I joined CC in June of this year, and immediately set out to update our strategy. I spent the summer working with our staff, affiliates, board, partners, and funders to understand the needs and the opportunities, and to plan for 2015 and beyond. Today, we’re focused on three strategic objectives: A vibrant commons. Supporting the…

Move-Horizontally / P.J. Onori / CC BY Glühwendel brennt durch / Stefan Krause / FAL 1.3 This FAL-licensed photo was selected as Wikimedia Commons’ 2013 Picture of the Year. Like CC Attribution-ShareAlike (CC BY-SA), the Free Art License (FAL 1.3) is a copyleft license, meaning that it requires licensees to share their adaptations under the…

Today, the Knight Foundation announced the selected recipients of its latest Prototype Fund. We’re very proud to be among them, with a new project that probably sounds a bit outside of our normal work to those familiar with CC. Here’s why we’re doing it: When I joined as CEO, I was tasked with imagining the…

Bethlehem College Preso / Locus Research / CC BY-SA Last month, I had the honour of providing a keynote address and two workshops at a teacher conference at Northcote College1, on the North Shore of Auckland, New Zealand. Like many schools, Northcote is in the process of developing an overarching digital citizenship policy for staff,…

Today and tomorrow the School of Open launches in Tanzania and Nigeria in conjunction with Mozilla Maker Party! (SOO logo here. Earth icon licensed CC BY by Erin Standley from the Noun Project.) In Tanzania, CC Tanzania is hosting a creative event for kids at the Open University of Tanzania, the first university in the…

Today the European Commission released licensing recommendations to support the reuse of public sector information in Europe. In addition to providing guidance on baseline license principles for public sector content and data, the guidelines suggest that Member States should adopt standardized open licenses – such as Creative Commons licenses: Several licences that comply with the…

Stay up to date with CC by subscribing to our newsletter and following us on Twitter. Ryan Merkley / Rannie Turingan / CC0 Why Creative Commons must succeed “Why am I joining CC? Because its success is so vital, and I want to ensure we succeed. Creativity, knowledge, and innovation need a public commons – a…

Ryan Merkley / Rannie Turingan / CC0 I’m honored to be chosen as CEO of Creative Commons. CC is a giant of the open web, and it’s an organization that I have always believed in and truly admire. I appreciate the confidence shown by the board, and support I have already received from staff and…

Ryan Merkley / Rannie Turingan / CC0 After an extensive search, the Creative Commons board of directors is pleased to announce that Ryan Merkley will be our new CEO. He’ll start work on June 1, and we’re all looking forward to working with him. Ryan joins us after a career working to advance social causes…

Ryan Merkley / Rannie Turingan / CC0 Download the press release (67 KB PDF) Mountain View, CA May 14, 2014: The board of directors of Creative Commons is pleased to announce the appointment of Ryan Merkley to the position of chief executive officer. Ryan is an accomplished strategist, campaigner, and communicator in the nonprofit, technology,…