MeFi Projects

I chose to release my submarine novel for free under a Creative Commons license because I am committed to the open-source ideal. Unfortunately, it seems that no publisher would ever touch CC these days, and (more distressingly) lots of readers won't consider it because of our sad cultural heuristic of "free novel = awful". And then the book also doesn't fit nicely into any particular category. It's not really science fiction (the science is realistic). It's not really alternative-history (Hitler doesn't win the war). And it's not even a good fit for submarine novels (the submarines in it are cargo subs, not war subs — it also has strong female leads.) I fear I've doomed the thing to obscurity from the start. But I put years of work into it. I re-wrote it many times. I had it professionally copy-edited. People who do read it, love it. I love it. But this promotion stuff sucks. So if it sounds even vaguely appealing, save me by giving the book a shot! And then tell someone else about it… [more inside]
posted by kunstcleaver on Feb 18, 2024 - 4 comments

I made this YouTube video because I think the controversy around the new OGL is a great moment to really look at how capitalism attacks the commons and how collective resistance is a path to create economic democracy. Plus it seemed like a great chance to spread some communist propaganda to nerds!
posted by overglow on Jan 26, 2023 - 3 comments

The famous song has been out of copyright since 2017, so I commissioned a musician to produce 20 different versions ranging from sensible to silly. You can download high-quality WAVs under a CC0/public domain license to freely use in absolutely anything.
posted by malevolent on Jan 27, 2021 - 3 comments

You might also like... A crowd-sourced short story MetaFilter meta-collection spreadsheet! Anyone can add to it directly. Or add to it by filling out this form. Sort by publisher, author, word count, audio, buyability, and more. [more inside]
posted by aniola on Nov 2, 2020 - 3 comments

A Twitterbot that posts freely-licensed photographs of clocks. [more inside]
posted by Vesihiisi on Aug 17, 2018 - 1 comment

Dense images built out of photos gleaned from Flickr. A new one will be posted most mornings. [more inside]
posted by ardgedee on Jan 15, 2015 - 5 comments

One fun thing from the commons every day. Two rules: it has to be either openly licensed or public domain, and it has to have made us smile when we saw it.
posted by roll truck roll on Oct 3, 2014 - 2 comments

A collection of interviews with people who use Creative Commons licenses, with awesome illustrations by Luke Surl.
posted by roll truck roll on Nov 27, 2013 - 0 comments

1. Everyone has stories to tell. 2. Anyone can make a comic (even if you can't draw) 3. People often surprise themselves by rising to a creative challenge. THUS: A monthly comic book (PDF) comprising comics I've solicited from friends and acquaintances. If that's not sufficient impetus to investigate, I'll add that the latest issue's theme is "Sex", and the resulting comics are appropriately NSFW.
posted by Jonathan Harford on Feb 6, 2013 - 2 comments

Free Music Archive and Creative Commons want to dethrone one of the most notoriously copyrighted songs in the world. [more inside]
posted by roll truck roll on Dec 13, 2012 - 0 comments

In the process of redesigning my website, I decided to take the plunge and formatted 35 of my poems - making them available in a variety of formats: PDF, HTML, TXT and DOC. There's even a ZIP file that contains every format. All of the poems are released under a CC BY-NC license. [more inside]
posted by avoision on Nov 29, 2012 - 3 comments

Meme Pool is a Tumblr blog that "evolves" new posts. Genotypes are post tags, phenotypes are Creative Commons images from Flickr, and mutations are introduced by the blog's followers. I wrote it in Python. Here's a more detailed description.
posted by ecmendenhall on Jan 21, 2012 - 8 comments

AE - The Canadian Science Fiction Review, of which I am the editor and co-founder, has now been publishing free Creative Commons SF continuously for one year. In celebration, we are releasing our first issue as a free ebook (Kindle and EPUB) and throwing a party in Toronto. [more inside]
posted by 256 on Nov 1, 2011 - 0 comments

AE has released it's second annual microfiction zine: AE Micro 2011. Enjoy five extremely short original SF stories, including an offering by MeFi's own The Whelk, all in a adorable printable papercraft PDF. Like all things AE, AE Micro 2011 is Creative Commons licensed and free-as-in-beer.
posted by 256 on May 2, 2011 - 1 comment