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CommunityMark

Page history last edited by Chris Messina 14 years, 10 months ago

What is a community mark?

A Community Mark is any designation that is used by a community to represent itself.

What is the purpose of a community mark?

The purpose of a community mark is to make clear or obvious the works and derivative efforts of a community.

Enforcement

Since the purpose of a community mark is not trade, it is up to the community to protect the integrity of such a mark.

Lifetime

A community mark shall be in effect for as long as the community is willing to protect abd uphold the integrity of the mark, and no longer.


The case for community marks was first made on Chris Messina's blog. He further elaborated on why BarCamp is a community mark.

Here's the Executive summary: In recommending the establishment of Community Marks, I propose that an alternative to trademarks is needed for community-based projects like Bar Camp and Microformats. The need for Community Marks stems from the non-commercial focus of these projects and the way these projects spread virally on the web. While we need to protect the integrity of a brand like Bar Camp, licensing and legal enforcement is too costly in terms of time and money to make sense for loosely joined communities. Therefore, if we can leave enforcement up to the community via the Community Marks denotation, we will be able to serve the vital function of identifying a community’s work and projects without burdening that community with undue legal process and enforcement costs.