Open Policy Network: Seeking Community Input

Editor's Notes

• #3: As of this week, our friend BasselKhartabil has been in prison in Syria for one year with no charges brought against him. Bassel is a long-time CC volunteer and leader of the CC program in Syria.Bassel’s imprisonment is a reminder that we’re not only working toward a freer Internet; we’re fighting for a freer world.This week, community members are holding gatherings and demonstrations all over the world in honor of Bassel. Find out more at freebassel.org.
• #4: Big idea – why are we talking about this?Education / Research Dream is simple: Everyone in the world can attain all the education they desire. It will require we share the educational resources we produce and that we spend our limited public resources wisely.WA K-12 is a common core state – opportunity to share.
• #5: And the world needs this dream to come true … and quickly… if we are to meet the global demand for higher / tertiary education.Sir John Daniel, President & DEO of the Commonwealth of Learning notes:What do you think the odds are the world will buildfour major universities (30,000 students) to open every week for the next fifteen years?
• #6: This isn’t just my dream. Many have this Dream In 2006, Cathy Casserly and Mike Smith (@ Hewlett Foundation) wrote: “At the heart of the movement towards Open Educational Resources is the simple and powerful idea that the world’s knowledge is a public good and that technology in general and the Worldwide Web in particular provide an opportunity for everyone to share, use, and reuse it.”------------------(Smith, M.S. and Casserly, C.M. 2006. The promise of Open Educational Resources. Change, Vol. 38, No. 5, pp. 8-17)
• #15: within the jurisdiction, public and legal lead volunteers help to make the licenses work in their individual countries’ legal systemwe have 72 active affiliate teams with several more in process
• #22: Open license is key.Free as in free beer and free as in freedom
• #27: We have to help policy leaders understand the affordances of digital things… and how digital courses, textbooks, data, research, science… can be non-rivalrous resources IF educational resources are openly licensed.
• #28: But we have a Policy ProblemMost policy makers don’t understand 21st century technical and legal tools and how they collectively enable “the learning machine”. Understanding the opportunity afforded by wielding these tools is key to even understanding that the dream is possible. Without this understanding, policy makers can only make decisions within existing frameworks, within existing business models.Tools:Internetaffordances of digital things: storage, distribution, copieshardware costs downbandwidth speed up mobility upOpen content licensing is 10+ years oldMass willingness to share Taken together these tools collectively enable affordable, high quality, continuously improving, openly licensed educational resources.Case in point: http://utahopentextbooks.org/2011/08/26/the-5-textbook/ : $5.35 textbook (including shipping) – ask David Wiley and CK-12David Wiley’s recent open K-12 textbook study in Utah found– NSD: Simply substituting open textbooks for proprietary textbooks does not impact learning outcomes.http://utahopentextbooks.org/2011/10/12/efficacy-data-are-inMoreover, we are already moving from a print based to a digital based environment. In the digital environment, the technology enables a range of reuses that were not possible in the print based world. Thus, it becomes the copyright license terms of use, and technological protection measures, that hobble the teacher, student, and school district from making the fullest use of the materials. Why should school districts pay for digital materials accompanied by such restrictive terms of use and technological formats?
• #31: Clearly, the Internet has empowered us to copy and share with an efficiency never before known or imagined. However, long before the Internet was invented, copyright law began regulating the very activities the Internet makes essentially free (copying and distributing).Consequently, the Internet was born at a severe disadvantage, as preexisting laws discouraged people from realizing the full potential of the network.
• #35: The current market is failing because existing publishers are not offering what we’re asking for. We would welcome it if they chose to compete to provide what the new environment demands.
• #36: Global GDP comes in at just about $58.3T – World Bank Data (2009)If countries spend roughly 5% of GPD on education = $58.3T x 5% = US $2.9T / year If we can move to a simple open public policy, hundreds of billions of dollars of educational resources will be available under an open license and will be freely available to the public that paid for them.National / state / provincial governments and education systems all play a critical role in setting policies that drive education investments, and have an interest in ensuring that public funding in education make a meaningful, cost-effective contribution to socio-economic development.Given this role, these policy-making entities are ideally positioned to encourage or mandate recipients of public funding to produce educational resources under an open license.
• #41: What about something small – local? Do open policies make sense on a smaller scale?Even one open textbook for a top 100 course makes sense.But WA should (a) ask if anyone else has already done this and openly licensed it (e.g., CK12), (b) alert other states / countries that it is going to make this investment and share.
• #45: Utah: 75k open science textbook in Utah this fall (science is about 25% of all secondary students statewide)10-20k math adoptions likelyWA is part of Achieve OER InstituteMany other states are interested in OER and the Common Core.
• #46: Challenge: Existing Structures are Difficult to Change  Most educational content business models built on gatekeeping and locking up resources (to make them rivalrous) are challenged by these trends that allow digital resources to be non-rivalrous. Existing business models are starting to fight, and they have money and lobbyists.  
