Gawker: valleywag, creative commons

Sergey Brin's a Saint To His Mother-in-Law

Ryan Tate — Fri, 28 Aug 2009 13:40:23 EDT

Say what you will about Google's propensity for funneling money to a tight, back-scratching coterie of friends; but co-founder Sergey Brin does right by his mother-in-law, which is more than many husbands can say. Witness his new half-million-dollar donation.

Brin just contributed $500,000 of his personal wealth to the Creative Commons, a nonprofit to encourage the sharing of copyrighted works. Creative Commons, in turn, is chaired by Esther Wojcicki, notes Peter Kafka of All Things D, and Wojcicki, a Palo Alto high school teacher, is the mother of Brin's wife, Anne Wojcicki. Brin's company previously hired his mother-in-law as an educational consultant; she in turn has promoted in her Huffington Post column both Google Docs and an airship company Google appears to be invested in. Anne Wojcicki, of course, started 23andMe, a genetics-testing company that counts Google as a landlord and repeat investor.

Which is all by way of saying, we think Brin very much has earned the drumstick at Thanksgiving this year.

Wikipedia running ads

Owen Thomas — Tue, 04 Nov 2008 17:00:00 EST

What's that on the top of every page on Wikipedia, Jimmy Wales's nonprofit encyclopedia? Why, it's an ad! Wales had long promised that Wikipedia would not carry advertising, but he makes an exception for the Wikimedia Foundation, Wikipedia's nonprofit parent. What Wales doesn't mention: Wikipedia will soon have many new ways of making money available to it, thanks to a revision in its open-source license. Wikipedia is switching from an obscure, restrictive agreement with its roots in software documentation to a much looser Creative Commons copyright license — which means the Wikimedia Foundation will be able to profit from its volunteers' editorial work. While they're at it, why don't Wales and company just run banner ads, too? The donation drive seems like an excellent opportunity to show potential advertisers how effective Wikipedia's ads can be.

Who's going to TechTalk Menorca, the Balearic boondoggle?

Owen Thomas — Fri, 09 May 2008 18:20:00 EDT

Martin Varsavsky, the founder of Wi-Fi startup Fon, has concocted another excuse for Web 2.0's jet set to rack up frequent-flier miles and buy carbon offsets: It's called Menorca TechTalk, held on Varsavsky's ranch on the Mediterranean island this weekend. The website is password-protected, but Valleywag got a list of who's going. It's a curious mix of professional conference attendees, like Rapleaf's Auren Hoffman, Loïc Le Meur of Seesmic, TechCrunch's Michael Arrington, and David Sifry of Technorati, mixed in with a few people who have day jobs. There are even Googlers on the list — and when have you known those lot to leave the protective bubble of Mountain View? Oddly, Jimmy Wales did not seem to make the cut, though his New York patroness, Louise Blouin MacBain, is listed. In the comments, sort the TechTalkers into your preferred categories.

Alan Levy (BlogTalkRadio)
Alec Oxenford (OLX, DineroMail)
Alejandro Estrada (DineroMail)
Alexis Bonte (Erepublik.com)
Andrew McLaughlin (Google)
Anil de Mello (Mobuzz)
Arturo J. Paniagua (Hipertextual)
Auren Hoffman (Rapleaf)
Axel Schmiegelow (Sevenload, Denkwerk Group)
Benjamí Villoslada (Menèame)
Brent Hoberman (Mydeco)
Carlos Martìn (IG Expansiòn)
Cedric Maloux
Christophe F. Maire (Nokia gate5, investor)
Claudia Gisiger-Gonzalez (UNHCR)
Dan Dubno (Blowing Things Up)
David Sifry (Technorati)
Demian M. Bellumio (Cyloop)
Eduardo Arcos (Hipertextual)
Efe Cakarel (The Auteurs)
Ehssan Dariani (studiVZ)
Esteban Sosnik
Esther Dyson (EDventure)
Felix Petersen (Plazes)
Hans Peter Brøndmo (Plum)
Ibrahim Evsan (Sevenload)
Ivan Communod (Vpod.tv)
Jacob Hsu (Symbio)
James Gutierrez (Progress Financial)
Jennifer L. Schenker (BusinessWeek)
John Markoff (The New York Times)
Joichi Ito (Creative Commons, Six Apart Japan, investor)
Jon Berrojalbiz (Trading Motion)
Jonas Birgersson (Labs2)
Jörg Rohleder (Vanity Fair)
José María Figueres (Grupo Felipe IV)
Jose Marin (IG Expansion)
Julio Alonso (Weblogs SL)
Lars Hinrichs (XING)
Loïc Le Meur (Seesmic)
Louise T Blouin MacBain (Louise Blouin Media)
Lukasz Gadowski (Spreadshirt.com, investor)
Lukasz Wejchert (Onet.pl)
Marc Samwer (European Founders Fund)
Marcelo Claure (Brightstar Corp.)
Marko Ahtisaari (Blyk, Dopplr, FON)
Mathias Entenmann (Betfair)
Matt Biddulph (Dopplr)
Megan Smith (Google)
Michael Arrington (Techcrunch)
Michael Jackson (Mangrove Capital Partners)
Michael Wolf (Farallon Point)
Nikesh Arora (Google)
Ola Ahlvarsson (Result, FON)
Om Malik (Giga Omni Media)
R.J. Friedlander (Grupo Planeta)
Ricardo Galli (Menéame)
Rodrigo Sepúlveda Schulz (Vpod.tv)
Rupert Schäfer (DLD, Hubert Burda Media)
Scott Rafer (Lookery, Mashery, Winksite)
Tariq Krim (Netvibes)
Thomas Crampton (Next Media)

