By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. Impact of Open Source Software On Education, Series Launch
I think this is a worthwhile endeavour - a series of interviews and posts documenting the impact of open source on education. The first installment in the series, a two-parter, features an interview with Ruth Sabean about UCLA's selection of an open source common collaboration and learning environment - Moodle. More...

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. The Mothership Now Supports OpenID
The 'Mothership' in this case being WordPress. Jason Gorman writes, "I guess what this represents to me is an opportunity to adopt cool technologies as they emerge, instead of having to wait for Blackboard to build them into their existing applications". More...

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. Open Source Business Model
Tony Karrer summarizes and links to a series of posts centered around an exchange between Dave Tosh and myself on open source business models. Tosh laments that open source only works in ideal circumstances, citing as evidence the fact that his own software, ELGG, does not produce a revenue stream. My response, which Tosh took very personally, was that Tosh's problems are the result of his expectations, his business practices or his business model, and not some inherent flaw in open source as a business model, the success of which is pretty much an established fact. More...

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. How the Open Source Movement Has Changed Education: 10 Success Stories
I think the author's definition of 'open source' is a bit loose - how else could 'Google' get onto the list? - and I think that the definition of 'success' is even looser - how else could OpenOffice get onto the list - but the author has nonetheless made the point that open source (or open something) has changed learning, and for the better. More...

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. Open Educational Resources: Overcoming the Obstacles
This is a good discussion of the OECD/CERI Open Educational Resources (OER) discussion, I would say, though the objections I had at the time persist - there's too much of an institutional focus, too much of a sense of things produced 'by us' 'for them'. Paul Stacey's five-sided model, for example, doesn't even contemplate non-institutional production methods. That's why we continue to see an over-emphasis on licensing and business models, and no emphasis whatsoever on sharing and co-production. Similarly, the chart of 'policy issues' talks a lot about managing people and resources, and doesn't contemplate the eventuality that they might manage themselves. More...

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. OpenID Makes Web Identities Real and Appealing
I got email over the weekend saying that and OpenID-enabled version of Explode! is in testing (just as I recommended :)). This is just the latest in a flurry of developments. People are catching on. This author summarizes the weekend reading: "If that pitch still hasn't infected you with OpenID fevor, I recommend watching Scott Kveton's quick pitch. Then digesting Simon Willison's talk on OpenID and his Six cool things you can build with OpenID. Then consider the fact that Firefox 3 will ship with native support for OpenID and that Microsoft is getting on board as well. Suddenly a future of OpenID everywhere starts looking mighty plausible. More...

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. Open Access Reshaping Rules of Research
Michael Geist rattles the cage a bit regarding open access to reserach in Canada. He writes, "Given the connection between research and economic prosperity, the time has come for the federal government, its funding agencies, and the Canadian research community to maximize the public's investment in research by prioritizing open access." There's not much to add to that. Every day, it seems, I urge someone inside all these government agencies to open up research. More...

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. AOL Is Doing OpenID!
It's so nice to see all the players falling into line on this one; it has been some time coming. And not just because I predicted it (and I was the only one of the twenty who did, too). Scott Wilson on this: "I've tried integrating OpenID support into a Rails... it works remarkably well, remarkably quickly, with no particular specialist knowledge. More...

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. OER Commons: Open Educational Resources
Jorge Goncalves cites from the website: "OER Commons is the first comprehensive open learning network where teachers and professors (from pre-K to graduate school) can access their colleagues' course materials, share their own, and collaborate on affecting today's classrooms. It uses Web 2.0 features (tags, ratings, comments, reviews, and social networking) to create an online experience that engages educators in sharing their best teaching and learning practices." The materials seem to be drawn mostly from universities participating in OpenCourseWare initiatives. More...

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. The Open Standard
Various authors, Mozilla, 2014/10/21
Mozilla has launched a newsletter called 'The Open Standard' which addresses issues such as privacy, transparency and trust. The lead article today, for example, is titled: Who’s Collecting Kids’ Personal Data? Lots of People. It draws from sources like the Privacy Rights Clearinghouse and Fordham Law School’s Center on Law and Information Policy (CLIP). Another article looks at the recent Whisper controversy. Another studies a university library with no books. Overall it looks like a pretty nice effort. More...