Creative Commons for the Caucasus

Social Science in the Caucasus posts more details, including a video, on Creative Commons and comments on the importance of introducing the licensing concept to the South Caucasus.

Incidentally, as I’ve already pointed out, the low-resolution photographs available on this blog are available for use under the terms of a Creative Commons license.

[…] The basic idea is to facilitate collaboration, interaction and people adding value to each other’s online work. Creative Commons provides licenses for sharing easily, without giving up some of the author’s basic rights. […]

Now that larger idea is extremely important in the South Caucasus as well. There is a lack of ideas, there’s a lack of great materials for people to use, to teach, to read, to share, especially in the local languages. And conversely, there’s little respect for authorship, and for the people that have created valuable content.

Introducing Creative Commons in the South Caucasus could be one step to alleviate this: not just by providing the licenses along the “build it and they’ll come” expectation, but using the very process to advocate ideas of online interaction and sharing, and recreation.