Open content is a neologism coined by David Wiley in 1998 1 which draws an analogy between open source practices and the publishing of content online.2 Open content describes thus any kind of creative work or content published under an open content license that explicitly allows copying and modifying of its information by anyone not exclusively by a single organization firm or individual.

Open content is an alternative paradigm to the use of copyright to create monopolies; rather than leading to monopoly open content facilitates the democratization of knowledge.3

The term open content is also used to describe works that would be more correctly described as open access. An open access work is available to everyone whereas an open content work can be copied and adapted by anyone.4

The largest open content project is Wikipedia.5 The Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike licence under which it is licensed makes Wikipedia open content. Contents 1 Technical definition 2 History 3 Free content 3.1 Common content 3.2 Open access 4 Open-content search engines 5 Licenses 6 See also 7 References 8 External links 8.1 Major open content repositories and directories Technical definition

The Open Knowledge Foundation has undertaken work on a technical definition for open content. The Open Knowledge Definition (OKD) gives a set of conditions for openness in knowledge - much as the Open Source Definition does for open-source software. Content can be either in the public domain or under a license which allows re-distribution and re-use such as Creative Commons Attribution and Attribution-ShareAlike licenses or the GNU Free Documentation License (GFDL). It is worth noting that the OKD covers open data as well as open content.

The Open Content website suggests that openness is a continuum rather than a binary. A work can be more or less 'open' depending on to what degree it complies with the '4Rs Framework'. This framework describes the rights to reuse revise remix and redistribute.6 Presumably a work which allows all of these things is open content. History

It is possible that the first documented case of open content was the Royal Society which aspired to share information across the globe as a public enterprise.citation needed Project Gutenberg started in 1971 is arguably the first open content digital project (although the concept of a public domain of intellectual works preceded it).

In 2010 the New Media Consortium in conjunction with the EDUCAUSE Learning Initiative identified open content as on the horizon for adoption of "one-year or less" for educators in their 2010 Horizon Report.7 Free content Main article: free content

As with the terms "open source" and "free software" some open content materials can also be described as "free content" although technically they describe different things. For example the Open Directory Project is open content but is not free content at least in the view of the Free Software Foundation.8 The main difference between licenses is the definition of freedom: some licenses attempt to maximize the freedom of all potential recipients in the future (by having minor "restrictions") while others maximize the freedom of the initial recipient. Common content The related term "common content" is occasionally used to refer to Creative Commonslicensed works. This takes after the Common Content project which is an attempt to collect as many such works as possible. Open access "Open access" refers to toll-free access to a special category of material consisting mainly of published peer-reviewed scholarly journal articles along with a set of use (or reuse) rights such as those included in Creative Commons licenses which may make the material open content. Open-content search engines This section requires expansion. With the increased interest in open content many universities have started offering online video/audio courses to the general public such as Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Princeton University. This has resulted in a great increase in providers of open content. The difficulty of keeping track of all such content had led to the birth of open-content search engines.9 Licenses Creative Commons licenses (11 versions excluding non-derivative licenses) Design Science License Against DRM license GNU Free Documentation License Open Content License Open Directory Project License used by the Open Directory Project Open Gaming License license of the Open Gaming Foundation as drafted by Wizards of the Coast Open Publication License license of the Open Content Project See also Digital freedom Free content Ideagoras Open source Open Data Open catalogue References Grossman Lev (1998-07-18). "New Free License to Cover Content Online". Netly News. Archived from the original on 2000-06-19. http://web.archive.org/web/20000619122406/http://www.time.com/time/digital/daily/0282262100.html. Retrieved 2010-01-12.  Wiley David (1998). "Open Content". OpenContent.org. http://web.archive.org/web/19990429221830/www.opencontent.org/home.shtml. Retrieved 2010-01-12.  Lawrence Liang "Free/Open Source Software Open Content" Asia-Pacific Development Information Programme: e-Primers on Free/Open Source Software United Nations Development Programme Asia-Pacific Development Information Programme 2007. http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/free-software-for-freedom.html Schoer Joachim; Hertel Guido (2007-12-03). "Voluntary Engagement in an Open Web-based Encyclopedia: Wikipedians and Why They Do It" (PDF). University of Wrzburg. http://www.abo.psychologie.uni-wuerzburg.de/virtualcollaboration/publications.phpactionview&id44. Retrieved 2007-03-17.  "Defining the "Open" in Open Content". http://www.opencontent.org/definition/.  2010 Horizon Report chapter 7 by Johnson L. Levine A. Smith R. & Stone S. (2010) for the New Media Consortium and the EDUCAUSE Learning Initiative. The FSF claims that the requirements of the ODP's license are too onerous to be considered free. See here. "Creative Commons meta-search engine". Creative Commons. http://search.creativecommons.org/. Retrieved 2008-08-09.  External links This article's use of external links may not follow Wikipedia's policies or guidelines. Please improve this article by removing excessive and inappropriate external links. (August 2010) Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Open content IOSN Open Content e-Primer from their FOSS e-Primers Section "Community Created Content; Law Business and Policy" by Hietanen Oksanen and Vlimki "A Guide To Open Content Licences" by Lawrence Liang ibiblio the open content idea as a library from a project by UNCChapel Hill Open Knowledge Definition: Defining the Open in Open Data Open Content and Open Information set of principles from the Open Knowledge Foundation Major open content repositories and directories OpenCourseWare Consortium portal linking to free and openly licensed course materials from hundreds of universities worldwide MIT OpenCourseWare free and openly licensed course materials from more than 1800 MIT courses Connexions global open-content repository started by Rice University OER Commons network of open teaching and learning materials with ratings and reviews Google Directory Open Content OpenLearn free and open educational resources from The Open University Comprehensive Knowledge Archive Network (CKAN) directory/registry of open data/content packages and projects UNESCO Open Training Platform network for international development issues Open ICEcat catalog worldwide open catalog for product information LRE for schools - The Learning Resource Exchange for schools is a federation of repositories including open content from 18 Ministries of Education in Europe v d eIntellectual property activism Issues and debates Copyright infringement  Criticism of intellectual property  Criticism of patents  Digital rights management  Gripe site  History of music piracy  Mashup videos and music  Public domain  Software patent debate Concepts All rights reversed  Copyleft  Commercial use of copyleft works  Commons-based peer production  Free content  Free software licence  Infoanarchism  Libertarian positions  Open content  Open design  Open Music Model  Open patent  Open source hardware  Open source software  Share-alike Movements Access to Knowledge movement  Anti-copyright  Cultural environmentalism  Free culture movement  Free software movement Organizations Creative Commons  Electronic Frontier Foundation  Free Software Foundation  Open Rights Group  The Pirate Bay  Piratbyrn  Pirate Party  Students for Free Culture Documentaries Steal This Film (2006 2007)  Good Copy Bad Copy (2007)  RiP!: A Remix Manifesto (2008)