The Optimism of Creative Commons

In April 2010, I saw Jimmy Wales, the founder of Wikipedia, speak at The New Museum, as part of the Stuart Regen Visionaries Lecture Series. Nerd alert. I thougth I'd buy a ticket and waltz in, but no, it was sold out (an exclusive members' event, so un-wiki-like, really...), but I waited patiently, my name at place #3 on the waiting list...like I was waiting for The Stones or something. Except I finally did get in.

As I was heading down the stairs to the lecture hall, I passed Mr. Wales on the stairwell, chatting on his cell phone. So not a celebrity type, just a normal looking guy, not even a corporate suit. Just a man wrangling with someone who was late to his talk. "So, you're not going to make it, then?" Ok, cool. I saw Jimbo.

Apparently that's how everyone in Wikipedia-land addresses him. "Why'd you do that, Jimbo?" "What's up with that, Jimbo?" There's a level of humble accessibility to the man that actually surprised me, given his level of influence. Did you know that Wikipedia launched a fundraiser this year that raised 7.5 million to keep Wikipedia going? Read the thank you note. 

There you'll see his vision statement: "Imagine a world in which every single person on the planet has free access to the sum of all human knowledge." A bold sentence, yes, but well in keeping with the big picture of the entire creative commons philosophy, one which ties in with Elinor Ostrom's research on collaboration and resource management, and runs counter to the fear of scarcity inherent in many modern economies. There is a lot of talk about tribes (and twibes) in internet jargon these days and as new age-y as it might sound, there is a lot of value in spinning these words. The Internet and Creative Commons operate on tribal principles.

Here is the Nobel Prizer winner, Elinor Ostrom, on Commons philosophy (alas, only 10,000 + views...she deserves a better quality video!)


The main takeaway I gleaned from Jimmy Wales' New Museum talk echo the core of the wikipedia philosophy: "it all boils down to trusting people." This is the root system of "the commons." Wales also stated that from his experience working on this collaborative experiment since the early 00s, that "only 1/10th of 1% of people are incapable of collaborating". What do you think of this? Do you find that surprising?

The optimism of this message resonates. In addition to the commitment to collaboration, Wikipedia has not wavered on any form of censorship. Unlike Google, who initially agreed to certain forms of censorship, Wikipedia has never compromised with China or other governments in this way. As a country dedicated to freedom of speech, Americans often lose sight of this key privilege. With the export of Internet technology, and other forms of knowledge-based shareware, the possibilities for a set of global rights akin to those experienced in democracies could be witnessed in our lifetime. Do you agree?

Below is a slideshare presentation by the Chinese blogger Isaac Mao, who has dealt with censorship and continues to share ideas on the Commons....When you click on his name above, you will find a sample blog post in which he addresses the censorship in Bing versus Google and other search engines...

This visual example gives some idea of Mao's core philosophy, if tantalizingly lacking in voice-over:

Sharism, Social Brain And Cloud Intelligence

View more presentations from Isaac Mao.

Despite the censorship of the Chinese government, Mao continues to speak out for free speech, shareware and global educational open sourcing on the Internet. Free speech continues to be a good virus, facilitated by Web 2.0 and beyond.