For now anyway, I’m calling this blog “Share Alike”. What’s that supposed to mean? Well, it comes from the common bit of advice, “Share and share alike”. When people say this, they mean two things. The first part of that phrase is an imperative. It, like your kindergarten teacher, is saying: Share. The second part too is an imperative. It suggests that you “share alike” or “share as you have been shared with” or maybe even “share in the manner in which you have been shared with”.
These are both good advice.
The first piece of advice, “Share” is good advice because sharing makes the world a nicer place to live. It’s not a notion that economists can understand, as they tend to falsely assume that everything that humans do is driven by a profit motive. I think they just had bad kindergarten teachers.
The second piece of advice, “Share alike” is also good advice, and maybe even more important. Once someone shares with you, you ought to take it to be your duty to share with others in the same way that you have been shared with. This amplifies the good done by sharing and makes the world even nicer. Let me give you a simple example:
Yesterday I went to fix my wife’s computer at the University where she studies. (Release,Renew,I’m done.–Another story.) As I was sitting in my car in the short-term metered parking area waiting for a spot to become available, a guy who was leaving took the little parking meter slip out of his car, walked over to my car, and said, “Here. It’s good for all day.” He shared. It made my world much nicer.
As I was leaving, I saw a woman in her truck waiting for my spot. I took the parking meter slip out of my car, walked over to her truck, and said, “Here. It’s good for all day.” I shared alike. She smiled a really big smile. I am confident it made her world much nicer. (Now, it may even be against the University’s parking policies to do that, but don’t get me started on the parking nazis.)
Now, if I were merely driven by a profit motive, I could have told her, “Hey! I’ve got this parking pass good for all day that I’ll sell to you for a dollar. It would normally cost you $6!” I am a walking counter-example to classical economic assumptions. There are lots more just like me.
This “Share Alike” notion has also caught on within certain licensing practices. Free Software licenses, like the GNU General Public License, have a “share alike” provision. They encourage you to share the software with others, but require you to share the software on the same terms that you received it. You cannot place additional restrictions on the use of the software. This keeps the software maximally shareable, and makes the world a much nicer place.
The Creative Commons has a license that they actually call “Share Alike” which this very blog is licensed under. (See sidebar.) It means that you can re-use what you find here, under certain specified conditions, so long as you also allow others to use it under those same conditions. This keeps my random musings here shareable, and I hope, makes the world a nicer place.
This work, unless otherwise expressly stated, is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 United States License.
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