EXCLUSIVE: A minor victory in the IP wars

I’ve only just spotted this, and feel a bit foolish for not noticing it earlier, but have you noticed that the new Lib Dem website is Creative Commons? I’ve just checked and neither Labour nor the Conservatives have gone down this route. The Green Party has an inconsistent policy: a Google search shows that a lot of local parties are CC, but their (also new) website has a little, ugly copyright symbol at the bottom.

It makes a lot of sense for political parties to be CC. They are in the business of connecting, so why get precious about intellectual property? By going CC, members are free to use the resources on the website how they want and this of course fits in with the new ethos of the website which integrates FlockTogether (resulting in me receiving a phone call about Liberal Drinks yesterday – it works!).

And of course, to a small but growing hardcore, it also says something about the party’s values. We aren’t always as consistent on IP as some of us might like, but it certainly puts down a marker.

All in all, a job well done by the Innovations Team. Onwards and upwards!