Māori, Deputy Chair of Whakaata Māori and Chairman of Te Rūnanga Nui o Te Aupōuri. As a trusted kaitiaki (guardian) of Māori data, Peter-Lucas negotiates the responsibility of protecting iwi (tribal) and Māori data while meeting the needs of funders and the expectations of iwi and hapū (sub-tribes). Peter-Lucas has terrestrial and digital broadcasting experience working with kaumātua (elders) and marae (sacred Māori meeting place) to record content and provide access to te reo ā-iwi (tribal language variation), tikanga ā-iwi (tribal cultural variation), kōrero tuku iho (oral traditions) and iwi history. He is an award winning Māori language radio broadcaster with a focus on political affairs and topical issues. This experience has seen the development of a Kaitiakitanga License for Te Hiku Media that provides a framework to guide the use of Māori data from a haukāinga (home people of marae) perspective. This data is now used by Te Hiku Media to develop NLP and NLU tools for te reo Māori.

Like Peter-Lucas, all our keynoters connect directly with CC’s areas of focus, from contemporary creativity and cultural heritage, to media, science, education, and journalism. With the Summit’s theme of AI and the commons, we also expect to be challenged with new and reborn perspectives that we should consider in thinking about artificial intelligence and its intersection with open knowledge and culture. All the Summit keynotes will honor both the Summit’s location in Mexico, and the CC community’s global scope.

Stay tuned to learn about our other keynote speakers! We invite you to join us at the Summit in Mexico City to hear Peter-Lucas and many other diverse voices speak. Our hope is that the keynote addresses, the full Summit program, and our informal connections in Mexico City and online will combine to enable us all to cultivate CC’s strategy of better sharing, sharing that is contextual, inclusive, just, equitable, reciprocal, and sustainable

Register for the CC Global Summit >

An Open Letter from Artists Using Generative AI

A bluish surrealist painting generated by the DALL-E 2 AI platform showing a small grayish human figure holding a gift out to a larger robot that has its arms extended and a head like a cello.

Better Sharing With AI” by Creative Commons was generated by the DALL-E 2 AI platform with the text prompt “A surrealist painting in the style of Salvador Dali of a robot giving a gift to a person playing a cello.” CC dedicates any rights it holds to the image to the public domain via CC0.

As part of Creative Commons’ ongoing community consultation on generative AI, CC has engaged with a wide variety of stakeholders, including artists and content creators, about how to help make generative AI work better for everyone.

Certainly, many artists have significant concerns about AI, and we continue to explore the many ways they might be addressed. Just last week, we highlighted the useful roles that could be played by new tools to signal whether an artist approves of use of their works for AI training.

At the same time, artists are not homogenous, and many others are benefiting from this new technology. Unfortunately, the debate about generative AI has too often become polarized and destructive, with artists who use AI facing harassment and even death threats. As part of the consultation, we also explored how to surface these artists’ experiences and views.

Today, we’re publishing an open letter from over 70 artists who use generative AI. It grew from conversations with an initial cohort of the full signatory list, and we hope it can help foster inclusive, informed discussions.

Signed by artists like Nettrice Gaskins, dadabots, Rob Sheridan, Charlie Engman, Tim Boucher, illustrata, makeitrad, Jrdsctt, Thomas K. Yonge, BLAC.ai, Deltasauce, and Cristóbal Valenzuela, the letter reads in part:

“We write this letter today as professional artists using generative AI tools to help us put soul in our work. Our creative processes with AI tools stretch back for years, or in the case of simpler AI tools such as in music production software, for decades. Many of us are artists who have dedicated our lives to studying in traditional mediums while dreaming of generative AI’s capabilities. For others, generative AI is making art more accessible or allowing them to pioneer entirely new artistic mediums. Just like previous innovations, these tools lower barriers in creating art—a career that has been traditionally limited to those with considerable financial means, abled bodies, and the right social connections.”

Read the full letter and list of signatories. If you would like to have your name added to this list and are interested in follow-up actions with this group, please sign our form. You can share the letter with this shorter link: creativecommons.org/artistsailetter

While the policy issues here are globally relevant, the letter is addressed to Senator Chuck Schumer and the US Congress in light of ongoing hearings and “Insight Fora” on AI hosted in the USA. Next week, Schumer is hosting one of these Fora, but the attendees are primarily from tech companies; the Motion Picture Association of America and the Writers Guild of America are invited, but there are no artists using generative AI specifically.

