Monthly Archives: June 2009

Over 70% of Open Access Journals Charge No Fees

Posted on June 9, 2009 by | Leave a comment

Peter Suber links to Stuart Shieber at The Occasional Pamphlet regarding the number of open access journals that charge fees. Shieber found that over 70% out of 5629 journals do not charge. The statistics were generated via a Python script and the Directory of Open Access Journals. From Suber’s commentary:

This is important for two reasons. First, it’s new confirmation that most OA journals charge no publication fees…Second, it provides a Python script (omitted here) to repeat the census at any time, allowing us to watch how the number changes over time.

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Open Educator as DJ

Posted on June 7, 2009 by | Leave a comment

Scott Leslie presented at TTIX on the “Open Educator as DJ,” drawing inspiration for the metaphor from one of David Wiley’s blog posts. The presentation is available at Leslie’s website and a Ustream video is also available.

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How Much OER is Really Reused?

Posted on June 7, 2009 by | 3 Comments

David Wiley, in a recent blog post, relates the results of research conducted around reuse with the Connexions repository. The findings indicate that only 15 modules were reused 5 or more times. From the blog post:

To me, this study begins to confirm the “dirty secret” of OER – that the reuse emperor has no (or only very scanty) clothes.

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Response to 10 University Presses Supporting Open Access

Posted on June 7, 2009 by | Leave a comment

Cathy Davidson at HASTAC links to a recent article at Inside Higher Ed regarding the recent announcement by 10 university presses to support open access (reported by OEN). The article includes a response from Peter Givler, Executive Director of the Association of American University Presses. From the article:

Givler said he was frustrated that “there’s a lot of misunderstanding about the real issues here.” He said that presses are very much in the business of “dissemination of knowledge — the issue is how to pay for it.” While there is “a lot of experimentation going on,” he said it was not clear that models broadly exist to help university presses in an open access system.

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Mozilla Project 7 Years Old

Posted on June 7, 2009 by | Leave a comment

Glyn Moody points out that the Mozilla project started seven years ago as of last week. From his post at ComputerworldUK:

People still naively believe that sprinkling dead or dying projects with the “magic pixie dust” of open source will resurrect them; too often, opening up code is the last refuge of the desperate. And yet despite that dispiriting fact, the eventual and inarguable success of Mozilla today shows that the open source development methodology *can* work, and that it can take on proprietary incumbents and win.

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The Urgency of Open Education

Posted on June 5, 2009 by | Leave a comment

Brian Lamb presented as the keynote speaker of the Teaching with Technology Idea Exchange 2009 (TTIX) today on “The Urgency of Open Education.” The presentation outline can be found on Brian’s website and the video is available at Ustream. Lamb shared this thought, along many others:

I like technologies that are fast, cheap, and out of control.

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1000 Teachers Opt for Affordable Textbooks

Posted on June 5, 2009 by | 1 Comment

CollegeApplicationHelp.com is reporting that the Making Textbooks Affordable initiative has had over 1000 teachers sign a pledge to use affordable textbooks at the very least, open textbooks where possible. From the pledge:

As faculty members, we affirm that it is our prerogative and responsibility to select course materials that are pedagogically most appropriate for our classes. We also affirm that it is consistent with this principle to seek affordable and accessible course materials for our classes whenever possible. This includes “open textbooks,” which are textbooks offered online to students at no cost.

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New Publisher of Open Access Textbooks

Posted on June 5, 2009 by | Leave a comment

Gavin Baker at Open Access News points out that a new publisher of free textbooks, called Bookboon, has launched. The textbooks are ad-supported and appear to be fully copyrighted. From Bookboon’s “About” page:

You can download the books for free and without providing any personal details. The books are provided in PDF so that you can print the books and/or read them offline. In the books there are relevant advertisements on every third page on average.

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10 University Presses Announce Support for Open Access

Posted on June 4, 2009 by | 1 Comment

Peter Suber at Open Access News is reporting that 10 North American university presses have issued a statement of support for open access. The institutions include University of Florida, University of Calgary and Penn State University. From Suber’s commentary:

This is significant. It’s the first statement in support of OA from a group of mostly-TA publishers and the first from a group of mostly-book publishers. It’s also an important reproach to the American Association of University Presses, which publicly supported the Conyers bill last September without consulting its members.

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Open University Expands to China, India and South America

Posted on June 4, 2009 by | Leave a comment

Peter Brown at The Independent is reporting that the Open University Business School is opening up its MBA program to China, India and South America. The article also highlights Chris Martin, OU’s 20,000th MBA graduate. From the article:

“It [OU's MBA program] was probably the pioneer for open-learning and distance-learning approaches,” says Jeanette Purcell, chief executive of the Association of MBAs, “and the number of students who have passed through its courses has been phenomenal – good students who otherwise would not have considered an MBA. It really has been quite revolutionary.”

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