Cc singularity u-panel_on_open_source

1

Singularity University

Panel on Open Source

2009-07-28

The Commons as a collective intelligence meta-innovation

Mike Linksvayer

Creative CommonsPhoto by asadal · Licensed under CC Attribution-ShareAlike 2.0 ·

http://flickr.com/photos/68242677@N00/2117153416/

2

Creative Commons .ORG

●Nonprofit organization, launched to public December 2002●HQ and ccLearn in San Francisco●Science Commons division at MIT●~70 international jurisdiction projects, coordinated from Berlin●Foundation, corporate, and individual funding●Born at Stanford, supported by Silicon Valley

3

Enabling Reasonable Copyright

●Space between ignoring copyright and ignoring fair use & public good●Legal and technical tools enabling a “Some Rights Reserved” model●Like “free software” or “open source” for content/media–But with more restrictive options–Media is more diverse and at least a decade(?) behind software

4

Six Mainstream Licenses

5

Lawyer Readable

6

Human Readable

7

Machine Readable<rdf:RDF xmlns="http://creativecommons.org/ns#" xmlns:rdf="http://www.w3.org/1999/02/22-rdf-syntax-ns#"> <License rdf:about="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0/nl/"> <permits rdf:resource="http://creativecommons.org/ns#Reproduction"/> <permits rdf:resource="http://creativecommons.org/ns#Distribution"/> <requires rdf:resource="http://creativecommons.org/ns#Notice"/> <requires rdf:resource="http://creativecommons.org/ns#Attribution"/> <prohibits rdf:resource="http://creativecommons.org/ns#CommercialUse"/> <permits rdf:resource="http://creativecommons.org/ns#DerivativeWorks"/> <requires rdf:resource="http://creativecommons.org/ns#ShareAlike"/> </License></rdf:RDF>

8

Machine Readable (Work)<span xmlns:cc="http://creativecommons.org/ns#" xmlns:dc="http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/"><span rel="dc:type" href="http://purl.org/dc/dcmitype/Text" property="dc:title">My Book</span> by <a rel="cc:attributionURL" property="cc:attributionName" href="http://example.org/me">My Name</a> is licensed under a <a rel="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/">Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License</a>. <span rel="dc:source" href="http://example.net/her_book"/>Permissions beyond the scope of this license may be available at <a rel="cc:morePermissions" href="http://example.com/revenue_sharing_agreement">example.com</a>.</span>

9

DRMfree

“DRM Voodo”by psd licensed under CC BY 2.0http://flickr.com/photos/psd/1806247462/

10

Software/Culture (i)

Utilitarian/obvious but narrow reuse vs non-utilitarian but universal reuse possible

● Gecko in Firefox, Thunderbird, Songbird... = Obvious

● Device driver code in web application = Huh?

● Cat photos and heavy metal = music video

11

Software/Culture (ii)

Maintenance necessary vs rare● Non-maintained software = dead● “Maintained” cultural work = pretty

special● (Wikis are somewhat like software in this

respect)

12

Software/Culture (iii)

Roughly all or nothing modifiable form vs varied and degradable forms

● You have the source code or you don’t● Text w/markup > PDF > Bitmap scan● Multitracks > High bitrate > Low bitrate

13

Software/Culture (iv)

Construction is identical to creating modifiable form vs. iteratively leaving materials on the cutting room floor

14

Software/Culture (v)

Why NoDerivatives and NonCommercial?● Legal sharing of verbatim works made

interesting by filesharing wars● Maybe less emphasis on maintenance

means–Restrictions on field of use less impactful–Free commercial use more impactful on existing business models

15

Sofware/Culture (vi)

Commercial anticommons● When distributed maintenance is

important, NC is unusable for business (one explanation of why free software ≅ open source)

● Maybe some artists want a commercial anticommons: nobody can be “exploited” ... but most want to exploit commerce. NC maybe does both.

16

History (i)

Some evocative dates for software ...● 1983: Launch of GNU Project● 1989: GPLv1● 1991: Linux kernel, GPLv2● 1993: Debian● 1996: Apache● 1998: Mozilla, “open source”, IBM

17

History (ii)

... evocative dates for software● 1999: crazine$$● 2004: Firefox 1.0● 2007: [AL]GPLv3● ????: World Domination

18

History (iii)

Open content licenses (some of them Free):

● 1998: Open Content License● 1999: Open Publication License● 2000: GFDL, Free Art License● 2001: EFF Open Audio License

19

History (iv)

Other early 2000s open content licenses (some of them Free):

Design Science License, Ethymonics Free Music Public License, Open Music Green/Yellow/Red/Rainbow Licenses, Open Source Music License, No Type License, Public Library of Science Open Access License, Electrohippie Collective's Ethical Open Documentation License

20

History (v)

Versioning of Creative Commons licenses (some of them Free):

● 2002: 1.0● 2004: 2.0● 2005: 2.5● 2007: 3.0

21

History (vi)Anti-proliferation?

