Creative Commons has been around for about 10 years now but there still seems to be some confusion over its uses and how the courts will rule on CC cases.  There have been a couple lawsuits involving photographs posted online with CC licenses that have then been used for commercial uses.  This seems to be a problem of people misunderstanding the CC licenses and how CC licensed content can be used.  Also many people are uninformed about Creative Commons even existing, as I am one of those guilty of that until hearing about it in class this year.  It seems that Creative Commons is taking the initiative to try to make their site simpler and easier to use, as well having information about what each license contains and how it is used.

To learn more about one of the major lawsuits check out this article from Creative Commons explaining their take: http://creativecommons.org/weblog/entry/7680

One of the things that we’ve been talking about in class is social entrepreneurship.  We’ve mostly dealt with organizations that use the internet to connect people with organizations or raise money for that organization.  However, blogging about the organization can be just as helpful as it build awareness.  Many of these organizations are in a start-up phase spending most of the time and efforts on raising capital to launch their programs or building projects.  Sometimes informing and updating the people interested in that organization gets last priority.  Take for example Chestnut Mountain Ranch, http://chestnutmountainranch.com/ , a home for troubled boys in West Virginia who are in the building phase of their organization.  I’m helping them with some marketing aspects for another class.  The Ranch has done a good job so far by having their director go on speaking tours, utilizing Facebook well (Here’s their page if you want to check it out: http://www.facebook.com/home.php?filter=lf#!/group.php?gid=16074778555&ref=ts), and gathering help from their community.  However, the website could be updated more frequently to let people interested in helping know what needs done still.  If someone would blog on their website about what is being done each week or month and what still needs done, that could be a huge help for them.

What about you?  Do you know of any organizations that could use a little help from social blogging?

Creative Commons is a website designed to help people find and share information and their creative works.  Now it isn’t a search engine like Google or Yahoo, rather it has three main functions:

- Find creative works that are available to you to use and share with others.

- License your own works so that others can use and share them as well.  The site helps people learn about licensing and publishing your creativity for others to use.

- Donating to the Creative Commons mission to help them out with their operating costs.

This looks like a pretty cool site that will definitely need some further research to see what its all about.  Check it out here: http://creativecommons.org/

Blogging has risen as a medium to break news and disseminate opinions.  This platform is greatly influencing sports as well.  One of the biggest indications of this fact is to look at the largest sports website, http://espn.go.com/, and see that they use bloggers extensively.  Most of the news entries are from bloggers who cover a certain sport or division within a sport.  One of my favorite sports blogs on ESPN is the NFC East Division blog as this is the division where my Philadelphia Eagles play.  Here’s the link to that site http://espn.go.com/blog/nfceast.  I can find alot more information on my sports teams now because the bloggers are dedicated to only covering the teams within that division.  This means anything important that happens in that division is talked about by this blogger and i’ll be able to see what he says.  This is a much better system that allows true fans to find out as much as possible about their teams and its players.  What’s your favorite sports blog?

I don’t know how many of you spend your saturdays going to garage sales, estate sales and auctions, but I’ve gone to quite a few with my parents over the years.  This can be a lot of fun and a great way to find some rare and unusual treasures, you know the junk that piles up in your basement or attic,  at a cheap price.  Plus getting in a bidding war with some stranger can be quite exciting in its own right.

Well now you can go online and find auctions and estate sales in your area and even bid on the items online.  Here are two of my favorite sites to find auctions:

http://www.auctionzip.com/ – auctionzip is a great way to find auctions in your area and preview the goods before you go.  This is for those of you who still like to go to the physical auction and touch and feel the goods before you purchase them. This site is just a great venue for information.

https://www.proxibid.com/ – Proxibid lets you view auctions and then bid on individual items from your living room or wherever you surf the web.  This is perfect for when you don’t have the time to go to the auction or you just don’t want to get up off the couch.

I know some of you are saying, “why don’t you just check out ebay?”  Well I like going to an auction or garage sale without really knowing what I’m looking for and hoping to find that one treasure or odd item that would really complete my room.    So if thats what you’re interested in then check out these sites.