The Non-commercial restriction in educational content causes more problems than it solves, particularly when a resource might be useful in the developing world where people may not wish to preclude benefit from enhancements made by people who wish to allow commercial use.
Slides from webinar presented for the community of practice covering OER, copyright/intellectual property considerations, and teaching and learning with OER.
Slides from webinar presented for the community of practice covering OER, copyright/intellectual property considerations, and teaching and learning with OER.
How to Commit a Legal Rip-off: Creative CommonsAnne Arendt
In order to not be plagiarizing materials, we need to ensure adequate copyright release and attribution for resources we use inside and outside the classroom. This presentation, instead of focusing on copyright issues and limitations, will focus on items placed in whole or in part into the public domain.
These are the slides from joint Copyright and Licensing training provided to staff and students at the University of Edinburgh by myself and Eugen Stoica (Scholarly Communications Team).
Licensing OER and other Materials for Teachers and Curriculum Administrators/...Jason Neiffer
These are slides to support Jason Neiffer's presentation "Licensing OER and other Materials for Teachers and Curriculum Administrators/Specialists," at iNACOL in October 2013.
Copyright, Creative Commons and OER in Higher Education - Practice and PolicyMeredith Jacob
This presentation discusses how copyright law and Creative Commons licenses allow Open Educational Materials to be created, remixed and shared. It also addresses what policy steps can be taken to support OER adoption
Creative Commons Update Seminar, State Library, Brisbane, 18 July 2014 - Anne...ccAustralia
Presentation on Creative Commons licences, providing an overview of the features of the version 4.0 international Creative Commons licences, as well as examples of the adoption of CC licensing in Australia and in other countries
Presented by Dr. Sanjaya Mishra , Education Specialist, eLearning, COL and Principal Investigator, ROER4D Project at the Workshop on OER for Development supported by IDRC, Canada
Slides used for "Copyright and Fair Use in the Digital Age" events in April 2012, sponsored by the Consortium of Academic and Research Librarians in Illinois.
This is a presentation to help any creators of text, video, images, art or anything creative share their ideas and spread their name using Creative Commons licenses. Using a CC license does not mean that you give up copyright. It just means that you give prior permission to users.
How to Commit a Legal Rip-off: Creative CommonsAnne Arendt
In order to not be plagiarizing materials, we need to ensure adequate copyright release and attribution for resources we use inside and outside the classroom. This presentation, instead of focusing on copyright issues and limitations, will focus on items placed in whole or in part into the public domain.
These are the slides from joint Copyright and Licensing training provided to staff and students at the University of Edinburgh by myself and Eugen Stoica (Scholarly Communications Team).
Licensing OER and other Materials for Teachers and Curriculum Administrators/...Jason Neiffer
These are slides to support Jason Neiffer's presentation "Licensing OER and other Materials for Teachers and Curriculum Administrators/Specialists," at iNACOL in October 2013.
Copyright, Creative Commons and OER in Higher Education - Practice and PolicyMeredith Jacob
This presentation discusses how copyright law and Creative Commons licenses allow Open Educational Materials to be created, remixed and shared. It also addresses what policy steps can be taken to support OER adoption
Creative Commons Update Seminar, State Library, Brisbane, 18 July 2014 - Anne...ccAustralia
Presentation on Creative Commons licences, providing an overview of the features of the version 4.0 international Creative Commons licences, as well as examples of the adoption of CC licensing in Australia and in other countries
Presented by Dr. Sanjaya Mishra , Education Specialist, eLearning, COL and Principal Investigator, ROER4D Project at the Workshop on OER for Development supported by IDRC, Canada
Slides used for "Copyright and Fair Use in the Digital Age" events in April 2012, sponsored by the Consortium of Academic and Research Librarians in Illinois.
This is a presentation to help any creators of text, video, images, art or anything creative share their ideas and spread their name using Creative Commons licenses. Using a CC license does not mean that you give up copyright. It just means that you give prior permission to users.
Protect our Fragile Oceans is made up of some slides I had lying around from the year I spent in Fiji. They are mostly low resolution scans made from slides with a scanner that is not very good, but they do look nice at slideshare resolution.
