Nice write-up Domas. I really feel we are part of a bigger movement, and that is what i usually express towards others who approach me about Wikipedia. It's not just the encyclopaedia, but a whole movement of people who think free licenses and media are an essential part of the 21st century.
And i got a picture published as well. It was a pleasant surprise to view my illustration of 'the long tail' in "Website Optimization" from O'Reilly, complete with a picture attribution even though i released it as public domain. -- Hay On Mon, Mar 30, 2009 at 5:50 AM, Brian <brian.min...@colorado.edu> wrote: > I was surprised last year to receive an e-mail from the journal Nature > Genetics. They put one of my pictures that they found on Commons on the > cover of the journal. I've received a couple of other similar but lower > profile requests. Commons is definitely a great way to get your work seen. > > On Sun, Mar 29, 2009 at 9:34 AM, Domas Mituzas <midom.li...@gmail.com>wrote: >> >> I got this email back in summer, 2007. Did I just steal a job from >> professional photographer? Or would they just leave blank book cover? >> Will this lead to a better bridge in future? Did I join a civil cause? >> All I know now, is that I’m book cover photographer, albeit quite >> cheap one. Also, by using CC license I simply used lingua-franca of >> world I’m in - and now my content can evolve into shapes that I >> couldn’t expect, and that would be limited by non-portable licenses. >> >> Other anecdote is way more internal. I have cheap point-and-shoot >> camera (same one to shoot book cover pictures :) that I use during my >> travels. It fits well into my jeans pocket, it doesn’t provide me any >> self esteem in professional photography. Still, I get to places, I >> take pictures, I place them on my flickr photostream, and I license >> them under creative commons. And fascinating things happen - my >> pictures appear on top of Wikipedia articles (like >> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_largest_buildings_in_the_world >> ), without any intervention of mine. People just use it, I can sit >> back, relax, and see how the contribution widens. >> >> Of course, there other different stories. My colleague (and manager) >> runs a wiki about his own town, Bielepedia, and he wants to exchange >> information with Wikipedia. Now he can’t, as well as quite a lot of >> other free content community projects. Though of course, some may >> believe license difference doesn’t mean much, in this case it means >> that we’re building borders we don’t need nor we have intent to >> maintain. >> >> I live and breathe Wikipedia technology, but I do not feel competent >> enough to go and push content itself around, and it just shows up >> there itself (oh, of course, there’s army of committed volunteers who >> help with that). So, I benefit the project just by being creative >> commoner, and I may benefit lots of other projects. We at Wikipedia >> technical team are very open in what we do, and try to spread our know- >> how in many directions. Documents I wrote about how we do things ended >> up downloaded hundred thousand times, and I really hope that some of >> that know-how will end up used and reused. >> >> I guess I’m taking this to extremes - I ended up talking to people in >> government of Lithuania, journalists and non-profit activists. Imagine >> a government, that would commit to open licensing for produced >> content. Well, no need to imagine - US federal institutions release >> information to public domain, but in Europe it is way more restricted. >> Still, what one has to realize - at government level it is not only a >> right to be given, it also has to be a right that has to be protected. >> Nowadays that means going to copyright powerhouses that serve large >> record labels and movie studios, and will charge for services, that >> government has to provide for free (and does in other areas, like >> looking for your stolen car). >> >> We have lots and lots of talks about knowledge-societies at government >> levels, but we never get to the point, that every individual is part >> of that, and first of all we have to teach those rights, and guard >> them. But of course, to prove, that our rights have to be guarded, we >> have to show how great our work is - and how powerful can our sharing >> be. To achieve that we have to build bridges between license islands, >> talk same languages, and of course, create. >> >> I’m a creative commoner. So should be you. >> >> P.S. So should be Wikimedia Foundation. I’m extremely excited about >> the work being done to make it reality (thanks Erik, Mike, Mako, >> everyone!), and you know my personal position on the matter by now :) >> >> >> Cheers, >> -- >> Domas Mituzas -- http://dammit.lt/ -- [[user:midom]] >> >> >> >> _______________________________________________ >> foundation-l mailing list >> foundation-l@lists.wikimedia.org >> Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/foundation-l >> > _______________________________________________ > foundation-l mailing list > foundation-l@lists.wikimedia.org > Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/foundation-l > _______________________________________________ foundation-l mailing list foundation-l@lists.wikimedia.org Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/foundation-l
