What do you think is the greatest benefit of online communication

Saturday, July 15, 2017

To share or not to share. That is the question.

I misquoted Shakespeare in the title of this blog. (Can you name the play? The character who I misquoted?) But I can do that--take a Shakespeare quote and change it around however I want to without obtaining any permissions--because Shakespeare is in the public domain. His work can be freely used and changed around by anyone without fear of being sued. If I decided to put on one of Shakespeare's plays, I could find it online and just print out as many copies as I needed for my cast.

On the other hand, I couldn't do that with the work of some of my other favorite authors like Brene Brown or Madeline L'Engle. Someone owns the rights to their work. If I do decide to use any of it I have to quote it appropriately and give the credit where it's due. I can't just copy and redistribute one of their books for a book club or a class. Each copy must be purchased.

When it comes to my own work, I need to make careful decisions about what I want to share freely and openly with others on the web, and what I want to set up so that others have to make some kind of purchase in order to use it. I do have to make a living after all. How do I decide which of my products should be made available to others under a Creative Commons license, and which should be used to help put food on the table?

I don't think these are clear and/or easy decisions, and the more I learn about it, frankly, the more confused I become. All kinds of questions come up in me about the value of my own contributions and creations. I don't ever want to make the decision to make my work available for free because I don't think anyone will pay for it. I want to make that decision because it is the right and appropriate thing to do.

I believe in the open sharing of information on the world-wide web, and the power for social change that is inherent in the free sharing of information. Hopefully I will be able to find a comfortable and workable balance between freely sharing and setting value on my work. I don't believe that the two are contradictory, but it can sure feel that way on the surface.

What do you think? How do you set a value on your own work? Do you think that ideas and words that are of particular value and interest should be those that also come with a price tag? What kind decision making process do you have when it comes to the sharing of your own work?

3 comments:

  1. Hamlet's soliloquy, of course!
    While I, too, believe in the open sharing of information, I do believe attribution should be given when someone is using someone else's thoughts, ideas, etc. I think that things like creative commons still allows one to trace an idea or work back to the original author, which is important. Just my two cents:).

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  2. Good ol' Hamlet!
    You've brought up a good discussion, Cathryn! I touched a little bit on the issue of sharing content for free in a blog post about social journalism this week. I think there's great value to posting one's content that is meant to be viewed, but I also wonder if sharing too much content for free could devalue the content. But, again, on the other hand, for a fledgling journalist, getting one's name out there could mean future content is indeed paid. An interesting discussion!

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