The video on the ‘Welcome to Firefox‘ page really encompasses my reasoning for staying with the product.
Principle over profit
Secrecy is trumped by honesty & corporate interest by community
We believe that the web is more cared for than owned
More of a resource to be tended to than a commodity to be sold
Strongly believe in innovation that puts users strongly & squarely in the drivers’ seat
We believe that together, with this cause in mind, we can continue to innovate for the benefit of the individual & the betterment of the web so that it always & forever serves the greater good.
As part of the ioe12 course work I took notes of what I thought to be the significant bits from this video:
All the following content is therefore attributed to Larry Lessig.
Copyright is about what level of control.
Copyright policy isn’t just about how to incentivize production of an artistic commodity, it’s about what level of control we are going to permit to be exercised over our social realities – social realities that are now inevitably permitted by pop culture.
… its important that we keep these two different kinds of public goods in mind. If we are only focussed on how to maximise the supply of one, … we risk suppressing this different and richer, and in some ways maybe even more important one.
Freedom needs
This opportunity to both have the commercial success of the great commercial works.
AND
The opportunity to build this different kind of culture.
and for that to happen you need ideas like ‘fair use’ to be central & protected to enable this kind of innovation between these two creative cultures. A commercial & sharing culture.
A need for ownership
A respect of ownership
A respect we should give to
the Creator
the Remixer
the Owner
the Property Owner
the Copyright Owner
of this extraordinarily powerful stuff not a generation of ‘share croppers’.
There are lessons here about ‘openness’.
Our lives are sharing activities, at least in part. For this to happen we need to have well protected spaces of fair use.
This ecology of sharing needs freedom in which to create. Freedom which means without permission from anyone the ability to create.
We need to respect the creator. The creator of these remixes through rights that are directly tied to them.
Creative Commons is offering authors this simple way to mark their contact with the freedoms they intend it to carry.
So we go from an
“All Rights Reserved” world
to a
“Some Rights Reserved” world.
And people can know the freedoms they have attached to content, building & creating on the basis of this creative copyrighted work.
These tools Creative Commons enable sharing, in parts, through licenses that make it clear. And a freedom that make it clear. And a freedom to create without requiring permission first, because the permission has already been granted & a respect for the creator because it builds upon a copyright the creator has licensed freely.
Hundreds of millions of digital artifacts are already licensed in this way.
Do we have this ecology right now?
Openness is a commitment to a certain set of values. We need to speak of those values.
So I was walking down the street in town yesterday lunchtime and looked into a shop window – there was an image of Toy Story 3 and it struck me straight away that I could do a ds106 Assignment on the back of Toy Story. So here it is:
I decided to start with a plain black background and work up from there. I liked the ‘UP’ version by Chelsea Tufarolo, and kind of followed the approach for the basic feel. The motif is quite abstract, relating to the saying of a central character.
I’m just pumped up so far this year – participating in 3 big MOOCs – wallowing in sheer MOOCy goodness:
* The sweeping majesty of Change11 with Stephen Downes, George Seimens, & Dave Cormier
* The openness philosphy of ioe12 with David Wiley
* The creativity of ds106 with Jim Groom & Tim Owens
This is the new mantra for established business models that are finding it difficult to adapt to the 21st Century. The primary example often quoted is that of newspapers. The message in this case is a rigorous journalistic approach to news coverage and strong editorial comment. The medium doesn’t matter, be it paper, a blog, or what ever.
The same can therefore be applied to Higher Education. People want quality, rigour, challenging, all combining to change them and their thinking, improving their knowledge and experience. The medium, in this case university, is again becoming questionable.
What can brick and mortar Universities do to adapt, innovate, remain both competitive and relevant in this situation? In essence, become part of the 21st century? We will discuss the issues universities face and how they can meet the demands of students for flexibility.
This obviously starts from the point that it is actually a good thing for universities to remain and persist in being the gatekeepers of accreditation for degree qualifications. This might not always be the case, certainly in specific areas where professional qualifications might hold greater kudos. Added to this, it is projected that bricks & mortar universities can’t meet the increasing future demand for higher education globally, they couldn’t be built fast enough.
It’ll be interesting to do further reading from this week of the course to develop a greater understanding.
I’m falling asleep thinking about what I’m going to do for ds106. I’m waking up with images flying around my mind. I’m starting to see the world in different ways, looking for the artistic interpretation everywhere. I spent yesterday lunchtime looking for creative items I could use – partially successful; I’ve still got a list in my pocket to continue the search. Heck, I’m even seeing Bava Mathers’ hairdo in the fake wood pattern on a door to the gents.
I’ve decided to join the ds106 course run by Jim Groom this Spring, 2012. Blimey, this looks like a fantastic way to express yourself creatively amongst a community.
So I chanced upon a tweet yesterday about David Wiley’s new Openness in Education Course starting that day and thought, ‘Yep, I need to be involved in that.’ I fired off my application to register this blog as the vehicle I’ll be using in the process. And here I go.
