Creative Commons offers solidarity and joins the millions around the world who are mourning the killings of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Tony McDade, Nina Pop, Ahmaud Arbery, and others. We recognize that they are the latest victims of systemic racism and institutionalized violence not only in the United States but globally, prompting anti-racism and anti-police brutality protests in over 30 countries; from Australia to Mexico to Turkey. CC stands with those grieving and protesting against these injustices against Black people, and with those fighting for justice, representation, and equality around the world.
Our community continually challenges us to be more critical of the social, political, legal, and economic systems in which we work. At last year’s CC Global Summit, open community members Adele Vrana and Siko Bouterse encouraged us to ask, “Whose Knowledge?” This simple yet important question challenged us to face the persistent injustices and inequalities that have infected the internet since its creation, leading to some voices being raised and others being silenced. Of course, this digital world is a reflection—and sometimes a magnification—of our physical world, and the issues and barriers people regularly encounter online often mirror their realities offline.
As a leader in the open internet and open access movement, we recognize our responsibility to counter discrimination and racism within ourselves, our organization, our global network, and the communities in which we participate. We must do more to lend our allyship and resources to help end the centuries of injustice that have led to the murder and oppression of Black, Indigenous, and people of color across the globe.
COVID-19 has changed many things about how we all learn, work, and play. In fact, it has drastically changed how we lead our lives. But in these exceptionally distressing times, one thing that hasn’t changed is the dynamism and resilience of the Creative Commons (CC) community. In this blog post, we’re thrilled to share some of the work that the amazing individuals and organizations that are part of the CC Network have been up to, upholding CC’s values and pursuing our goals in the face of COVID-19.
Over the past months, we’ve talked on the Creative Commons blog about the effect of the pandemic on science and education and asserted how important it is to share knowledge and culture as openly as possible, now more than ever. We also launched the Open COVID Pledge, a groundbreaking initiative founded on the idea that relevant scientific resources and intellectual property owned or developed in relation to COVID-19 should be made freely available to anyone in the world to use and build upon to end the pandemic.
Credit: “33962822768_a6f5d169b8_o” Sebastiaan ter Burg (CC BY)
Members of the CC community launched remarkable initiatives across the globe to support open education, open science and open GLAM (Galleries, Libraries, Archives and Museums). From New Zealand to Poland, from Brazil to the Netherlands and Italy, all over the world they have been leading inspiring actions to ensure the public interest continues to be promoted and protected in the midst of this global crisis.
We asked our community members to share what they were doing so we could contribute to Wikipedia’s effort to document the impact of the pandemic on different aspects of everyone’s lives and the measures taken to mitigate that impact.
You can read about the activities carried out in the field of:
Education – for example, several initiatives were taken to facilitate access for students and teachers to openly licensed educational resources, and many organizations helped clarify how to navigate copyright rules related to teaching and learning activities (especially online) under such exceptional circumstances.
Science – for example, we shared different projects that highlight how open access to scientific research resources is key to quickly finding a cure for the disease.
Culture – for example, some of our network members carried online training workshops and webinars for cultural heritage professionals to learn about relevant risks and exceptions to copyright when providing online services. Other organizations, e.g. in Australia, organized fact sheets to provide libraries and archives with basic guidance on how to deal with copyright challenges.
Truth be told, the global health emergency triggered by the spread of COVID-19 brought into stark relief the belief that Creative Commons has been holding all along: by openly sharing knowledge and culture, we can better support scientists, researchers, teachers, students, cultural institutions, and society at large. The crisis also magnified the power of CC’s thriving community members, who continue to spin on a dime and quickly and directly support practitioners on the ground.
Currently, we face both a swell of support for open educational resources (OER) and devastating upheaval of our traditional education systems. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, over 1.5 billion youth are out of school, countless teachers and parents are pivoting to online teaching and education systems face immense financial strain. While OER is not a magic cure for the current education crisis, there are opportunities to work with open education efforts to build greater resiliency within our learning ecosystems and also support cross-national partnerships.
