Voluntary Collective Licensing, the Open Way

My colleague Ren has put together a nice diagram of the basic components of a voluntary collective license, along the model that EFF has proposed. Even nicer, he's posted all the source files under Creative Commons license so others can rearrange or add to the diagram with their comments.
Don't think sampling will work? Add a few "bugs" to the picture.
Like hardware levies? Add them in.
Then, please share what you rip-mix-burn

WiFi Everywhere

If all the open APs you can find in most urban areas weren't enough evidence, today's New York Times Op-Ed, The Free Lane on the Information Highway, shows open-access WiFi is going mainstream.

WiFi holds the promise of bridging America's much discussed digital divide — if we make it ubiquitous and free to use, like the public library system. After all, just as roads and bridges were among the most important public investments in the industrial period, wireless access to the Internet is arguably the most crucial public investment of the information age.

Ubiquitous, unmetered WiFi access can help make the Internet available to everybody, with benefits that should be clear even to those unswayed by notions of "public good." Just as businesses benefit when their employees are literate (public schools and libraries) and when their customers can get to stores (public roads and mass transit), they benefit when customers can easily search their online offerings to buy their e-commerce or entertainment products.

From SxSW to WxNW

Back in San Francisco, that is, after visiting Austin for SXSW Interactive. The best part, for me, was talking with people -- on panels and off -- who are pushing the bounds of technology to do more for us, its users and public, rather than treating us like mere consumers. Eli Pariser and Zack Exley got it, and have made MoveOn.org into a site that empowers its users as citizens. Jonathan Abrams talked, by contrast, about constraining users into his vision of what Friendster should do.

I'm sorry to have missed the Magnatune/Creative Commons party, but the EFF, EFF-Austin, Creative Commons, Magnatune party was a good preview.