EDUCAUSE | Contributed by Organizations or Campuses; Articles, Papers, and Reports; Open Source; and Open Access

Free digital texts begin to challenge costly college textbooks in California

ckeller — Thu, 21 Aug 2008 09:53:43 -0500

Would-be reformers are trying to beat the high cost -- and, they say, the dumbing down -- of college materials by writing or promoting open-source, no-cost online texts.

Open Education 2006: Community, Culture, and Content

drupal — Thu, 05 Oct 2006 12:47:58 -0500

Open Education 2006: Community, Culture, and Content was a multidisciplinary event designed to promote the discussion of the variety of research, development, and other activities necessary to move the field of open education forward. The proceedings include over 30 papers on topics such as Open educational resources, Tools and software supporting open education and Reusing and remixing open educational resources.

The Unacknowledged Convergence of Open Source, Open Access, and Open Science

drupal — Wed, 31 Aug 2005 16:04:22 -0500

A number of open initiatives are actively resisting the extension of intellectual property rights. Among these developments, three prominent instances — open source software, open access to research and scholarship, and open science — share not only a commitment to the unrestricted exchange of information and ideas, but economic principles based on (1) the efficacy of free software and research; (2) the reputation–building afforded by public access and patronage; and, (3) the emergence of a free–or–subscribe access model. Still, with this much in common, the strong sense of convergence among these open initiatives has yet to be fully realized, to the detriment of the larger, common issue. By drawing on David's (2004; 2003; 2000; 1998) economic work on open science and Weber's (2004) analysis of open source, this paper seeks to make that convergence all the more apparent, as well as worth pursuing, by those interested in furthering this alternative approach, which would treat intellectual properties as public goods.

Really Open Source

drupal — Mon, 01 Aug 2005 12:11:00 -0500

Rice University's Connexions project is an effort to take the idea of free educational materials to a new level. Started in 1999 by Richard Baraniuk, professor of electrical and computer engineering at Rice, Connexions is not unlike MIT's OpenCourseWare project, which puts course materials from all MIT classes online for free. In contrast, Connexions takes the approach of aggregating course materials from professors at any school. Connexions also offers feedback tools that allow users to rate content, similar to rating systems on sites such as Amazon.com. In Connexions, ratings happen after publication, rather than before publication as in traditional peer review, but Baraniuk believes the rating system can provide an alternative to traditional peer review, a system Baraniuk believes is broken. Baraniuk also sees enormous potential in Connexions to help community colleges, which rely heavily on adjunct professors who often have little time for course development. With relatively limited resources, faculty at community colleges could use Connexions to create courses tailored for their institution and students, rather than the common practice of simply having to rely on a single textbook for material.

The Importance of Open Access, Open Source, and Open Standards for Libraries

drupal — Wed, 25 May 2005 11:18:44 -0500

The open access, open source software, and open standards concepts have been garnering increased attention in the field of librarianship and elsewhere. These concepts and their benefits and importance to libraries are examined. Benefits include lower costs, greater accessibility, and better prospects for long-term preservation of scholarly works.

Trend: Content Copyright, the Commons, and the C Generation

drupal — Thu, 26 Aug 2004 15:38:22 -0500

The author discusses the issue of the ongoing struggle between those who think electronic content should be paid content on the internet and those believe that content is made to be shared, and that doing so benefits everyone.