Archive:Get involved

Congratulations! Now that you’ve learned a bit about Free Culture, it’s time to share the love. Whether you can spare a few minutes or are ready to make a long-term commitment, we’ve got an activity that meets your interest. Take a look!


 * If you have 10 seconds
 * Get on the high-traffic discussion e-mail list, or the low-traffic announcements list if you want to be involved in getting this movement running.


 * If you have 5 minutes
 * Raise Awareness. Print out a Free Culture flyer from our Propaganda page and post it in a public, visible (legal!) place. Try a train station, college cafeteria, or office bulletin board
 * Speak Up. Send an e-mail to your congressional representative (U.S. residents can get contact info here. Let them know that copyright issues matter to you – in general, and with regard to specific legislation.
 * Wear It! Want a button to trumpet your support for Creative Commons licensing? How about a Frisbee to bring to next week’s Ultimate game? We’ve got lots of great stuff – contact your college rep if you’re a student, or write to us.


 * If you have 15 minutes
 * Join In. Use a Creative Commons license for one of your works. Have you written a story or recorded a great guitar riff? Did you take a stunning shot of Mount Rushmore on your last vacation? Share it! A quick stop at the CC website will let you choose your own licensing requirements. Then let the world know, by listing it at commoncontent.org.


 * If you have 30 minutes
 * Encourage Media Literacy. Every day, the mainstream media runs articles that could include a Free Culture perspective… but don’t. Keep an eye out for those articles in your local paper, and send an e-mail when you see one. Your choice whether to write a Letter to the Editor or just e-mail the reporter privately.


 * If you have an hour
 * Go Public. Benjamin Franklin gave advice on sex. Machiavelli offered tips on power. Luckily for us, their works are in the public domain. Now it’s time to take the next step, and make them not just public but freely available online. To help, visit Project Gutenberg.


 * If you have a little time every week
 * Be a Watchdog. Open a newspaper and you’re likely to see Free Culture issues popping up on the business pages, in tech columns, and arts & culture coverage. Yet few reporters are well prepared to address Free Culture, much less tackle the nuances. Next time you run across an article that reveals such ignorance, don’t just fire off a response. Instead, start a dialogue by “adopting” a particular reporter, and responding regularly (with both praise and concerns) about the articles they write.
 * Lend a Hand. Are you in college? There may be a Free Culture club on your campus already. Take a look at our Campus Groups wiki page, and pitch in. Your talents are welcome!


 * If you want to jump in the deep end
 * Start a FreeCulture.org chapter at your college. If there isn’t a chapter already… be a pioneer.
 * Launch the Next Generation. If you’re no longer attached to a school, college, or university, check whether there is a Copynight or CC Salon in your town, and if there isn’t already one for you to attend, start one yourself!

Why should you get involved? Here are some reasons.

Convinced? Here's what you can do:


 * Join us by IRC in #freeculture on irc.freenode.net.
 * Get on our discussion list if you want to be involved in getting this site and this movement running.
 * Participate in building the FreeCulture.org wiki.
 * Join the freeculture livejournal community.

Soon you'll be able to register as a free culture advocate in our student activist database, and then you'll be able to easily locate other activists in your area. Until then, the mailing list and IRC chat room will have to do. Help us connect you to people and materials you can use to grow our movement. We're pushing for open standards, free networks, and good information policy on campus.

This is your chance to help start what has been called "the first new social movement of the 21st century." We your strong voices and sharp minds to build an effective student movement. We're the ones who are going to live and work in the information age, and we're the ones who're going to have to make sure it doesn't suck.

Designers / Web Programmers
Freeculture.org needs your help. We Swatties can't do it alone! If you have design skills or suggestions, contact us.

Artists / Musicians
Try releasing your work under a Creative Commons license so that others are free to share and build on it. Try making art out of material that's available in the public domain. (Or go ahead and make it with copyrighted work, we won't tell.) Make art that we can use to promote the movement. Contact us and introduce yourself.

Writers / Thinkers
Participate in the Freeculture.org weblog. Sign up for an account and e-mail freedom@freeculture.org to ask us for a blogging account. Please understand that we're not going to let you post on our blog until we know who you are, so you're going to have to contact us, become part of the community and get to know us before you can help with the blog. Of course, anyone can help edit our wiki.