[Health] Content and Licenses

[Chris Leonard]

I'm entirely in tune with the idea, but it's worth pointing out that some
time ago, mchua had created:

http://wiki.laptop.org/go/Licensing_petitions

to perform essentially the same function.  I also think that a table
structure, while somethimes pretty for display, makes it less useful for
intended purpose, which is editing (addition)  by the average user, keep it
to simple wiki-text with minimum formatting.

The (sometimes, but not always unjustified) fear of copyright and the
difficulty of making a provably correct determination of copyright status is
an important concept and a too common stumbling block for less copyright
savvy users (these may be exactly the sorts of subject matter experts in
health, science or education that we want to contribute content).

It is true that mchua's existing page is not linked-to nearly enough from
other wiki-pages where it would be natural for such a question to arise to a
novice user.  Maybe applying a little wiki-love to the previously existing
page (increasing discoverability within wiki with links from other pages,
adding more category tagging, recruiting copyright savvy folks to "watch",
etc.) would address the issue you are very correctly raising in creating the
(perhaps redundant) new page.  It's no surprise that you didn't find mchua's
page, it was uncategorized and orphaned until I stumbled across it a few
weeks ago, even so, I only added one link to it and only one category tag,
it could use some more visibility.

http://wiki.laptop.org/go/User:Cjl


On Wed, May 7, 2008 at 5:44 AM, Seth Woodworth <seth at isforinsects.com>
wrote:

> There has been a lot of conversation lately about some existing materials
> on Health that have been found on the web.  Some of these materials are in
> open licenses already, some are listed as 'All rights reserved' and some are
> merely ambiguous or not stated.   There needs to be a process for collecting
> these links, finding contact information on owners, and opening a dialog
> with them on their content's licenses.
>
> I have created a page on the wiki:
> http://wiki.laptop.org/go/Licenses/Content with the start of a table for
> some content that needs clearing up of copyright.  I'll probably end up
> moving the page as more people start to contribute to it.
>
> Please add information to this page on the wiki for links that you know
> exist already, or if you aren't so familiar/comfortable with wiki-markup
> feel free just to drop me the info and I'll get it updated in the table.
>
> Right now I'm interested in:
>
> * A name/description for the content
> * What filetypes the material is currently in
> * What language (if any) the content is
> * A link back to where you found the content
> * Your name, (credit where credit is due for finding stuff)
> * Any information or communication you have currently on the material's
> status
>
>
> If we can get this page filled out, we can work towards getting all of
> this content cleared for use by OLPC or anyone else who needs it.
>
> Seth
>
> _______________________________________________
> Health mailing list
> Health at lists.laptop.org
> http://lists.laptop.org/listinfo/health
>
>
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