What is the "Commons"?

• a shared resource
• accessible to everybody
• natural/cultural/intellectual
• physical or digital (or both)
• can be collectively managed for individual or communal benefit
• state/market/commons

• dedication to public domain
• use an open license and make your work open source - openly and freely accessible

• depletable
• exclusive
• rivalrous
• scarcity

• non-depletable
• non-exclusive
• non-rivalrous
• abundance (when placed in the commons)

The digital public domain/commons

The tragedy of the commons in the digital age

Closing off the digital commons

• net neutrality
• Digital Rights Management
• very long protection time for (c) works
• 'status unclear: public domain works remain de facto inaccessible
• patent trolling

"I am so confused" by Ian Sane on Flickr CC BY 2.0

What does it mean to put work in the commons?

Ownership/authorship in the digital commons

• work is no longer protected by intellectual property rights (IPR)
  
• work has never been protected by IPR  and is in the public domain
  
• work has an open license and (conditional) re-use is allowed
  
• work has been dedicated to the public domain (the 'digital commons'

Create

Access

Re-use

Create

• make your work (and its metadata) online available
• use open formats and standards
• use an open license
• be clear and unambiguous about re-use conditions
• cite and acknowledge your own sources
• make use of the augmented versions of your work

Access

• cite and acknowledge the creator
• respect license conditions
• make any augmentations or adaptations openly available
• look for open source alternatives
• support designers and makers financially if possible

Re-use

• unconditional when in the public domain
• conditional when the work is openly licensed
• grey zone for works that have no known ownership but are 'available'

Open Source? Not for me!

aka common misunderstandings about the digital commons

I am not giving away my work for free!

Somebody else will steal my idea!

I want to control re-use of my work

It is not safe, I'm the only one who knows how my design works

Advantages of going open

VISIBILITY

make your work known globally

timestamp

see what happens with your work

BOOST INNOVATION

open = easy and quick access for the brightest minds around the world

first mover advantage

DESIGN GLOBAL - PRODUCE LOCAL

benefit from worldwide creativity

support local makers

SAVE MONEY

transaction fees

promotion/marketing

production costs

market research

COMMUNITY BENEFITS

going open makes it easier for like-minded communities accross the globe to connect and share their resources

SOCIETY BENEFITS

providing quick and free access can boost research into societal issues

level the playing field

'corporate social responsibility'

MAKE MONEY

first mover advantage

new forms of revenue

boost research and development

IMPROVE PORTFOLIO

take advantage of global input and re-use of your work

connect with likeminded people worldwide

EXAMPLES

Blender

• 3D creation suite
• openly licensed, all types of reuse allowed for free
• community of users and developers improve the product
• accept donations

https://www.blender.org

Arduino

• microcontrollers
• open source hardware and software
• readymades are available commercially

https://www.arduino.cc
Image: By Matt Biddulph (Flickr: A hand-soldered Arduino) [CC BY-SA 2.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0)], via Wikimedia Commons

OpenDesk

• locally made furniture based on digitally available open designs
• platform, maker and designer get fee when a product gets made

https://www.opendesk.cc

The Noun Project

• Icons and logo's
• Free reuse: attribution required
• Freemium model - unlimited royalty free access
• Creator of icon retains copyright

https://thenounproject.com

Freesewing

• an open source platform for made-to-measure sewing patterns
• all patterns, docs, API are openly available and adaptable

https://freesewing.org/

Wikimedia

• openly licensed and public domain content only
• re-use: free but conditional: attribution and open licensing (when original is (c) ) 

https://wikimediafoundation.org

Android

• largest mobile operating system in the world
• source code is open, even for competitors

https://www.android.com/everyone/enabling-opportunity/#creating-choices

Wikihouse

• (a.o.) tool library for open source house designs

https://wikihouse.cc

See also:

• https://www.openbuildinginstitute.org/
• http://volcanoecolab.org/project/

Roden

• bike designs
• can be adapted to your own needs
• available under a CC BY-SA 4.0 license
• adaptations must be shared under the same license

https://www.roden.com.ar

Farmhack

• (a.o.) tool library for open source farming tools

TESLA

• TESLA puts its car designs as open source and files as little patents as possible (although some say this is not true)
• Elon Musk cites environmental concerns - Tesla can't keep up production in order to ensure

https://www.tesla.com/blog/all-our-patent-are-belong-you

Open Licensing

Take action and make sure your work is as openly available as possible, on your own terms

(I am not a lawyer ...)

A license is a document that specifies what can and cannot be done with a work (whether sound, text, image or multimedia). It grants permissions and states restrictions.

Broadly speaking, an open license is one which grants permission to access, re-use and redistribute a work with few or no restrictions

http://opendefinition.org

A patent for an invention is granted by government to the inventor, giving the inventor the right to stop others, for a limited period, from making, using or selling the invention without their permission.

"Traditional" copyright

• automatically
• "protects" for x amount of time
• conditions (variable)
• exceptions possible
• current laws: not adapted to digital age

Open Licensing

• rights holder determines beforehand what can and cannot happen with the work
• aim: facilitating re-use
• conditions may apply
• no need to ask permission for re-use (when conditions are respected)

If you make it clear from the start what can be done with your work ...

• access
• attribution
• re-use
• modification
• commercial use
• ...

http://opendefinition.org/licenses/
http://www.creativecommons.org
https://www.gnu.org/

How to apply

• pick a license
  • http://opendefinition.org/licenses/
  • https://creativecommons.org/choose
• Attach it to your work
  • copy the license text and the logo
  • and link to the original text

KEEP IN MIIND

Where do I find openly licensed materials?

search engines