Monthly Archives: February 2009

Creative Commons CC0 and CC+ Launched

Posted on February 28, 2009 by | Leave a comment

Creative Commons announced today the release of CC0 and CC+ licenses. CC0 licenses are a method of giving public domain-like rights in a manner that holds up better legally internationally. CC+ licenses are meant to give users additional rights beyond the scope of the license. Larry Lessig had this explanation of the CC+ license:

Imagine you have all of your photos on Flickr, offered to the world under the CC Attribution-NonCommercial license,” said Lawrence Lessig, CEO of Creative Commons. “CC+ will enable you to continue offering your work to the public for noncommercial use, but will also give you an easy way to sell commercial licensing rights to those who want to use your work for profit.

(Thanks to Timothy on Slashdot)

→ Leave a comment

Posted in Uncategorized

Tagged , , , , ,

Foothill-De Anza Receives Award for OER Efforts

Posted on February 28, 2009 by | Leave a comment

Foothill-De Anza Community College District was presented the 2008 Technology Focus award by the California Community College Board of Governors, according to the Lost Altos Town Crier. The award is recognition for the creation of Community College Consortium for Open Educational Resources and resulting initiatives. From the article:

This award is a tribute to the hard work and dedication of some truly extraordinary faculty and senior administrators at Foothill-De Anza,” said district Trustee Hal Plotkin, whose commitment to lowering textbook costs led him to propose a district policy encouraging the use of open educational resources in 2004. “These academic leaders are demonstrating a new way to serve students that deploys scarce resources more efficiently while also improving the quality of teaching and learning.”

→ Leave a comment

Posted in Uncategorized

Tagged , , , ,

UK government renewed committment to use of open source software

Posted on February 26, 2009 by | 1 Comment

Tom Espiner, via ZDNet, via Tectonic, highlighted the recent announcement by the UK government to renew its commitment to promote use of open source software. Snippets:

The government has published its policy on open-source software, promising to use open source rather than proprietary alternatives if there is no significant cost difference in products and services.

The stated rationale behind the move is that open-source software and technology based on open standards are more flexible and can offer better value for money.

“Open-source products are more competitive and have become easier to include in business, and major players in the IT industry now support the use of open standards,” said minister for digital engagement, Tom Watson, in a statement. “Several government departments already use open-source components and I hope this new policy will encourage others to follow suit.”

Watson said open source was not a “cure-all remedy”, but said “levelling the playing field” would give better value for taxpayers’ money, which was “more important than ever during the worldwide financial climate”.

The government action plan on open source was published in a document entitled Open Source, Open Standards, and Re-Use. The government pledged that, where possible, its departments would avoid becoming “locked in” to proprietary software, and that it would take into account exit, re-bid and rebuild costs. The government said it would also “require those proposing proprietary software to specify how exit would be achieved”, and would support the re-use of products and services where possible.

→ 1 Comment

Posted in Uncategorized

Tagged , ,

Symposium on Common Use Licensing for Scientific Literature and Data

Posted on February 26, 2009 by | Leave a comment

Michelle Thorne, via Creative Commons, draws attention to the upcoming symposium on Common Use Licensing for Scientific Literature and Data:

This one-day symposium, initiated by Creative Commons China Mainland, will review the rationale, practice, and issues associated with the application of Creative Commons/Science Commons “common use” licenses to scientific literature and data in government and academia.

The event will also explore the possible implementation of these licenses for publicly funded scientific literature and data in China. The symposium, designed to provide a basic introduction to the subject, aims to address the interests of both the science policy and the science research communities.

There will be a wide array of speakers from the PRC and abroad, bringing together a large group of participants from various universities, research institutes, governmental agencies, libraries, and the Internet industry.

Hosts: National Science Library of Chinese Academy of Science, the U.S. National Committee for CODATA of the National Academy of Sciences, and Creative Commons China Mainland

Date and Time: 9 a.m. – 6 p.m., March 25, 2009

Location: Lecture Hall, 1st Floor, National Science Library of CAS, Beijing

Language: Chinese and English, Simultaneous Interpretation provided

Admission: Free

→ Leave a comment

Posted in Uncategorized

Tagged , ,

Role of universities in promoting OER

Posted on February 26, 2009 by | Leave a comment

Lev Gonik, via Chronicle: Wired Campus, deliberated on the link betwen education, technology, and open content; and emphasized the challenge ahead for universities to promote the cause of openness.

