Open-Content

Looking for an aggregator for your new iPhone? iPhone + Aggregator = iGag! iGag has: out of the box support for del.icio.us, Flickr, Digg, Last.FM, and several other popular services support for adding generic RSS or Atom feeds and OPML files (online or uploaded) OpenID support for authentication (so most of you won’t even need to create a new account) support for grouped feeds for easier browsing (click the screenshot above to see detail) and those fancy, slidey user interactions you’ve come to expect from the iPhone. I liked my iPhone before, but this is the killer iPhone app as far as I’m concerned. :) Truth in advertising requires me to disclose that this is a classic “scratch your own itch” piece of software by Justin Ball and myself.

You may be somewhat surprised to hear that talk on the UNESCO IIEP list, set up for the discussion of open educational resources, has temporarily turned to the topic of open versus free versus libre again. :) Here is my contribution to the conversation, in which I quote and than “adapt” John Adams… ...

Derek Keats, who I greatly respect and admire, responded to my earlier post with this reply: ...

A twelve tone row, it’s retrograde, and inverse derived from the number e.

No, this isn’t another tired post complaining that we should think of all “consumers” as also being “producers.” Of course we should. This is a post about a much more subtle problem with the way we’re thinking, that I am increasingly convinced is putting the field of open educational resources (OER) at risk. ...

Every now and then I receive an inquiry about the status of the Open Publication License. Today I received this one: I would like to know about your view on the “Open Publication License” today. I have had some arguments about its status. I have read in the past on some pages that is not recommended to be uses any more and rather one should use the Creative Commons licenses. The wikipedia also states that ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Open_Publication_License). Maybe you can clarify that in a blog post with some comments on the status and how you see the OPL in relation to other licenses or what ia [sic] bad or good about it. So then I could link people to that post and not have to argue about that any more. That would be great. So here is a whirlwind overview of Open Publication License, and where it stands today. ...

I’m feeling grumpy today. Must be the jet lag. Why do people think that open source licenses are a kind of magic pixie dust? Here’s a little thought…. Let’s call it Wiley’s Anti-openness Thought Experiment (WATE): A major publisher publishes a beginning algebra textbook which is not very effectively designed. Most faculty avoid using it; those who do find that their students perform more poorly than the last few semesters’ students. The word gets out on the street about the poor quality of the book, and sales suffer. ...

Call for Papers Open Education 2007: Localizing and Learning Center for Open and Sustainable Learning at Utah State University Conference dates are September 26-28, 2007 Submission deadline is May 18, 2007 Conference Themes For the first several years our field focused on content production and content licensing. Today, there are thousands of full university courses and tens of thousands of learning modules available as open educational resources under open licenses like those offered by Creative Commons. However, our work isn’t finished; we’re simply nearing a checkpoint. ...

Hewlett Foundation Annual Grantees Meeting Begins: Mon, 26 Mar 2007 at 7:00 PM Ends: Wed, 28 Mar 2007 at 1:00 PM Location: 6100 Main Houston, TX 77005-1827 USA Annual meeting of Hewlett’s open education grantees and others as invited. Seems like a great group of people again this year! Tags: hewlett, open education