Jimmy Wales's bigger scandal: Elevation Partners

Owen Thomas — Mon, 17 Mar 2008 02:47:12 EDT

The New York Times has picked up Valleywag's extensive reporting on the ongoing Jimmy Wales scandal (How to decode the Times story: Whenever they say "a gossip Web site," they mean us.) While most of the story is a rehash, it does raise one interesting point: What's the relationship between Wikipedia and VC firm Elevation Partners? Roger McNamee of Elevation insists he's just acting as a donor and volunteer fundraiser in pulling in $1 million for Wales's Wikimedia Foundation nonprofit. But Wales admits in the article to proposing Wikipedia-branded business ventures like a trivia game or a TV documentary, with funding from Elevation Partners. Another plan we've heard: Changing the terms by which Wikipedia contributors add to the online encyclopedia to a more liberal Creative Commons license. That would make the site's content more readily reused in, say, printed works sold for profit. (Illustration by a newspaper)

I'm an idiot. Someone please explain "Attribution" to me

Paul Boutin — Wed, 19 Dec 2007 11:59:27 EST

I don't compare Creative Commons licenses to the Codex Seraphinianus just to be cruel. True, cruelty is part of the fun, but I'm honestly confused. It comes down to one word I don't grok. Here's your chance to explain it to us idiots.

Creative Commons is supposed to be easy. As commenter cowsandmilk put it, "You learn 4 words and you're set." But watch where I run into trouble with these four mouthful-of-letters words:

Noncommercial: This one's easy. No making money off the work. Don't even try.

No Derivatives: Use the work as is only. No remixes, mashups, or 100-word-versions.

Sharealike: Um, I smell GPL here. This means if I use the work in another work, I have to license my work the exact same way. Which probably means forget it, but understood.

Attribution: The problem word. penguin07 summarized the confusing wording in the license for the above comic:

The comic itself is on a website that says, 'Except where otherwise noted, content on this site is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License."
What's that? You click the words and it goes to a page on another site that says,
—-
You are free:
to Share - to copy, distribute and transmit the work
to Remix - to adapt the work
Under the following conditions:
Attribution. You must attribute the work in the manner specified by the author or licensor (but not in any way that suggests that they endorse you or your use of the work).
For any reuse or distribution, you must make clear to others the license terms of this work. The best way to do this is with a link to this web page.
Any of the above conditions can be waived if you get permission from the copyright holder.
Nothing in this license impairs or restricts the author's moral rights.
—-
[But] nowhere does it say what "the manner specified by the author" to "attribute the work" is.

So, how am I supposed to attribute the work in the manner specified by the author, if the author doesn't specify a manner? Does that just mean I link to the same CC license page, and everyone's supposed to know that? It's the best guess, but if I'm wrong I could expose Gawker Media to exciting courtroom opportunities. I could email the author to ask, but one of the comic's main points is that CC saves everyone from having to do exactly that.

I went to the Creative Commons website and found this description:

Attribution. You let others copy, distribute, display, and perform your copyrighted work — and derivative works based upon it — but only if they give credit the way you request.

See the problem? There's no default value for the way you request for works where the author doesn't actually request a way. You CC people need to come up with a default "manner of attribution" and then, just as important, spell it out in the default license. Do that and I'll happily promote outstanding CC works on this 100,000-pageviews-a-day site without wincing. Except those also marked "Noncommercial," "No Derivatives" or "Sharealike." Simple!

Creative Commons plot exposed

Paul Boutin — Tue, 18 Dec 2007 20:13:17 EST

Why is it so hard to figure out Creative Commons? A paranoid explains:

At some point in 2009, the Creative Commons people are going to reveal that every single one of their licenses actually forbids any use at all, even LOOKING at a CC web page, and does so in such a way that it indemnifies Disney, Microsoft and Google for every page on the Internet. The resulting $463 billion settlement will make Boing Boing's editors the wealthiest 4.5 people in the galaxy.

All I ask is that they kill us last.