Embedding presentations with Open Source web presentDerek Keats
How to embed presentations using the Open Source, Chisimba-based web present in 9 easy steps. This is not an alternative to Slideshare, but has the advantage of integration with the KEWL3 eLearning application and other Chisimba applications. There is also a Moodle plugin available.
Beyond the traditional learning management systemDerek Keats
Beyond the traditional learning management system: moving towards personal learning environments as prepared for a workshop at the WWW2008 conference in Cape Town, South Africa in September 2008. This was put together in a bit of a hurry, and perhaps lacks some rigor, as an example of content for the workshop.
Nuntra delivers the full spectrum of cloud services to companies across the world. We help our clients capture their audience, communicate their message, collaborate and support their brand. We do this by approaching their goals creatively rather than just technically and attending to every last detail.
We use our decades of international experience, full range of current technology, and dedicated team of motivated personalities to amaze clients with what can be done.
Semi furnished 1.5bhk that will suit a couple/ couple with a baby well. Living room has a study table, master bed has a wardrobe, Converted bed also has a wadrobe, both bathrooms have geysers and kitchen has cabinets (No chimney currently or ACs)
The DBE Circular requiring proprietary office & programming technologies: An ...Derek Keats
The Department of Basic Education Circular requiring proprietary office & programming technologies: An excellent example of how not to do IT in education in South African schools. This presentation was given at the a stakeholder meeting at the Department of Basic Education, December 6th 2013
This is a dScribe training workshop that I presented to OER Africa. It was a 2 hour hands-on session.
PDF version available at https://open.umich.edu/wiki/File:DScribe_Workshop_International.pdf
The presentation explains the copyright issues, open licensing, creative commons licenses, relevance of OER and a few examples.OER, CC, CopyrightRelevance of Open Educational Resources
Invited presentation on the modern era of Open Education, moving from a focus on content to a focus on practice, courses and certification.
Presented by Brandon Muramatsu at Tacoma Community College, April 27, 2012.
Who owns your data ans why should you careDerek Keats
This is a video that was made from a webinar I did for Living in a connected world: Who owns my data, and why should I care? that was held by Nedbank, JCSE and EE Business Intelligence. My focus was on what ownership means.
Creating Free and Open Source Software ecosystems to facilitate FOSS implemen...Derek Keats
Creating Free and Open Source Software ecosystems to facilitate FOSS implementation in organizations: a fresh look at FOSS policy failure in the SA government is a talk I gave at the CONSEGI 2013 government FOSS conference in Brasilia, Brazil, August, 2013
The business opportunities in capacity building for APPS development in AfricaDerek Keats
Telecoms World Africa Conference, May 22, 2012, Sandton Convention Centre, Johannesburg, South Africa
The topic that I was given when my colleague was unable to make the conference was: "How to develop localised applications to target and profit from the African market." This seemed straight-forward until I started thinking about some of the concepts contained within that simple phrase. Firstly, assuming localised applications refer to applications targeted at local markets, it is important to realise that the current device landscape in this very large continent of Africa is quite heterogeneous. Secondly, most African countries have a scarcity of developers, more so of good developers. In a recent trip to Nigeria, for example, it was reveled that there are about 2000 independent developers in the country, compared to several hundred thousand in the USA. Many thousands are unemployed, and have very limited experience. Thirdly, while there are purely exploitative opportunities to develop apps and sell into the African market, such opportunities do not lead to the generation of local idea capital - the raw material of the knowledge economy. The real opportunity is therefore to use the growing potential of the software applications market place - both open source and (shudder shudder) proprietary - to create capacity-building initiatives, and by doing so to grow idea capital, and thence to grow the size and variety of the market. I use my 8 years experience in the African Virtual Open Initiatives and Resources capacity-building initiative to discuss how this could be achieved while still creating business opportunities and growing local economies.
Introduction to 'dKeats Innovation' and the approach to looking at human-created systems from an ecological perspective. Derek Keats is a natural ecologist, who has moved into information technology, and spent a decade in senior management of two large universities in South Africa. He brings his ecological and management experience to bear on organizations and organizational design.
Emerging & Future Trends in ICT: How can South Africa play a stronger role in creating them - delivered as opening Keynote at the SAFIPA conference in Pretoria, Oct 19, 2011.
