search.creativecommons.org screencast and i18n

Mike Linksvayer, May 12th, 2008

We’ve rolled out a few small changes to search.creativecommons.org:

You can browse and checkout the code (GPL licensed) from our source repository.

Further improvements we’re thinking about (patches welcome; see source info above):

Remember, the code is available and GPL’d, so you can run your own version (modulo our trademark policy) in addition to helping us improve ours.

Tune Rooms

Cameron Parkins, May 12th, 2008

Tune Rooms is “a music company that was created for Musicians and Music Fans alike” that aims to “enable music collaboration, promotion, and distribution on your terms.” This is accomplished through the use of ‘tune rooms’ in which users can upload different ideas, song sketches, and the like to the Tune Rooms webspace and allow others contribute to the song by adding new tracks. These ‘tune rooms’ are created in conjunction with musician profiles, blogs, and a variety of other Web 2.0 goodness.

Tune Rooms allows users to CC license their works, featuring the license prominently on each composition. To easily facilitate collaboration, users can choose from BY, BY-NC, and BY-SA licences, all of which allow the original work to be modified. CC licences make this type of collaboration possible by providing a legal framework for Tune Rooms to operate under - users’ works become fluid and malleable by using CC licences, something that is key to Tune Rooms’ focus on online collaboration.

If the promise of an exciting new platform for online music collaboration wasn’t enough to get you interested in Tune Rooms, they’re are also throwing a contest over the coming month with a grand prize of $1,000 in Musician’s Friend gift certificates. In order to be eligible, you must have a submission that includes three other Tune Rooms musicians and have your entry in by June 9th, with the winner decided on June 16th.

ccLearn Workshop Video Now Live at OSL

Jane Park, May 12th, 2008

In April I blogged about Open Source Lab’s fourth official workshop featuring ccLearn’s Executive Director, Ahrash Bissell. The Open Source Lab has now posted a video of the workshop at their blog. The workshop focuses on recent developments within open education, including but not limited to the impact of open licensing, as Ahrash emphasizes the grander scale of the movement.

The video, like all content on OSL’s blog, is licensed CC BY-NC-SA.

ccHost 4.5 and 5.0beta

Mike Linksvayer, May 10th, 2008

Two new releases of ccHost today, the remix-oriented media hosting software that drives ccMixter:

4.5, the final release from the 4.x tree. 4.0 was released March 6 last year.

5.0beta is the code that has been running on ccMixter for several months (5.0alpha was available in February.) The missing piece needed to make 5.0 final is updated administrator documentation.

The software is licensed under the GPL and downloadable from sourceforge or our source repository.

Building Commons and Community

Cameron Parkins, May 9th, 2008

Building Commons and Community, a book written by the late Karl Linn on his experience “creating neighborhood spaces for communities and by communities”, has been released under a CC BY-NC-ND license. From New Village Press:

It seems quite fitting that someone who was noted for “leadership in the field of grassroots community building” would have their final work released under terms that allow for the free redistribution of ideas and information. You can purchase Building Commons and Community at New Village Press and Amazon.