As a part of our 25th anniversary celebrations, we are pleased to announce the launch of a small fund for two to three regional events in 2026 to amplify the contributions of CC communities over the last 25 years and showcase the amazing networks of open advocates around the world. 

Events could include panels from experts and open access organizations in your region, workshops on how to CC license your work, discussions on current events and the challenges facing our movement, and more. Organizers may want to work with local organizations, open advocates, cultural spaces, and artists to host a series of connected activities or even a multi-day event. It may even be wise to collaborate with other local events where open advocates will already be attending to add on your own gathering. For inspiration, read about the recent  CC Uruguay event.

Funding is limited. We invite CC communities globally to express interest, and we are especially interested in proposals from communities based in  Africa, the Middle East, Asia, and Oceania.

Selection Criteria

Organizers must demonstrate:

• An existing, engaged audience in the region
• A documented track record of hosting similar events
• Access to venues that can host at low cost or free of charge
• A history of open advocacy in the region, with key accomplishments that can be highlighted and shared
• A location that is reasonably accessible to others in the region (e.g., a central hub with a major airport)

Optional (nice to have):

• Established involvement in the CC community through legacy network structures

What Selected Events Receive

Two to three  proposals will be selected to receive:

• Up to $5,000 USD 
• Organizational support and visibility as part of Creative Commons’ 25th anniversary programming

How to Apply

Please email community@creativecommons.org with a brief written proposal attached as a PDF that includes:

• Your organizing team and their bios
• The proposed location and venue(s)
• Your target audience and expected reach
• A short description of the event format and goals
• An outline of how you intend to incorporate CC 25th anniversary celebrations into your event
• A draft budget for the event indicating where funds are needed
• Any relevant past events or open advocacy work

Deadline: May 31, 2026

Selections will be made by July 1. We’re excited to support community-driven regional gatherings that strengthen the open movement and build lasting local and regional connections. If you have questions, feel free to reach out to community@creativecommons.org. 

While hosting an event takes a team of established Open practitioners, there are also ways for individuals, newcomers, and more to get involved in smaller ways by attending events, participating in discussions, and spreading the word about CC’s work. Learn more about all the ways you can participate in our celebration.  

The post Call for Proposals: Regional Events Celebrating CC’s 25th Anniversary appeared first on Creative Commons.

A Brief Reflection

When CC was founded, the internet was at an inflection point: sharing and remixing were easier than ever, but we were stuck between the black-and-white of copyright’s default to “all rights reserved” and “no rights reserved.” The founders of CC created the CC licenses to open space between the two, where human creativity could flourish and a shared commons of knowledge and culture could power progress and work in the public interest. Through CC’s work and the dedication of our community, CC licenses now power access to tens of billions of works online and have been used to make over half of all scientific research open and accessible.

It feels apt that after a quarter of a century, the internet would be at another inflection point. AI systems are built on vast amounts of publicly available data such as research, educational materials, cultural works, and more, all shared by individuals and institutions around the world. Much of this exists because of CC licensing. However, the governance systems that enabled this sharing have not kept pace with AI. There are few mechanisms for attribution, transparency, or alignment with creators’ intentions. As a result, knowledge is being used at scale without clear accountability or reciprocity.

This creates a growing imbalance. If left unaddressed, creators may stop sharing, institutions may restrict access, and the commons will languish. This trend has already begun, and the consequences are significant: reduced access to knowledge, increased concentration of power, and weaker foundations for both democracy and AI innovation.

The good news? There is an alternative: a future where the commons thrives and remains accessible, supporting both human knowledge and responsible AI development. To get there, a few things are required:

1. Clear rules for the AI era: New norms and governance so shared knowledge isn’t simply extracted without credit, consent, or responsibility.
2. Tools that give creators agency: Ways for people and institutions to communicate how their work can be used in AI systems.
3. Transparency and attribution: Systems that recognize where knowledge comes from and who contributed it.
4. Strong public infrastructure for sharing: Legal, technical, and community systems that keep knowledge accessible while protecting trust.

