Take My Site- Please

Collaboration and sharing are the building blocks of what most people call Web 2.0. Sites like mine are made better when YOU take a post of mine and riff off it on your own site, or when I come along, find something cool you’ve written, and reference it here. Some folks aren’t comfortable understanding what’s considered okay to do and not okay to do, and lots of people have strong opinions on how information should and shouldn’t be shared. Most of what I’m going to refer to below is basically a retelling of the Creative Commons licensing of content, but in my own way, I want to really spell it out.

Here’s where I stand with regards to information you find here on [chrisbrogan.com]:

I Love Seeing My Stuff Out There

The purpose of writing and recording and making all this media is for people to take the ideas and spread them to the universe. That’s why I do it. Get out there and share my stuff with others. Add to it. Make your own ideas part of the conversation. That’s what it’s there for.

Great for Non-Commercial Use

Feel free to take my RSS publication of my content and put it in your blog reader, on your site, via email, or however you want to use it, provided you’re not trying to make money from what I’ve written (for example, by placing ads around my text).

Please Feel Free to Re-Use and Mash It Up

You can muck with the stuff I put up here, even audio and video, all you want, provided that you share the results of what you do in the same fashion as I’ve shared mine. Meaning, if you take a video clip of mine and add it to something you’re doing, you have to license yours such that someone else can take YOUR clip and add it to something they want to do. Make sense?

Links and Love, Baby

You know the old saying, “Say what you want, just spell my name right?” Well, that’s really a powerful truth in the world of online media making. By linking to my site, and by linking to posts that you enjoyed or disagree with or outright hate, you’re telling the universe where I am, and that’s very lovely and useful. So, please when you’re referencing people’s stuff (like mine), add links back to what you’re talking about, so that others can know where to find the original work, and so that people understand the RELATIONSHIP of the information you’re sharing.

Want to Publish My Site on Yours?

Who knows? Maybe you’ve got a corporate spot to keep social media posts. Maybe you’re doing a project where you want live and active blogs that talk about stuff you’re interested in keeping tabs on. If that’s you, then here’s a code snippet that you can add (it’s javascript) to republish my stuff directly without much fuss. If that doesn’t work, I can help you for sure. I’m very happy with sharing what I’ve done. It’s why I do it.

Just drop me a comment, and I’ll email you a javascript snippet (tried posting it, but I seem to be unable to share without actually executing the code).

And Pay Attention to the Rockstars

The people who’ve been added to the Rockstars page are YOU, the people who come here, who participate in this community, and who have great stuff to say on your own blogs and podcasts. I strongly recommend that you visit those sites often, as they have great information to share, as well. (If you’re not on that page but want to be, drop me a line).

This is why we make stuff available online. Most of us want our information to be out there and freely available. With only a few restrictions, it’s easy to make this the culture of collaboration that people talk about all the time. Feel free to add my stuff to your collaborations. I’m happy to be part of the story.

Questions? Disputes? What do you do about sharing your work? If your information is free, where do you derive value for what you do? How are you participating?

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