What license would I use?

I have been editing my blog about this throughout the week. I am not sure why I don't really know what I want to say about this, but after reading Kelly's blog I think I have a clearer voice.

For the most part I really like the creative commons/share alike concept. I don't think that I will every really create something that I wouldn't want someone to be able to use or expand upon to make better or just different.

But there is a side of me that then says, it might depend on what I was creating. I love being able to use things under the guise of educational, but I do want to make sure that whoever originally created gets recognized, but that is sometimes very difficult to do. People do not always post things using their real identities or give much information and it really can take a lot of effort to trace the information, at least I have found that with some images.

Now, if I spent years writing the next great American novel, I don't think I would put that out there under a creative commons license or anything similar. I would be expecting to actually make money off of that, assuming I could actually write well. But with things that I am creating in class, I really have not worried about if someone would use it or alter it. If my ideas inspire someone to take it to another level or in another direction, great.

But like Kelly, I do occasionally feel strange just putting all this information out there into the public domain. For me, it isn't that I don't want anyone to use something I create, I really don't want to share my personal things with the world. So far, I don't think my musings have gone into a personal realm I am uncomfortable with so there are no worries. I don't mind blogging about specific subjects, but I don't see myself using this as my personal diary and making that public.


In reading some of the information on Wikipedia about intellectual property, I do see there is a fine line to walk there. If we start saying that everything falls within intellectual property, how do we continue to grow and expand ideas? I don't know if anyone else saw the information about a letter Bill gates wrote chastising other code creators for taking the information he created and modifying it without giving him credit or monetary offers. I kind of found it a little funny, but do understand how after so many hours of hard work, you do deserve recognition for your efforts. If the information has been copyrighted or patented, then yes according to law there are steps you need to take to use that "item". But in the case of technology, there should be expectations that someone will take that information and expand upon it to hopefully help improve it and continue the growth.