The result is an AI future built on a healthy, thriving commons. Remember: AI relies on the commons, not the other way around. 

Celebrating our anniversary is about recognizing the vital work of the past 25 years, and looking forward to the foundation this work has laid for the future. The CC community helped create a better internet, and now we are committed to keeping it human and ensuring it remains a place for creativity, joy, and shared knowledge.

Celebrate 25 Years of Creative Commons

Throughout 2026, we’ll reflect on CC’s legacy and envisioning the next 25 years through events, storytelling, community activities, and more. We invite you to celebrate with us—and to help shape the next chapter of the commons. We will be announcing ways to celebrate throughout the year. To get started, we invite you to:

Make a Gift

CC is a nonprofit and relies on the generosity of those who share a passion for equity, reciprocity, and openness. Help power the next 25 years of sharing with a gift today!

Make a Gift

For a limited time, donors who give $125 or more will receive a signed copy of Cory Doctorow’s exclusive art book, Canny Valley!

Attend an Event

CC 101: CC History

Apr 14 | 2:00-3:00 p.m. EDT

Learn about the history of Creative Commons and the legal and societal contexts that led to its creation in this free virtual event.

Register

See More Events

Buy CC Merch

Support CC in style with brand-new CC merch! Wear your love for sharing on your sleeve with a CC hat, t-shirt, tote, and more.

Shop

Submit to the CC25 Zine

To commemorate our anniversary, CC is creating a zine featuring submissions from the CC community! The theme is “Remix is Resistance,” and will contain creative works that reflect how remix, reuse, adaptation, and sharing challenge power, build community, preserve culture, and imagine more just futures. Submit your own work, from a poem to a photograph to a comic-style illustration!

Submit Your Work 

More Ways to Join

Find all the ways to celebrate along with us and help shape CC’s next 25 years on our anniversary page. Sign up to the CC newsletter for the latest and to keep up with the anniversary activities throughout the year.

The post Celebrating 25 Years of Choosing to Share appeared first on Creative Commons.

In 2025 we were focused on gathering feedback on our ongoing preference signals explorations, creating and gathering feedback on new governance frameworks for future implementation, streamlining community communication channels, and transitioning to an open source chat platform for community collaboration.

As we look ahead, we want to share how we’re thinking about deepening community engagement, strengthening connections across the network, and creating more meaningful ways for everyone to contribute to CC’s work in partnership with one another.

A Clearer Path Into the Commons

One theme we’ve heard consistently is that people want more clarity about how to get involved with CC and more connection once they do. In response, we’re beginning work on a set of new engagement opportunities that enable community members with varying degrees of expertise and diverse skillsets to participate in our work.  We will work to support community members in getting involved, learning more, and leveling up their experience and expertise along the way, from participating in conversations to leading community initiatives.

We are excited that our new unified Community Intake Form will allow for more collaboration across interest areas and lower the barrier to entry for participating in CC’s work. Alongside this, we’ll be working to strengthen our onboarding process with more information about CC’s work as well as more opportunities to plug in and connect with longstanding efforts and leaders in the Open Movement.

Strengthening the Network

CC’s community doesn’t live in one place, and we want our engagement approach to reflect that. Over the coming months, we’ll be:

• Creating best practices for chapters, a model for supporting community-driven working groups, and a workflow for volunteer translations
• Researching and reaching out to adjacent movements and open communities to create more intentional bridges across the broader open ecosystem
• Facilitating peer sharing and documenting best practices and effective strategies across our communities through regular sharing and more frequent communication
• Supporting regional and topical groupings to share knowledge directly with one another, including experimenting with topic-based show-and-tells in place of more formal meetings

The goal is simple: reduce friction, encourage peer learning, and help communities align and collaborate on their own terms.

Supporting Communities to Tell Their Stories

As Creative Commons approaches its 25th anniversary, storytelling—especially community-led storytelling—will be central. 