Using the present to create the future - the Web in South AfricaDerek Keats
Using the present to create the future: How can we move South Africa from consumer to producer of web technologies. My keynote talk at the ZAWWW2011 conference, Sept 15th, 2011 in Johannesburg.
New challenges for digital scholarship and curation in the era of ubiquitous ...Derek Keats
A keynote presentation that I gave at the The 4th African Digital Scholarship and Curation Conference (see: http://www.nedicc.ac.za/test/Programme.aspx) on 16 May 2011.
A strategic view of document and digital object managementDerek Keats
A strategic view of document and digital object management for the University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg. This was a presentation given to senior managers who have an interest in enterprise digital asset management at Wits.
There is more to innovation than secret science and patents!Derek Keats
Opportunities to foster innovation based on Free and Open Source Software (FOSS): There is more to innovation than secret science and patents! This talk was presented at the LLiSA conference on November 24th, 2009 in Pretoria, South Africa.
UiPath Test Automation using UiPath Test Suite series, part 3DianaGray10
Welcome to UiPath Test Automation using UiPath Test Suite series part 3. In this session, we will cover desktop automation along with UI automation.
Topics covered:
UI automation Introduction,
UI automation Sample
Desktop automation flow
Pradeep Chinnala, Senior Consultant Automation Developer @WonderBotz and UiPath MVP
Deepak Rai, Automation Practice Lead, Boundaryless Group and UiPath MVP
Software Delivery At the Speed of AI: Inflectra Invests In AI-Powered QualityInflectra
In this insightful webinar, Inflectra explores how artificial intelligence (AI) is transforming software development and testing. Discover how AI-powered tools are revolutionizing every stage of the software development lifecycle (SDLC), from design and prototyping to testing, deployment, and monitoring.
Learn about:
• The Future of Testing: How AI is shifting testing towards verification, analysis, and higher-level skills, while reducing repetitive tasks.
• Test Automation: How AI-powered test case generation, optimization, and self-healing tests are making testing more efficient and effective.
• Visual Testing: Explore the emerging capabilities of AI in visual testing and how it's set to revolutionize UI verification.
• Inflectra's AI Solutions: See demonstrations of Inflectra's cutting-edge AI tools like the ChatGPT plugin and Azure Open AI platform, designed to streamline your testing process.
Whether you're a developer, tester, or QA professional, this webinar will give you valuable insights into how AI is shaping the future of software delivery.
Essentials of Automations: Optimizing FME Workflows with ParametersSafe Software
Are you looking to streamline your workflows and boost your projects’ efficiency? Do you find yourself searching for ways to add flexibility and control over your FME workflows? If so, you’re in the right place.
Join us for an insightful dive into the world of FME parameters, a critical element in optimizing workflow efficiency. This webinar marks the beginning of our three-part “Essentials of Automation” series. This first webinar is designed to equip you with the knowledge and skills to utilize parameters effectively: enhancing the flexibility, maintainability, and user control of your FME projects.
Here’s what you’ll gain:
- Essentials of FME Parameters: Understand the pivotal role of parameters, including Reader/Writer, Transformer, User, and FME Flow categories. Discover how they are the key to unlocking automation and optimization within your workflows.
- Practical Applications in FME Form: Delve into key user parameter types including choice, connections, and file URLs. Allow users to control how a workflow runs, making your workflows more reusable. Learn to import values and deliver the best user experience for your workflows while enhancing accuracy.
- Optimization Strategies in FME Flow: Explore the creation and strategic deployment of parameters in FME Flow, including the use of deployment and geometry parameters, to maximize workflow efficiency.
- Pro Tips for Success: Gain insights on parameterizing connections and leveraging new features like Conditional Visibility for clarity and simplicity.
We’ll wrap up with a glimpse into future webinars, followed by a Q&A session to address your specific questions surrounding this topic.
Don’t miss this opportunity to elevate your FME expertise and drive your projects to new heights of efficiency.
Smart TV Buyer Insights Survey 2024 by 91mobiles.pdf91mobiles
91mobiles recently conducted a Smart TV Buyer Insights Survey in which we asked over 3,000 respondents about the TV they own, aspects they look at on a new TV, and their TV buying preferences.
