Expanding the Open Source Paradigm: Docstoc

As open source software grows in popularity, so too does the open source paradigm: a new way of sharing thoughts, ideas, and their expression.

For example, the Creative Commons licenses give people a way to share their work--writing, music, photos, art--in a way that gives them wide exposure, that lets others use and adapt their work, and at the same time retain the right to profit from their work.

I like to see this kind of development, as it represents the grassroots support for a system of intellectual property that does not smother content or those who would use it, but rather encourages a sensible way of producing and distributing it.

For example, Docstoc is a (currently beta) website where you can share professional documents, from legal boilerplate to business plan templates to business expense worksheets and many more legal, financial, marketing, and business-0riented documents.