One part of these efforts is publishing a 25th anniversary zine which will commemorate our community’s contributions, achievements and memories over the past quarter of a century. We plan to launch the zine full of community-created work at Wikimania as part of our anniversary activities. The call for zine submissions is open until March 31, 2026. Submit your work here!

For our anniversary, we are also developing training and templates to help communities document and share their own stories through writing, visuals, or other creative formats. Our aim is not to centralize narratives but to create tools and support that make it easier for communities to speak in their own voices.

Listening, Learning, and Building Capacity

Looking ahead, we’ll continue to prioritize listening as a core part of our work. This includes conducting an annual community survey, which helps us understand what’s working, what’s missing, and where we should focus our energy.

We’re also beginning work on guidance for chapter activities, informed by what chapters are already doing well. By supporting regional and topical groups to share practices and lessons learned, we hope to strengthen the network as a whole, not by prescribing solutions but by amplifying what’s already effective.

An Ongoing Invitation

This work is iterative by design. Not everything is fully formed, and that’s intentional. Community engagement at Creative Commons isn’t about rolling out a finished product; it’s about building relationships, creating space for experimentation, and learning together.

We’re grateful to everyone who continues to show up, share knowledge, ask hard questions, and imagine what the commons can be next. More updates and more invitations to participate are coming soon.

Stay connected, and thank you for being part of this work. We’ll also be launching a new series of community office hours.

• March 20, 12 pm EST: Register here.
• June 8, 5pm EST: Register here.

Sign up and stay tuned for more details if you’d like to chat! 

The post Building What Comes Next: Community Engagement at Creative Commons appeared first on Creative Commons.

• Read CC Uruguay’s recap on our We Like To Share community blog.

What stood out most was not only the richness of the programming but how clearly this event illustrated both the strengths and the challenges of open culture work today, especially in a rapidly enclosing digital environment.

Free Culture Is Alive—Even When the Licenses Aren’t

One of the most striking takeaways from conversations with Ileana Silva and Jorge Gemetto, who lead the CC Uruguay chapter, was how deeply DIY culture thrives in Uruguay. Artists and organizers share freely, collaborate generously, and remix constantly, often without explicitly using CC licenses.

This speaks to something important: openness as a cultural instinct often precedes openness as a legal or technical practice. At the same time, the chapter shared a recurring challenge they face in outreach: many people conflate content that is merely available online with content that is truly free and open. For example, a common response to projects like Musicalibre.uy, which curates openly licensed music, is: “Why would I need openly licensed music? I already use Spotify.” 

This points to a growing need to remind people why the commons matters, even before getting into how to use CC licenses.  As platforms become increasingly proprietary and extractive, user convenience can obscure a loss of agency, access, and collective ownership underneath. These topics, such as the political economy of the internet, feel especially important to continue to surface in the face of AI. 

Opening the Week: Free Culture in a Time of Extraction

The opening panel, “What do we talk about when we talk about free culture? Practices and challenges,” set the tone for the week. Speakers addressed themes including:

• Cultural and data extractivism, particularly from the Global South to the Global North
• The ways AI complicates and challenges long-standing commitments to openness
• The need to defend cultural participation as a collective right

We were thrilled to use this space to introduce attendees to the Open Heritage Statement and the work of the Open Heritage Coalition (formerly TAROCH), and look forward to more engagement from Uruguay! 

Watch the recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2prAjdbiHLQ

Tools, Practices, and New Generations of Makers

It was great to see workshops throughout the week showing the many ways people use open source tools for creative practices and for aiding research as well as demonstrating how art has always been a practice of inspiration and remixing. 

One notable observation: some of the most active participants in these sessions were younger creators who used open source tools in their creative process that were not CC licenses. This raised compelling questions about how CC might further support open resources for design, publishing, and artistic production to encourage the use of digital technology in the creative process outside the scope of what AI has to offer. 

Technology, Power, and Accountability

Content warning: discussions included references to genocide and mass surveillance.

One of the most powerful moments of the week came during the panel on Apartheid-Free Technology. 