Key Trends Shaping the Future of Infrastructure.pdfCheryl Hung
Keynote at DIGIT West Expo, Glasgow on 29 May 2024.
Cheryl Hung, ochery.com
Sr Director, Infrastructure Ecosystem, Arm.
The key trends across hardware, cloud and open-source; exploring how these areas are likely to mature and develop over the short and long-term, and then considering how organisations can position themselves to adapt and thrive.
Generating a custom Ruby SDK for your web service or Rails API using Smithyg2nightmarescribd
Have you ever wanted a Ruby client API to communicate with your web service? Smithy is a protocol-agnostic language for defining services and SDKs. Smithy Ruby is an implementation of Smithy that generates a Ruby SDK using a Smithy model. In this talk, we will explore Smithy and Smithy Ruby to learn how to generate custom feature-rich SDKs that can communicate with any web service, such as a Rails JSON API.
Transcript: Selling digital books in 2024: Insights from industry leaders - T...BookNet Canada
The publishing industry has been selling digital audiobooks and ebooks for over a decade and has found its groove. What’s changed? What has stayed the same? Where do we go from here? Join a group of leading sales peers from across the industry for a conversation about the lessons learned since the popularization of digital books, best practices, digital book supply chain management, and more.
Link to video recording: https://bnctechforum.ca/sessions/selling-digital-books-in-2024-insights-from-industry-leaders/
Presented by BookNet Canada on May 28, 2024, with support from the Department of Canadian Heritage.
UiPath Test Automation using UiPath Test Suite series, part 4DianaGray10
Welcome to UiPath Test Automation using UiPath Test Suite series part 4. In this session, we will cover Test Manager overview along with SAP heatmap.
The UiPath Test Manager overview with SAP heatmap webinar offers a concise yet comprehensive exploration of the role of a Test Manager within SAP environments, coupled with the utilization of heatmaps for effective testing strategies.
Participants will gain insights into the responsibilities, challenges, and best practices associated with test management in SAP projects. Additionally, the webinar delves into the significance of heatmaps as a visual aid for identifying testing priorities, areas of risk, and resource allocation within SAP landscapes. Through this session, attendees can expect to enhance their understanding of test management principles while learning practical approaches to optimize testing processes in SAP environments using heatmap visualization techniques
What will you get from this session?
1. Insights into SAP testing best practices
2. Heatmap utilization for testing
3. Optimization of testing processes
4. Demo
Topics covered:
Execution from the test manager
Orchestrator execution result
Defect reporting
SAP heatmap example with demo
Speaker:
Deepak Rai, Automation Practice Lead, Boundaryless Group and UiPath MVP
Builder.ai Founder Sachin Dev Duggal's Strategic Approach to Create an Innova...Ramesh Iyer
In today's fast-changing business world, Companies that adapt and embrace new ideas often need help to keep up with the competition. However, fostering a culture of innovation takes much work. It takes vision, leadership and willingness to take risks in the right proportion. Sachin Dev Duggal, co-founder of Builder.ai, has perfected the art of this balance, creating a company culture where creativity and growth are nurtured at each stage.
Kubernetes & AI - Beauty and the Beast !?! @KCD Istanbul 2024Tobias Schneck
As AI technology is pushing into IT I was wondering myself, as an “infrastructure container kubernetes guy”, how get this fancy AI technology get managed from an infrastructure operational view? Is it possible to apply our lovely cloud native principals as well? What benefit’s both technologies could bring to each other?
Let me take this questions and provide you a short journey through existing deployment models and use cases for AI software. On practical examples, we discuss what cloud/on-premise strategy we may need for applying it to our own infrastructure to get it to work from an enterprise perspective. I want to give an overview about infrastructure requirements and technologies, what could be beneficial or limiting your AI use cases in an enterprise environment. An interactive Demo will give you some insides, what approaches I got already working for real.
