How do I license and create open content?
How do I license and create open content?
Creating open content is easy. All you need to do is take your original resources (e.g. PowerPoint slides, booklets, tests, videos, podcasts and simulations) and apply an open licence.
This directory promotes the use of Creative Commons licences for specifying how others may use, share and adapt resources, and encourages authors to make their resources as open as possible. See ‘What is a creative commons licence?’ for further information, and ‘Get a CC licence’ for step-by-step instructions.
Once you have licensed your work you need to find a place to host it online before you can link it to this directory. See ‘Where can I host my resource?’ for more details.
What is a Creative Commons license?
What is a Creative Commons licence?
The OpenContent directory encourages the use of Creative Commons licensing.
Creative Commons is a non-profit organisation devoted to expanding the range of creative works available to others to legally share and build upon. The organisation has released several variations of copyright licences which allow creators to communicate which rights they reserve, and which rights they waive for the benefit of recipients or other creators. Creative Commons has been described as being at the forefront of the 'Copyleft' movement, which seeks to support the building of a richer public domain by providing an alternative 'Some rights reserved' compared to the traditional 'All rights reserved' licence.
For more information on Creative Commons consult the document What is Creative Commons?
| License | Clause | Code | Meaning for Users | Meaning for Creators |
|---|---|---|---|---|
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Attribution | BY | Attribution is always implied when using the Creative Commons license. This license will ensure anyone who uses your work will give you credit for being the creator. | You can use the content as long as you reference the original creator. |
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Non-Commercial | NC | You can freely use the work as long as it is not for commercial gain. | Your work will not be used by others for commercial gain. |
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No Derivatives | ND | You can use the work in its original verbatim form alone. You may not adapt or re-work the material. | Your work will be available for use in its original form and will not be modified. |
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Share Alike | SA | You can use the content freely as long as you also share it using the same license in which you found it. | Anyone who uses your work will share it the same way you have, ensuring the continuing openness of your original work. |
Creative commons gives us space to operate between full copyright and the public domain. Each license combines a set of restrictions which protect certain rights while letting others know what they can do with the material. Some of the licenses are quite restrictive and actually resemble full copyright while others are quite lenient and require attribution only. The chart below shows the full range of licenses available.
Read more about Creative Commons at:
http://creativecommons.org/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Creative_Commons
Get a Creative Commons license
Get a Creative Commons license
Licensing your work is as simple as visiting the Creative Commons website, clicking the "get a licence button", selecting the conditions of the licence, and stipulating your jurisdiction
If you want to apply the licence to a web page, simply copy and paste the HTML code into the relevant file(s). Click here to view some examples of referencing openly licensed content.
If you want to apply the licence to documents that reside on your computer (e.g. MSWord documents and presentations) you need to gather the plain text and button manually. This can be tricky so we have created the following screencast to help you through the process.
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Licensing offline works (Large file-may take a few minutes to download) |
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Licensing offline works (Youtube Alternative: If you can not view the video above) |
If you are familiar with the licensing process, you can also simply cut and paste your license from the table below. It is best practice to include both the license badge and the license text somewhere in your document.
| Licence Badge | Licence Text |
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This work is licenced under the Creative Commons Attribution 2.5 South Africa License. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.5/za/ or send a letter to Creative Commons, 171 Second Street, Suite 300, San Francisco, California 94105, USA. |
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This work is licenced under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.5 South Africa License. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.5/za/ or send a letter to Creative Commons, 171 Second Street, Suite 300, San Francisco, California 94105, USA. |
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This work is licenced under the Creative Commons Attribution-No Derivative Works 2.5 South Africa License. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/2.5/za/ or send a letter to Creative Commons, 171 Second Street, Suite 300, San Francisco, California 94105, USA. |
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This work is licenced under the Creative Commons Attribution-Non-Commercial 2.5 South Africa License. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/2.5/za/ or send a letter to Creative Commons, 171 Second Street, Suite 300, San Francisco, California 94105, USA. |
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This work is licenced under the Creative Commons Attribution-Non-Commercial-Share Alike 2.5 South Africa License. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/2.5/za/ or send a letter to Creative Commons, 171 Second Street, Suite 300, San Francisco, California 94105, USA. |
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This work is licenced under the Creative Commons Attribution-Non-Commercial-No Derivative Works 2.5 South Africa License. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/2.5/za/ or send a letter to Creative Commons, 171 Second Street, Suite 300, San Francisco, California 94105, USA. |
Where can I host my resource?
Where can I host my resource?
The OpenContent directory is designed as a place to describe and showcase teaching and learning content already hosted elsewhere on the web. Resources can be stored on departmental servers, on Vula, or on media-specific sharing sites such as Slideshare (for ppt presentations), YouTube (video), or Flickr (image collections).
Files hosted on Vula can be made publicly available. You can do this by navigating to the resource you want to share, clicking on the ‘Actions’ button to the right of the resource name, and then clicking ‘Edit Details’. As long as you are the site owner or the person who uploaded the file, you will be able to see the option ‘Availability and Access’. Click on ‘This file is publicly viewable’ to make the file accessible to anyone on the internet. At the bottom of the page is the ‘Web Address (URL)’ which you can use to point people to the file. This is the URL you will enter into the directory.
If you are having trouble finding a place to store your resources but want to share, please get in touch with the OpenContent team via the ‘Feedback’ link at the top of this page. We can help!