Creative Commons Pulls out of BzzAgent

Update: The concise version of this whole story.

Lawrence Lessig, released a statement about ending the bzzagent Creative Commons campaign. Suw's response.

Although, I am disappointed with the decision, I respect it. Especially given the lengthy and very well thought out response by the esteemed Mr. Lessig.

Maybe bzzagent should launch pro-bono campaigns for startups trying to break out? Kinda like this.  We'd be up for that.

And I agree with the commenter, Rob Simmons, on Lessig's blog:

I think the Red Cross is an awesome example of a group that could benefit from GoodBzz without the kind of criticism I've seen here. Was that a real or hypothetical example? I'd almost definitely get involved in BzzAgent if there was a GoodBzz blood donation campagin, but I can't find such info from their main page w/o signing up first.

In fact, I've thought quite a bit about how WhizSpark could do a buzz spreading campaign for Red Cross Blood drives. My thought is that we could put up event websites for each blood drive that the Red Cross has all over the country and market them online. It is amazing how many blood drives are advertised by a-frame signs on the side of the road. I'd be willing to donate our services to reward people that spread the word about the blood drives. If we found big name brand product companies that'd be willing to donate prizes to people that spread the word, we could automatically track and report it *Transparently*.

Maybe bzzagent and WhizSpark could align to do that? Dave?

(Do I pitch people on my weblog too much? Someday it'll pay off.)

Comments

[Shane]

Do I pitch people on my weblog too much?

Based on this post alone: Yes, you do.

I found my way here because I'm interested in the ethical issues raised by the whole CC/BzzAgent brouhaha, and -- *particularly* in that context -- the fact that you're the only one I've seen that is trying to "spin" a well-ranked blog post on the topic into a pitch for your own personal gain is looking ethically suspect.

I didn't click on your "WhizSpark" link, so I don't know the full details of the matter. But that's just my point: given what I've said already, I don't *want* to.

Yeah, I know the rebuttal: it's just "your personal blog" and "your personal opinions" and so on. But whatever you think you're trying to do here, I suggest you rethink it.

[peter caputa]

Thanks for your feedback.

[Rob Simmons]

Wow! I got quoted! Maybe you didn't click the link, Shane, but I can't help but think that it was hard to avoid clicking it so that you could complain that the shameless plugging had kept you from visiting the site. Saying "this is a shameless plug for something I'm involved in" is in some ways the absolutely most transparent and honest marketing strategy in existance, and I'm not sure what point you're trying to prove.

In an academic setting, there has been a recent burst of discussion on an email discussion list about a particular piece of (research) software, and there were people that were asking "where could we learn some basic information about how to start learning this software." One source was the official documentation (which they appeared to be unaware of), another is a website I created as a side project (which, incidentally, has a CC Wiki license). I sent an email to the list saying "This is the official documentation, these are some other resources I put together." I don't see how that's at all different.

I guess, Shane, if you have a problem with Pete is doing here, then SpreadCC - heck, Creative Commons itself - is truly doomed. In fact, I think much of the disquiet CC people felt about the BzzAgent was that it would dilute and pervert the positive power of "I'm involved in this and think it's interesting" - exactly what I was doing on the email list and you were doing in this post - with the ambiguous and somewhat... oh, heck, "creepy," notion of "a third party is encouraging me to promote this and I think it's interesting..." Furthermore, that's why the Red Cross seemed like such a good idea to me! People have already HEARD of the Red Cross, the reminder is "there's this blood drive that I want you to know about."

Hmm... maybe everybody is getting sketched at creating "Bzz" for a brand like Creative Commons (Lessig correctly called it a "movement"), instead of a product (BzzAgent's apparent specality) or event (WhizSpark's apparent specality). I think I need to think about this thought a little more...