Sustaining Democracy in a Digital Age

Homepage of Smithsonian Commons Prototype

On July 7, the Smithsonian Institute released a prototype version of its Smithsonian Commons initiative. According to their site, this project is a critical part of the Smithsonian’s push to expand its digital presence and underscores its commitment to “stimulating learning, creation, and innovation through open access to Smithsonian research, collections and communities.” What a fantastic and refreshing idea.

As we continue to muddle through the arguments for and against increased copyright and intellectual property restrictions, the Smithsonian’s open-access-to-anyone approach promotes the development of a rich global digital commons. The still-nascent digital commons movement builds off the traditional understanding of a commons - defined in the Oxford English Dictionary as a “resource held in common; in joint use or possession; to be held equally by a number of persons” - to promote discovery and innovation through openness and sharing.  The Smithsonian’s application of the idea serves as an example of how to strike a balance between preserving creator/author rights and incentives while also ensuring a robust public domain.

The Smithsonian explains why the Commons project is integral to their mission on their site:

“Our understanding of research, education, artistic creativity, and the progress of knowledge is built on the axiom that no idea stands alone, and that all innovation is built upon the ideas and innovation of others. The Smithsonian community has always championed these ideals.”

I took the opportunity to explore the Commons prototype. From the landing page, visitors are presented with four videos highlighting different use-cases for the Commons - the “museum visitor”, “teacher”, “millenial”, and “enthusiast.” Unsurprisingly, I clicked on the “Millenial” video first (have to give them credit for knowing their target audiences). The 3:05 minute video outlined how to download, share and remix materials. It emphasized the Commons’ use of Creative Commons licenses for attribution as well as the tools for sharing materials via Facebook, Twitter, embedded HTML, and other media. To clarify, CC replaces the “all rights reserved” copyright process that is initiated at the moment an idea is expressed. This permits authors and creators to preserve certain rights but allows for greater flexibility in granting permissions for others to customize, reproduce, change or remix the original work.

I was most excited to see the demo of the iPhone application called goSmithsonian Trek, a smart-phone game that takes visitors through the nine Smithsonian museums along the National Mall. It engages guests by asking them to solve riddles, answer questions, write haikus and take pictures to share.

The project joins an impressive list of unique projects that already promote the positive influence of open-access research and information, including the following:

• Science Commons and ccLearn
• Open Dental, previously known as Free Dental, which is a FLOSS (Free/Libre/Open Source Software) Practice Management Software licensed under the GNU General Public License
• Flickr Commons
• The Internet Archive
• The National Institutes of Health PubMed Central, which publishes publicly funded research results in a public domain archive
• MIT Open Courseware, which provides free access to over 1,800 courses from MIT’s curriculum
• IBM’s Patent Commons, which encourage scientists and engineers to develop the unrealized potential of a large group of IBM’s technology patents

Whether you are pro-copyright or lean closer to the copyleft, it would be difficult to ignore the potential benefits of initiatives such as the Smithsonian Commons. That said, the initiative raises several questions: How will users and visitors leverage these CC-licensed collections? How vigilant will the Smithsonian be in monitoring and assuring that CC-attributions are used? Will other national institutions follow its lead? Most importantly, policy makers and government agencies should take note of the Smithsonian Commons’ progression. It may be in its infancy, but this project serves as an excellent example for a “responsible copyright” approach.