Open educational resources(OER) are teaching, learning, and research materials that are either (a) in the public domain or (b) licensed in a manner that provides everyone with free and perpetual permission to engage in the 5R activities. OER is one facet of open education, or efforts to make education more affordable, accessible, and effective—providing unfettered access to learning to as many people as possible. Open education involves open practices, open policies, and open educational resources.
Today, we have a stronger need and established international frameworks to use OER to fuel our education efforts and collective commitments. This pandemic highlights the effects closing access to information and communication has on communities; conversely, it demonstrates how essential open practices (e.g. free sharing of information, unfettered access to education materials, etc.) are to our collective human security.
Examples of leveraging OER in COVID-19 response efforts
OER offers a more agile solution to our contemporary times of flux. OER enables educators to adapt learning resources to meet the needs of the growing populations of online learners, whether those needs are for translation into first languages, accessibility, or lower cost.
So how does one leverage OER in COVID-19 response efforts? Below is a list of examples.
Most examples can be initiated but not fully realized in the short term. Rather, they set the framework for realizing more resilient education practices in the future.
Exemplifying the benefit of open educational practices, Slovakia’s most recent Open Government Partnership (OGP) commitments include mapping the available open educational resources in the Slovak language. When schools closed with the COVID-19 quarantine, the OGP Slovakia team promptly released a work-in-progress version of the resources overview through social media, which became the most popular of its Facebook posts, ever. Teachers and parents found it very helpful to immediately access, adapt, and reuse the resources freely, and the impact may last well beyond the current crisis.
The Open Government Partnership (OGP) is an international organization of government leaders and civil society advocates united to promote more transparent, accountable, and responsive governance and services for citizens. The OGP includes 78 National governments (representing 2 billion people) and additional local governments working closely with thousands of civil society organizations. Together, OGP governments and civil society members co-create two-year action plans with concrete commitments addressing a broad range of issues, which enables civil society organizations to help shape and oversee government work.
As Poland rapidly transitioned 24,000 schools with 600,000 teachers and 4.8 million students to a distance learning model, NGOs were able to strengthen teaching efforts with open educational resources, immediately. While previously underused among teachers, the Polish Ministry of National Education’s Education Platform for e-textbooks (an OER) became an important, well-used resource, because it was available immediately and without restrictions. Lessons on the Web (Lekcje w sieci), a web service, created over 200 OER lesson scenarios in three weeks for all levels of education.
Wikimedia Deutschland andedu-sharing.net launchedWir lernen online (we learn online), in April. The open education platform strengthens digital infrastructure to support schools in digital home teaching and organizers welcome collaboration with stakeholders in the education sector.
The Norwegian government, UNESCO, UNHCR, multiple private and non-profit organizations established a collaboration supporting translation efforts of open-licensed children’s reading books (OER) into new languages. The project is called Translate a Story and aims to help children continue reading, during, and after this pandemic.
International frameworks supporting OER
Numerous countries have recognized the powerful intersection between OER and open government efforts. In the last 10 years, many countries such as Chile, Greece, and Romania have leveraged OER efforts to address OGP goals of transparency, accountability, public participation, and inclusion in their education systems, fiscal accountability, and improvement of public services. Read how nine OGP commitments are supporting OGP’s goals through open educational resources here. The 2019 OGP Global Report states that at the end of 2018, there have been at least 160 education commitments (page six of the Education section). The Education section also highlights cases made for OER (page 23), which include: potential prohibitive costs of traditional materials, the ability to keep open-source materials updated, and higher student performance.
In addition to open government work, national governments, international and local organizations recognize the potential of OER—and the opportunity to partner under international frameworks that support open education goals. In November 2019, UNESCO unanimously passed the UNESCO Open Educational Resources (OER) Recommendation to advance the construction of open, inclusive, and participatory knowledge societies and established a Dynamic Coalition of government, civil society, and private sector experts connected to support the recommendations. The OER Recommendation dovetails with SDG4 efforts, emphasizing that open education can support “inclusive and equitable quality education” and “lifelong learning opportunities for all.”