Connector Corner: Automate dynamic content and events by pushing a buttonDianaGray10
Here is something new! In our next Connector Corner webinar, we will demonstrate how you can use a single workflow to:
Create a campaign using Mailchimp with merge tags/fields
Send an interactive Slack channel message (using buttons)
Have the message received by managers and peers along with a test email for review
But there’s more:
In a second workflow supporting the same use case, you’ll see:
Your campaign sent to target colleagues for approval
If the “Approve” button is clicked, a Jira/Zendesk ticket is created for the marketing design team
But—if the “Reject” button is pushed, colleagues will be alerted via Slack message
Join us to learn more about this new, human-in-the-loop capability, brought to you by Integration Service connectors.
And...
Speakers:
Akshay Agnihotri, Product Manager
Charlie Greenberg, Host
The Art of the Pitch: WordPress Relationships and SalesLaura Byrne
Clients don’t know what they don’t know. What web solutions are right for them? How does WordPress come into the picture? How do you make sure you understand scope and timeline? What do you do if sometime changes?
All these questions and more will be explored as we talk about matching clients’ needs with what your agency offers without pulling teeth or pulling your hair out. Practical tips, and strategies for successful relationship building that leads to closing the deal.
FIDO Alliance Osaka Seminar: The WebAuthn API and Discoverable Credentials.pdf
The Non-commercial restriction in educational content
1.
2. Prof Derek lives in South Africa and believes that educational content should be free , and that users should be free to copy , adapt and distribute it.
3. He feels that a restriction requiring changes to be made available under the same terms will protect that freedom . http://creativecommons.org/find/ I just discovered this amazing site that allows me to find content that has a creative commons license.
4. Prof Derek is excited about Creative Commons licenses, and he is glad that so many people share his view of a world where educational content is shared freely, where people are free to build on each other's work.
5. He starts to build his online biology course, building on the things that he has made available under an open content license for years.
6. Prof Derek goes online to do some searching for free content that he can use. He is looking for some material on marine algae. I will search for marine algae
7. Prof Derek is saddened and surprised by what he finds. There are lots of sites with Creative Commons licenses, but most of them use a NonCommercial restriction that is not compatible with the more free Attribution-ShareAlike license. Info, info everywhere and not a drop to use
8. It is not that Prof Derek wants to make money out of his content. He wouldn't mind, of course, but he knows that he won't.
9. It's just that he does not want to restrict what people can do with his content. The NC restriction is not compatible with this philosophy. I just want educational resources to be free.
10. Free as used here means free as in freedom, not absence of price. Free as in speech, not free as in beer.
11. It is clear that the nuances of license choice are not well understood in the educational and scientific community. What can I do to change things?
12. Prof Derek decides to put together a small lecture that he can use at conferences to try to promote the concept of freedom for educational content. I will have to use the conferences I attend to try to change things.
13. Free content is content that contributes to social good by recognizing four freedoms and one restriction that safeguards and promotes those freedoms.
14. With Free Content , everyone has a certain rights.
15. The right to copy , distribute , display , and perform the work without requiring further permission than that guaranteed by this freedom (freedom 1)
16. The right to exercise this freedom for any purpose under any circumstances , including commercial use (freedom 2)
18. The right to copy , distribute , display , and perform the derivative works (freedom 4)
19. One restriction ensures that the first four freedoms are passed on in derivative works .
20. If the work is altered , transformed , or built upon in any way, resulting work may only be distributed under an identical license that includes this restriction ( copyleft restriction )
21. Without this restriction the four freedoms are not protected in derivative works .
22. An optional further restriction is permissible with free content in that it may require the original author(s) to be given credit or attribution .
23. The original author(s) or producer(s) of the content as well as the author(s) or producer(s) of derivative works must be acknowledged and given credit for their contribution ( Attribution restriction )
24. The emphasis in philosophy of Free Content is on social good through promoting collaborative development and the adaptation and expansion of content.
25. We can think of Free Courseware as Free Content that is arranged in courses and made available in a structured manner via the Internet.
26. We can also imagine situations where content includes some but not all of these freedoms , and where there may be additional restrictions imposed. We can call this Open Content .
27. Open Content may restrict the conditions under which the content may be used. For example, it may impose a non-commercial restriction, or no t allow the production of derivative works .
28. The emphasis in philosophy of Open Content is access to content while protecting the author's wishes to restrict access to certain conditions.
