Guide
How It Works
Two example scenarios that walk through the everyday use of CommonContent — for people looking for content, and for people sharing it.
We've written up a few example scenarios for how people could use CommonContent. They don't cover every possible use, but they should give you a general idea of how things work.
Scenario #1: The Content Seekers
Joe and Mary are helping to organize a party / fundraiser to celebrate the twenty-year anniversary of their local community outreach center. They're going all out: posting flyers, sending out postcards, and even taping and airing a public service announcement on their local public-access cable TV station. The party has an Asian theme, so they need pictures of tropical plants and some exotic music to play during the announcement and at the party.
Step 1
Joe and Mary load up CommonContent in their web browser.
Step 2
They click on Images, since they need pictures of tropical-themed things. The first link that comes up is a photo log with pictures from Jakarta.
Step 3
They check the license. Since they're not using it commercially and not creating derivative works, all they need to do is credit the photographer. They plan to add a note at the bottom of the postcards and flyers indicating the original photographer.
Step 4
They grab a few pictures of tropical birds and plants, and head off to find some music.
Step 5
They go back to CommonContent and click on Audio. Half-way down the page they find a collection of Central Javanese music.
Step 6
They check the license. Since they're not using it commercially, all they need to do is credit the ensemble. They'll add a note on the bottom of the flyer and a credit at the end of the public service announcement.
Step 7
They download a few songs they like and burn them to a CD so they can play them at the party and add them to the soundtrack of their public service announcement.
Step 8
They're done! Joe and Mary have used content licensed in the Creative Commons to make their party more fun, they've honored the creators' wishes, and the content is being used. Everybody wins.
Scenario #2: The Content Creators
Joe and Mary's party was a big hit, so they decide to film a short documentary about the community outreach center and play it on their local public-access station. They want to license it under Creative Commons because the public good matters to them — but they still want to retain copyright in case HBO or the Independent Film Channel come calling with big sacks of money (which they'd donate to the community center, of course).
Step 1
Joe and Mary film their documentary. They create a web page for it and upload QuickTime and AVI versions for friends to download.
Step 2
They load up CommonContent in their web browser.
Step 3
They registered the last time they were here (so they could give great ratings to the content they had used), so now they click on Add Content.
Step 4
The Add Content form collects information about who created the documentary, what it's about, when it was made, and other useful bits of information.
Step 5
Once the documentary is described, they pick a license. They choose yes for "Require attribution" and no for "Allow commercial uses of your work". That way they can sell the documentary to HBO, but the public-access station and the community center can still show it freely, and other documentary makers can quote bits non-commercially. Their license becomes Attribution-NonCommercial.
Step 6
Their content is added to the catalog. Now they can use the standard Creative Commons metadata tools and add some tags to their documentary's web page.
Step 7
They're done! Joe and Mary have opened their content up for other people to use and benefit from. They retain ownership, but people in need of content can now find their documentary and use it within the limits of the license. Everybody wins.
Ready to try it yourself? Either browse the catalog or contribute your work.