We also invited artists to share additional perspectives with us, some of which we’re publishing here:

Nettrice Gaskins said: “Generative AI imaging is a continuation of creative practices I learned as a college student, in my computer graphics courses. It’s the way of the future, made accessible to us in the present, so don’t throw the baby out with the bathwater.”

Elizabeth Ann West said: “Generative AI has allowed me to make a living wage again with my writing, allowing me to get words on the page even when mental and chronic health conditions made doing so nearly impossible. I published 3 books the first year I had access to Davinci 3. Generative AI allows me to work faster and better for my readers.”

JosephC said: “There must be room for nuance in the ongoing discussion about machine-generated content, and I feel that the context vacuum of online discourse has made it impossible to talk and be heard when it comes to the important details of consent, the implications of regulation, and the prospects of making lives better. We need to ensure that consenting creatives can see their work become part of something greater, we need to ensure pioneering artists are free to express themselves in the medium that gives them voice, and we need to be mindful of the wishes of artists who desire to have their influence only touch the eyes and ears and minds of select other humans in the way they want. Opportunities abound; let us work together to realize them.”

Tim Simpson said: “Generative AI is the photography of this century. It’s an incredible new medium that has immense potential to be leveraged by artists, particularly indie artists, to pursue artistic visions that would have been completely infeasible for solo artists and small teams just a year ago. Open source AI tools are immensely important to the development of this medium and making sure that it remains available to the average person instead of being walled off into monopolized corporate silos. Many of the regulatory schemes that are being proposed today jeopardize that potential, and I strongly urge congress to support measures that keep these tools open and freely available to all.”

Rob Sheridan said: “As a 25 year professional artist and art director, I’ve adapted to many shifts in the creative industry, and see no reason to panic with regards to AI art technology itself….I fully understand and appreciate the concerns that artists have about AI art tools. With ANY new technology that automates human labor, we unfortunately live under a predatory capitalism where corporations are incentivized to ruthlessly cut human costs any way they can, and they’ve made no effort to hide their intentions with AI (how many of those intentions are realistic and how many are products of an AI hype bubble is a different conversation). But this is a systemic problem that goes well beyond artists; a problem that didn’t begin with AI, and won’t end with AI. Every type of workforce in America is facing this problem, and the solutions lie in labor organizing and in uniting across industries for major systemic changes like universal healthcare and universal guaranteed income. Banning or over-regulating AI art tools might plug one small hole in the leaky dam of corporate exploitation, but it closes a huge potential doorway for small creators and businesses.”

Anya Kamenetz Será una Oradora Principal en la Cumbre Mundial CC 2023

[read this post in English >]

A headshot of Anya Kamenetz, smiling and wearing a greenish top.

Anya Kamenetz” by Will O’Hare.

Tenemos un grupo increíble de personas preparadas para ser oradores principales en la Cumbre Global 2023, que se llevará a cabo del 3 al 6 de octubre en la Ciudad de México. En nuestro primer anuncio, damos la bienvenida a la escritora Anya Kamenetz, quien cerrará la Cumbre con un discurso de apertura que surge de su trabajo como periodista y ahora activista centrada en la educación climática para los niños.

Anya Kamenetz habla, escribe y piensa sobre la justicia generacional y cómo los niños aprenden, crecen y prosperan en un planeta cambiante. Cubrió la educación como periodista durante muchos años, incluso para NPR, donde también cocreó el podcast Life Kit:Parenting en asociación con Sesame Workshop. Kamenetz es actualmente asesor del Aspen Institute y de la Climate Mental Health Network sobre nuevas iniciativas en la intersección de los niños y el cambio climático. Es autora de varios libros de no ficción aclamados: Generation Debt (Riverhead, 2006); DIY U: Edupunks, Edupreneurs, and the Coming Transformation of Higher Education (Chelsea Green, 2010) ; The Test: Why Our Schools Are Obsessed With Standardized Testing, But You Don’t Have To Be (Public Affairs, 2016); y The Art of Screen Time: How Your Family Can Balance Digital Media and Real Life (Public Affairs, 2018). Su último libro es The Stolen Year: How Covid Changed Children’s Lives, And Where We Go Now (Public Affairs, 2022). Kamenetz creció en Luisiana en una familia de escritores y místicos y se graduó en Yale University. Vive en Brooklyn con su marido y sus dos hijas y escribe el boletín The Golden Hour.

