Monthly Archives: February 2010

How Would You Change OEN? Part 2 – Social Networking

Yesterday we posted a story asking for feedback on how you would improve OEN. Unfortunately, we haven’t received any comments. We hope that the lack of response is because you are busy reading the stories we post. Here at OEN we have a few ideas for changes. One change might be adding Twitter, Buzz and Delicious badges, similar to what is done at Mashable.

We have a Twitter account with a respectable 522 followers and part of 43 lists. Should OEN participate on other social networks (Facebook, Orkut)?

We know that there are many online communities that you participate in, but we would really appreciate any feedback you have, whether it is about our social networking efforts or not. Thank you very much for reading OEN.

Macmillan’s DynamicBooks

Motoko Rich at the New York Times is reporting that textbook publisher Macmillan has launched DynamicBooks, which are textbooks that can be remixed. Note that the textbooks are not licensed openly, but the remix occurs through their system and costs start at $40.00 a textbook (though that is less than the traditional print version). From the article:

“Basically they will go online, log on to the authoring tool, have the content right there and make whatever changes they want,” said Brian Napack, president of Macmillan. “And we don’t even look at it.”

OER Surveys

The University of Warwick is conducting a survey relating to open educational resources. Chris Bell is also tweeting about a K-12 OER survey.

Google, Codecs and Openness

Glyn Moody has a new post about Google’s acquisition of On2 Technologies Inc., a company behind the video codec VP8. Moody wonders about the possibility that Google might offer the codec free and open. Discussion about video codecs has always been ongoing, but the exclusion of Flash on the iPad has triggered a new round of debate. From the post:

The reason why it might want to go to all that trouble is to free itself from any dependence on the patent-encumbered codecs of others, and to promote a flourishing open video ecosystem, and with it lots of lovely content that it can sell ads against.

OCWC Board of Directors Election Coming Soon

Meena Hwang has posted the OpenCourseWare Consortium’s latest newsletter. In the newsletter it is announced that the OCWC Board of Directors election is coming soon. From the newsletter:

The OCW Board of Directors will need to fill 6 seats through elections this year. Over the coming two weeks, our Membership Services Coordinators will be contacting each member institution to confirm its primary contact and certifier for the election. Look for an e-mail requesting nominations by March 10.

How Would You Change Open Education News?

The technology blog Engadget occasionally runs posts asking how people would change a particular gadget. In that spirit, OEN wants to know what you would like to change about the website. We’re looking on feedback about everything – from visual design to writing style. Leave a comment; we want to hear from you!

14 Tools for Creative Commons

Rodd Lucier has posted a round-up of slides, resources and information relating to Creative Commons.

Open Access is “Inevitable”

Jennifer Howard is reporting on an open access panel at a meeting of the Association of Research Libraries. From the article:

“I now believe that having public access to most scholarly communications is inevitable,” said David Shulenburger, vice president for academic affairs at the Association of Public and Land-Grant Universities. “Faculty are coming to understand, finally, that this has to happen if they’re going to have the most scholarly opportunities to get things done.”

Thanks to mdazey for the link.

Using the No-Derivatives Clause

Troy Holden has a new post on his experience with the No-Derivatives clause in the CC BY-NC-ND. From the post:

Yesterday I received emails from two separate artists who had each reappropriated my portraits of Willie and Jerry. While I appreciated them giving me a heads up, I wondered how effective using a CC license really was if people were clearly “remixing” my images without my permission.

Moodle Guide Available

Karen Fasimpaur has created a Moodle Quick Start Guide in (.doc) format.