Panelists shared their experiences and perspectives on technologies and AI tools being used in systems of surveillance, repression, and genocide. These conversations underscored the importance of allowing CC chapters the autonomy to convene discussions that reflect their political viewpoints as they intersect with today’s technology and all of its uses.

Music, Radio, and the Commons in Practice

Live music programming brought joy and immediacy to the week. Local bands who release their music under Creative Commons licenses performed for free, demonstrating that openness is not a theoretical commitment but a practical, sustaining choice.

The relaunch of Radio Común, a CC-licensed online radio station, offers an enduring home for this work—extending the spirit of Semana de la Cultura Libre well beyond the week itself.

Watch a clip from the performance: https://youtube.com/shorts/JyVbDasxiiY?feature=share

Small Investments, Big Impact

We supported Semana de la Cultura Libre with a small grant—an approach we are piloting to engage more with regional events in the community.  With the help of these funds, the chapter was able to:

• Compensate local spaces and collaborators
• Pay a graphic designer
• Provide speaker stipends
• Support local musicians releasing work under CC licenses

We were thrilled to be invited to attend the event as a participant rather than a host. This allowed the chapter to center the issues that matter most to their community, while highlighting their work to CC HQ.

Looking Ahead

In the coming months:

• We will soon be sharing a framework for selecting a couple more regional events to support with a small stipend as a part of our 25th anniversary celebrations.
• The Uruguay chapter has expressed interest in making Open Culture Week a global phenomenon next year. If you are interested in participating please be in touch with them at contacto@creativecommons.uy. 

We’re grateful to CC Uruguay for their leadership, care, and vision, and we look forward to building what comes next together.

The post Semana de la Cultura Libre with CC Uruguay appeared first on Creative Commons.

• Aligned values: The Zulip project values resonate with Creative Commons’ commitments to openness, transparency, and community-driven spaces.
• Better features for collaboration: Zulip offers a broad set of tools that make it easier to coordinate across time zones and languages. Its powerful threading system is especially suited to global, distributed communities.
• Stronger permissions: Zulip provides more flexible roles and permissions, which will allow for better community moderation. 

What This Means for You

Moving to Zulip is not just a platform change—we are also taking this opportunity to strengthen our outreach and engagement process. We’d like to warmly invite everyone who sees themselves as part of the CC global community to join us on Zulip. This is the first step in fostering broader community collaboration within all of CC’s community spaces. 

Join now! To join CC on Zulip, please complete the Creative Commons Community Intake Form. This form will help us ensure a safe, transparent, and welcoming environment.

How the Process Works

Step 1 – Request
When you fill out the Creative Commons Community Intake Form, you’ll be asked to:

• Verify you’re a real human
• Confirm your interest/engagement in the open movement
• Agree to CC’s Code of Conduct
• You may also choose to opt in to our community mailing list

Step 2 – Review

• Applications will be reviewed by the CC team to ensure they meet the above criteria.
• Approved applicants will be added to our community list, Zulip (if requested), and the mailing lists (if requested).
• Applications that don’t meet the criteria will not be approved.

Transitioning from Slack to Zulip

Current CC Slack users are asked to make the move to Zulip by filling out the intake form. If you are not currently on the CC Slack, no problem! Simply fill out the intake form so that you can join the CC community on Zulip. 

Timeline

• Week of September 15: Zulip registration is now open. CC Slack signup is closed and redirected to the Zulip signup. 
• October 17: CC Slack is shut down.

What’s Next

As we’ve been discussing on the blog, the current Creative Commons Global Network (CCGN) membership process has been dormant for a number of years. We want to ensure that our community spaces are welcoming to everyone who sees themselves as part of the CC global community, regardless of existing CCGN membership. This is the first step of many!

We’re excited to take this step together. Zulip will give us a sustainable, values-aligned space to connect, collaborate, and grow as a community. If you are new to Zulip, you can get started with this helpful beginner’s guide. 

Join Zulip now and share what you’ve been working on in the open movement! 

The post New Community Chat Platform: Moving from Slack to Zulip appeared first on Creative Commons.