National government counterparts currently seek partnerships and open projects to help actualize SDG4 aims, the OER Recommendation actions, and OGP commitments. Now is the ideal time to leverage OER efforts to meet SDG, UNESCO OER Recommendation, and OGP goals at the same time. It is also time to build more resilience into education systems, in response to COVID-19.
Get involved
OER is often linked to networks of open education enthusiasts, passionate about sharing educational resources.
Open education networks have provided outreach for teachers, parents, students, and advocates—offering “how-to” webinars, supports for emotional wellbeing, and lists of open resources. View this Wikipedia article section collecting just a few of the resources and responses. And join the Creative Commons open education listserv or Slack community or discuss opportunities for engagement in open education efforts.
At the end of April, CC Search officially celebrated its first birthday! After releasing the search tool last year on April 30, we eagerly watched as it was put to use. Now, with a year behind us and over 2.8 million users across 230 countries and territories, we’re gathering and examining search data to better understand what content our users value and how we can serve them better.
Here’s a look at the top 25 queries this past year:
The top two search queries were dog and cat; users were 25% more likely to look for a photo of a dog than a cat. (We found this surprising since the internet was obviously invented for cats…) Other popular queries in the animal family included amphibian(s), frog, fish, and animals more generally. In fact, perusing the Animal Diversity Web collection is a great way to get an at-home natural science lesson! Coming in sixth place were searches for flowers, with beach, nature, tree, and space on the list as well. Since we’re all traveling less and staying closer to home, how about living vicariously through imagery on CC Search! Imagine observing this beautiful butterfly while out for a hike in nature!
Music, books, and videos
With dogs and cats winning gold and silver, you might be wondering what query won bronze? Well, it was music! This is a strong indicator that our community of educational and creative users is ready for CC Search to provide audio content—and we’re happy to share that we’re working on it! However, this is no small undertaking, so the update won’t be available until later this year. In the interim, we are building a bridge to CC-licensed audio directly within the CC Search interface that will be available in the next few months. (Can’t wait that long? The Free Music Archive is a good alternative!)
We also saw plenty of users looking for books and videos. Once we provide support for audio search, we’ll move forward with plans to serve up more types of media you can confidently reuse. Until then, we recommend visiting Gutenberg for downloadable versions of books in the public domain, or LibriVox if you’d like to be read to instead.
We serve educators
Lucky number eleven on the list is none other than the query school. We were not surprised to see that school was a top search query, given that one-third of our users identify as “educators,” and one quarter as “students.” Recently, a CC Search user, who is a professor at a North American university, told us, “As an educator, I value and am grateful for the free and open exchange of creative efforts and materials, which I believe helps to empower all persons in furthering their education.” We’re glad to be of service, professor!
People, sports, and dancing bananas
Turns out us humans like each other too! Our fifteenth most common search query was none other than people, and we also served up a lot of results for some popular sports, like football, basketball, and soccer. Coming in at number twenty-five is Fortnite, and these days, that’s considered an athletic endeavor. If we can’t go outside to play sports together, at least the internet can bring us closer together to look at sports, write about sports, and play electronic sports. (At the very least, we can floss six feet apart!)
Looking for more CC-licensed 3D models and animations? Check out Sketchfab!
Galleries and museums
Coming in the nineteenth place is art. For us, that’s great news! Since the beginning, artistic collections have been a major focus of CC Search, from The Metropolitan Museum of Art to the Cleveland Museum of Art! In the coming weeks, we’ll unveil the addition of some stellar collections from major cultural heritage institutions. Until then, take a look at the museum collections we’ve already made discoverable.
