Making the most of what we’ve got
why we need an Australian Creative Archive
Jessica Coates
Project Manager, Creative Commons Clinic
April 2009
CRICOS No. 00213J

The Problem
• the internet makes
much more possible
• but only if we have
material to work with
• v h d for Australians
hard f A t li
to find legal sources of
local material for
remixing

The Problem
• the internet makes
much more possible
• but only if we have
material to work with
• v h d for Australians
hard f A t li
to find legal sources of
local material for
The S l ti
Th Solution
reuse
• our national
collections have the
potential to fill this gap
• sure t e e a e costs
su e there are
for digitising etc – but
cheaper than creating
this material from
scratch

the traditional access model
• on-site access
s/343784334/
provided on a fair
/photos/procsilas
dealing basis
d li b i
• ‘access’ charges for
www.flickr.com/
off-site access and
re-use the material
culture exhaus anyone by procsilas, http://w
• everything decided
case-by-case basis
p
sts

the traditional access model
• on-site access
s/343784334/
provided on a fair
/photos/procsilas
dealing basis
d li b i
• ‘access’ charges for inefficient, costly, inconsistent
www.flickr.com/
off-site access and
re-use the material
culture exhaus anyone by procsilas, http://w
• everything decided
case-by-case basis
p
sts

it s
it’s already happening
CRICOS No. 00213J

it s
it’s already happening
it’s still illegal to use most of this material - without going
through the same cumbersome clearance processes
CRICOS No. 00213J

This is particularly
p y
frustrating when
the material is in
the public domain
CRICOS No. 00213J

when it’s in
response to a
specific inquiry
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when
they want
to charge
you for it
As is international archival practice, we charge usage
fees on items that have been preserved by us. This, in
a very small way is designed to help offset the costs of
way,
obtaining, copying, preserving and storing the item.
CRICOS No. 00213J

or when it’s funded and owned by tax payers
(and in the public domain and they want to charge you)
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why?
orphaned works
under-rating the p
g public domain
cost of copyright clearance
politics with contributors
cost of digitisation risk aversion
control
protection of revenue streams
asset tracking lack f
l k of expertise
ti
CRICOS No. 00213J

Powerhouse Museum
• identified ‘easy’
easy
• Flickr Commons –
material – public
initially released 200
domain, new
photographs, now
acquisitions and
over 1500
material owned by
PHM
• ‘Play’ worksheets
available under CC
• examined business
models, to see when
• encouraged CC for
OA was appropriate
‘photo of the day’
• teamed with an
• collection
existing programs
descriptions and
(educational
data under CC
workshops) and
providers (Flickr)
Woman holding decorated bicycle, Phillips Glass Plate Negative
Collection, Powerhouse Museum, www.powerhousemuseum.com/
collection/database/collection=Phillips_Glass_Plate_Negative
CRICOS No. 00213J

PHM benefits
• 20x increased visitation of
http:
Imag Services, Powe
Open Licensing and th Future for Colle
ge
://www.archimuse.com/mw2009/pap
n
material
• valuable tagging and comments
• promotion
erhouse Museum, S
he
• innovation
• research
pers/bray/bray.htm
ections, Paula Bray Manager
Sydney, Australia
• community engagement
• discoveries
ml
y,
• partnerships
• reduced costs for Australian
community (particularly
promotional + other b
ti l th benefits ~
fit
schools)
neutral effect on sales = net +ve $
• didn’t hurt sales
CRICOS No. 00213J

don t
don’t just believe me
1. Resources should be made available for [To] Foster creativity in the development,
reuse unless th
l there i a j tifi bl reason why
is justifiable h use and application of the Internet, through
they should not. policies that . . . make public sector
2. The reuse of resources should be as information and content, including scientific
unconstrained as possible. For example, data, and works of cultural heritage
resources should b made available f
h ld be d il bl for more widely accessible in digital format.
commercial reuse as well as non-commercial - OECD Seoul Declaration
reuse wherever possible.
3. The range of permitted uses of resources To the maximum extent practicable, information,
should b as wide as possible, f example,
h ld be id ibl for l research and content funded by Australian
including the right to modify the resource and governments – including national collections –
produce derivative works from it. should be made freely available over the internet
- Common Information Environment
as part of the g
p global p
public commons.
– Venturous Australia Report
There is the potential to release huge
quantities of information for re-use by
As a guiding principle, information produced by
innovators in SMEs, the third sector and even
public entities in all branches and at all levels
big business . . Public information does not
business.
should be presumed to be available to the public
belong to Government, it belongs to the public
- UNESCO Policy Guidelines for the Development and
on whose behalf government is conducted
Promotion of Governmental Public Domain Information
- UK Power of Information Taskforce Report
CRICOS No. 00213J

so what should we do?
Institution Sector
• review licensing policies – • develop policies in favour
bias towards OA of OA – for all gov
• identify ‘easy’ material • joint lobbying strategies –
tying
t i access i t what’s
into h t’
• explore new business
hot (broadband,
models – eg premium prints
education,
education clean feed etc)
• l k at possible
look t ibl
• would we have more
partnerships with existing
success develop a joint
services – eg for cost
archive?
reduction, increased profile
CRICOS No. 00213J

Thanks
http://www.cci.edu.au
p
http://www.creativecommons.org.au
info@creativecommons.org.au
Unless otherwise noted, this slide show is licensed under a Creative Commons Australia Attribution
licence. For more information see http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.5/au/.
li F if ti htt // ti /li /b /2 5/ /
CRICOS No. 00213J