Scrolling through this weeks readings about creative commons made me feel exactly the latter,common. In a tertiary world of textbooks and pdf’s, I felt about as stimulated as Santa Claus in late February. Although the pieces were written well and succinctly enabled me to comprehend the lessons I was supposed to, I found my mind wandering to a time when lessons would be taught via grand musical numbers with a progressive student conga-line as each individual had a light bulb moment and leap from their seats in building 13,concluding in complete enlightenment .
Although my educational life will peak when the aforementioned events occur, something happened when I opened the third link to readings this week.
A beautiful arrangement of colours and movement interrupted my half closed eyes and dribbling open mouth as I day-snored.
A video!!
Not that I haven’t seen one before, but as far as I was concerned, the only way my day could go was up.
So, this little piece of heaven successfully yanked me out of a near disastrous size-twelve-times-new-roman-word-document downward spiral.
So shoutout to whoever played a part in slotting that video into my week.
ANYWAY…….
Quite apart from my disturbingly monotonous day which led to such excitement from a youtube clip, I was blessed with a few morsels of valuable material.
The concept of creative commons is essentially fantastic. It is a platform for content creators to gain appropriate copyright licensing for their material, enabling them to release their work into the webosphere, without having to approve each individual twelve year old tumblr user who wants to use their photo of a black pug. Basically, these people have said “You know what, my stuff IS awesome, so why shouldn’t it be re-used?” Within the parameters of a few restrictions such as having to attribute the work to the original creator, it is relatively simple to safely, legally and awesomely use someone else’s work to benefit both you and them. And from attitudes like these; creative commons was born.
Personally, I love the idea that something which has been created for one purpose can bear a completely new and exciting meaning by pairing it with something else. It’s like keeping Beyonce and Jay-Z apart- it just doesn’t make sense to have them separate (unless Solange is also in the elevator.)
So what I’m trying to say is:
1. If you have created something fantastic don’t keep it to yourself
2. Creative commons is designed for people who have a collaborative attitude and mind
3. Great new things can come from those which already exist
4. Sorry if I have ever breached your copyright, I would be more than appreciative if you let me know
5. If you get as excited as I do about videos, seek urgently needed social interaction
