Creative Commons in Open Design
Description
Markus Beckedahl/ Andrea Goetzke:
"In digital design communities Creative Commons licenses were already
in use at a rather early stage, e.g. for sharing clip art images,
graphics or photos on platforms such as flickr.com. Yet what is really
interesting are the first steps out into the material design world
of real objects. More and more projects, experiments and examples
for how the open source idea can be carried over into the real world
can be subsumed under the notion of “open design”.
Creative Commons is a US-based non government organization that has been publishing standardized license texts for copyrighted content since 2001. What is so special about it is the fact that these licenses have meanwhile been adapted to the respective national copyright laws in more than 50 countries and their clauses and freedoms are in force everywhere. The person who takes center stage is the creator, who can grant certain freedoms to use his or her work. With the help of a license kit the creator chooses if the work can be used commercially or non-commercially, if it can be remixed or not and if the same conditions shall apply for the remixes (i.e. any resulting copies or adaptations are also bound by the same licensing agreement) as specified in the copyleft principle from the world of free software. The only condition in all six Creative Commons licenses is the following: The creator must always be named as a source. Free software with its manifold licenses has been the model for the idea of Creative Commons licenses. “All rights reserved” of classic copyright has turned into “Some rights reserved”. So creators can enter their works into a large shared pool of knowledge and creativity, and in the best case scenario, the works can be further processed without any further inquiry and additional agreements." (http://issuu.com/openp2pdesign/docs/cis.doc_open-design)
Discussion
Markus Beckedahl/ Andrea Goetzke:
"In digital design communities Creative Commons licenses were already in use at a rather early stage, e.g. for sharing clip art images, graphics or photos on platforms such as flickr.com. Yet what is really interesting are the first steps out into the material design world of real objects. More and more projects, experiments and examples for how the open source idea can be carried over into the real world can be subsumed under the notion of “open design”.
Creative Commons is a US-based non government organization that has been publishing standardized license texts for copyrighted content since 2001. What is so special about it is the fact that these licenses have meanwhile been adapted to the respective national copyright laws in more than 50 countries and their clauses and freedoms are in force everywhere. The person who takes center stage is the creator, who can grant certain freedoms to use his or her work. With the help of a license kit the creator chooses if the work can be used commercially or non-commercially, if it can be remixed or not and if the same conditions shall apply for the remixes (i.e. any resulting copies or adaptations are also bound by the same licensing agreement) as specified in the copyleft principle from the world of free software. The only condition in all six Creative Commons licenses is the following: The creator must always be named as a source. Free software with its manifold licenses has been the model for the idea of Creative Commons licenses. “All rights reserved” of classic copyright has turned into “Some rights reserved”. So creators can enter their works into a large shared pool of knowledge and creativity, and in the best case scenario, the works can be further processed without any further inquiry and additional agreements." (http://issuu.com/openp2pdesign/docs/cis.doc_open-design)
Examples
Ronen Kadushin
URL = ronen -kadushin .com
Markus Beckedahl/ Andrea Goetzke:
"The Berlin-based designer Ronen Kadushin is one of the pioneers of
open design. Already quite early he experimented with publishing
his raw data under a Creative Commons license. This is what motivated
him: “It should encourage designers to share their creativity
and to create a collection of high quality products.” Thus he shares
the objects he designed such as furniture or lamps online under
a non-commercial CC license. Owners and users of a laser cutter
can manufacture the products using the digital template, e.g. laser
machining them from a steel sheet and manually forming the final
product. In this way computer-controlled production technologies
and manual work go hand in hand.
The CC-BY-NC license grants the right to use for private (non-commercial) purposes if all derivative works are shared under a license identical to the license that governs the original work. If you want to commercially produce the objects, you have to conclude a contract with the designer.
Yet Kadushin mainly produces and distributes his objects in a conventional manner. Publicly sharing the designs under a CC license is just an additional distribution channel. Along with the creations of other designers his works are available on platforms such as “Movisi – The inspirational furniture store”. The raw designs can be found on his website, but also on platforms such as “flexible stream”.
Digital distribution of the designs under a CC license facilitates decentralized production and distribution. Thus the designs can be found in countries where designers otherwise would have never exported their products nor would have advertised for themselves. So if somebody finds a design there and is interested in producing it, he or she can experiment with the design for a start and then possibly agree on jointly producing it with the designer.
...
The examples illustrate that CC licenses are used for
different reasons and for different uses in the field of
the design of physical objects. Some share their designs
in addition to traditional local production, as a source
of inspiration for others, to advertise themselves in
order to maybe establish new contacts this way etc (as
is the case with Ronen Kadushin or the fashion label
Pamoyo). Others aim at improving a design by means
of collaborative work, as is the case with many designers
of 3D printers or Arduino hackers. Design projects
that are collaboratively laid out from scratch,
like Makerbot perhaps, are not yet that widespread.
What we see now are tentative first steps and open
design pioneers are drawing additional attention due
to a still small market which can easily be kept track
of. But more and more young designers are taking the
philosophy behind open design, sharing and collaboration,
for granted. Open design has come to stay."
(http://issuu.com/openp2pdesign/docs/cis.doc_open-design)
Pamoyo .com
Markus Beckedahl/ Andrea Goetzke:
"The Berlin-based label Pamoyo introduces
the ideas of open design into
the world of fashion. It aims at creating
sustainably produced fashion based on
public domain patterns and designs.
“Live green, look good“ is Pamoyo’s
motto, and Pamoyo wants to be more
than just a fashion label. “For all those
who want to create their own fashion
patterns instructions are available as
to produce one’s own favourite Pamoyo
style; e.g. to breathe new life into the
worn-out T-shirt you simply cannot
live without” – this is how the makers
of the label explain one of their motives.
