Open content
Open content, coined by analogy with "
open source" describes any kind of creative work including articles, pictures, audio, and
video that is published in a format that explicitly allows the copying of the information. Technically, it is
share alike without any prohibitions or otherwise. Content can be either in the
public domain or under a license like the
Creative Commons License. The term is also used to emphasize content that can be modified by anyone; not exclusively by a closed organization, firm or individual.
It is possible that the first documented case of Open Content was with the
Royal Society, where they aspired toward information sharing across the globe as a public enterprise. The commonality is difficult to dismiss. The words "open content" were first put together in this context by David Wiley, then a graduate student at
Brigham Young University, who founded the OpenContent project and put together the first content-specific (non-software) license in 1998 with input from
Eric Raymond,
Tim O'Reilly, and others.
Like the debate between the titles "
open source" and "
free software", open content materials can also be described as
free content, although technically they describe different things. For example, the
Open Directory Project is open content but is not free content. The main difference between licenses is the definition of freedom; some licenses attempt to maximize the freedom of all potential recipients in the future while others maximize the freedom of the initial recipient. Much of the ideals of the open source movement was led by the
Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). One such application is their
Open Courseware.
The related term
common content is occasionally used to refer to
Creative Commons-licensed works. This takes after the Common Content project, which is an attempt to collect as many such works as possible.
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Creative Commons License (11 versions)
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Design Science License *
GNU Free Documentation License*
Open Content License*
Open Directory Project License used by
Open Directory Project*
Open Gaming License - License of the
Open Gaming Foundation, as drafted by
Wizards of the Coast.
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Open Publication License - License for the
Open Content Project*
Open research*
Collaborative writing*
Copyleft*
Free content*
Free software movement*
List of open-content projects*
Open access*
Open publishing*
Open source culture*
Public domain*
Public domain image resources*
Public domain resources*
Open design*
Open catalogue*
MIT OpenCourseWare*
Microsoft Open License*
Open Knowledge Definition - set of principles defining open knowledge (including content)
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metacollab.net - an open content collaborative research project focusing on collaboration.
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alqua.com, Free documents*
Creative Commons - The open content idea and creative works*
Connexions - A global open-content repository open to contributions from everyone*
Free Curricula Center - Producing textbooks free for all to use, copy, and modify* This
Google search attempts to find documents with GFDL license grant boilerplate.
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"A Guide To Open Content Licences," Lawrence Liang, a systematic survey of open content licenses
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Open Access Bibliography: Liberating Scholarly Literature with E-Prints and Open Access Journals*
ibiblio - The open content idea as a library*
Licenses for Documentation at gnu.org*
locarecords.com, Open Source Record Label*
OpenContent.org*
"Open Content Licenses," Jan Newmarch, http://jan.netcomp.monash.edu.au*
Open Content resources and mailing list at OpenContentList.com*
Open directory category: Open Content*
Public Library of Science*
Directory of open access journals*
Open J-Gate Article Index to 3,500+ open access journals*
Read Print - includes many free public domain books
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Writings - Open Content - speech on Open Content with relation to
DRM*
opencontentalliance*
Open Content - Das Urheberrecht als Grenze und Ausblick (educa)*
OpenContent Initiative - School district inititiave to build standards-based Open Content curriculum (2800 + pages and growing)
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Learning the lesson: open content licensing - A history of open content from
Linux Weekly News*
Wiki - An open source wiki featuring information regarding the Open Content Era
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MIT OpenCourseWareThe list of open content projects are partly based on
The Institutional Design of Open Source Programming on
Firstmonday
