Since the end of September our team has run 10 weekly Creative Commons (CC) related activities published on this site and to twitter under the #CCquest hashtag.
The idea was to create a small challenge around an aspect of CC that could be answered (and shared) in a single tweet.
It emerged from our project team meeting in September of this year. We saw this as one way to get the word out about our certification project with the hope that we would steer them from general quests to become ones more tied to the project’s developing materials.
Our team kept a running list of topics in a google doc. We took turns leading, writing, and tweeting them out.
Being the time of year when people reflect on their year and begin framing goals for the next year, I thought it would be a good idea to do some kind of summary.
The Ten Quests
- #CCquest 01: What Will You Bring to the CC Certification Potluck? Who Would You Invite? (Sep 28 2016)
- #CCquest 02: Who is Your Creative Commons Super Hero? (Oct 4, 2016)
- #CCQuest 03: What benefits have you received from sharing under CC? (Oct 12, 2016)
- #CCQuest 04: Extend gratitude to someone who shares under Creative Commons (Oct 18 2016)
- #CCQuest05 – Explain Creative Commons to your parents, kids, friends, strangers on the street… (Oct 25 2016))
- #CCQuest06 – Which Creative Commons CORE certification unit would you adopt? (Nov 4 2016)
- #CCquest 07 – What If: Imagining a CC Certification (Nov 15 2016)
- #CCquest 08 – Women of the Commons (Nov 22 2016)
- #CCquest 09 – Best examples of explaining Creative Commons in a visual form? (Nov 29, 2016)
- #CCquest 10: Explain it Like I’m Five? Difference Between Open Source and Creative Commons (Dec 6 2016)
Just because these are past does not mean you cannot go back and respond.
I am confident saying it did drive us some web site traffic, not millions, but a good amount:
Web site visit stats from WordPress JetPack, overlay of dates of the 10 #CCquests
Getting into the nuances of licenses and reuse is not easy given the limited number of words in a tweet to express oneself. So it’s no surprise that the more popular ones like Creative Commons Super Hero and Women of the Commons are ones where people call out on twitter to recognize others. Plus the were fun. The Women of the Commons one had a wonderful spreading effect, and many found it took many more than one tweet to recognize everyone they wanted to.
Kelsey tried to get access to an ideal twitter handle that was only used for one tweet
hey @uncommonwomen are you still using this account? we just had #CCQuest about Women in the Commons & would love this handle
— Kelsey Wiens (@bella_velo) December 1, 2016
There is also a definite boost when @Creativecommons gave us a retweet (having 600,000 followers helps).
If You Want Some Data We Got It
I set up a Twitter TAGS worksheet (the analysis / archicing Google Spreadsheet created by Martin Hawksey) to track the activity on the #CCquest hashtag.
The summary indicates 706 tweets. The most frequent 5 people were naturally, those of us on the project, but we had other active participants and then a long tail…
Most active participants in #CCQuest from the Twitter TAGS worksheet
Maybe more interesting is that this list has 246 unique participants, and yes most with one tweet. But that counts for something. We thank all of you:
@_Daniel_Scott, @14prinsp, @A_L_T, @ACatAteMyTweets, @acoolidge, @actualham, @aHEMpublishing, @alisonmarigold, @ammienoot, @AmreaderToo, @annekenn, @ariaporo22, @ARWalz, @atarkowski, @avunque, @Bali_Maha, @BCcampus, @BCOpenText, @BeckPitt, @benmackley, @bennettscience, @bevangelist, @bmuramatsu, @BrenAbolivier, @brlamb, @bryanjack, @BryanMMathers, @carobotero, @carolak, @catherinecronin, @CC_Aotearoa, @CC_Argentina, @CCMalaysia, @ccpolska, @cgreen, @chemtube3d, @CherylHW, @ChildsElizabeth, @chrissinerantzi, @christergund, @cippic, @clhendricksbc, @clintlalonde, @clover, @colinmadland, @ComicsGrid, @CosmoCat, @CultureFix_, @cwharlow, @dajbelshaw, @Dan_Blick, @demunz, @dendroglyph, @DeyaniraS, @digitalasiahub, @DJKrushen, @dkernohan, @dogtrax, @DominicOrr, @dompates, @Don_Watkins, @dormanmath, @drchuck, @drgong, @DrRimmer, @dun3buggi3, @edifiedlistener, @epilepticrabbit, @ericsteuer, @erinandelijah, @ernestopriego, @ethnomuseumwars, @fbobraga, @fgraver, @g_fra, @g1ngerpr1nce, @GardnerCampbell, @ggevalt, @GOGN_OER, @gotsemantics, @Gouwehand, @GraemeEarl, @grammasheri, @grumpator, @GuatemalaCC, @harriolkn, @hbailie, @hj_dewaard, @iamjessklein, @ifrank, @ignasi, @ilkayholt, @interruptortv, @irynakuchma, @itz_anto95, @janedaily, @jatenas, @jdtabish, @jennihayman, @jenny_quarles, @jgmac1106, @jmenglund03, @jo_quer, @joawaszka, @johnjohnston, @JohnWLamp, @Jojit_fb, @josiefraser, @jtittsler, @k_whybaba, @KamathIndira, @KateGreen28, @KavuBob, @kcunihull, @KeeganSLW, @ken_bauer, @kiTchenerd, @krepanas, @laura_ritchie, @leohavemann, @librarypaula, @LNKalshoven, @LornaMCampbell, @lorrainechu3n, @lrblurb, @LTGLancsUni, @ltribe, @Mackiwg, @MalJayaram, @MarenDeepwell, @margymaclibrary, @MariMoreshead, @Mcarthur_Joe, @McDawg, @mctoonish, @Meerkatix, @megasali, @MelioraJG, @metamemette, @mhawksey, @MichalBoni, @MillerJamison, @MissGoogle, @MissionTIC, @mixmaxmin, @MJaz1000, @mmu_man, @MostafaAzadKam1, @MrAndersonELA, @mrkrndvs, @MsBeenz, @nanwarner, @natemacinnes, @NeilMorrisLeeds, @nikora75, @nlouwrens, @nsdedwards, @NvrStpLearning, @Obviously_Cloe, @oeconsortium, @Oelmann_Richard, @OER_Hub, @oerworldmap, @oncee, @OnlineCrsLady, @opencontent, @OpenExpl, @OpenMediaOrg, @OtterScotter, @PacoIniesto, @paigecuffe, @panopen, @Pascal_Av, @patlockley, @paulbrichardson, @paulineridley, @penpln, @pgolisch, @pgstacey, @philosopher1978, @piers_hollott, @pixlz, @profjcarson, @ProfRooney, @PW_Passos, @quill_west, @QUT_IP, @rebekahwegener, @remixmanifesto, @RMoeJo, @roberperdomo, @ROER4D, @Romain_DAVID_13, @RusulAlrubail, @Salmawi, @SandroBonazzola, @santanuvasant, @sarahjfc, @scannopolis, @SFarley_Charlie, @sheilmcn, @ShmaeganM, @SimonTreen, @sponchtwit, @squeekyhoho, @src_contribute, @suebecks, @sufiboy, @SusanMGreig, @SussexHumsLab, @suukii, @SuzanKoseoglu, @sylviaw, @tamir_i, @tanbob, @tarahkerr, @terribateman, @Tessa_v_p, @thatpsychprof, @TimHitchcock, @timklapdor, @tomonagashima, @Toni_M_Arboleda, @tullney, @UKCopyrightLit, @ukoer, @VConnecting, @verenanz, @Vervate, @visualthinkery, @VivienRolfe, @vrodes, @WarwickLanguage, @WeAreOpenCoop, @wearewapisasa, @weblearning, @wentale, @wernerio, @xolotl, @xplanarob
We also get from this spreadsheet an archive that can be searched and filtered by time range (it also provides a visual cue to the frequency of activity)
My favorite part of Twitter TAGS is the conversation explorer which graphs connections (mentions, retweets), and allows you to explore the activity of single nodes. The pattern is what we affectionately call the “Death Star” which hopefully you understand is not a metaphor but more of a visual pattern.
#CCquest Conversation explorer, with details shown for Alek Tarkowski, who participated in several quests (Thanks Alek!)
Any More Quests, Johnny?
It’s the end of the year, and with things winding down to engage in celebrations and calendar flipping, the #CCquests are on pause mode. Again, the activity has been hardly massive; virality may be over-rated (or maybe that’s my cop-out), but still, I am pleased we at least had many examples where the tweets got rippled out there. We saw some key nodes who were able to spread them effectively.
At our next project team meeting in early January, we will be talking about hopefully re-casting the quests towards specific activities that are related to, or even more likely, part of the developing CC Certification.
Thanks for questing with us (feel free to add a comment below and clamor for more).
Featured image: This image was found in Wikimedia Commons: Velomobiel.nl Quest.jpg by Erik Wannee is licensed CC BY-SA Just out of curiosity I looked for more information about it. The Quest is a model of a Dutch made human powered vehicle “the ultimate commuting vehicle… fast, comfortable, efficient and provides excellent weather protection.”
