Open

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. Peter Suber[Edit][Delete]: HHMI is Considering An OA Mandate, Open Access News [Edit][Delete] October 27, 2006
Peter Suber adds up the numbers. "The HHMI hasn't yet adopted a policy. But if we count its mandate proposal in the mandate column, and do the same for the mandate proposal at Canada's CIHR, and if we count the new semi-mandate in Austria as a mandate, then the HHMI proposal is the eighth OA mandate this month. There are the four new mandates from the RCUK, the expansion of the existing mandate at the Wellcome Trust, the Austrian policy, the CIHR draft, and now the HHMI. We've never had a month like this. More...

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. Arthur Sale[Edit][Delete]: The Acquisition of Open Access Research Articles, First Monday [Edit][Delete] October 27, 2006
One of the things that has surprised me about open access is the indifference of most professors. This is why it has been argued, "Mandatory policies are now widely recognized as the only way to achieve close to 100 percent of content in institutional repositories." Even with mandatory compliance, it can take up to three years to begin to get the content into the repositories. More...

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. Michael Feldstein[Edit][Delete]: Bodington Review, Part I, E-Literate [Edit][Delete] October 26, 2006
Prompted by the announcement of the Tetra Collaboration, which will working on developing Bodington, the UK open source learning management system, Michael Feldstein starts to review the product, beginning with the access controls management system. Yes, that's what we all look for first when trying to decide whether an LMS is worth the effort. More...

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. Shane Schick[Edit][Delete]: Open Source Advocates Step Up Government Lobby Efforts, IT Business [Edit][Delete] October 25, 2006
Because the usual channels are clogged with paid representatives from commercial software companies spreading fear, uncertainly and doubt (FUD) open source advocates have taken their lobbying campaign directly to government members, distributing a CD to each of Canada's Members of Parliament. I am not a part of this effort, though it certainly enjoys my support, as I can see first-hand how much money we spend on software that we don't have to. "During your work as an MP," they write, "we encourage you to ask the public service where they are including free/libre open source approaches in their acquisition, use, production and distribution of software". More...

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. John R. Savery[Edit][Delete]: Overview of Problem-based Learning: Definitions and Distinctions, Interdisciplinary Journal of Problem-based Learning [Edit][Delete] August 2, 2006[

A brand new open access journal has launched, The Interdisciplinary Journal of Problem-based Learning, has launched, and including this introductory article (as is typical in a volume 1 number 1) mapping out the terrain, vocabulary and range of the theory, solves that age-old problem: whether or not to use a hyphen in 'problem-based'. More...

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. Charles W. Bailey, Jr.[Edit][Delete]: What Is Open Access?, Eprints.org [Edit][Delete] July 19, 2006

This is a very good overview of open access, moving through subsequent definitions of open access beginning with the Budapest and Berlin declarations, describing different open access practices, including Suber's definitions of 'Green' and 'Gold' journal OA policies, licensing, and more. For readers unfamiliar with the landscape this paper is an essential read. More...

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. Scott Crumpler[Edit][Delete]: IBM's DeveloperWorks Site is Publishing a Series on Open Source Website Development, Kairosnews [Edit][Delete]KairosNews [Edit][Delete] July 19, 2006

Scott Crumpler reports: "The series adopts a fake organization as a client for whom to develop a collaborative website using only open source software. The goal of the series is to give developers some guidance in developing similar solutions." In the first installment they look at content mmanagement systems and select Drupal. More...