Ever wanted to contribute to the eduCommons project, but don’t write code? No worries! It’s easy to contribute to the eduCommons effort with your language skills! The eduCommons translation files contain a list of English phrases followed by a place for you to type the translated phrase in your language. Here’s an example from the French translation of eduCommons: msgid “Course Discussion Summary” msgstr “Résumé de la discussion du cours” ...

Steve Carson writes about a recent survey of Japanese attitudes toward open education projects at universities (like OCWs). I have to agree with his selection of a favorite bit from the survey: Q9: What should be the scope of the universities that open up their lecture materials? (Sample size=1,050) Just well-known public and private universities 17.2% As many public universities as possible 14.2% As many private universities as possible 3.4% As many public and private universities as possible 64.8% Other 0.4% Two out of three surveyed felt that as many schools as possible should open access to their courses. I agre with them. =)

Steve Carson writes about a recent survey of Japanese attitudes toward open education projects at universities (like OCWs). I have to agree with his selection of a favorite bit from the survey: Q9: What should be the scope of the universities that open up their lecture materials? (Sample size=1,050) Just well-known public and private universities 17.2% As many public universities as possible 14.2% As many private universities as possible 3.4% As many public and private universities as possible 64.8% Other 0.4% Two out of three surveyed felt that as many schools as possible should open access to their courses. I agre with them. =)

A few months ago I blogged about a project idea called Send2Wiki, that would let you (via a bookmarklet) send any page you’re viewing in your browser directly into a wiki for instant editing / remixing. Today I’m happy to announce that the first alpha of Send2Wiki is available! You can play with it over at http://send2wiki.com/. Send2Wiki includes preliminary support for license detection and preservation, automated translation (via Google Language Tools), PDF support, and chrome-stripping for specific sites (some OCWs and wikipedia at this point). ...

Apparently some of the readers of my new OpenCourseWars draft misunderstand. They think that I don’t like MIT OCW, or the opencoursewares in general. Let me set the record straight. ...

Here’s a draft of a chapter I am writing for an upcoming book on open education. It’s (supposedly) written from some time decades in the future, and is part autobiography and part history. I’d love any feedback you have… ...

I recently challenged students in one of my classes to build some educational materials primarily from existing, openly licensed materials. The results are in and the work is crazy / excellent / inspiring: Learn about how to use wikis and blogs in education at wikiblogedu.org. (Don’t forget to pick up a Rick Noblenski t-shirt afterwards). Learn how to prepare for and carry off an effective job interview at Interviewing Basics. Learn how to find or make clean water after a natural disaster at the Open Water Project. ...

I am extremely pleased to announce that the Utah Legislature has provided $200,000 to Utah State University for OpenCourseWare-related activities in the 2007-2008 budget year. To the best of my knowledge, this is the first state or federal funding to be set aside anywhere in the US for opencourseware-like initiatives, and only the second governmental funding so allocated world-wide. The Dutch government provides partial funding for the Dutch Open University’s openER program (which also happens to use eduCommons). The Hewlett Foundation provides the rest of the funding for openER. ...

Know how you get in one of those moods where everything reminds you of the same thing? I was reading Lessig’s commentary today on the Copyright Office’s recent report on orphan works. In the report, “a work is deemed an ‘orphan’ if you can’t discover the copyright owner after a ‘reasonably diligent search.’” Larry goes on to comment: The trigger to the Copyright Office’s Orphan Works Remedy is whether a copyright owner can be found with a “reasonably diligent search.â€? That standard is just mush. The report outlines six factors to be considered in determining whether a search is “reasonably diligent.â€? The effect of this complexity is simply make-work for lawyers. Libraries and archives will be unfairly burdened. Users won’t be able to achieve any real security. ...