Tech entrepreneur Joi Ito is the new CEO of Creative Commons, the alternative copyright licensing organization that has spawned widespread sharing and reuse of digital content and educational materials – like course lecture notes available for free from MIT. The founder of Creative Commons, Stanford Law School professor Lawrence Lessig, has moved on to a new project, Change Congress, which describes itself as a movement to increase transparency in the US government’s legislative branch. So far it appears to be an online pledge campaign around a set of commitments, like “Don’t take money from lobbyists and political action commiteees.” The approach is different, but the mission sounds to me awfully similar to the Sunlight Foundation, which “serves as a catalyst to create greater political transparency and to foster more openness and accountability in government.” More about the Creative Commons changes and $4 million in new funding from the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation via Joi Ito’s blog.