Technology, open educational resources, and the education community are the key drivers and enablers of an arc of human activity that can lead us to learn and appreciate more about one another and about ourselves at the very moment when the forces of economic nationalism are pulling us in a very different direction. I think the stakes are that high. I hope universities will issue a clarion call urging us to take action to avoid repeating the lessons of history.

…We can and we should leverage our universities’ ability to create powerful networks of technology and learners to create binding partnerships that matter.

The oceans that once separated us are now made smaller by the technology that we have helped invent and deploy. Deepening the linkages within and between our communities and across our cities is a 21st challenge worthy of great universities.

→ Leave a comment

Posted in Uncategorized

Tagged , , ,

iTunes U May Enhance Learning

Posted on February 26, 2009 by | Leave a comment

Students who listen to a podcast as opposed to attending class receive higher grades, according to the results of a study from State University of New York (as reported by NY Times and ReadWriteWeb). The study divided a psychology class in half, with 32 students attending a lecture while the other 32 listened to the lecture via iTunes. Dani McKinney summarizes the results saying:

I do think it’s a tool. I think that these kids are programmed differently than kids 20 years ago.

The article notes that the research is preliminary, because it involves only one lecture. Future studies are being planned.

→ Leave a comment

Posted in Uncategorized

Tagged , ,

The Urgency of Openness

Posted on February 26, 2009 by | Leave a comment

Text and images from Brian Lamb’s  keynote at the ITC 2009 e-Learning conference are now available at Open Up! Brian highlights the disruptions music, book, and TV industries have faced in recent years. He stresses the DIY reuse and remix that are hallmarks of his keynotes, and says:

” We’ve been too busy trying to dictate the experience, build walls and obsessing over the gates instead of the experience.”

(Thanks to Jared Stein at Flexknowlogy.)

→ Leave a comment

Posted in Uncategorized

Tagged , , , ,

Where’s the Models?

Posted on February 26, 2009 by | Leave a comment

Sarajoy, participating in David Wiley’s Introduction to Open Education class compares sustainability models across  major initiatives such as MIT, Connexions and Open U. She concludes with the following:

The major initiatives seem to be at different stages as regards their “long-term sustainability models.” Some are still blissfully sailing along on the generous surge of Hewlett foundation funding, with no indication that they will ever need another cent beyond it. Some have online “voices” tinged with a faint edge of panic; the presence of “donate” buttons on homepages seems strongly correlated with the age of the initiative and older sites seem much more likely to be promiently touting the benefits of everything from materials submission to coporate sponsorship. Others, like the one cited above, seem to recognize their own impending crises. They are diversifying funding/revenue channels and working to build their brands. One has to wonder, though, if it all might be too little too late for some.

→ Leave a comment

Posted in Uncategorized

Tagged , ,

Repository and Research Collaboration

Posted on February 26, 2009 by | Leave a comment

PEER (Publishing and the Ecology of European Research) will examine how reader access, author visibility, and journal viability are affected by repositories. The research will be conducted until 2001. From their “About” page:

The aim of PEER is to build a substantial body of evidence, by developing an “observatory” to monitor the effects of systematic archiving over time.  Participating publishers will collectively contribute 300 journals to the project and supporting research studies will address issues such as:

  • How large-scale archiving will affect journal viability
  • Whether it increases access
  • How it will affect the broader ecology of European research
  • Which factors influence the readiness to deposit in institutional and disciplinary repositories and what the associated costs might be
  • Models to illustrate how traditional publishing systems can coexist with self-archiving.

(Thanks to Stephen Downes at OLDaily)

→ Leave a comment

Posted in Uncategorized

Tagged , ,

ICT4Education and the CEDUCAR community in Central America

Posted on February 23, 2009 by | 1 Comment

United by a single idea “to strengthen education in the region through the use of Information and Communication Technologies”, the Central American Educational Community (CEDUCAR) was created, establishing an international community around education issues and supported by the Educational Ministries from Belize, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, Panama and Dominican Republic.

CEDUCAR is a dynamic educational portal in which teachers, counselors, students and consultants from various specialties have the opportunity to participate actively in the free online courses, virtual communities, forums, and benefit from the use of the library and download educational resources, among others possibilities. It also has the support of the Spanish Agency for International Development Cooperation (AECI), the Central American Educational and Cultural Coordination and the Central American Integration System (CECC / SICA).

Currently, the CEDUCAR community is developing ways to adopt Creative Commons in its regional projects as an startegy of full achievement of its community goals related to strengthen education in the region and strategic development and use of ICT4Education.

→ 1 Comment

Posted in Uncategorized

Tagged , ,