By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. CoSN[Edit][Delete]: CoSN Launches Web Site to Illustrate Benefits of Open Technologies, Press Release [Edit][Delete] July 3, 2006
Co-sponsored by IMB and the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, K12 Open Technologies is a site intended to "raise awareness among K-12 education technology decision makers about the use of open technologies." By 'open technologies' the sponsors mean "an umbrella term that includes open source software, open standards, and open hardware." Sounds good, though as Tom Hoffman cautions, 'open source' has a very specific meaning while 'open technologies' does not. "They should not co-opt the open source name for their own purposes, or dilute its meaning in the minds of educators," he writes. More...

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. Laura Grant[Edit][Delete]: Open University Courseware Trend Comes to SA, tectonic [Edit][Delete] July 3, 2006
More good news on the open content front. "The University of the Western Cape (UWC) has made a policy decision to make its course material freely available over the Internet. This is believed to be a first for an African university. Material that will be made available includes courses, syllabuses, lecture notes and exam papers. More...

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. Angela Regnier[Edit][Delete]: Open Letter to Ministers Oda and Bernier, Canadian Federation of Students [Edit][Delete] May 24, 2006
In 1985 or so I wrote an article in the student newspaper, the Gauntlet, titled 'CFS is Dead'. It just goes to show, not all of my predictions are accurate. I'm happy to have been wrong, though, because this week the Canadian Federation of Students has come out with a statement urging a "balanced" approach to copyright laws. "Students are concerned that the collectives and the major publishing and recording industries - entities motivated by profit - have been wielding too much influence in the process to-date, thereby drowning the legitimate concerns of teachers, researchers, librarians, and students." Hear, hear. More...

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. Pamela Slim: Open Letter to CEOs, COOs, CIOs and CFOs Across the Corporate World, Escape From Cubicle Nation May 11, 2006
This article has gained some traction in the blogosphere and resonates as well in the educational world. The message is simple: this consultant (Pamela Slim) has given up trying to teach good practice to corporate management, and is now trying to teach their employees how to escape. She writes, "I was banging my head against the wall trying to find ethical, creative ways to train your employees on the merits of your forced ranking compensation plan. No amount of creativity could overcome the fact that it is a stupid idea..." She wraps up the column with some really fundamental (but so often ignored) advice for corporate management. More...