Change.gov meets Creative Commons

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By Ellen Miller on 12/01/08 @ 10:11 pm | 1 Comment

This is great news. Over the weekend, the Obama–Biden Transition team switched the copyright policy for their Web site, Change.gov, from the old fashioned “copyright protected model” to the most open Creative Commons license. Lots of folks had noticed this oddity and there had been a low buzz of conversation about it. It’s really terrific to see the Transition team catch this early on and free the information. So we can now mix and remix the content there. It will be interesting to see what we can do with it.

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1 Comment on Change.gov meets Creative Commons

John Wonderlich said:

nice post.

I especially appreciated this paragraph, which I can now confidently and legally post in full:

Professor Lawrence Lessig also commented on his blog, noting the complexity of working through such issues: “This is great news about a subject that’s harder than it seems.”

Change.gov has incorporated additional features designed to make the Transition more accessible and its content more open and re-useable. For every video posted – from the weekly addresses, to press conferences, to speeches, to “Inside the Transition” pieces – there are links to high-resolution QuickTime video files beneath embedded videos (these are also available via the Transition’s podcast), so that the video can be saved to a computer and edited at will. The Obama-Biden Transition Team is continuing to explore ways to use new media to create a more transparent Transition. This is part of an ongoing planning process to create a 21st century government that is more transparent, participatory, and effective.

12:15 am on Dec 2, 2008