An Open Education Reader

I. Intellectual Property

1. James Boyle, “The Why of Intellectual Property”

2. James Boyle, “Thomas Jefferson Writes a Letter”

II. Free Software

3. Richard Stallman, “What is Free Software?”

4. Richard Stallman, “The GNU Project”

III. Open Source

5. Eric Raymond, “The Cathedral and the Bazaar”

6. Eric Raymond, “Homesteading the Noosphere”

IV. Open Content

7. David Wiley, “About the Open Publication License”

8. David Wiley, “Open Content: The First Decade”

V. Defining Free

9. Franklin D. Roosevelt, “The Four Freedoms Speech”

10. Richard Stallman, “Four Freedoms”

11. Erik Moller, “Freedom Defined”

12. Bruce Perens, “Debian Free Software Guidelines”

VI. Defining Open

13. Bruce Perens, “The Open Source Definition”

14. David Wiley, “Open Content”

15. OKFN, “Open Definition”

16. David Wiley, “The Access Compromise and the 5th R”

VII. Open Source Software Licenses

18. GNU General Public License

19. BSD License

20. MIT License

21. Apache License

22. Comparison of Open Source Licenses

VIII. Open Content Licenses

23. Creative Commons Licenses

24. GNU Free Documentation License

25. Open Publication License

IX. Open CourseWare

26. Charles Vest, “Disturbing the Educational Universe: Universities in the Digital Age — Dinosaurs or Prometheans?”

27. History of MIT OCW

28. MIT OCW Evaluation Report (2005)

29. MIT Reaches OCW Milestone

30. David Wiley, “OpenCourseWars”

X. Open Educational Resources

31. UNESCO Forum on the Impact of Open Courseware for Higher Education in Developing

32. Cape Town Open Education Declaration

33. UNESCO, “2012 Paris OER Declaration”

34. Wiley, Bliss, and McEwen, “Open Educational Resources: OER Literature Review”

35. Boston Consulting Group, “Open Educational Resources: The OER Ecosystem”

XI. Open Textbooks

36. Nicole Allen, “Open Textbooks: A Cover to Cover Solution: How Open Textbooks are the Path to Affordability”

37. Frydenberg and Matkin, “Open Textbooks: Why? What? How? When?”

XII. Research in Open Education

38. OER Research Hub

39. Open Education Group

40. Marshall Smith, “Ruminations on Research on OER”

XIII. The Economics of Open

41. Yochai Benkler, “Coases Penguin, or Linux and The Nature of the Firm”

42. Yochai Benkler, “Common Wisdom: Peer Production of Educational Materials”

43. Yochai Benkler, “‘Sharing Nicely’: On shareable goods and the emergence of sharing as a modality of economic production”

XIV. Open Business Models

44. Eric Raymond, “The Magic Cauldron”

45. OSI, “Open Source Case for Business”

46. Various, “A Summer 2014 Conversation on Business Models in Open Education”

17

David Wiley, “Open Definitions, Specificity, and Avoiding Bright Lines”

Read the article at https://edtechbooks.org/-gbyW

Background

This brief essay argues explicitly against the idea of a bright line test for “open” in the context of open content.

Key Points

Open definitions exist along a continuum.
While there are some who want precise or “bright line” definitions, that allow them to clearly delineate what is open and what is not, providing space for decision makers to think deeply about the concept of openness is important.
Not all the lessons of open source software can be imported directly into our thinking about open content. Software and content are different in subtle and important ways.

Discussion Question

Should you be more open?
How can you be more open?

Additional Resources

Debian Social Contract (1997). Debian Social Contract, Version 1.0. Retrieved from https://edtechbooks.org/-NQxq

This content is provided to you freely by EdTech Books.

Access it online or download it at https://edtechbooks.org/openedreader/open-definitions-specify-and-avoiding-bright-lines.