Sharing the Wealth

If you have been following my blog posts and the development of Ideascape, you'll know that I have a great interest in creativity, innovation, and the way people work together. From the Guardian, "The BBC on-line archive project is set to release archived material today from Channel 4 and the British Film Institute to the public. The license is based on the Creative Commons and will allow people to download, mess around with, and republish provided it's non-commercial..."

"We are focusing less on the archive aspect and more on how to enable audiences, especially younger audiences, to whom we think we have a very valuable connection, to develop their creative skills," says Heather Rabbatts, head of education at Channel 4 and its representative with the creative archive licence group.

"The new licensing scheme, which is based on a flexible copyright scheme from the US called the creative commons (www.creativecommons.org) is meant to be about more than just downloading old programmes from back catalogues. The idea is to give the public access to footage from the different archives so they can use it to create new things, either to pep up a school project or to create a home movie or make their own music video."

Of great interest to me is the five part lecture series on Channel 4 about "The Truth of Technology".

# Lecture 1: Technology will Determine the Future of the Human Race

# Lecture 2: Collaboration

# Lecture 3:Innovation and Management

# Lecture 4:Nanotechnology and Nanoscience

# Lecture 5:Risk and Responsibility

Now imagine if content from all media organizations and institutions was readily available for people to play around with so they could learn and create new things. Here's one scenario: CBS Sports covered The Masters golf tournament, which of course owns the Rights to the broadcast content, shows Tiger Woods making an incredible shot. Joseph Jaffe, a marketing person created an awesome Nike Commercial from it.

Tiger did it a.k.a. the next Nike Commercial - In true new marketing spirit, I've created what should be the next Nike commercial. It's a tribute to Tiger. It's a tribute to Creativity. It's the embodiment of everything the Nike brand stands for. The moment of truth (as you'll... [Jaffe Juice]

We could make a lot of progress as a society if more businesses and institutions adopted a more democratic approach to innovation.