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TechnoratiObama Copyright Move Cheers Advocacy Groups
A broad coalition of digital advocacy groups and individuals, including the Electronic Frontier Foundation, MoveOn.org's Eli Pariser and Stanford University law professor Lawrence Lessig, are applauding Barack Obama's stated commitment to open government and suggesting ways he can show that commitment further.
In a new Web site that went up Tuesday, the groups lay out three principles they hope the incoming administration will follow. Obama's transition team pre-emptively agreed to the first one by announcing Monday that its Web site, change.gov, will implement a new copyright policy -- the Creative Commons License -- that allows for more widespread use of its content.
Lessig applauded the move Monday on his blog. The Stanford professor, representing the group Change Congress, is spearheading the coalition's effort along with Mozilla and the Participatory Culture Foundation. The groups have had a "back channel back-and-forth" with the new administration, and the new Web site could serve as a way to allow more public input, he said.
"Nobody knows exactly the best way to do this right now," he said. "So that calls for this kind of ongoing discussion, both inside and outside of the administration."
Lessig and company hope the incoming administration will agree to post videos onto sites other than just YouTube, such as blip.TV, so users can more easily download them. YouTube currently doesn't actively promote downloading. The administration got rid of the legal barrier by switching to the new copyright policy, and now it needs to get rid of the technological barrier, Lessig said. The group's letter also called upon the president-elect to make sure that all information, such as video of a press conference, for example, is made available to all media (whether it's broadcast TV or the Internet) equally. This ensures fair competition, Lessig said.
10 Comments so far
Show AllThere is a difference between the "APPEARANCE OF PARTICIPATION" and "Real Participation." One, possibly insurmountable, problem is obvious: Volume, too many views, drown all views.
No matter how long is spend trying and manipulating data, NOBODY can read the views of 100 Million people. Perhaps, it would be best if each writer was allowed to read all comments but be allowed to self-define their views for special categories. by title or by Number:
By Title: something like:
Extreme Conservative
The Ownership Society You are on your own -
Moderate Conservative -
Indifferent -
The Government Failed in the Katrina and Ike rescues in New Orleans and Galveston.
=================
By Number: something like:
Pick a number from 0 to 30 where 20 means Moderate and 10 Ultra Conservative and 30 Ultra Liberal
The most important benefit: All may read everything suggested.
The division by issue: Economy, Health, etc., is perfect
But, a subcategory would allow learning the answer to:
"I wonder how a Liberal and an Ultra Liberal differ on this issue?
Or, how the view of a Conservative differs from that of a Liberal on this issue
To sort ideas by the approval of others is great but, I would suggest a pay back. For example, if a 100 word suggestion gets 2,000 Approval votes,
the 200 word version is posted.and the 100 word version removed.
If the 200 word suggestion gets 5,000 Approval votes, post the 300 word version (if there is one) or notify the writer to submit one.
.
Allow Authors to submit up to 100 word on any issue and notify them if, and when 2,000 approve. Of course, if you think 80 or 50 is better than 100, that would be OK by me.
The important thing is to have the objections of one side answered by the words from "The other", or another, side, Without reading a Trillion words.
The issue is not who speaks but what is said in a way that is not drowned by the words of most others.
Posted by: Michael F. Sarabia | December 31, 2008 1:00 AM
No other site is comparable in concern, topics and, oh yes, the wise comments, except mine, of course. Thanks you all! MikeSar
Videos? Like the recent Daschle video? Canned propaganda?
No.
Let's start with something simple: disclosure.
Of everything.
On government agency websites.
With redacted versions for anything with possible proprietary value.
For example, all research reports, papers, monographs and publications in journals for any government subsidized research,
starting with all research paid for by the National Institutes of Health.
Why should the government pay for research that goes into academic journals
available only to people who can afford the expensive subscriptions?
Get the idea?
And I would like to add why don't you disclose your real birth certificate? If you are so hip on being committed to open government. Try that on for size first. Then remember the sacrifices made by our Founding Fathers to put this Nation together by putting together a solid Constitution that if followed assures equality for all peoples.
Somewhere in Kenya
a village is missing their idiot.
ejlawyer--dude--put your tinfoil hat back on and retreat to your bunker.
Personally, I'm rather happy to know that government officials won't release MY birth certificate, either. Identity theft, you know. (But of course you know "they're out to get us"... you're wearing a tinfoil hat!)
:-D
How quickly radical conservatives forget. John McCain was born in Panama and technically not allowed to run for President. Sen. Obama and Sen. Clinton authored legislation that would make him an exception to this constitutional requirement.
I suspect when the time is right (regarding the Obama birth certificate lawsuit) the radical conservatives will be shamed on a grand public scale, not the a little blogger scale.
Knowledge is power and facilitating knowledge's wider dissemination means sharing more power with more people. The devil is always in the details though.
The suggestion about making it technologicaly easier to download such information is smart advocacy and a logical next step--especially for those without Internet access just yet.
Come to think about it, universal Internet access would also be another "next logical step" to take in this policy's facilitation.
Poet
I would hope that if they're keen on sharing power with the people via the means of the Internet, any software developed is under some kind of open source agreement. I'd hate to imagine government funded private contractors providing the software or the means.
Please have transcripts with videos for deaf readers online.
This is quite welcome, though writing as the owner of intellectual property on a budget, I am most curious as to Obama's position on the pending Orphan Works legislation (which is nothing better than corporate theft).
www.wunderman-comics.com