Two of the best parts of the Internet celebrate their 24th birthday today, the online multilingual encyclopedia Wikipedia maintained by thousands of volunteers and Creative Commons, the nonprofit organization offering online legal tools to the public for sharing and reusing creative works.
I am thankful for all I’ve learned from Wikipedia over the years and to the open copyright licenses from Creative Commons.
In 2023, I wrote about a New Zealand insect highlighted in a radio broadcast and how the host wanted to use an iNaturalist photo for the insect’s Wikipedia page.
But couldn’t, since the default Creative Commons (CC) license on iNaturalist didn’t allow use by everyone.
And Wikipedia only allows photos to be added that can be used by everyone.
Long story short, the host contacted the iNaturalist user and asked if they would consider licensing their photo with a more open CC license.
The user agreed.
And not only changed the license for that photo, but changed the license on all their 8,800+ iNaturalist photos and for future photos.
Reinforcing my belief,
If you want change, education is key.
Wikipedia and Creative Commons have been and continue to be leaders in education.
Thank you to all the contributors of Wikipedia for the their dedication and hard work.
And to everyone at Creative Commons who worked to provide options for creators who want to share their work publicly with open licenses.
Photo credit: Happy Birthday candles on a Oreo birthday cake by Jonathan Cutrer, public domain, cropped from the original. Downloaded January 15, 2025.