29. All Free Content is Open Content but not all Open Content is Free Content .
30. We can think of Open Courseware as being Open Content that is arranged in courses and made available in a structured manner via the Internet.
31. All Free Courseware is Open Courseware but not all Open Courseware is Free Courseware .
32. Today, people often talk about Open Educational Resources (OER) covering both content that is norganized into courses as well as content organized into courses (courseware).
33. The problem with just talking about Open is that the vitally important concept of Freedom is lost. For this reason, I prefer to talk about Free and Open Resources for Education (FORE).
34. In the concept of Free and Open Resources for Education ( FORE ), Freedom is placed in the fore ground. This concept is not widely used or accepted, although hopefully, one day, the importance of the four freedoms will be widely recognized.
35. Prof Derek meets fellow biologist, Dr Claudia at a conference. Dr. Claudia has a NonCommercial restriction on her course materials. Claudia, can you please explain to me why you use a NonCommercial restriction on your Creative Commons licensed educational content? I just want to understand your choice of license.
36. Dr Claudia present a fairly standard reply. Prof Derek has heard this response before. Why should I let someone make money out of my work? Isn't it a bit obvious?
37. Prof Derek knows he has his work cut out for him. It is always a big job to explain the long term consequences of licenses. It shouldn't be about commercial use. It is about promoting freedom. May I explain what I mean?
38. Dr Claudia is willing to listen with a skeptic's ear. Sure explain away. But I don't think that you will make me change my mind. Besides, this is my institution's policy anyway.
39. Prof Derek begins the long talk to freedom. OK, let me get out my laptop and show you a presentation I made about Creative Commons licenses and Freedom
40. We can think of traditional copyright as a license within which the holder reserves all rights.
41. We can think of the public domain as being a license within which the holder reserves no rights at all. Of course, copyright and public domain are not really licenses.
42. In between full copyright and the public domain there is a spectrum of rights that you may decide to keep or relinquish.
43. This area of “some rights reserved” is the area where Creative Commons licenses operate. These licenses allow you to choose which rights to retain and which to give up in this in-between area.
44. These rights are defined and indicated by symbols, and can be combined in different ways to create different licenses.
45. There are only really four of them that we need to know about for now. Lets call them conditions.
46. You allow others to distribute derivative works only under a license identical to the license that governs your work. This is called ShareAlike.
47. You let others copy, distribute, display and perform only verbatim copies of your work, not derivative works based upon it. This is ND or NoDerivatives.
48. You let others copy, distribute, display and perform only verbatim copies of your work - and derivative works based on it - but only for non-commercial purposes.
49. You let others copy, distribute, display and perform only verbatim copies of your work - and derivative works based on it - but only if they give you credit. This is Attribution.
50. By combining these conditions in different way, Creative Commons has created a set of 6 different licenses.
51. Remember our definition of Free Content, and the four freedoms? Well, there are only two licenses that are compatible with this definition.
52. None of the licenses to the left of the gap contain all of the four freedoms that define Free Content.
53. Both of the licenses to the right of the gap contain all of the four freedoms that define Free Content.
54. There is thus a compatibility gap between the non-free licenses to the left, and the free licenses to the right.
55. This means that content licensed under non-free licenses cannot be mixed with content licensed under free licenses.
56. Recall that we can include a copyleft clause to protect the four freedoms even in derivative works.
57. This is the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike license, which has these generational protections.
58. The Creative Commons Attribution license also has the four freedoms, but it lacks the generational protection of copyleft..
59. The NonCommercial and NoDerivative Works conditions are the cause of this incompatibility. They should only be used for good reason.
60. Prof Derek knows that he is still only partway down the road. He still needs to explain why Freedom, as he has defined it, is important for educational resources. OK, so I have talked about the licenses, but I have still not explained why freedom matters. So let me have a go at it before you give up altogether.
61. Dr Claudia, ever the good scientist, remains sceptical. She doesn't see why this notion of freedom matters. It is not the way people usually think about freedom, and she thinks he is just being a nutty professor. So why should I care about what you call freedom? Its way too abstract for me. Who really cares?
62. Prof Derek knows that this is the most difficult part of the story to tell. He has to be careful, as it is easy to fall down on this road. Can we agree that we want to see the availability of resources for education increase, and that we want to see people collaborating to create and use them? And by the way, when I say collaborate, I do not mean ONLY collaborate!
