Re: [school-discuss] Open Content: Dialog on creative commons licensing terms

[Justin <jriddiough@xxxxxxxxx>]

I was thinking about this a little bit more, and have tried looking at it from different perspectives.  This message is somewhat lengthy, but I think there is a lot to consider and there isn't exactly a "starting" point for this sort of thing.  I'm brainstorming and dumping the different things I can think of while working to build an understanding of these subjects, and trying to find the approaches that are effective.  Some of it might even go a bit outside of the specifics of what is being looked at with OpenLearn, but that they are willing to evaluate the comments is a great motivator to start taking a look at this topic.  

It's hard to be disappointed with their efforts and progress when institutions that haven't even started to examine the subject of open educational resources are considered.  When I look at what OpenLearn is doing I don't think it's a stretch to imagine that getting to where they are now was a small feat.  

Resources such as SchoolForge and Free Curricula Center could come across as organizations that simply aren't satisfied unless institutions let go of their intellectual property claims and embrace these licensing approaches without regard to the financial and legal issues.  This isn't the case, but given that we look at these things from a freedom-centric perspective and view these freedoms as the enabling standards - it would be easy to find faults with many OER type projects.

If moving to open content licenses and allowing others to make derivative works is looked at as becoming part of a discussion where these ideas and resources can be worked with, challenged, and improved, then there is a direct correlation between the freedoms granted by the license and the extent the content producer is willing to contribute and share a voice in this discussion.  With less freedoms being restricted, the sphere in which the resource has utility grows - and it's within that sphere that the resource will realize the benefits of the collaborative aspects that this openness lends itself to.

When I look at an open resource, the first thing I ask myself is "what can I do with this, and what would I need to take into account to do these things" Through that, I get a sense of whether this resource (whatever it is) could be used as a foundation or extension to some effort or idea that might come along.  What I haven't been able to do, is to fit the OpenLearn termination clause into my understanding of the creative commons license.  Looking at the first two reasons provided - financial sustainability and whether the materials must be withdrawn in the case that the project is not viable, and in the case that inappropriate materials are submitted - the proper course would be to cease the distribution of the materials.  Beyond that, expressing the termination of any rights would be in conflict with the CC license.  (Though, IANAL!! :-)

The third reason is a little bit more interesting, in that it's looking at the implications of third party content.  From what I could see on the website, many steps are taken to ensure that third party content is appropriately submitted in accordance with the CC license (which would mean the above applies,) if there are materials included in resources that do not fall under the CC license/have special terms - it's more logistical, which OpenLearn addresses by having an area for special restrictions to be noted.  Though, if the special restrictions prevented an entity from duplicating or reusing that specific material, there wouldn't have been any rights granted that would now be eligible for termination. 

OpenLearn mentioned that this is unfamiliar territory, and that is supported by even the most definitive and exhaustive analysis of OER's that is ongoing through the OECD's research with UNESCO / IIEP.  These discussions have been great to read - and it's impressive that they are able to summarize it in these reports.  Just reading the discussions, one post here or there could lead to one of those hours long sessions of playing follow the linker. 

A couple good links on this:

http://www.schoolforge.net/IIEP_OECD_OER_forum_report.pdf (This document will soon be available on the IIEP wiki site, but I couldn't find it there yet - but wanted to share this because it points to a lot of important topics)  It was also announced that the OECD/UNESCO/IIEP discussion will soon be focusing on Intellectual Property Rights - which should be a very interesting discussion that raises many new questions and provides some great insights.

Another link, that points to a couple documents (again from OECD) is here http://www.oecd.org/document/3/0,2340,en_2649_33723_37815811_1_1_1_1,00.html