There’s something powerful that occurs when people shift from being content consumers to content creators in the public sphere. Suddenly you’re the creator of intellectual property, you’re a digital citizen, and you have a responsibility and an accountability.

I recently had a discussion with a classmate regarding the requirement to upload Creative Commons content to WikiMedia spaces. He expressed frustration over the perception that any media uploaded to the public space of the internet is in public domain and should be freely usable. I realized that this general misconception prevails when people are primarily content-consumers rather than content-producers; that is they don’t yet understand the issues and foibles of web-presence.

I pointed out that in order to be a digital citizen and professional, I’m required and expected to post representations of my work (particularly as a designer) online. I post them on my own website that I pay for and manage myself. Search engines index the contents of my website (automated without explicit knowledge or permission) and then ‘served up’ the material to the world. We have no control over this process (logically material can’t be seen if its not indexed) however, that doesn’t mean I’ve given anyone permission to use my work as their own, to modify it, or heavens forbid to make money off of it through add supported revenue (yes, I’ve been a victim of this, forced to submit DMCA take-down notices as my only recourse). I’ve also installed several scripts to ‘tell’ search engines not to index certain directories and file types (jpeg, png, gif) but not all search engines pay heed to this. What about people that aren’t aware of how to do this or who don’t know any better? I decided to turn the tables and brought up the idea that in future he would be required to post papers, images/presentations, graphics even perhaps photos taken online, and that once one is a content-creator, he/she may feel very differently when this material shows up in some other person’s portfolio, or for sale somewhere (this happens more often than one would think). While I freely contribute creative commons photography, line-art and other materials, my designs are mine (or my clients). The way the web is currently structured, it’s up to citizens not to infringe upon people’s work. I don’t think this is a lot to ask, and corporations sue over this very thing every day. It’s individuals and self-starters who are most at risk.

Having students participate in blogs and other public means of online communication is particularly useful to help them make this shift from being content-consumers to content-producers. It also brings with it a better understanding of the many issues that surround digital participation, literacy and citizenship.

I was fairly amazed at the mature types of responses given by students with regards to the usefulness of educational blogging:

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