The goal is to build a community of designers and people with a sense of style in general who are interested in the philosophy of openness and sustainability.
When they use CC licenses for their
patterns the people behind Pamoyo
want, among other things, to acknowledge
the creative process and make
it visible – a process that started out
a long time before me, the designer,
and still is a long way from completion
when I have completed my design.
Further activities such as clothing upcycling
events shall encourage users to
reveal the producers in themselves to a
greater extent. Is it the designer’s role
to sketch out or deliver finished products
or rather to provide help and advice
for other people in their aesthetic
work and to inspire these people’s own
creativity with his or her designs?"
(http://issuu.com/openp2pdesign/docs/cis.doc_open-design)
openwear .org
Markus Beckedahl/ Andrea Goetzke:
"Openwear is a platform
experimenting with new collaborative
and open approaches to both the production
and distribution of fashion.
For this openwear worded their own license, which is similar to the CC licenses, but in addition aims at establishing an open and collaborative openwear brand. For example, you are obliged to publish a derivative design in the openwear community. This is part of this specific agreement (http:// openwear.org/info/license)." (http://issuu.com/openp2pdesign/docs/cis.doc_open-design)
Arduino
Markus Beckedahl/ Andrea Goetzke:
The Arduino project is becoming
more and more popular among designers
and artists. The platform consists of
hardware and software and has been
developed further as an open source
project since 2001. Its core elements are
a simple microcontroller which can be
triggered with a rather simple development
environment. While the development
environment was licensed under
the GNU GPL, the hardware design
was published under the Creative Commons
ShareAlike license, which grants
extensive freedom of usage, so that the
CAD files can be developed further and
shared.
Arduino products are extensively used at art schools for creating interactive installations and the hacker community too has quickly accepted the project and contributed its share to its success in recent years." (http://issuu.com/openp2pdesign/docs/cis.doc_open-design)
Fritzing
Markus Beckedahl/ Andrea Goetzke:
Building on Arduino the Fritzing
project at the Fachhochschule Potsdam
– University of Applied Sciences
is developing software and a community
with the help of which users can
document and collaboratively develop
further prototypes. Moreover, Fritzing
is said to facilitate the creation of PCB
layouts for professional production.
At the same time this platform serves as a possible application scenario for hands-on electronics teaching.
Software and platforms for documentation, sharing and collaborative further development of designs for objects, hardware and fashion are vital tools in the open design process. A lot is still up-and-coming. Such software tools and platforms should, on the one hand, enable us to come up with documentation of a plan that facilitates its full reproduction but, on the other, allow for the creation of derivative designs. Last but not least, they should be able to handle authorship issues. (Which change was added by which user?)" (http://issuu.com/openp2pdesign/docs/cis.doc_open-design)
Makerbot
Markus Beckedahl/ Andrea Goetzke:
The Makerbot project offers another outlook on future trends. The company of the same name produces an opensource rapid prototyping 3D printer.
With this device it is possible to produce plastic objects up to maximum dimensions of 10x10x15 cm at affordable prices and thus print out 3D designs in plastic. The Makerbot printers are sold as assembly kits (and they are, by the way, themselves open design products, i.e. they are permanently developed further by a community). A large community of designers has gathered around 3D printing technology who share their designs and further develop the technology. The company-owned platform Thingiverse enables users to publish their documentation and raw data and to collaboratively develop them further." (http://issuu.com/openp2pdesign/docs/cis.doc_open-design)
Thingiverse
Markus Beckedahl/ Andrea Goetzke:
"The designs on the Thingiverse platform are published under CC licenses. People experiment with new possibilities of 3D printing and the creation of modified and technically improved works is more often than not clearly welcome. The more people deal with a design and check out how an object can be technically improved, the more fully developed a printing template eventually becomes. E.g. already on the homepage you can find the category “Newest Derivatives”." (http://issuu.com/openp2pdesign/docs/cis.doc_open-design)
Daily Dump
Markus Beckedahl/ Andrea Goetzke:
"Another illustrative example for the use of CC licenses for open design in practice comes from a small business in India. The Daily Dump offers composters made of Terracotta, plus plenty of information on the subject of composting. The entire business model, the design of the pots, info material and all sorts of other items used in the business process, such as aprons etc, are publicly available on the Internet under a CC license. Prospective business partners can experiment with the material; if they want to open their own shop and enter a business relationship with Daily Dump, they have to make a contract with the parent company.
If this business is successful it can achieve much more than only one single small composting business.
So what can be achieved?
- Pots and info material are permanently
improved – and thus of the working basis for all people involved
- It inspires many people to work in the
composting business
- It tackles the waste problem in India
on a much broader basis
Nevertheless there will be still enough work on the local level.
But the idea of open design also penetrates further into other communities. (http://issuu.com/openp2pdesign/docs/cis.doc_open-design)
Open Draw
Markus Beckedahl/ Andrea Goetzke:
"OpenDrawCommunity wants to create a shared pool for the creation of etch templates for model railways which can be made available for private use under a Creative Commons license."
FabLab
Markus Beckedahl/ Andrea Goetzke:
"In contrast to open source software, where everybody can work on a computer at home, the production of design objects always requires materials and in many cases specific tools, from soldering irons and sewing machines to laser cutters and 3D printers. Thus, along with the open design movement, we have also seen the emergence of places where tools can be collaboratively used. In many countries of the world there are meanwhile so called Fab Labs, which make tools for the production of open design objects available. Open Design City in Berlin is one such example." (http://issuu.com/openp2pdesign/docs/cis.doc_open-design)