Grants/Open for Good: Using Creative Commons for Social Design
Describe the project you are proposing as clearly as possible in just five sentences.
"Open for Good" is a research project that aims to spread awareness about the various people and organizations that are using design for good and are sharing their intellectual property through Creative Commons. There are a number of graphic designers, product designers, and architects that are exploring this exciting new territory, such as the Open Design Foundation and the Open Architecture Network. We will create a set of interviews with key designers in a style similar to This American Life, as well as produce a book that profiles a more comprehensive set of designers in a style similar to Architecture for Humanity's "Design Like You Give a Damn," and distribute this material directly to the 431 accredited US architecture and design programs' libraries in order to foster the growing interest in this type of work. Additionally, the material will be disseminated through a variety of electronic means, such as our website, podcasts, etc.
Detail the tangible project output (e.g., paper, blog post, written materials, video/film, etc.; this would be in addition to the final written report that successful grant recipients will be expected to deliver to CC at the conclusion of the project).
The deliverables, in addition to the final written report, will include:
1. One approximately 60-minute audio recording to be distributed on CD to schools as well as made available online via podcast, etc. 2. One book of approximately 140 pages to be distributed in hard copy to schools as well as made available online via PDF-format on our website, in segments on blogs, etc.
Describe the community you are targeting. How would the project benefit the community?
We are targeting, in particular, the architecture and design communities via the accredited US post-secondary school system. We feel that this means has the potential to reach a vast audience as students come from around the world to these programs, and the students, as designers of the future, have the potential to then spread awareness about the concept in their own communities, as well as participate in the movement of open design, providing new technologies and products for developing nations, architecture for slum communities, and more. Best efforts will also be made to spread knowledge about the movement, and about the profiled designers, in appropriate communities around the world where the designers are working, and to the public, at large, via the web.br />
We are very involved with the academic community via our close ties with UCLA, the university from which all of the current staff of our organization came from, as well as via our ties to the architecture and design community in Los Angeles, and our current ties to MIT and UC Davis. While our organization is young, we firmly believe that it is the best entity to take on such a project due to the simple fact that there are no other non-profit, charitable organizations that have our unique focus on research and social design, in conjunction with a broad interest in all of the design fields. We have recently completed or are currently working on similar projects that are researching new low-cost housing prototypes, the role of migrant workers in relationship to the World Expo in Shanghai, and on the current state of housing in Los Angeles.
How will you measure and evaluate your project’s impact - on your main participants? Other contributors? On the larger community?
We are aware that our project has impacts that are extremely long-term and are difficult to measure --
How many participants do you expect to be involved in your project? How will you seek and sustain their involvement?
We expect that the project will take the organizational efforts of our full staff, as well as additional effort
Describe how your project will benefit Creative Commons' mission to increase the amount of creativity (cultural, educational, and scientific content) in "the commons".
Describe what technologies and tools your project will use. What kinds of technical skills and expertise do you bring to the project? What are your technical needs?
What challenges do you expect to face, and how do you plan to overcome them?
How do you plan to sustain your project after the Creative Commons funding has ended? Detail specific plans. How do you plan to raise revenue to continue your efforts in the future?
How can this project be scalable, or have a scalable impact?
What resources and support do you expect Creative Commons to provide to your project to ensure its success (if any)?
Describe how your organization currently communicates with its community members and network partners. (100 words)
Legal
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