Browser Add-on Aims to Ease Attribution of Open Content

Open Attribute, a free add-on for Mozilla Firefox and Google Chrome browsers unveiled this week, was created as part of a Mozilla Drumbeat collaborative project which aims to make open content more accessible. Its simple but ingenious strategy is one that academics and librarians can appreciate: it makes open content easier to attribute.

According to Molly Kleinman, the special assistant to the dean of libraries at the University of Michigan Library and an Open Attribute project manager, the add-on works by searching a web page for Creative Commons (CC) licensing information—specifically embedded CC REL metadata—and creates properly formatted attributions from that information, in plain text and HTML code, that users can simply cut and paste. (It can also be used for CC-licensed content on Wikipedia and the photo-sharing site Flickr, which use a different format for CC REL code.)

Open Attribute started at a workshop at the Mozilla-sponsored Drumbeat Festival in Barcelona, Spain, in November 2010, where attendees talked about what was holding back more widespread usage of open content. Kleinman told LJAN that they discussed how confusion over attribution of open content was a key factor. "Despite all kinds of attempts at user education and awareness-raising, all of the participants in that original workshop had heard from individuals who resist using open content because they don't understand how to comply with the attribution requirement," she told LJAN.

A small group at the Drumbeat Festival became inspired by the idea of citation generators in academic databases, which supply correct, formatted citations at the click of a button. Correct attribution could be supplied in a similar fashion, they reasoned, and soon they were outlining what would become Open Attribute. (Read more about the origins of Open Attribute on Kleinman's blog.)

Team members on the project included Kleinman, Creative Commons CTO Nathan Yergler, University of Nottingham e-learning developer Pat Lockley, web developers Laura Hilliger and Hans Lemuet, and Matt Thompson and Ben Moskowitz of Mozilla. Mozilla Drumbeat provided guidance, some communications infrastructure, and help with spreading the word about Open Attribute, said Kleinman.

Open Attribute add-ons already have been downloaded hundreds of times. It will be available as an Opera browser add-on shortly; WordPress and Drupal plug-ins are also in the works, which could allow open content publishers to add "Attribute This" buttons on websites.