FLOSS In School - Open Source Software in the Education System

Christopher Gutteridge has a new post on opening up data at the University of Southampton. From the post:

We have formally added a “CC0″ public domain license to all our infrastructure RDF data, such as staff contact details, research groups and publication lists. One reason few people took an interest in working with our data is that we didn’t explicitly say what was and wasn’t OK, and people are disinclined to build anything on top of data which they have no explicit permission to use.

Jack Menzel has a new post announcing that Google will purchase Metaweb, which owns Freebase. Freebase is an open database of content. From the post:

Google and Metaweb plan to maintain Freebase as a free and open database for the world. Better yet, we plan to contribute to and further develop Freebase and would be delighted if other web companies use and contribute to the data.

Andy Greenberg has a new post reviewing BookLiberator, a device for creating e-books. From the post:

All of which may send a small twinge up the spine of the publishing industry’s copyright lawyers. Why buy a book–or even an e-book from Amazon or Apple–if it can be copied from a friend, a college classmate, or your local library?

Shawn Adderly is reporting on efforts by Google and the Internet Archive to digitize content at the University of Illinois. From the post:

On average, about 500 pages per hour are scanned using two scribe book scanner machines owned by the Internet Archive, which equates to about 15 to 20 volumes being digitized per day.

Rebecca Fernandez has a new post comparing openness to various kinds of Chinese food. From the post:

It’s certainly hard to deny the value of a development model that’s produced innovations like the Philly Cheesesteak egg roll and pastrami fried rice.

Steve Wheeler has a new post noting that Brian Lamb will be speaking at an Open Educational Resources Symposium in London on July 23. From the post:

Lamb, the Manager of Emerging Technologies and Digital Content at the University of British Columbia’s Office of Learning Technology, is one of the keynote speakers at the symposium alongside Mary Lou Forward, Executive Director of the OpenCourseWare Consortium.

Alan Levine has a new post questioning the need for acronyms like PLNs (Personal Learning Networks) and OER. From the post:

Let me clear that in the case of these Personal Learning Things as well as Open Education Resources, I am total agreement, and support to the concepts they aim to circumscribe…But to me they are things we name that do not really exist.

Teemu Leinonen has a new post comparing the top articles among Wikipedias of different languages. From the post:

The most hypnotic new thing I found during the WikiSym/Wikimania is probably the Wikipedia article traffic statistics.

Remedios Melero has announced MELIBEA on a SPARC mailing list. MELIBEA is a directory of open access policies. From the post:

As a directory, it describes the existing policies. As a validator, it subjects them to qualitative and quantitative analysis based on fulfilment of a set of indicators…

Note that there are some security certificate issues with the SPARC posting. I am not clear why.

Janneke Adema has a new post on how the public domain is perceived by “digital natives.” From the post:

there is a lack of emphasis on the fact that you can do things with the public domain, the public domain is not only about consuming. The government for instance focuses mostly on the negative aspects, on the “problem of the internet” on the bad things you can do with the internet.

Jonathan Opp has a new post about the “gift economy.” From the post:

Open source communities are often compared to gift economies. You participate. You solve shared problems. Others do the same.

In many ways, you give to get.

Glyn Moody has a new post noting that some of Soviet director Andrei Tarkovsky’s work is now freely available. Apparently some of the films have been removed because of copyright issues. This example open culture highlights the benefits and struggles of making something open.

Mike Linksvayer has a new post announcing that the research institution CERN will be supporting Creative Commons. The amount is unspecified.

Philippe Colombet is announcing a partnership (that is actual partnership, not a buy-out) with the National Library of the Netherlands. From the post:

We’ll be scanning more than 160,000 of its public domain books, and making this collection available globally via Google Books. The library will receive copies of the scans so that they can also be viewed via the library’s website.

Doug Clow has posted his interview with Scott Leslie on the “educator as DJ.” From the interview:

Our challenge with ubiquitous access, we bring real value, but not to insist ours is the only view. Here’s a path we’re showing you, but there are tendrils that go off- expose them, show you.

Brian Lamb has a new post on the state of the wiki in higher education. Since wikis are often used in open education projects, the post may be of interest to readers. From the post:

There is obvious value to wikis as part of an online toolkit, especially for the creation of open content.

Dalas Verdugo posted on the Vimeo blog announcing the decision to allow CC-licensed material. Grant Crowell posts on the advantages and disadvantages of the decision.

Alan Levine has a new post requesting more stories of educators sharing. From the post;

It’s pretty simple, we are looking for short videos of people telling a story of something un-expected, surprising, or just plain highly coincidental that happened to them just because they shared something openly on the net.

Emma Barnett is reporting that the video-sharing site Vimeo is giving uploaders the option to use a Creative Commons license. From the post:

There are six Creative Commons licences to choose from, which will help artists better define the specific usage rights that allow other to use, distribute and make derivative works from their original videos.

Tony Bates has a new post discussing a recent article by John Hilton III on opening courses. From the post:

I think the idea of opening up classes to non-registered students is a good one, but not just making them relatively ‘outside’ participants of a class designed deliberately for face-to-face teaching. Wouldn’t it be more logical to open up classes deliberately designed for distance delivery to non-registered participants, and design them carefully for joint use?