| Open content, coined by analogy with "open source," (though
technically it is actually share-alike) 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. Content can be either in the public domain or under a
license like the GNU Free Documentation
License. "Open content" is also sometimes used to describe content that can be modified by anyone; there is no closed group
like a commercial encyclopedia publisher responsible for all the editing.
It's 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 BYU, 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 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 famed
Open Courseware (see below).
Common content are ones licensed in the Creative Commons.
They are called open content only if they are licensed as share-alike (one of
the CC's options).
Open content projects (in alphabetical order)
- Aozora Bunko - free digital Japanese books
- Asian Open Source Centre [1] (http://www.asiaosc.org/) - contains an open content GFDL wiki on open source [2] (http://www.asiaosc.org/enwiki/)
- Authorama Public Domain
Books (http://www.authorama.com) - XHTML+CSS public domain books with
Wiki-style annotation system for unregistered users
- BerliOS [3] (http://openfacts.berlios.de/index-en.phtml?title=Main_Page)
- Bitzi - free community-built catalog of digital files
- Bruce Perens' Open Source
Series [4] (http://perens.com/Books/) - Books about Linux and other Open Source software
- California Open
Source Textbook Project [5] (http://www.opensourcetext.org) - K-12
textbooks and other curriculum materials
- Common Content [6] (http://commoncontent.org/) - open
catalog of Creative Commons licensed content
- Connexions
Repository [7] (http://cnx.rice.edu/content/) - Rice
University's course material
- Creative Commons
- Eldritch Press [8] (http://www.eldritchpress.org/) - books
- ExtinctionLevelEvent.com - Open Content Web Comic [9] (http://www.extinctionlevelevent.com/)
- Free High School Science
Texts (http://www.nongnu.org/fhsst) (FHSST) is a project to create free science
textbooks to help reduce textbook costs especially in 3rd world and developing countries
- FreeMedia [10] (http://web2.unt.edu/weblibrary/freemedi/gallery/index.php) - stock photos from the University of North Texas
- GrokDoc [11] (http://grokdoc.net) - Usability study of GNU/Linux
newbies
- Jake [12] (http://jake-db.org/) - Research software and
database where content is built in an open source way
- GNUtemberg [13] (http://www.gnutemberg.org/) in Italian.
- ibiblio [14] (http://www.ibiblio.org/)
- Libre Society [15] (http://www.libresociety.org/) - open
culture site
- Linux documentation project [16] (http://www.tldp.org/) - Content project to develop documentation for Linux
- LOCA Records [17] (http://www.locarecords.com/) - open
content record label
- Magnatune [18] (http://www.magnatune.com/) - open content
record label
- Mediaweapon [19] (http://mediaweapon.net/) - open content for the practise of political transparency in
revolutionary theory
- Mieliestronk [20] (http://www.mieliestronk.com/) - open content with general, educational, comic and
entertainment information in Afrikaans
- MOAK47 [21] (http://moak47.net/) - open content
for the production and reproduction of a collaborative, resistant culture.
- Narod sobe [22] (http://www.narod-sobe.cz/) - czech language free project Narod sobe - means Nation to
itself
- Nupedia [23] (http://www.nupedia.com) - peer-reviewed
encyclopedia
- Opart [24] (http://www.opart.org) - Open art
pool
- Open Clip Art
Library [25] (http://www.openclipart.org/) - the open clip art library.
- Opencode [26] (http://eon.law.harvard.edu/opencode) - consortium for open research and content
- OpenContent [27] (http://www.opencontent.org) - open source
licensing scheme for information content
- Open
Content for Education [28] (http://www.life-open-content.org/)
- Open Directory Project [29] (http://dmoz.org) - web directory like Yahoo!.
- Open-education.org
[30] (http://www.open-education.org) - Portal and advocacy-site for collaborative creation of Open
Content Educational materials.
- Open Gaming
Center (http://open-gaming-center.com) - an open content experiment to create a
games and gaming encyclopedia
- Openlaw [31] (http://eon.law.harvard.edu/openlaw)
- Experiment in the open crafting of legal arguments
- Open Music
Registry [32] (http://www.openmusicregistry.org) -
Open sharing of music using an Open Audio License / site closed down
- Open Photo [33] (http://openphoto.net/) - stock photos
- Open-Songs (http://www.open-songs.com) - Free, Royalty Free MP3's / new link: Copacetix (http://copacetix.com/music.php)
- Opsound [34] (http://www.opsound.org/opsound.html) - Open sound pool, a record label.
- OYEZ [35] (http://www.oyez.org/oyez/resource/nitf/273/) - US Supreme Court multimedia
- Pickings.de (http://www.pickings.de/) (daily news review)
- Prelinger Archives
[36] (http://www.archive.org/movies/prelinger.php) - government and advertising films
- Project Gutenberg [37] (http://www.gutenberg.net)
- PlanetMath [38] (http://planetmath.org/) - Math for the people,
by the people.
- Sodipodi Clipart
[39] (http://www.sodipodi.com/index.php3?section=clipart) - a large collection of flags of the
world, and other clipart
- SourceWatch [40] (http:/www.sourcewatch.org/) (formerly
Disinfopedia)
- Wikimedia [41] (http://www.wikimedia.org/)
- Wikitravel [46] (http://www.wikitravel.org/article/Main_Page) - travel guide (not part of Wikimedia)
- Woochi - Wine Encyclopaedia
- World66 [47] (http://www.world66.com) - An open content travel
guide
- World Lecture Hall
[48] (http://www.utexas.edu/world/lecture/) - Online course materials
- The Worldwide Lexicon
Related topics, not open content
Licenses
Credit
The list of open content projects are partly based on The Institutional Design of Open Source
Programming (http://www.firstmonday.org/issues/issue8_1/schweik/index.html) on
Firstmonday
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