In addition to gaining a slew of information on your rights as a content owner, Creative Commons (CC) is offering new members another great incentive. In exchange for buying a $50 annual membership, the organization is offering donors the chance to use their network log-in as their OpenID. In other words, if you're the type of person who shares their content for the good of education, art and humanity, now you can wear it like a badge across the networks you frequent. ]]> While it's often misinterpreted as an organization looking to remove copyright from creative works, Creative Commons actually helps content producers decide on the exact uses for their products. For instance, some content owners allow derivative works for non-commercial and educational purposes and some allow for remix pending attribution. The point is that the organization aims to make more content available to the public for experimentation. As works are released to "the commons", artists, educators and innovators learn and build upon them. ReadWriteWeb covered the Creative Commons database and some of its shining case studies in 2008. It make sense that this group would offer OpenID as membership to their service.
OpenID is a decentralized digital identity that allows for easy access to a number of networks. Members benefit from one singular identity and networks benefit from a lowered barrier to membership. In this way, more information is shared across a variety os social landscapes and therefore, as with Creative Commons, there are more opportunities for engagement and education.
Says open source advocate Chris Messina in a recent blog post on CC OpenID:
"Creative Commons is redistributing the brand equity and social capital their members have accrued over the last several years by letting people show and verify their affiliation to the organization.]]>With this simple example, we can start to see the symbiosis of making an intentional choice about identity: Creative Commons finds a new revenue opportunity and members of the community have a way to express their affiliation and promote the brand."