Al igual que Anya, todos nuestros oradores principales se conectan directamente con las áreas de enfoque de CC, desde la creatividad contemporánea y el patrimonio cultural hasta los medios, la ciencia, la educación y el periodismo. Con el tema de la Cumbre sobre la IA y los bienes comunes, también esperamos enfrentar el desafío de perspectivas nuevas y renacidas que deberíamos considerar al pensar en la inteligencia artificial y su intersección con el conocimiento y la cultura abiertos. Todas los oradores principales de la Cumbre honrarán tanto la ubicación de la Cumbre en México como el alcance global de la comunidad CC.

¡Estén atentos para conocer a nuestros otros oradores principales! Te invitamos a unirte a nosotros en la Cumbre en la Ciudad de México para escuchar hablar a Anya y muchas otras voces diversas. Nuestra esperanza es que los oradores principales, el programa completo de la Cumbre y nuestras conexiones informales en la Ciudad de México y en línea se combinen para permitirnos a todos cultivar la estrategia de CC de compartir mejor, un compartir que sea contextual, inclusivo, justo, equitativo, recíproco y sostenible.

Regístrese para la Cumbre Global CC >

Anya Kamenetz to Keynote CC Global Summit 2023

[lee esta entrada en español >]

A headshot of Anya Kamenetz, smiling and wearing a greenish top.

Anya Kamenetz” by Will O’Hare.

We have an incredible group of people lined up to be keynote speakers at the 2023 CC Global Summit, to be held 3–6 October in Mexico City. In our first announcement, we welcome writer Anya Kamenetz, who will close the Summit with a keynote that grows out of her work as a journalist, and now, activist focused on climate education for children.

Anya Kamenetz speaks, writes, and thinks about generational justice, and how children learn, grow and thrive on a changing planet. She covered education as a journalist for many years including for NPR, where she also co-created the podcast Life Kit:Parenting in partnership with Sesame Workshop. Kamenetz is currently an advisor to the Aspen Institute and the Climate Mental Health Network on new initiatives at the intersection of children and climate change. She’s the author of several acclaimed nonfiction books: Generation Debt (Riverhead, 2006); DIY U: Edupunks, Edupreneurs, and the Coming Transformation of Higher Education (Chelsea Green, 2010) ; The Test: Why Our Schools Are Obsessed With Standardized Testing, But You Don’t Have To Be (Public Affairs, 2016); and The Art of Screen Time: How Your Family Can Balance Digital Media and Real Life (Public Affairs, 2018). Her latest book is The Stolen Year: How Covid Changed Children’s Lives, And Where We Go Now (Public Affairs, 2022). Kamenetz grew up in Louisiana in a family of writers and mystics, and graduated from Yale University. She lives in Brooklyn with her husband and two daughters and writes the newsletter The Golden Hour.

Like Anya, all our keynoters connect directly with CC’s areas of focus, from contemporary creativity and cultural heritage, to media, science, education, and journalism. With the Summit’s theme of AI and the commons, we also expect to be challenged with new and reborn perspectives that we should consider in thinking about artificial intelligence and its intersection with open knowledge and culture. All the Summit keynotes will honor both the Summit’s location in Mexico, and the CC community’s global scope.

Stay tuned to learn about our other keynote speakers! We invite you to join us at the Summit in Mexico City to hear Anya and many other diverse voices speak. Our hope is that the keynote addresses, the full Summit program, and our informal connections in Mexico City and online will combine to enable us all to cultivate CC’s strategy of better sharing, sharing that is contextual, inclusive, just, equitable, reciprocal, and sustainable.

Register for the CC Global Summit >

A Tale of Two Global Challenges: Climate research is not as open as COVID-19 research

Two charts next to each other, one shows the percentage of open access for SDG-related research and the other shows the percentage of open access for COVID-related research papers. The charts show that there is significantly more open access to COVID-related research.

Percentage of open access for SDG-related (left) and COVID-related (right) research papers, by open access type, 2000-2021. Much more COVID-19 research relative to SDG-related research is open access. Image from Contrasting the open access dissemination of COVID-19 and SDG research, Vincent Larivière, Isabel Basson, Jocalyn P. Clark. bioRxiv 2023.05.18.541286

In early 2020, something unusual happened in the academic community. A normally guarded community accustomed to holding their data and research papers close, began to adopt much more open practices. Researchers came in droves to preprint servers to post versions of their research papers – that had not yet been peer reviewed – to make their work freely and publicly available. New data repositories emerged and pledges (Wellcome, Chief Science Advisors) to make research open were signed. This demonstrable change in behavior was due to the recognition, including public and political pressure, that COVID-19 was a global threat to humanity. Biologists, geneticists, statisticians and others in biomedical fields came together to share their work; they realized in order to develop COVID-19 treatments and vaccines, the knowledge about the virus needed to be open and shared rapidly.

