This book shows the world how sharing can be good for business—but with a twist.

We began the project intending to explore how creators, organizations, and businesses make money to sustain what they do when they share their work using Creative Commons licenses. Our goal was not to identify a formula for business models that use Creative Commons but instead gather fresh ideas and dynamic examples that spark new, innovative models and help others follow suit by building on what already works. At the onset, we framed our investigation in familiar business terms. We created a blank “open business model canvas,” an interactive online tool that would help people design and analyze their business model.

Through the generous funding of Kickstarter backers, we set about this project frst by identifying and selecting a diverse group of creators, organizations, and businesses who use Creative Commons in an integral way— what we call being Made with Creative Commons We interviewed them and wrote up their stories. We analyzed what we heard and dug deep into the literature.

But as we did our research, something interesting happened. Our initial way of framing the work did not match the stories we were hearing.

Those we interviewed were not typical businesses selling to consumers and seeking to maximize profts and the bottom line. Instead, they were sharing to make the world a better place, creating relationships and community around the works being shared, and generating revenue not for unlimited growth but to sustain the operation.