63. Dr Claudia cannot argue with the idea that there would be a growing wealth of educational resources that are created and shared collaboratively and individually. Sure, I can agree with that. How could anyone argue otherwise?
64. Prof Derek wonders if Dr Claudia has thought about the barriers to creating an abundance of educational resources. Then would you agree that the fewer barriers there are in the way of that happening the better?
65. Dr Claudia gets the concept of barriers immediately. It fits in with her experiences of creating content for her own courses. I remember once wanting to scan several pictures from a Magazine article to use on a website for my class. It took me a couple of months to get permission. Is that what you mean by a barrier?
66. Prof Derek is grateful that Dr Claudia has experienced some of the barriers he is talking about. Yes. That is exactly the kind of barrier I am talking about. There are others as well, but I think you get my point.
67. However, Claudia is still not convinced. She still doesn’t quite get the role of the license. You are trying to convince me to lose the NonCommercial restriction on my Marine Botany course, but how is that a barrier? I mean, anyone can use it as long as they don’t try to make money, no?
68. Prof Derek wonders if everyone believes that their work is so good that people will take it to make money. How can he make Dr Claudia understand that Free Licenses protect her rights. It is a barrier because content with the NC restriction cannot be mixed with content that does not have this restriction. In other words, it cannot be mixed with Free Content
69. However, Dr Claudia is still not convinced. She still doesn’t quite get the role of the license. But then, surely the barrier is with what you call the Free Content licenses? If they would all change to the NC restriction, there would be no barrier.
70. Prof Derek thinks back to the days of Apartheid in South Africa. He wonders if Dr Claudia would have argued that the problem was not with Apartheid, but with the fact that people found it unacceptable. I guess one could say that if you are not interested in freedom. But it is a bit like arguing that the problem with dictatorship is that people want democracy. If they accepted dictatorship it would be OK. That is a bit of an extreme analogy, but you get my point.
71. Dr Claudia starts to wonder why this particular concept of freedom is so important, and why Prof Derek takes this rather extreme perspective. You don’t seem like an extremist to me. So why does it matter? Why is what you refer to as Freedom so important. After all it is not like people will lose their lives over it.
72. Prof Derek thinks that perhaps the best way to explain it to Dr Claudia is by getting her to think further about barriers to active participation in building knowledge through building communities. You have already agreed that in order to get lots and lots of educational content, and to get lots of people using it and improving it and reusing it for their own purpose, it would be good if there were as few barriers as possible to that happening.
73. Dr Claudia thinks about this, and finds that it is a statement that she can agree with, as it fits her experience. It would be hard to argue with that. After all, the more resources there are, and the more ways they are used and modified, the better for me and for my students.
74. Prof Derek believes that he is getting somewhere. Well, whenever you place a restriction, then there is a barrier that has to be overcome. For people who believe in the concepts of freedom as I explained them, the NC restriction is a barrier to them building on the content and improving it.
75. But Dr Claudia is still sceptical. Well, you could just get their permission.
76. It is clear to Prof Derek that he still has a ways to go to convince Dr Claudia. Argmph! OK, that would be true if there was just one person wanting to use something from another person. But as the number of people and resources increase, the complexity of managing such permissions add significant overhead, and becomes a barrier.
77. Dr Claudia accepts that perspective, but comes back to the “why should people make money out of my work,” emotional argument. OK, I can see that point. But I still don’t see why I should allow people to make money from my work.
78. Prof Derek is beginning to think he should take up another cause! But Claudia, it is not really about people making money out of your work. It is about lowering the barriers to collaboration and improving your work. This will surely also come back to benefit you in some way.
79. Dr Claudia still wants to prevent people packing her work, claiming it as their own, and selling it. Look, I spent weeks working on those animations of algal reproduction. I don’t want someone to then package them and sell them as part of a book or CD and then I get nothing.
80. Prof Derek thinks that at last he can begin to make Dr Claudia understand. He pulls out his laptop and shows her part of a presentation he made at another conference. Let me show you something else on my laptop. I made this for another conference. Maybe it will help to convince you.