Food, cars, computers, and money
This last batch of queries makes us think that CC Search is often used for daydreaming. Who doesn’t want a delicious meal, a fast car, a good computer, and piles of money? With this in mind, we’re challenging you to find us one picture on CC Search that features all four queries (food, car, computer, and money) and tag us on Twitter @creativecommons with your result. We expect at least one image of someone ordering drive-thru in a Tesla!
This next year of CC Search is going to be a big one, and we can’t wait to share some of the exciting updates we’re working on! Be sure to follow the CC Open Source website and @cc_opensource for regular updates. You can also help fund CC Search by becoming a CC supporter. Thank you!
Along with 600 million people, nine-year-old Chris Hadfield is glued to his television—watching intently as American astronaut Neil Armstrong glides down the ladder of the Lunar Module, and in one swift pounce, touches the dust of a familiar yet alien world. His words forever immortalized, “That’s one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind.”
A close-up of an astronaut’s footprint in the lunar soil, photographed by a 70 mm lunar surface camera during the Apollo 11 mission. This image is in the public domain via NASA.
“To see that successfully carried out against what seemed like impossible odds for the first time in human history,” Hadfield recalled in 2012, “was hugely inspiring.” That moment sparked his lifelong journey to become an astronaut; which he did, becoming the first Canadian to walk in space in 2001. In the 1990s, Haley Harrison first heard Armstrong’s words on an educational tape about space. “I was very young, probably 4 or 5 years old,” she recollected, “I just listened to the tape over and over. I would imagine myself on the shuttle…and I would pretend I was going up to space.” Harrison is now a Ph.D. candidate studying nanoscience at The University of North Carolina at Greensboro, with goals of working in the space industry.
NASA is not only required by law (e.g. the U.S. Copyright Act of 1976) to give the public access to many of its materials, the Agency really wants people to use them.
Footage and audio of the Apollo 11 Commander Neil Armstrong and lunar module pilot Buzz Aldrin hopping on the Moon’s surface in 1969 have been remixed, remastered, and reshared countless times—inspiring generations of everyday citizens, like Hadfield and Harrison, to engage with space science and exploration. In fact, the use of materials created by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) to create new works for the public doesn’t end with Armstrong’s history-making first steps. For example, Alex G. Orphanos, a science communicator, engineer, and host of the Today in Space podcast, has put NASA’s materials to use for over six years. In particular, he has used images from the Hubble Space Telescope and information from NASA Procurement to better explain space-related issues to his audience. Rachael Eidson, a business development specialist for Trenton Systems and social media influencer also routinely uses NASA’s images in her collaborations with eco-fashion and accessory companies. In fact, it’s hard to miss the resurgence of space-themed items, including t-shirts, mugs, bags, etc. featuring NASA’s “meatball” logo. As the L.A. Times reported in 2019, “The NASA logo is having a moment.”
Astronauts Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin unfurl the American flag on the Moon’s surface on July 20, 1969. This animation is in the public domain via NASA.
From documentaries to basketball shoes, works utilizing NASA’s materials are everywhere; and at some point, while browsing NASA-themed goods online or watching clips of launches on Youtube, you may have wondered why and how these materials are used so widely and freely. Isn’t there some sort of intellectual property (IP) infringement going on? The short answer is, no. In fact, NASA is not only required by law to give you access to many of those materials, it actually really wants you to use them—here’s why.
NASA’s openness is intrinsically linked to its mission
NASA’s commitment to sharing its work openly with the public has, arguably, been there since its creation in 1958. NASA was established in the midst of a galactic battle for scientific and innovation dominance between the Soviet Union and the United States (U.S.) during the Cold War. Within this context, the Agency’s primary function was civilian in nature, unlike the Advanced Research Projects Agency (later, DARPA) also created in 1958. Under the National Aeronautics and Space Act, NASA was tasked with encouraging “peaceful applications in space science” and “expanding the frontiers of knowledge, advancing the understanding of the universe, and serving the American public.” Of course, at the time, generating public interest in space exploration was necessary to “win” the Space Race. Space exploration, especially when publicly funded, only happens if people are interested and willing to dedicate resources. In fact, one of the reasons NASA stopped going to the Moon in the 1970s was waning public and political interest, which led to the Agency drastically cutting its programs and activities.
