Late last year I bookmarked the Creative Commons Launches CC0 and CC+ Programs press release to look into at some point. I finally got around to it this week and I'm sure I'll take advantage of these great new tools to help balance the spirit of open sharing of IP with the need to grow a profitable business around open source software.  

The new protocols (they are not actually new licenses) are very straightforward and easy to use. This is something CC has always done very well IMHO. So what are they for?

CC0 - CC Zero is a simple protocol to waive all rights to a work. It's like putting a work in the public domain but CC Zero appears to be better because it's more explicit and works better internationally.

CC+ - CC Plus is an addition to the CC licensing architecture that enables the cross-over between the "sharing economy" and the "commercial economy." It makes it very straightforward to offer additional permissions to CC licensed content. The most obvious use case is to profit commercially from CC licensed content by starting with a CC Attribution Non-Commercial license and using the CC Plus protocol to permit commercial use for a fee. It would look something like this:

In the open source software licensing world there's a concept called "dual licensing" that has been used to accomplish a similar objective. The CC+ literature does a great job describing the concept and making it easy to implement. 

We hear a lot about open everything in the media today. Open source software, open content, open innovation, even open source beer. :-)  The big consultants and analysts are catching up with what's happening and making predictions about mainstream implications of the trends toward openness. 

We don't hear a lot about the legal underpinnings that are enabling these trends. In fact, the legal infrastructure is one of a few key enableers along with the ubiquity of web-based collaboration and workflow software that connects people to get things done. Without these two things I don't think the two efforts I'm most involved in (Sakai and Kuali) would be possible.

It's interesting that the CC+ literature talks about bridging the "sharing economy" and the "commercial economy." One of the core values and a key to sustainability of the Sakai and Kuali  communities is commercial involvement. From the beginning these communities have been architected to evolve the software ecosystem in education and enable a new commercial model that fits with the institutions' abilities to lead the development of their key business systems. It's one of the things that sets Sakai and Kuali apart from similar initiatives that have come and gone in education. It'll be interesting to see how/if the CC+ license plays a role in enabling our goals.

Back in December I stumbled upon the Capetown Open Education Declaration--the result of a lively discussion among an impressive group of people, and a starting point to focus worldwide collective advocacy and action toward some important goals. I picked up an announcement today and (Thanks to David Horowitz) a video post from Mark Shuttleworth following up on the initial declaration.

I was just reading the latest LAMS newsletter and I followed James' link to the Capetown Open Education Declaration. Sakai, Kuali, and rSmart are three of my own professional outlets that are all based on the same ideals as this declaration. I know a number of the original signatories and some of the initiatives represented. It must have been an engaging meeting.

Today I finally got a chance to take a look at the video recordings from the Sakai conference in Amsterdam. In particular I watched Hal Abelson's keynote again since I wanted to write about it during the conference and I got caught up in the frenzy of the event.

I attended the open source business conference this year for the 2nd time and found it very valuable. The presentations and videos from the conference are now available online at InfoWorld and some on the OSBC Website.

It was gratifying to hear Matthew Szulik, the CEO of Red Hat mention Sakai and the MIT Open Courseware initiative--two projects near & dear. Here's the first part of the video from that keynote followed by links to some other good videos & presentations:

• Eben Moglen - Don't be your competitor's free lunch
• Larry Augustin - A nrew Breed of P&L
• Why Freedom makes a better business model

The opening keynote this morning at the Sakai conference in Amsterdam challenged us as a community to participate in a movement from thinking about "my course for my students" to "our courses as open participatory learning environments of reforming and rebuilding."

I found it very worthwhile. Often I've found that as a community we're focused intensely on improving our performance as a community. We work hard, debate, and adapt our communication habits, our policies and practices, etc. As a result we're a healthy growing community. It is very nice every once and a while to lift our heads up and realize the larger movement toward openness we're deeply involved in.

Hal spoke intensely about the importance of open academic content to a world where 30 million million people capable of attending higher education are left out... and about the technical, legal, and attitudinal barriers we need to overcome. At one point it reminded me of this video from earlier in the year that creatively illustrates the revolution underway in how we create, re-use, re-mix, and share content.

The talk is well worth a listen.