Building the African Commons : let's get technical

The media's contribution to the digital commons can be tremendous. Take, for example, the Rhodes New Media Lab's coverage of the 2005 National Arts Festival in Grahamstown. Because of their use of the Creative Commons attribution non-commercial share alike licence, 3 400 items of video, photography and reporting can now be re-used by others. According to site editor Vincent Maher the open content model works well since all non-commercial uses are permitted by default and commercial contracts can be entered into withpermission from the copyright-holders.