Apollo 17 Commander Eugene A. Cernan is photographed next to the U.S. flag in 1972—marking NASA’s final mission to the Moon. This image is in the public domain via NASA.
Openness is therefore linked to the Agency’s mission, one that requires transparency to generate public support. “As a government agency, NASA wants to tell taxpayers what we’re doing with their money and why we think it’s important. We do that through everything from scientific papers to our social media feeds and NASA TV coverage of live events,” explained Brian Dunbar, internet services manager/COMIT task order manager at the NASA Office of Communications, over email. “That’s also true for researchers, as openly shared data is the best way to increase the amount of research for any mission.”
Space exploration only happens if people are interested and willing to dedicate resources. Openness is therefore linked to the Agency’s mission, one that requires transparency to generate public support.
However, we can’t ignore the very real and rather dry legal instruments that underpin this openness, particularly to NASA-produced images, research, and publications. Under the U.S. Copyright Act of 1976, a work by the U.S. federal government is defined as “a work prepared by an officer or employee as part of that person’s official duties.” These works are generally not subject to domestic copyright protection under section 105 of the Copyright Act and are therefore released into the public domain. Therefore, the footage and audio captured during Apollo 11, or during any of NASA’s missions by NASA itself should, in theory, be released into the public domain. This also includes NASA-funded research.
To make matters complicated, it’s not always clear what works fall under section 105 of the Copyright Act. For example, if a government publication includes works that are developed by a third party contractor or grantee, then it may be subject to copyright. In addition, the U.S. government can still assert copyright in other countries. To help create clarity and open access to all public research, in particular, the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) issued an executive order in 2013. This memorandum aimed to ensure that federally funded research would be made publically accessible within one year of publication. In response to the 2013 executive order, NASA created an agency-wide plan titled, “NASA Plan for Increasing Access to the Results of Scientific Research,” and a specific policy. Ultimately, the plan served as a reaffirmation of NASA’s existing “open-access culture” by “promoting the full and open sharing of data with research communities, private industry, academia, and the general public…[including] data and publications for all of the scientific research that the Agency sponsors.” Over the last decade, NASA has also created several iterations of an “Open Government Plan” to apply the principles of open government, including “participation, transparency, and openness.”
Business Development Specialist and influencer Rachael Eidson wears space-themed outfits for her Instagram @cosmicrachael.
In cases where a work is not clearly and/or automatically placed into the public domain, NASA often uses CC licenses or public domain tools to indicate the work is free to reuse. Of course, it’s preferred that the Agency utilize more open licenses, like CC BY or CC BY-SA, rather than the more restrictive Non-Commercial (NC) or No Derivatives (ND) licenses to allow more opportunities for others to reuse, remix, or reshare their work. Other space agencies have also utilized CC licenses to share their work, including the European Space Agency which published its open access policy in 2017 and opted for CC BY-SA.
As far as NASA’s logos and insignia are concerned (e.g. the “meatball” logo), those fall under a complex mix of trademark law and regulations. As a government entity, NASA doesn’t license out their logos or receive profit from merchandise, but they do have strong usage restrictions and clear guidelines when it comes to merchandising and the media. Therefore, users must submit their designs to the Multimedia Division of NASA’s Office of Communications for approval.
For citizen scientists, researchers, and innovators, NASA is an invaluable resource
Using publicly accessible data from NASA’s Kepler telescope, citizen scientists and university students recently discovered a new planet “roughly twice the size of Earth.”
