As its name implies, the Bank of Common Knowledge aims to be a repository for useful information & how-to—they cite formats ranging from AV tutorials to workshops—all of which information is protected under copyleft.

It sounds kind of like a theoretically-glorified version of Instructables, but you won’t see people giving themselves laser-burned tattoos. Because the BCC is interested specifically in knowledge that’s frequently inaccessible to most users:

Individual and collective needs to be more autonomous and general lack of resources for the everyday issues. In short: urban survival.

We look for alternative, cheap and affordable, even free ways to find answers to all sort of needs. We share practical or theoretical knowledge in all disciplines, from medical to crafts, to technology to civil rights. All we need to know for the every day life.

We collect share and protect knowledge rarely valued, common knowledge in traces to be lost, knowledge locked on a patent system, knowledge not able to be approved by science. All matters. (from the wiki)

Maybe it’s not a super-new idea, but it’s good. Here in the States this kind of attitude seems mostly to be wrapped up in hack culture, which I fully support & love;—but what seems special to me about the BCC is its interest in extending that kind of attitude—that you can hack your life; that knowledge should be free; that no one should be trammeled by the often deliberately-obscure rhetoric/documentation of the Technological Overlords of our lives, online or otherwise—& providing the tools to deploy it successfully to people who aren’t necessarily automatically interested in this kind of thing. I wonder why we don’t have something like this here. Do we?

I bring it up here because I’m trying to keep track of the good alternative-copyright/intellectual-property stuff that I’ve come across; for a lengthy & excellent write-up, go over to we make money not art, because they’re good at that kind of thing.