Creative Commons propaganda — the 1-slide version

Paul Boutin — Mon, 17 Dec 2007 15:21:00 EST

The latest self-satisfied work from the Creative Commons crowd claims to be designed for children. But this thing looks more like the Codex Seraphinianus than it does Dr. Seuss. As a former professional editor for Condé Nast, I spotted a logic error in the first three slides that will confuse many readers. My first reaction was to edit the text, but — seriously — I can't figure out what the copyright rules on it are. Folks, if you're truly serious about sharing your creative works, publish your next comic on a wiki.

Creative Commons in plain English

Nick Douglas — Mon, 17 Dec 2007 09:45:00 EST

How did someone finally explain the Creative Commons copyright alternative in a way the average American can understand? By trying to explain it to children in the developing world. This illustrated guide to CC was made for the One Laptop Per Child project. I dunno if it'll scan well into Swahili, but it works great in English.

Take this Wikipedia and shove it

Megan McCarthy — Tue, 04 Dec 2007 15:22:31 EST

Elevation Partners — you know, the hedge fund with added Bono — threw a party for Wikipedia at the Third Street Grill. The big news was that Wikipedia has updated its license to be compatible with Larry Lessig's Creative Commons, which should make it even easier for schoolkids to copy entries wholesale into their term papers. Or something. I was on my fourth Cape Codder by the time they started announcing things, so I wasn't really paying attention.

It was an odd venue for a tech party — a greasy diner by day, the Grill sits on a corner near the ballpark, neighborhing Border's, McDonald's, and dozens of men in Giants windbreakers asking passerbys if they need a ticket. They say open source is about software that's free as in "free speech," not "free beer," but the open bar featured plenty of the latter.

Elevation's Marc Bodnick greeted me by saying I wasn't drunk enough, and he was rarely without a can of Coors Light the entire night. The user-contributed entertainment was karaoke, backed by a talented, and very patient, live band. The clip above, captured by Irene McGee's cell phone, is a video of Wikipedia's Jimmy Wales and Creative Commons creator Lawrence Lessig announcing their collaboration and singing the Sonny and Cher classic "I Got You Babe." Seriously.

And apparently, no one's putting in long hours over at Yahoo; there was a large contingent from the troubled portal there. Shouldn't they have been back in the office, saving the company? Yahoo Brickhouse head Salim Ismail, our latest Silicon Valley tool, and Yahoo VP Bradley Horowitz took the mike, breaking out "Don't You Want Me," a fitting anthem. (The answer: No.)

Later on, I succumbed to the call of the spotlight, bleating out the Johnny Paycheck classic "Take This Job and Shove It," which given the events of last week seemed so appropriate. (Video by Irene McGee)

Fundraisers and philosophers fill tonight's agenda

Megan McCarthy — Wed, 10 Oct 2007 14:56:28 EDT

From the Valleywag Calendar, a surfeit of good causes and deep thinkers await:

Dorkbot SF gathers designers, engineers, and artists to show off their creations. Tonight's meetup is a fundraiser for Todd Blair, the Survival Research Labs crew member recently injured in an accident following a SRL show. Happening at San Francisco's Pier 33 at 7:30 p.m. [Upcoming]
Creative Commons Salon kicks off its fall fundraising campaign tonight at 7 p.m. at Shine on Mission Street. [Upcoming]
If you're interested in learning about the Singularity Institute, the Artificial Intelligence-focused think tank, the Institute staff will be on hand for an informal dinner discussion at Patxi's in Palo Alto at 7:30.
Got a to-do that's a must-do? Send it to calendar@valleywag.com. Check out more events on our Google Calendar:

(Photo by Scott Beale/Laughing Squid)

To-Do: Camp, shine, stir

Nick Douglas — Wed, 12 Jul 2006 18:18:18 EDT

Today and tomorrow: Catch the tail end of Mashup Camp in Mountain View, even though you missed lunch. Remember: "Camp" is what the kids are calling conferences. [Mashup Camp]
Tonight at 6: Two boys from Facebook speak at this month's Creative Commons Salon in Shine (the bar at 1337 Mission Street). [Creative Commons Salon]
Tonight at 6: Get shakin' at Stirr #4, where entrepreneurs schmooze for flacks, investors, and new employees. It's the most legitimate booze you'll ever expense to your company. Come give Valleywag tips in person. [Stirr.net]

To-Do tonight: Mashh it, mixx it, stirr it, digg it

Nick Douglas — Wed, 14 Jun 2006 21:58:51 EDT

Creative Commons Salon: Hang with master archiver Rick Prelinger and others at San Fran bar Shine. Starts at 6, drop in any time by 9. [Upcoming.org]
Stirr 3: The guest list's closed, but come late and see if you can't slip into this Palo Alto mixer after the one-minute demos are over — they're overrated anyway. What you need is to network. Hard. [Upcoming.org
Diggnation One Year Anniversary Show: Kevin Rose and Alex Albrecht (pictured) record the 50th Diggnation show at San Fran's Beach Chalet. Buy them shots, dude, so they can get sooooo wasted.