We now know over 90,000 preprints¹ have been posted to various preprint servers since January 2020 and a new preprint by Lariviére et al. (2023) found that 79.9% of COVID-19 papers between January 2020² and December 2021 are open access. So if researchers recognized and responded to the need for rapid, open access to COVID-19 research, what about other global challenges?

The United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) are effectively 17 global challenges “for peace and prosperity for people and the planet.” Many of the world’s greatest challenges can be encapsulated in the SDGs. Lariviére et al. found that unlike COVID-19, only 55% of papers relating to one or more SDGs were open access for the same period or put another way, 45% of all research applicable to tackling humanity’s greatest challenges is closed. Research on climate change, arguably one of the world’s greatest challenges, had the second-lowest level of open access at just 55.5%. The contrast between open access of COVID-19 and climate research suggests that a sense of urgency and importance is elicited in one crisis but not the other. Why the disconnect?

It’s possible that publishers and climate researchers are simply subject to the many pressures and incentives against open access and that climate change research, while widely considered important, does not match the level of awareness, global solidarity and disruption that COVID-19 had on the world. In reality, climate change is an even bigger threat to humanity and is deserving of a higher sense of urgency.

The Open Climate Campaign is a response to this lack of urgency and is working to make the open sharing of research the norm in climate science through global advocacy, one-on-one work with funders, national governments and environmental organizations; and partnerships with open projects and publishers. The Campaign recognizes that in order to generate solutions and mitigations to climate change, the knowledge (research papers, data, educational resources) about it must be open.

We are living through a climate crisis and a very real, effective action we can take is to make climate change research accessible. On our website you can find action kits detailing tools on what you can do to open climate research and how you can work with the Open Climate Campaign. Join us at openclimatecampaign.org or reach out at contact@openclimatecampaign.org.

¹ A preprint is a version of a scholarly or scientific paper that precedes formal peer review and publication in a peer-reviewed scholarly or scientific journal (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Preprint)

² https://github.com/nicholasmfraser/covid19_preprints

CC’s #BetterSharing Collection | September: Open Is Beautiful

An illustration of a group of diverse people pulling on a line to peel back the blue background, revealing flowers underneath with the text: Open is Beautiful.
Open Is Beautiful” by Tetiana Korniichuk for Creative Commons and Fine Acts is licensed via CC BY-SA 4.0.

As part of our #20CC anniversary, last year we joined forces with Fine Acts to spark a global dialogue on what better sharing looks like in action. Our #BetterSharing collection of illustrations was the result — we gathered insights from 12 prominent open advocates around the world and tasked 12 renowned artists who embrace openness with transforming these perspectives into captivating visual pieces available under a CC license.

Each month throughout 2023, we will be spotlighting a different CC-licensed illustration from the collection on our social media headers and the CC blog. For September, we’re excited to showcase “Open Is Beautiful” by Ukrainian illustrator, Tanya Korniichuk. The piece, licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 4.0, was inspired by a quote from Cecília Oliveira, Executive Director of Fogo Cruzado:

“The powerful hide important data to prevent us from demanding change. This is true with armed violence in Brazil, but is also true where you live on issues that you care about. Find a way to use open data to make changes in your society.

To me, Better Sharing Brighter Future means… a city where people aren’t afraid of being shot. I created Fogo Cruzado because the authorities were not sharing important data, and they did it to prevent accountability. And, unfortunately, there were no institutions out there who were ready to fill in the gap. So I decided to do it myself. We had offers to make money off of selling our data, and we had others who were taking our data and using it poorly, but we knew that the ONLY way to make this situation better was to make our work open and free and easy to access for everyone. Our focus is armed violence, but really our mission is about fighting secrecy.”

Meet the artist

Black and white headshot of Tanya Korniichuk.
Tanya Korniichuk” used by permission of the artist.

Tanya is an illustrator from Kyiv, Ukraine, based in Vilnius, Lithuania. She gets her inspiration from simple things, people around her, her lovely dog. Through her expressive and bright style, she translates complex ideas into dynamic visuals, deftly encapsulating concepts. In her works she uses only standard shapes, so anyone can get inspired and recreate it.

Follow Tanya on Instagram:@tanya.korn

The full #BetterSharing collection is available on TheGreats.co to be enjoyed, used and adapted, and then shared again, by anyone, forever.

View the full collection >>