As we’ve been talking about on the blog, we are intentionally seeking ways to reengage with the global community, which will likely entail making changes to the current CC Global Network (CCGN). We recently surveyed the CC global community to help inform next steps. 

We received nearly 100 responses from over 40 countries, and we’re so grateful for the insights and ideas you shared. Here’s a snapshot of what we learned from you—and how we plan to respond.

What We Learned About You

We heard from respondents throughout the globe, though most were based in North America and Europe. This is not surprising, as most of our team is based in the U.S. and Canada, and CC has historically focused on U.S. and European copyright policy.  We heard from respondents from outside of these areas that they would like to see CC diversify and deepen our engagement in other regions across the globe. 

When we asked about the languages you use in your community organizing, Spanish, French, and Italian were the top non-English languages listed. Several respondents also mentioned working across all six official UN languages: Arabic, Chinese, English, French, Russian, and Spanish.

In terms of how you connect with Creative Commons, 80% of you identified as supporters or followers. The next most common affiliation was as CC Certificate alumni—an encouraging sign of ongoing engagement from those who’ve taken the course. Notably, nearly 1 in 5 respondents are new to the CC community, underscoring the importance of creating clear and accessible entry points for newcomers to CC and the open movement.

What You Value About the CC Community

One of the most valued ways CC supports the community is by providing clear, accessible information on open licensing, copyright, and CC’s licenses and tools. These resources help guide creators, students, and institutions in making ethical and legally sound decisions around sharing.

Beyond tools and resources, many of you highlighted the importance of a supportive global community of practice. Several also expressed nostalgia for earlier phases of the CC network, when coordination around localized license porting provided a clear structure for deeper engagement among legal and policy experts. 

What Support You Need

When asked what CC should prioritize to support the open movement globally, your top request was for us to stay focused on our mission and maintain the core tools that power open sharing.

You also encouraged CC HQ to shift from leading community activities to enabling them. Rather than managing engagement from the top down, you asked us to provide the scaffolding—toolkits, engagement pathways, and meaningful opportunities to contribute both locally and globally. You want to see local chapters and communities revived, regional events supported, and leadership empowered at the grassroots.

What Role You Want CC to Play

You’ve called on us to play a stronger role in facilitating meaningful collaboration—locally, regionally, and globally. 

Some of you also asked that we convene more communities of interest, and that we improve our communication with you through regular newsletters, events, and updates.

Transparency in governance and opportunities for participatory decision-making also came through as key priorities.

Finally, many of you expressed the desire for CC to take a more active stance in relation to AI.

How You Want to Connect

What we heard most clearly is your desire to be more connected with each other—to share stories, collaborate, and learn across regions. You’re interested in more events, both in person and virtual.

When asked what kind of non-financial support would be most helpful, the top response was “opportunities for training or skill sharing.” There’s strong interest in regional coordination, localized resources, and peer-to-peer mentorship opportunities.

Listening More, Engaging Meaningfully

Much of what we heard echoes feedback we’ve received in the past: frustration with top-down decision-making, and a desire for more meaningful listening and engagement. We know we have room to grow, and we’re committed to doing the work to build stronger, more equitable relationships across our global community.

We also know that when community members feel recognized, supported, and heard, they’re more likely to contribute actively. We’re excited to continue building mutual trust and collaboration—especially as we approach our 25th anniversary as an opportunity to reconnect.

On Funding

It’s not surprising to see continued requests for more financial support. The financial landscape is challenging for many nonprofits, and we continue to actively fundraise to support CC’s initiatives. At this time, our goal is to approach funding decisions on a year-by-year basis. We intend to be transparent about where funding may be available in the coming years and not over-promise where we aren’t able to deliver.  

What’s Next

We’re thrilled to announce that we’ll be launching a new community chat platform to replace Slack very soon! Stay tuned for more details on how to join and engage—this chat space will be created for regional and thematic collaboration across our communities.

We’re continuing to work on plans for updating our membership and governance structures and creating new ways to engage with CC and other community members.

A new community newsletter is also on the way—sign up here to stay in the loop.

