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Virtual communities and licensing

This document provides a comprehensive overview of virtual communities, their development, and the associated licensing models. It explores how virtual communities help organizations enhance traditional operations by fostering collaboration on shared interests. The text examines the essential role of developers in building these communities and highlights key technical and content perspectives. Licensing models, including open source and Creative Commons, are discussed, emphasizing the importance of sharing and collaboration in these virtual spaces. Understanding these concepts is crucial for creating successful and sustainable virtual communities.

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Virtual communities and licensing

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  1. Virtual communities and licensing Mediamaisteri Group PL 82 (Pyynikintie 25) 33101 Tampere Finland mediamaisteri.com SELEAC 2003-4715 /001-001 EDU-ELEARN

  2. General overview of virtual communities • A virtual community may support someorganization that wants to make its existing traditionaloperation more effective • Some web communities operateonly relating to a certain topic or objective • Many web-based virtual communities arebecoming more and more professional • When developers and users see that they will get more from the virtual community than they give, the community starts to expand rapidly • The role of the main developer or developer team is vital SELEAC 2003-4715 /001-001 EDU-ELEARN

  3. General overview of virtual communities • It is very difficult to get virtual community developing only by thinking resources and financial aspects of the work • Virtual community grows from the genuine need to work for the community Has to fit to the individual objectives! • In time members of the community will find resources that they can use to the benefit of the virtual community and also benefit from that  Win-to-win situation SELEAC 2003-4715 /001-001 EDU-ELEARN

  4. General overview of virtual communities • Input to the virtual community can be described as an investment to the future • Product selling and services linked to the community work • substantial benefits f.ex. by saving money in yearly license fees • getting learning content for the organizational use • Virtual community is challenging to start but the impact can be global in content or software production areas SELEAC 2003-4715 /001-001 EDU-ELEARN

  5. Technical perspectives • Virtual Community can use different technology models • Protocols can be http, https etc.  Usually normal web standards (client/server) • Content creation standard usually in learning html, xhtml, xml  SCORM • Learning object is based on idea of how virtual community shares content • Video, sound, animation, excesise standards (IMS QTI, GIFT etc.) SELEAC 2003-4715 /001-001 EDU-ELEARN

  6. Content perspectives • Requirement for the community to live and prosper = Enough valuable content motivatingthe participation • Community members and supporters shouldencouraged to submit content into the portal • There may be a barrier to submitting content that has been expensive to produce to the community • Institutes and organizations work with very different business models  government funding vs. comercial training SELEAC 2003-4715 /001-001 EDU-ELEARN

  7. Content perspectives • Those who submit content into the databasemust accept the following terms: • The name of the author is recorded in thedatabase, but also other users have right to use and modify theobject • Modified content can be imported into the systemwith reference to the original document as the basis of their content • A new version of the content can be uploaded into the system by the original author, successor or validators and chief editors • Users can translate existing learning objects to their own language and import the translations into the system SELEAC 2003-4715 /001-001 EDU-ELEARN

  8. Licensing models in general • Open Source Software products are licensed, not sold • Traditionally software companies have developed software in-houseand used end user license agreements  Limited rights to use the software for specificpurposes • Usually, source code is not shared anddistribution is restricted • In academic circlessoftware has been for a long time developed with theprinciples of open source code and free distribution • Licensing models can be divided to a) Technical licensing models b) Content licensing models SELEAC 2003-4715 /001-001 EDU-ELEARN

  9. Technical licensing models 1) Commercial licensing 2) Double licensing 3) OS -licensing SELEAC 2003-4715 /001-001 EDU-ELEARN

  10. Content licensing models 1) Commercial licensing 2) Separately agreed use 3) OS -licensing  Creative commons • Offer some of your rights to any taker, and only on certain conditions • Possible to match conditions from the different options • Attribution • Noncommercial • No Derivative Works • Share Alike (www.creativecommons.org) SELEAC 2003-4715 /001-001 EDU-ELEARN

  11. Creative commons (Open content) • Open community operates by utilizing open principles • Virtual communities develop certain content or software involves co-operation and is based on idea of releasing all work to be utilized by anyone interested • Only rule is that you have to share you work also back to the virtual community • Every community has a responsible developer group that decides which completed contents or software are released in community • The actual release occurs under a license (GPL/GNU), which enables free use and further development of products SELEAC 2003-4715 /001-001 EDU-ELEARN

  12. Creative commons (Open content) • One example of the software released under GNU/GPL is Linux operating system • In scope of eLearning similar open communities are for example Moodle (http://moodle.org) and FLE (http://fle3.uiah.fi/) • Worldwide there are tens of similar virtual communities in eLearning • Also the communities specialized in open content are starting to work under comparable licenses (http://www.gnu.org/licenses/licenses.html#GPL) SELEAC 2003-4715 /001-001 EDU-ELEARN

  13. Discussion • Why is licensing important for the virtual communities? • What kind of experiences do you have of using different licensing models? SELEAC 2003-4715 /001-001 EDU-ELEARN

  14. Sources • Bäck, A. & Väliharju, T. Creating an e-Learning Content Community for Graphic and Media Communication Technologies. 2004. • Lee, Fion S.L.; Vodel, Douglas; Limayem, Moez; Virtual Community Informatics: A Review and Research Agenda. Journal of Information Technology Theory and Application (JITTA), 2003, 5, 1, pp. 47-61. • Välimäki, M. & Oksanen, V. Evaluation of Open Source Licencing models for a Company Developing Mass Market Software. 2002. SELEAC 2003-4715 /001-001 EDU-ELEARN

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