81. Freedom is protected and ensured because any derivative works must also be shared, and must further require that subsequent derivative works also require the same conditions. Nobody can derive work and not give it back.
82. This protection is the reason for the copyleft (or share alike in this case) clause in the license.
83.
84. Prof Derek is hopeful that he has made a convincing case. So, you see, your rights are protected from pure commercial exploitation. If a CD ROM publisher did what you suggested, they would have to make the CD available under the same license.
85. At last Dr Claudia understands that there could actually be benefits from commercial use as long as the conditions of the license are respected. I see! I see! So, if someone extended my work to create something for commercial purpose, I could benefit. But it would require an enlightened publisher.
86. Prof Derek thinks Dr Claudia is becoming an enlightened educator. Yes, you are absolutely right. But right now, there are not many of them. The business models for Free Content are only just beginning to emerge. Free Content is way behind Free Software in this regard. But enlightened educators can start the ball rolling!
87. But Dr Claudia raises another concern that she has. This one has to do with resistance among other educators to getting rid of the NC restriction. Derek, you mentioned barriers. But there is another barrier. I work at the Awesome Technology and Research Institute (ATARI). At ATARI, our professors would never give their content away without a NC restriction. So if ATARI did not use the NC restriction, we would not have any content at all. So we all use the NC restriction because it is our policy in order to get their buy in.
88. Prof Derek is not surprised. He has heard this argument before from other professors from ATARI. He has a counter argument ready. So, you are saying it is OK to be less free when people don’t understand the benefits of Freedom?
89. Dr Claudia is still not subscribing to the concept of freedom Prof Derek uses. Well, not quite, but in the limited sense that you define freedom, I guess yes.
90. The barrier here is not the license, but people’s knowledge of what is at stake. Then ask yourself what is the real barrier here. Is it the license, or is it people's knowledge and attitude?
91. Dr Claudia experiences an ‘aha’ moment! Aha! I see. If the barrier is the license, you address it one way, but if the barrier is knowledge and attitude then you address it another way.
93. Dr Claudia now takes on the role of the person giving the explanation. So, we should be trying to educate our staff at ATARI, instead of just accepting the build up of a mass of non-free content.
94. Dr Claudia has another revelation. Actually, we are creating an unnecessary polarization within the free and open content world.
95. Prof Derek experiences an overwhelming sense of relief. That’s exactly right, you see ATARI’s reputation and brand create ‘followers’ who also do not realize the value of freedom! Few institutions in the world besides ATARI could produce this effect.
96. Dr Claudia begins to see a mission for herself at ATARI. I think that I will go back after this conference and see if I can get an education and marketing campaign going to help our staff make the right choices, and to see if we can change our policy.
97. Prof Derek thinks if Dr Claudia can get it, so can others. After all, if they work at the ATARI, they cannot be incapable of learning new ideas and changing their mindsets. That would be excellent. Don’t get me wrong, ATARI has made a great start, and it has raised a global awareness of FORE (or OER as they call it), and that is a valuable contribution. Now maybe it is time to go the whole distance before there is real damage done.
98. Claudia has another idea. Maybe I can also speak to our funders, the Sweet Sweet Sugar Foundation. Maybe they can also help put pressure on us to change. Hopefully I won't get fired!
99. Prof Derek thinks he can now tell Claudia to have a look at his course materials. They are teaching almost the same programme. Maybe, if she would be willing to lose the NC restriction they could start their own community. By the way, Claudia, I have had my algae course under a Free License since 1998. Maybe we can work together on improving our content together.
100. Claudia becomes enthusiastic. Great idea. Lets see who else is here at this conference that might be interested as well.
101. Please click once more to see attributions And so the conversation ends, another small victory for Freedom.
102. This presentation uses content modified from the following sources under the terms of their license (BY or BY-SA). Conference speaker image by Jochen Topf from http://www.flickr.com/photos/jochen_topf/144965811/ http://www.flickr.com/photos/aplumb/133695419/ (aplumb) for the beer glass image and http://www.flickr.com/photos/87844368@N00/142750871/ (Henrik Moltke) for the Free Beer image, used in the Free as in Speech slide http://creativecommons.org/about/licenses/ for the cartoon images