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Have you ever looked at an article on Wikipedia and thought, “this could really use some work”? With the free online course “Writing Wikipedia Articles: The Basics and Beyond,” offered through the School of Open, you have the opportunity to take the next step.

In the course, you will learn about both the technical and social underpinnings of this worldwide, volunteer-built resource, and how you can most effectively contribute to its vision to freely share knowledge. The six-week course will start its second round on 14 May (for those in the Americas) or 15 May (Asia/Australia).* Sign up here.

Sara and Pete, Communicate OER / Pete Forsyth / CC BY

While the course is free and open to everyone, it focuses on the topic of open educational resources (OER), and students work to improve relevant Wikipedia articles as part of their coursework. The first round of the course concluded last week. The course organizers, Pete Forsyth and Sara Frank Bristow of Communicate OER, had so much fun that they are diving right back in to facilitate a second round. Pete says,

“We learned a great deal in our first run: we were surprised by how few of our students knew about OER, but also how fully they embraced the topic. We hope you will agree, their efforts to improve the OER article have been successful: while there will always be room for improvement, today’s version of the article is much improved from the version prior to the start of our class.”

Several members of the CC community were proud to support this effort. In the first round, CC CEO Cathy Casserly participated in a panel discussion and CC Senior Project Manager Paul Stacey provided a review of the OER article around which the course participants shaped their improvements.

Creative Commons encourages you to take advantage of this opportunity to contribute to the world’s understanding of open educational resources and the open licenses that make them possible. Sign up for the upcoming course today. You can also participate in a future course or engage in other ways by reaching out to the course organizers at the same link.

If you would like to be notified when other “open” courses launch their second rounds, make sure you’re subscribed to the School of Open announcements list.

*If you’re in Europe or Africa, the synchronous course sessions will be in the middle of the night. You are welcome to enroll and watch the archived sessions each week; join the third round of the course, expected to launch in July; or watch for the self-paced version of the course, to be announced in early June.

Το Σάββατο, 20 Απριλίου, ξεκινάει το ετήσιο συνέδριο των κοινοτήτων για το Ελεύθερο και Ανοιχτό Λογισμικό, FOSSCOMM (Free and Open Source Software Communities Meeting) Το FOSSCOMM 2013 (hua.fosscomm.gr) διοργανώνεται στο Χαροκόπειο Πανεπιστήμιο (www.hua.gr) από το Τμήμα Πληροφορικής και Τηλεματικής (www.dit.hua.gr ) με την υποστήριξη της Εταιρείας Ελεύθερου Λογισμικού / Λογισμικού Ανοιχτού Κώδικα (ΕΕΛ/ΛΑΚ, www.eellak.gr ). [...]

By Falkvinge on Infopolicy columnist Zacqary Adam Green (also creator of the excellent Your Face Is A Saxophone cartoon). Already used in my presentation today at the Linux Collaboration Summit, (pdf, odp, slideshare).

Σας παρουσιάζουμε το Smarthistory από την Khan Academy. Σας παρουσιάζουμε την πιο ενημερωμένη πλατφόρμα Ανοιχτού Εκπαιδευτικού Περιεχομένου (OER) στο χώρο της Ιστορίας της Τέχης. Μέσω του Smarthistory, υψηλού επιπέδου εισαγωγικό περιεχόμενο Ιστορίας της Τέχνης γίνεται ελεύεθερα διαθέσιμο σε όποιον και από όπου θέλει. Πρόκειται για μια πλατφόρμα όπου συναντιούνται Ιστορικοί Τέχνης από όλο τον κόσμο [...]

日前，美國著作權登記機關的Maria Pallante站在國會前宣告：「我們需要新的著作權法!」 而Pallante對此所準備之建議被認為是對於著作權法一項大膽的調整。 這樣的想法是非常令人歡迎的，因為不論從國內的評論或國際論壇(如WIPO)的方面，著作權法的改革聲浪皆為當前全世界一股非常強烈的潮流趨勢。而美國作為一個在著作權保護方面具領導性地位的國家，如透過主導ACTA和TPP等條約主張強烈的保護著作權，因此對於任何美國本身著作權法的動向都將是國際社會所密切注視的對象。 在諸多所提及的改革構想中，包括縮短著作權的保護期間、改變數位千禧年著作權法案(the Digital Millennium Copyright Act)、修正關於圖書館和資料庫方面的例外和限制情況等，我們非常高興看到Pallante的建議文件中特別強調了對於公眾領域(public domain)的擴張及保護。閱讀全文 2013-04-16T07:28:59Z emyleo

CC swag IV / Peter Shanks / CC BY

Creative Commons is looking for a LRMI Project Manager. This person will play a key role in leading the LRMI project.

From the job description:

We are looking for a Project Manager to lead the Learning Resource Metadata Initiative (LRMI), a project co-led by Creative Commons and the Association of Educational Publishers to build a common metadata vocabulary for educational resources.

The LRMI Project Manager will provide general oversight of the internal project staff and subcontractors, and ensure LRMI work plans are clearly articulated and timelines adhered to.