These efforts by NASA have led to important breakthroughs and collaborations in unexpected places. For instance, using publicly accessible data from NASA’s Kepler telescope, citizen scientists and university students recently discovered a new planet “roughly twice the size of Earth.” In fact, many students studying space science and technology use NASA’s resources for their work, routinely tapping into their publicly shared and easily accessible research papers, patents, and archived presentations. Harrison, for instance, said she has NASA to thank for a portion of her dissertation topic on aerogels. Also known as “frozen smoke,” these lightweight, synthetic, and porous materials have a density close to that of air, and thanks to work by NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in the 1990s, aerogels are now used in space exploration. To achieve the required low density, explained Harrison, “aerogels are delicately dried using a special process that involves a supercritical dryer.” Unable to get access to this unique piece of equipment at her university, she was granted access to one at NASA’s Glenn Research Center, “It would have been impossible for me to do this work without their help!”
Carina Nebula’s ‘Mystic Mountain,’ imaged by the NASA Hubble Space Telescope in 2010, is one of the most viewed images in NASA’s library. This image is in the public domain via NASA, ESA, M. Livio, and the Hubble 20th Anniversary Team (STSc).
Finally, Dunbar was eager to point out NASA’s Technology Transfer Program, which is designed to “put NASA technology into wider use” through its patent licensing program. “NASA is well-known for spinoffs: commercial products that use technology created or further developed by or for NASA,” he explained. Think memory foam and emergency blankets, but not Tang or Velcro. More recently, in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) signed onto the Open COVID Pledge and released the designs for three respirators so they can be used by anyone, anywhere.
Does NASA prove the power ofopen?
It’s a critical moment for NASA. In just a few days, the Demo-2 mission (a.k.a. “Launch America”) is set to mark the first time NASA will launch astronauts to the ISS from American soil since 2011. In just a few years, NASA also plans to return to the Moon through the Artemis program, and eventually, venture further to Mars. A “new era of human spaceflight” is coming and not since the 1960s has NASA needed and sought after such political and public support.
NASA is well aware that by opening access to its activities and research it promotes its mission and work, but Orphanos argues the Agency’s openness is also vital for space exploration and science more generally. “NASA still holds a unique position of respect and brand to people as a resource,” he explained. Therefore, it helps dismantle disinformation or misinformation about space and space-related endeavors. Harrison agreed, “Many people still believe the moon landing was fake…We live in a world where it is easier to read and share stories from Facebook than it is to access historical footage and dynamic scientific data that is easy for our community at large to understand.” That’s why, she emphasized, it’s the job of those active in the sciences to openly and clearly share information with the public.
Ralph Fritsche, senior project manager for Space Crop Production at NASA, explains the future of food in deep space during a NASA Social tour. This image is licensed CC BY via Victoria Heath.
It’s also no secret that space is becoming more commercialized, evident in NASA’s Commercial Crew Program, and thus more competitive, crowded, and to some, exclusive. “I once heard someone say, ‘Space belongs to the rich,’” Eidson explained, “It made me cringe a bit because I could see the truth in it.” This points to an increasingly important result of unfettered access to resources from publicly funded space agencies: it helps maintain the original ethos expressed in the 1967 Outer Space Treaty—that space belongs to everyone.
Without public access to space science and activities, we risk making outer space the province of only the privileged. More than it already is. We risk discouraging everyday citizens to look towards the cosmos with curiosity, hope, and pride. Ultimately, we risk never inspiring individuals like Chris Hadfield to become astronauts or Haley Harrison to become students of space science. “Knowing that humans had achieved such a feat, to walk on the Moon, was a huge source of inspiration for me,” she expressed, “I learned very young that the sky was not a limit and there was endless potential beyond what my eyes could see.” Boiled down to its simplest essence, the power of “open” lies in its ability to create a better world through sharing. In the past, NASA has routinely illustrated this power—the hope is that it continues to do so.
This post is one in a series exploring openness “in the wild” to understand the tangible outcomes of implementing open policies and practices. So far, we’ve written about open access to scientific research (here and here) and open-source medical hardware during the COVID-19 pandemic (here); and interviewed the President of The Hewlett Foundation to understand how they’ve implemented an open licensing requirement for grantees (here). More to come!
