Monthly Archives: March 2011

Berlin Declaration

Glyn Moody has a new post discussing the Berlin Declaration, a document signed by notable European publishers. From the declaration:

The current reality is that the many publishers now initiating new paid-for solutions are faced with technological giants that may want to control the various dimensions of content distribution. The result could be publishers losing some core competencies, such as price setting, as well as their valued, direct relationships with readers (notably via subscription management).

Defining Openness

David Wiley has a new post on defining openness. Wiley also announces that he is a recipient of an OLnet fellowship. From the post:

A clear understanding of what’s comparatively beneficial and what’s comparatively hazardous about the “open” in OER when compared with typical ER cannot come until we reach this clarity.

OERca Screecasts

Dave Malicke has a new post announcing OER cleaning application screencasts. From the post:

[OERca is]…a content and decision management system, designed by Open.Michigan to assist content creators in transforming educational material into OER.

Institutional Strategy for OER

The Ostrich Project Blog has a new post on institutional strategies for open educational resources. From the post:

Some project reps indicated that they only used the term ‘OER’ in reports to JISC, but used the more widely understood term ‘Creative Commons’ in flyers for workshops with academics.

OER Quality

Terry Anderson has a new post regarding the quality of open education resources. From the post:

What we are seeing is first iterations in produsage development of educational material.

University Prep MOOC

Dave Cormier has a new post announcing a Massively Open Online Courses (MOOC) for university preparation. From the post:

If you’ve participated in one of our open courses before, it will be similar, with a bit more structure built in. We’re currently working with a number of folks to try and stitch together analytics for participants in a course so that they a student can track their own participation and compare it to others.

Thanks to Stephen Downes for the link.

Open Education 2011 Call for Proposals

David Wiley has announced that the Open Education 2011 conference call for proposals is now available.

No to NC

“Efraim” has a new post on why content creators should decline to use the Non-Commercial clause as part of a Creative Commons license. From the post:

One argument that I have heard promoting the use of the non-commercial term is the fear of a larger bogeyman. The identity of this bogeyman differs depending on who is making the argument. For content developers, the bogeyman is often a large publishing house. The new media entrepreneur worries that a larger publishing house will either take their free data and undercut their price or sell their free data without returning anything to its source.

This argument does not distinguish between two types of relationships with commercial entities: simple “commercial use” and “exploitation.”

History of Paralympics Wikibook

Leigh Blackall has a new post on a proposal to create a History of Paralympics on Wikibooks. From the post:

Having the proposal openly available as it developed drew incredibly useful feedback, as well as support from potential partner organisations such as Wikimedia Australia.

ds106 Stats

Jim Groom has a new post asking participants of the open course ds106 to fill out a short survey.