[okfn-discuss] Promoting the Public Domain Review?

Tue Mar 1 11:43:45 UTC 2011

Thanks Peter,

FWIW I strongly feel that we should limit this to reviewing cultural
works that have entered the public domain because copyright has
expired, rather than broadening to include all forms of open
knowledge. I think we could consider doing similar domain specific
things for other areas (e.g. a blog on interesting public datasets,
which is something I've been thinking about a bit recently). If we
broaden this too much to focus on all forms of open knowledge, we risk
narrowing those who are interested in it to... people who are already
interested in open knowledge, like the people on this list. ;-)

One of the main points of this project is to reach and engage with new
audiences - e.g. those who are interested in cultural works (not just
those which are 'open'), scholars, artists, writers and so on.

Regarding the name - again I would reiterate that there will be a
significant transaction cost associated with switching. Its not just a
case of renaming the website and the domain, but of creating and
migrating a mailing list, renaming the Twitter account, explaining to
everyone that the name has changed, rebranding everything, and so on.
And is 'Publicana' or 'Chronicle of Public Works' or 'Open Review of
Books' really going to tell visitors *that* much more than the 'Public
Domain Review' does? FWIW I rather like the simplicity and directness
of the name. More on the background of the project here:

http://jonathangray.org/2010/10/17/introducing-the-public-domain-review/

I started this thread to ask for advise on how we can promote the
project, and it appears to be turning into one in which I'm trying to
defend the name and concept behind the project! ;-)

All the best,

Jonathan

On Tue, Mar 1, 2011 at 12:26 PM, Peter Murray-Rust <pm286 at cam.ac.uk> wrote:
>
> This is a great resource. It could easily become a classic. However the name
> MUST be changed (I didn't give it two thoughts). I'd omit the word review
> and - go for something Latin, like "Publicana".
> This gives us the chance to review things other than formal book content -
> databases, government info, maps, genes, etc. could be very interesting.
> Indeed it could become a showcase for the OKF - we were trying two weeks ago
> to see how newcomers to OKF could be given a quick introduction to what OKF
> did. This is one area...
>
> P.
> --
> Peter Murray-Rust
> Reader in Molecular Informatics
> Unilever Centre, Dep. Of Chemistry
> University of Cambridge
> CB2 1EW, UK
> +44-1223-763069
>

-- 
Jonathan Gray

Community Coordinator
The Open Knowledge Foundation
http://blog.okfn.org

http://twitter.com/jwyg
http://identi.ca/jwyg