2003: author of Open Content/Publication licenses recommends CC instead and PLoS adopts CC BY

2004: EFF OAL 2.0 declares CC BY-SA 2.0 its next version

No significant new culture licenses since 2002

2008+: Possible Wikipedia migration to CC BY-SA

22

Indicators (community)

1993: Debian :: 2001 : Wikipedia● 8 years● Wikipedia’s success came faster and

more visibly● Does Wikipedia even need an Ubuntu

(2004)?● But how typical is Wikipedia of free

culture?

23

Indicators (business)

1989: Cygnus Solutions :: 2003 : Magnatune

● 14 years● Cygnus acquired by Red Hat (1999);

Magnatune’s long term impact TBD● Magnatune may not be Free enough for

some, but it seems like the best analogy for now

24

Indicators (big business)

1998: IBM :: ???? : ?● No analogous investments have been

made in free culture. Most large computer companies have now made large investments in free/open source software

1998: Microsoft :: 2008 : Big Media● Could Microsoft’s attitude toward

openness a decade ago be analogous to big media’s today?

25

Indicators (Wikitravel)

Very cool round-trip story:● 2003: Launch, CC BY-SA● 2006: Acquired by Internet Brands● 2008: First Wikitravel Press paper titles

Community is the new “IP”?

26

Indicators (NIN)

Ghosts I-IV released 2008 under CC BY-NC-SA:

● $1.6m gross in first week● $750k in two days from limited edition

“ultra deluxe edition”● This while available legally and easily,

gratis.● NC doesn’t seem important in this

story ... yet

27

Indicators (Summary Guesses)

Free culture is at least a decade behind free software

Except where it has mass collaboration/maintenance aspects of software, where it may rocket ahead (Wikipedia)

Generally culture is much more varied than software; success will be spikey

28

In Innovation, Meta is Max

“The max net-impact innovations, by far, have been meta-innovations, i.e., innovations that changed how fast other innovations accumulated.”

Robin Hanson (Economist)http://www.overcomingbias.com/2008/06/meta-is-max---i.html

29

Collective Intelligence

Meta innovation?

30

Commons

Meta innovation for Collective Intelligence?

31

$2.2 trillion

Value of fair use in the U.S. Economy

http://www.ccianet.org/artmanager/publish/news/First-Ever_Economic_Study_Calculates_Dollar_Value_of.shtml also see http://creativecommons.org/weblog/entry/7643

32

33

34

Cyber terrorism(Cyber terror war on)

Privacy breaches

Loss ofGenerativity

Lock-in

Surveillance

DRM

Censorship

Suppressionof innovation

Electoral fraud

Luddism

35

Threat categories

● Legitimate security issues● Protectionism● Politics and power● Security theater and fear-based

responses (driven by all of above, not just legitimate security issues)

36

What digital freedoms needed for beneficial collective

intelligence?● Keep same rights online/digitally that we

(should anyway) have offline/IRL● Permit innovation and participation

enabled by digital world even if not possible before (probably follows from above)

37

How building the commons (free software, free culture, and

friends) helps

38

Security

● Data shows FLOSS is more secure● Security through obscurity doesn’t work● FLOSS encourages a heterogeneous

computing environment● Free software and free culture both

allergic to DRM and other mechanisms that sacrifice security to other goals

39

Protectionism

● Peer production undermines policy arguments for protecting knowledge industries

● Free software and free culture both allergic to DRM

40

Politics and power

● Free software and culture improve transparency

● ... and the ability of all to participate● Peer production works against

concentrated power — doesn’t require concentrated production structures and lowers barriers to entry

41

Security theater and fear

● Access to facts mitigates fear and allows rational evaluation of responses

● Commons work against three previous threats that drive security theater and fear

42

Can the success of the (digital) commons alter how we view

freedom and power generally?

43

“The gate that has held the movements for equalization of human beings strictly in a dilemma between ineffectiveness and violence has now been opened. The reason is that we have shifted to a zero marginal cost world. As steel is replaced by software, more and more of the value in society becomes non-rivalrous: it can be held by many without costing anybody more than if it is held by a few.”

Eben Moglen

44

“If we don’t want to live in a jungle, we must change our attitudes. We must start sending the message that a good citizen is one who cooperates when appropriate, not one who is successful at taking from others.”

Richard Stallman

45

i.e., we can form collective intelligences instead of forced collectives ... and still “change

the world”

46

47

Building the commons is key to achieving a good future

● Politicians and corporations are unimaginative ... they need to see solutions, or they react in fear

● A dominant commons makes many collective stupidity scenarios much less likely

● Beneficial collective intelligence needs universal access to culture, educational resources, research ... in machine-readable form

48

License●

http://creativecomm

ons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/

Attribution

●

Author: Mike Linksvayer

●

Link: http://creativecomm

ons.org

Questions?

●

ml@

creativecomm

ons.org Detail of image by psd · Licensed under CC Attribution 2.0 · http://flickr.com/photos/psd/1805374441