• #47: The US House Appropriations Committee released a draft fiscal year 2012 funding bill. Included in this bill is the following provision, which would appear to strip the ability of the DOL to support any further OER investments:Really? No one is allowed to build anything with public funds, with our tax dollars, “…unless the Secretary of Labor certifies, after a comprehensive market-based analysis, that such courses, modules, learning materials, or projects are not otherwise available for purchase or licensing in the marketplace or under development…"?Really?If the American people want to get maximum benefit from their precious public investments, the US Congress would rewrite the budget language to:"SEC. 124. None of the funds made available by this Act for the Department of Labor may be used to purchase proprietary, non-openly licensed new courses, modules, learning materials, or projects in carrying out education or career job training grant programs unless the Secretary of Labor certifies, after a comprehensive Open Educational Resources analysis, that such courses, modules, learning materials, or projects are not otherwise available under an open license that allows free reuse for students who require them to participate in such education or career job training grant programs."Let’s get to the crux of the issue. This is not about duplicating publisher works - this is about we, the tax payers, getting free and legal access to what we paid for... and our students, tax paying citizens, having access to high quality, affordable, openly licensed learning materials.The Department of Labor (DOL) has put forth a simple, rational public policy: Taxpayer-funded educational resources should be open educational resources. Information that is designed, developed and distributed through the generosity of public tax dollars should be accessible to the public that paid for it. If the publishers wish to debate, it will be on this point.What publishers and industry trade associations would do well to recognize is the CC BY license does not restrict commercialization of the open content produced by the DOL grantees. To be clear, the commercial publishers can take ALL of the content created in this DOL grant, modify it, make it better, add value, and sell it. The consumer (states, colleges, students) will then have a choice: (a) use the free openly licensed version(s) or (b) purchase the commercial for-a-fee version. If the commercial content / services are worth paying for, people will pay. If not, they won’t. Releasing information created with public funds should be a public right – not viewed as a disadvantage to commercial interests.How can you tell me I can’t have access to what I paid for – that’s crazy.
• #49: Essentially, the bill seeks to prohibit federal agencies from conditioning their grants to require that articles reporting on publicly funded research be made accessible to the public online. Translation and Comments:"If public tax money is used to fund research, that research becomes "private research" once a publisher "adds value" to it by managing the peer review.”Comment: Researchers do the peer review for the publisher for free, just as researchers give their papers to the publisher for free, together with the exclusive right to sell subscriptions to it, on-paper and online, seeking and receiving no fee or royalty in return.
• #50: Essentially, the bill seeks to prohibit federal agencies from conditioning their grants to require that articles reporting on publicly funded research be made accessible to the public online. Translation and Comments:"If public tax money is used to fund research, that research becomes "private research" once a publisher "adds value" to it by managing the peer review.”Comment: Researchers do the peer review for the publisher for free, just as researchers give their papers to the publisher for free, together with the exclusive right to sell subscriptions to it, on-paper and online, seeking and receiving no fee or royalty in return.
• #53: If we are to fight this nonsense, Open Policy strategy must follow NEW RULES.  Disruptive Innovation Lessons (Clayton Christensen): Never attack existing business models head-on – incumbents typically win because you are playing by their rules rather play by new rules that “the trends” afford – KEY point to remind policy makers – I’ve found this is NOT obvious to people.e.g., Open Course Library – we changed the rules - $30 cap – want to play? We will do this with or without you… would rather partner, but don’t oppose us – we have all the best arguments and the public is on our side.And as Professor Eben Moglen reminds us: when we openly license our work, and leverage the Internet as a free distribution channel, we put the creator / the author, and not the distributor, in control of human knowledge.We make things and we give them away. Here we made this, would you like it? Take some it's freehttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tN00_v7gpbo&feature=youtu.be&t=6m45s----------------(1) Choose the most open license (e.g., public domain, CC BY) possible to (a) increase the degrees of freedom for downstream use, (b) increase interperability among licenses = more re-mix opportunities, and (c) reduce concern from existing for-profit businesses.
• #54: We have to think bigger and make smarter decisions collectively. Winston Churchill said: “If you have knowledge, let others light their candles with it.”This is the opportunity of our time – we can share, for the marginal cost of 0, give up nothing, and share knowledge with the world. We ought be straight, honest, expose the amount and flow of the $$$, make the open policy argument, and force the opposition to make their best arguments – and be ready to counter quickly.The open community is passionate and powerful if called to action for an important cause. Don’t work alone – share new policies with each otherWe all need to try to implement open policies where we can – some policies will take quicker than others due to local opportunities and challenges.We need to help one another pass open policies (testify, meetings, webinars)we can revise and remix others’ policies and legislationWhat can WE (the global Open community) do to help Governments, Foundations, States / Provinces, Systems, Institutions to adopt open policies?PresentationsInsert open policy into strategic plans – system efficiency plans – education reform plans – government efficiency plans, etc. Every opportunity!Share what their peers have done – no one wants to be left behindProvide draft open policy language, translated, customized for local needs.
• #55: Most important, take Policy makers back to first principles…
• #57: A closing thought, in the 21st century…
• #59: Thank you.