The post What We Heard: Insights from the CC Global Community appeared first on Creative Commons.

We are proud to announce that we are now established as an official NGO partner to UNESCO (consultative status). UNESCO stands for “United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization” and is the UN’s specialized agency that aims to foster international cooperation in the fields of education, science, culture, and communication. 

This new, formal status is an important recognition of the synergies between our two organizations and of our shared commitment to openness as a means to benefit everyone worldwide.  As an official NGO partner, Creative Commons (CC) will now have the opportunity to contribute to UNESCO’s program and to interact with other official partner NGOs with common goals. In particular, we look forward to: 

• Participating in UNESCO meetings and consultations on various subjects core to CC’s mission. This will give us a seat at the table to advocate for the communities we serve and share our expertise on openness, the commons, and access to knowledge.
• Participating in UNESCO’s governing bodies in an observer capacity. This will enable us to deliver official statements on matters within our sphere of expertise and contribute to determining UNESCO’s policies and main lines of work, including its programs and budget. 
• Taking part in consultations about UNESCO’s strategy and program and being involved in UNESCO’s programming cycle. This will give us opportunities to communicate our views and suggestions on proposals by the Director-General.  

Becoming an official partner is a testament to our rich and long-standing collaboration with UNESCO over the past 24 years. Over this time, CC and our community have developed trusted relationships with UNESCO staff and Member State representatives, yielding many opportunities to engage and collaborate effectively.

For example, CC was deeply involved with and supported the development of UNESCO’s 2019 Recommendation on Open Educational Resources (OER), and continues to play an important role in its implementation. CC participated in the 3rd UNESCO World OER Congress in November 2024 as well as in the UNESCO Dynamic OER Coalition meeting to make final recommendations on the Dubai Declaration on OER. 

Likewise, CC contributed to the development of the UNESCO 2021 Recommendation on Open Science and advised UNESCO in adopting its open access policy, where CC licenses are a core component. 

At the International Conference of the Memory of the World Programme: Memory of the World: at the Crossroads of International Understanding and Cooperation in October 2024, we engaged in conversations about the importance of preserving and supporting access to heritage, as well as the many challenges archives, libraries, and museums face in ensuring intercultural collaboration on a global scale. 

These achievements are a testament to the dedication of CC community members promoting openness globally and to the many open champions within UNESCO.

Today, as we steer the Towards a Recommendation on Open Cultural Heritage (TAROCH) Coalition, we draw inspiration from UNESCO’s Memory of the World Program and 2015 Recommendation concerning the preservation of, and access to, documentary heritage, including in digital form, to advance equitable access to public domain heritage. In 2020, we collaborated with the Memory of the World Regional Committee for Asia-Pacific (MOWCAP) and UNESCO Bangkok in a webinar series to promote universal access to documentary heritage. 

As we continue to advance TAROCH, we know that the role of open solutions in removing unfair economic, legal, technological, and sociocultural barriers to access heritage, while fostering creative reuse and telling the stories of our shared humanity, is more important than ever. 

Looking Ahead

We look forward to the exciting new opportunities for strategic collaboration on the horizon. 

With Mondiacult 2025, the world’s biggest cultural policy conference, taking place soon, we look forward to assisting UNESCO in delivering on its key priority of “ensuring equitable access to heritage,” as indicated in the Mondiacult 2025 concept note. CC’s efforts through TAROCH to remove barriers, support interoperability, and create and share heritage with open licenses and tools can strengthen equitable access to heritage. Once heritage is accessible, we collectively have the opportunity to build more connected, resilient, and sustainable societies. Make sure to join us at our Mondiacult virtual side event on September 17, 2025.

For more information:

• Contact us at info@creativecommons.org   
• Join the TAROCH Coalition 

The post Creative Commons Becomes an Official UNESCO NGO Partner appeared first on Creative Commons.

This year, we’re focusing on re-engaging with the CC community and building new relationships, especially as emerging technologies like AI reshape how people create and share. We want to ensure CC’s tools, training, and resources evolve to meet real community needs, and we’re committed to being transparent and realistic about what we can offer in support. This is happening during a period of economic uncertainty for organizations in the open movement, so we are focusing on delivering sustainable pathways for community engagement at CC.

