Remixing

As an introduction to the broad concept of remixing – and all that it implies – please watch this short video from a TED Talk given by Lawrence Lessig Links to an external site..

Re-examining the remix - Lawrence Lessig Links to an external site.

Lessig is a Professor of Law and Leadership at Harvard Law School, but more importantly relevant to this and other topics in this quest he is a widely publicized and published proponent of Creative Commons on which he serves as member of Board of Directors. That his area of specialization is copyright and intellectual property is an interesting detail in his interesting work. Read more about Lessig at his official website Links to an external site..

Creating new, open content vs. remixing content

Before you begin to create open resources, it is important to understand the difference between licensing content you have created entirely on your own, and licensing content that is a remix of other works (peer produced).

Creating your own content

Before you begin, consider the following questions:

What are you creating?
Who are you creating it for?
How are you creating it?
How open will it be? (keep in mind the technology you use)

Remixing Content

Now let’s move to creating content that includes works from others. The biggest concern when remixing is making sure that the items you are mixing together are licensed in a way that they are compatible with each other.

Consider the following questions:

Does the item you want to use have an open license?
Are all of your items licensed in ways that are compatible with each other?
How will you license your new remix so that it is a legal license?

This takes a little practice to understand. For example, CC-BY-SA can’t be remixed with CC-BY-SA-NC.

Try your hand at David Wiley’s remix game Links to an external site., which allows you to practice mixing content that is compatible with each other.