Monthly Archives: August 2009

Citizendium Founder Set to Leave for Watchknow.org

Richard Waters at Financial Times has a new blog post on Larry Sanger, who is the founder of Citizendium. According to Waters, Sanger is planning on leaving Citizendium (which is confirmed by Sanger in the comments) in favor of Watcknow.org, an educational video site. From the article:

So why is he leaving? He says he was always clear about his intention to move on in a relatively short period of time. That’s partly because Citizendium is a labour of love and doesn’t pay the bills, but he adds: “If this is truly going to be a constitutional republic online, you can’t have an editor for life.”

Thanks to Stephen Downes for the link.

The Real Interest of Google Books?

Quentin Hardy at Forbes.com has a new article on the Google Book settlement. Hardy suggests that the real value in Google Books is monitoring traffic to books, not the actual monetization of the books. From the article:

Reading and research are, in effect, acts of linking, involving memory association–heretofore acts of individual minds that Google’s computers can now mimic. It is a powerful thing to grant a single company (or prohibit others from doing.)

Keeping Digital Public Domain Works Open

Glyn Moody has a new post on a recent The European Commission report on the Europeana digital library. The report is critical of efforts to restrict access to public domain works that have been digitized. From the post:

This is a crucially important issue. At the moment, some publishers are trying to create a new copyright in public domain materials just because they have been digitised. This is not only absurd, but threatens to nullify much of the huge potential of turning analogue knowledge into digital form.

Textbook Prices in Edmonton

Elise Stotle at the Edmonton Journal has a new article on textbook prices. Stotle interviews Professor Terry Anderson at Athabasca University about his online book that is available for free. From the article:

“And I know it gets far greater exposure if I put it open access than if I just held it waiting for libraries or people to purchase it. It’s the fame, not the fortune from that book.”

MIT OCW Thailand Club

Twitter user “Phichai” has tweeted about the MIT OCW Club Thailand page. The page features ongoing discussion of MIT OCW and is publicly available.

Google Co-Founder Gives $500,000 to Creative Commons

Melissa Reeder is announcing that Anne Wojcicki (founder of 23andme) and Google co-founder Sergey Brin have given Creative Commons $500,000. The donation will be used for ongoing operations and CC’s Science Commons project. From the post:

Today’s challenging economic climate has made it difficult for nonprofit organizations like Creative Commons to raise funds, making Wojcicki and Brin’s wonderful gift all the more appreciated.

Google Book Settlement Discussion

Gavin Baker at Open Access News has two posts on the Google Book settlement. The first post reports on the formation of the Open Book Alliance, which is a group of organizations and companies dedicated to opposing the Google Book settlement. The second post reports on debate among librarians regarding the settlement. From the second post:

Just as library organizations have criticized the proposed Google Book Search settlement without formally opposing it, rank-and-file librarians are on the fence about the settlement, according to a new [unscientific] survey of stakeholders by Publishers Weekly.

New Zealand Releases Open Access and Licensing Framework

Keitha Booth has announced that New Zealand’s State Services Commission has published a draft of its Open Access and Licensing Framework. The document makes several recommendations, such as use of the CC BY license. From the post:

The draft NZGOAL sets out a series of policy principles which embrace, among other things, the notions of open access, open licensing, creativity, authenticity, non-discrimination and open formats. It describes the drivers behind this work, the departmental consultation process that has taken place, the Creative Commons New Zealand law licences and sets out a review and release process which agencies can use to determine the basis on which information and copyright works may be released.

Thanks to Open Humanities Press for the link.

P2P University Initial Enrollment Numbers

John Britton has posted an analysis of P2P University’s initial enrollment numbers. Courses start Sept. 9. From the article:

These are exciting times, all of our initial courses have more applicants than we can possibly accept. At the end of the first cycle, we’re going to meet for a retrospective and iterate on our methodology.

Accessible Textbooks for Higher Education

Ron Graham has a new post about two services for accessible textbooks: The AccessText Network and Texas Text Exchange (TTE). Both of these services involve digitizing textbooks and sharing them with others. From the post:

As a former blind college student, I know the value of, and appreciate, having accessible textbooks.