From CC Global Summit to New Ways of Connecting 

One big change you may have noticed is that we haven’t announced the next CC Global Summit. Unfortunately, CC’s budgets over the last two years have not allowed for such a significant expense, and most of the past Global Summits ran at a deficit. Without sufficient funding to support participant attendance, the Global Summits cannot be as inclusive as we aspire for them to be.

But this doesn’t mean we can’t spend time together – quite the opposite! We believe that supporting more regional gatherings for in-person engagement and virtual gatherings for increased inclusion will help to meet these challenges. Interested in exploring collaborating on an event in your region or in your community? Let’s chat. 

The CC Community in 2025

Earlier this year, we shared some of the history of the Creative Commons Global Network (CCGN), and talked about the importance of an expanded view of the CCGN. 

In thinking about the future of our community, the shared sentiment is that the CC community is much more expansive than the formal structures of the CCGN; the CC community is anyone who uses, advocates for, or supports the infrastructure that enables open licensing or who supports and believes in the power of the commons.

To enable this broader community, we are evaluating the existing (though currently inactive) membership process of the CC Global Network and how we support country chapters. Our goal is to strengthen our community engagement spaces and create clearer, more accessible pathways for people to get involved with CC.

Let’s Get to Work!

We are excited to reconnect and hear about your experiences and vision for the future of the CC community. Your input will help shape future decisions around governance, community infrastructure, communication tools, and engagement spaces. Please fill out the CC Community Survey by May 30:

• Creative Commons Community Survey – English
• Creative Commons Community Survey – Español
• Creative Commons Community Survey – Français

Our commitment is to make CC a space where collaboration thrives, knowledge flows freely, and communities feel empowered to shape the future of the commons. Stay tuned for opportunities to share your input, connect with others, and co-create what comes next.

The post The Next Chapter: Strengthening the Creative Commons Community Together appeared first on Creative Commons.

In case you missed it, we recently published our 2025-2028 Strategy which sets the stage for our goals and activities over the next few years. This updated strategy reaffirms our three goals at CC: 

1. Strengthen the open infrastructure of sharing
2. Defend and advocate for a thriving creative commons
3. Center community

As CC’s Community and Licensing Program Manager, I’m particularly  excited to share more details about Goal 3: Center community. For those of you who attended our strategy consultations in August 2024, you’ll know that reaffirming CC’s commitment to community was a top priority for community members, and we completely agree! In our strategy, community is listed as a goal in and of itself, but it is also recognized that all three of our goals are interconnected and each goal is required to fulfill the other goals. With that in mind, community is also central to strengthening the open infrastructure of sharing and defending and advocating for a thriving creative commons. 

We are excited to find new ways to support a CC community of anyone who uses, advocates for, or supports the infrastructure that enables open licensing or who supports and believes in the power of the commons. 

When we think about centering community now and in the future, it may first be useful for a quick history of the Creative Commons Global Network (CCGN) and past community efforts. If you are well aware of the history of the CCGN, feel free to skip ahead to the next section! 

A Quick History of the CCGN

The Creative Commons Affiliate Network was founded in 2001 alongside the founding of Creative Commons in order to support the global adoption of CC Licenses, and to port (or legally and linguistically adapt) the licenses to different legal jurisdictions. In November 2013, the 4.0 licenses, which no longer required porting, were launched. This presented an opportunity to shift the role of the Network to regional policy work, general awareness raising, and other local priorities. As a result, there was a need to rethink the Network structure to support this shift. A steering committee was launched in 2015 to create a new network strategy starting in 2015. The outcome of this work was the publication of Faces of the Commons, which included  the ultimate recommendation for a revised Creative Commons Global Network (CCGN) to be created by the global network itself. With the goal of meeting this challenge, in 2017, the Global Network Strategy was published. Alongside the 2017 strategy, Network Platforms were introduced (and then reintroduced in 2020) as a means to collaborate across jurisdictions on specific themes. The network strategy states these platforms as the intended primary locale for network collaboration, and today they are the most active spaces of the CC community.

