Exit Lessig, enter Ito

Creative Commons is undergoing exciting and possibly dramatic changes. There's been an atmosphere of "where now" since Lessig made his announcement that he was going to work less on CC and copyright and more on corruption issues. Related indeed, and not *completely* leaving, but still.
This week, CC announced Ito as the new CEO, with James Boyle replacing him as chairman. Since I started working as a journalist in this field, Ito has been one of those "up there" guys, and getting to know him slightly better has been rewarding. In his style, Ito is quite different from Larry. Less of an orator, more of a networker; and maybe more of an action speaks louder than words type - time will show. Hopefully, Joi will still have time for WOW and bike / camera geekiness (Joi is an excellent photographer) and blogging. You can read more about Joi here, or watch two interviews of mine. One filmed in 2007, at Ars Electronica, on the subject of "privacy and web 2.0", in collab with Henrik Føhns / Hardisken). The other from isummit 2006 in Rio de Janeiro. Filmed by Nakano-san / Digital Garage, with help from Justin Hall:



I look forward to see Joi take CC further into the mainstream, business and popular culture during the next years. Basically, I admire Joi for all the cool stuff he is doing, and feel extremely confident in his leadership.

(snip snip - full release here)

"Lessig has announced a shift of academic focus from copyright to political corruption. He recently launched Change Congress, a movement to increase transparency in the US government's legislative branch. In order to concentrate on this effort, Lessig is stepping down as CEO of Creative Commons. He will be replaced by entrepreneur, venture capitalist, and free culture advocate Joi Ito. Lessig will remain on the Creative Commons board.

"Although I have changed my focus, I'm still very much committed to Creative Commons and the Free Culture cause," Lessig said. "The work I intend to do with Change Congress is in many ways complementary to the work of Creative Commons. Both projects are about putting people in power and enabling them to build a better system. I could not be more pleased to hand off the leadership of Creative Commons to the extraordinarily passionate and qualified Joi Ito."

"Under Larry's management, Creative Commons has grown from an inspirational idea to an essential part of the technical, social, and legal landscape involving organizations and people in 80 countries," said Ito. "With it, the organization has grown in size and complexity, and I am excited to increase the level of my participation to help manage this amazing group of people. The Hewlett Foundation has been a major supporter of ours from the beginning and we could not be more grateful for their support going forward into the future."