Week 4

Open Source & Creative Commons

Open Source

Open Access can be summarized as a concept or approach to software design wherein the source code for software is freely available. Mozilla Firefox, from our previous activity, is a well-known open source product. Due to it's open platform, Firefox allows external developers to contribute to the product using Add-ons. Other open source platforms include:

- Drupal (the platform YPRL are using for their new website)
- Joomla
- Audacity

Resources

- Wikipedia
- Open Source

Creative Commons

Creative Commons (CC) provides free tools that let authors, scientists, artists, and educators easily mark their creative work with the freedoms they want it to carry. You can use CC to change your copyright terms from "All Rights Reserved" to "Some Rights Reserved."

Resources

- Creative Commons
- Creative Commons Australia
- YouTube "A Shared Culture"

Check out this video explaining the different ways creative commons license can be applied. You can also view this straight forward video about copyright and creative commons, though it is a bit lengthy.

Activity

Tweet about your thoughts on open access and creative commons. How can open access tools be used in the library? How are they already being used in the library? Can you see any other options for using open access tools in the library? Can you see any benefits or downfalls in creative commons practices?