Adjustments to the CCGN continued. In 2019, a set of  recommendations was published (though not adopted formally), in 2020, a report on the state of the network was produced, and in 2022, some major needs were identified.  Much of this occurred while the CC team itself was facing a tough budgetary reality and was unable to adequately resource community management of the CCGN and support recommended changes. 

Today, the CCGN is in need of renewed support from CC (the organization) to make sure the wonderful work of the global community can continue to be sustained. Many of the stated goals of the Network Strategy are out of alignment with how the network currently functions. As it stands, the Network Council—the body that governs the CCGN—has not met in over a year, and approved changes to the membership process have not been implemented because of the technical limitations of the current network website. 

We have an engaged and vibrant community of almost 1,000 CCGN members, many of whom participate in local, self-governed CC Chapters, and some of whom do not (or may wish to but don’t know how to get more involved). Many folks have inquired about the ways in which they could join the CCGN but as a result of past governance shifts and untied loose ends, the CCGN is stuck in a bit of governance limbo. That brings us to today and why Goal 3: Centering Community is so important to the success of CC’s vision and mission. 

Creating A Shared Vision of the Next Generation of the CCGN

Over the last year as we consulted on CC’s strategy, we have also been chatting with community members, some who are formally CCGN members and others who are CC advocates within their communities without formal affiliation with the CCGN. We conducted an internal assessment of the CCGN using historical data, community surveys, and interviews with chapter leads. In thinking about the future of our community, the shared sentiment is that the CC community is much more expansive than the formal structures of the CCGN; the CC community is anyone who uses, advocates for, or supports the infrastructure that enables open licensing or who supports and believes in the power of the commons. 

Today, nothing feels more important than both supporting and belonging to a community of values-aligned CC and open advocates who champion access to knowledge, and freedom of information as the foundations of a democratic society. We are excited to adapt the CC global community to the contexts and realities of 2025 so that together we can protect and strengthen the thriving creative commons as a means to solve the world’s greatest challenges. 

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The meeting was organized by Creative Commons, Open Knowledge Foundation, Open Future, and Wikimedia Europe in collaboration with the Wikimedia Foundation. The goal of the meeting was to create links between different advocacy efforts so that a shared advocacy strategy for the Knowledge Commons can be created.

One of the calls that jumped out for us was a call for defining new open principles – principles that could clarify what openness means in the context of today’s digital space and ensure its pro-public, democratic potential. Formulating such principles could help against several challenges, e.g. open washing.

Another clear call is the one confirming the assumptions behind the Common(s) Cause project: it is the call for a shared advocacy agenda, which could help ensure that Knowledge Commons are treated and sustained as critical digital infrastructures.

The event welcomed over 55 participants from 20 countries, most of whom traveled to Katowice to attend the Wikimania conference. The majority of attendees were from open advocacy communities. The event not only enabled the organizers to build stronger working ties with one another, but with the many other organizations who were represented at the event.

The participants acknowledged that the power of the open movement is only as strong as the bonds of the people working to advance an open, equitable agenda, and collective impact can only be achieved through individuals from different organizations working closely together.

The report identifies a few common causes that can be found at the intersection of open movement organizations’ strategies, the socio-technological zeitgeist, and current policy opportunities, such as:

1. (Re)defining openness in a new technological era.
2. Creation of a shared advocacy strategy and enhanced regional and thematic cooperation across the organizations.
3. Developing and testing governance approaches for our digital commons.
4. Advancing openness and sustainability for the technology, data, content, and governance of Digital Public Infrastructure.

This report is a starting point and serves as an invitation to the wider open community to join these causes as well as to formulate their own, which could then be backed by other organizations. The next step in this process will be disseminating its findings, hopefully resulting in further backing and refinement of the causes and additional feedback from the wider community, which this small convening could not fully represent.

Read the full report. 

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