by Tony Curzon Price at the iCommons summit 2007
What is CC/iCommons? Lessig started answering the question during the keynote. It is:
- A user interface to Copyright
- A signal that defines an ethos, a general approach to property and creativity, that is a focus for emerging soft norms of behaviour
- A bridge between the sharing and the money economies
- A movement that provides a focus and an identity to all the groups involved in the non-money economy
And then he started telling us what it is not: ``It is not me, it is you!'' Before we knew it, we were listening to a near-farewell speech. For the next ten years, Larry wants to devote himself to the corruption of politics and public life by big money. Climate change ``knowledge'' has been on sale to the oil companies, for example, and the future of the world is being determined by $50,000 checks paid for friendly research.
As Becky Hogge suggested in an emotional question session, Larry is moving from fighting for the infrastructure of the commons to being an activist within the commons. We often think of Creative Commons as being about music, remix, mash-up and art. But one of the most important--I would say the most important--tasks of society is to ensure that there is a realm for the production of creduble knowledge and opinion. Larry is moving into that realm, it seems, and if he can bring to us his energy, creativity and intellect to the cause of creating Coalitions of Credibility (CC 2.0?), then I'm more optimistic for the public realm than I was before his speech.
