open source

There's a great post on O'Reilly today that exemplifies open source science and one form of what we are calling "participatory learning." A. Garrett Lisi is using Wikis to support Open Source Science. Read and watch the video at: http://broadcast.oreilly.com/2008/09/lisi-on-a-wiki.html

 

Is knowledge ever free? Are there unseen workers laboring in those fields who are ripped off if we, as consumers, demand free and open access to scholarly journals? We need to be thinking through production as well as consumption in new and interesting ways.

Middlebury did not "ban Wikipedia," as the media suggested. It's more subtle than that. But I want to go one step further. We should be celebrating communal efforts like Wikipedia . . . and doing all we can to ensure that the internet is not policied and regulated out of existence. More regulation could lead to "banning" Wikipedia, and all of the resources we currently enjoy. I'd like a movement to "protect Wikipedia"!

More and more universities want faculty members to post all of their syllabi and reading lists and make them available on line to the public . . . but then cave in to commercial pressures when it comes to defining fair use. Isn't this a lose/lose proposition for faculty members, especially in the humanities? What can we do about it? I'd love to hear from anyone who knows about the rules at the University of Texas, a university that (I'm told) is taking a principled and aggressive stand on fair use. Tell us more!