This position:

• project manages all CC LRMI grants and deliverables;
• serves as the primary contact for all LRMI subcontractors and external stakeholders;
• leads the LRMI technical working group listserv and meetings;
• liaises with open communities, OER repositories / referatories, institutions, standards bodies, and vendors that are integrating LRMI and/or increasing the value of CC’s legal and technology tools;
• is the key player in CC’s outreach to open education organizations and broadening awareness about LRMI and CC among states and school districts;
• represents LRMI and CC at private meetings and selected conferences and events;
• reports progress on the project to CC, the open community and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation; and
• serves as an education expert on technology aspects of CC internally and externally.

If this sounds exciting to you, we’d love to hear from you. Check out the full job listing for more information.

Over the weekend, a few of my friends were discussing about Singapore's National Cycling Plan via email. One of our friends offered to collate our ideas and suggestions to relay to the right government agency folks.I love our Park Connectors. I ride on the Khatib Bongsu park connector most often (sometimes connecting all the way to Woodlands Waterfront, through the Admiralty connector). I've noticed minor improvements to the Khatib Bongsu connector in the last two years. There's still room for a better/ safer experience for cyclists and pedestrians.There was a suggestion that I should blog about my suggestions. It's fresh off my mind anyway, since my wife and I just completed an early evening 16km ride today, to the end of Simpang Kiri.Ideally I should include actual images of the parts I've described. But I didn't really plan to give a comprehensive list until after the ride. Hope the map screenshots, with the descriptions, would help. Well, I'd love to show the URA or NParks people first hand. Like a Ride & Review session. Wouldn't mind taking my vacation time on a weekday to meet them (wouldn't want them to work on a weekend). Ride along the path, point out actual situations. Also I'd like to be educated on why things were designed in certain ways or perhaps the constraints they faced.Feedback on the Khatib Bongsu Park Connector1) From the junction at Yishun Ave 1 & Yishun Ave 2, there's a stretch of asphalt that seemed worn out. The painted speed stripes seemed particularly high. It appeared as if the asphalt on parts unpainted were badly eroded (I've seen newer paved bike paths and they are definitely smoother). Going over the stripes slowly, as designed, was extremely jarring. I suspect most cyclists will choose to ride on the smoother pedestrian path. Which defeated the purpose of having the cycling path.2) Along Yishun Ave 2, there's a side road for traffic to enter the carpark of Blocks 788/ 785. It splits the cycling path, though that's not the issue. The problem is that the sloped gradient (for a smooth transition from the path to the road, and then back on the path again) was only made for the pedestrian path. The sloped edge is for wheelchairs to easily transfer from pedestrain path to road, to make the crossing. The cyclist has to make a 90-degree turn to get to that sloped edge. Once I cross the road with my bike it's another 90-degree turn to get back to the cycling path and its a narrow turn. I consider myself quite OK on a bike but I don't feel confident making such a tight turn all the time. Cyclists don't want to get off and push the bike (be realistic!) so I noticed most cyclists go on the pedestrian path, which is more direct.3) There's also more examples of 90-degree tight turns along Block 602. Then at the end of it (see the part marked 3.2) it's a dead-end for the bike path. You actually have to go on the pedestrian path to make the crossing to the PCN on Mandai. I find that part poorly-designed and inconvenient. I end up cycling on the pedestrian path leading to the traffic lights. 4.1) At the stretch after the canal bridge (from Block 323) to the SAFRA Clubhouse: When the path was first constructed, I remember the asphalt part was designated as the bike path. But one day, the asphalt path became re-designated as a footpath while the concrete path (with iron grills for rain runoff) became a bike path. Pedestrians and cyclists get confused. Plus, the iron grills are not ideal when riding conditions are wet.4.2) According to the map, it looks like a continuous PCN. But in reality, that stretch is a pedestrian footpath. Not a problem sharing the path, though it is rather narrow.5) At Yishun MRT station, the hedges have gown quite tall (near the NTUC part). Pedestrian paths intersect the bike path and the hedges tend to prevent both pedestrians and cyclists from being able to spot each other far away. I try to ring my bell but not all the time. BTW, the same limited visibility issue affects some points along the Khatib-Yishun-Sembawang MRT tracks, where the cycling paths intersect with bus-stops/ overhead bridges pathways. Instead of plantings, the concrete columns are the ones preventing a clear view of oncoming pedestrians/ cyclists.6) Outside Yishun Emerald Green condo, ideally the bike path and pedestrian paths should be switched. I've seen condo residents coming out the gates and naturally walking on the asphalt path, with is more immediate than the concrete footpath. My point is the bike path should be made further away from the gates, not the nearest. 7) The stretch along the Canberra Sembawang PCN: the asphalt seems badly eroded. Ride is very bumpy. Cyclists often avoid it and go on the pedestrian path instead. 8) On some park connectors (like Simpang Kiri), the bicycle symbol has been painted on the left and footsteps painted on the right. I've noticed cyclists, runners and pedestrians naturally ride/ run/ walk on the left side when heading towards the same direction. And it's usually the left side. If I were to cycle back the opposite direction AND adhered to the designated cycling side, it means I'd be cycling on the right side now, going in the forward direction (or the left side to the opposite cyclist/ runner/ pedestrian). If another cyclist were to head towards me, we're headed towards each other on the same side. It's currently not clear who has right of way -- should I go left or the other move to their left? A game of 'who brakes/ moves first'. In the end, I find that most cyclists/ runners/ pedestrians ignore the marked designated paths and naturally adopt a "keep left" position. In my view, just sticking to a "keep left" principle for everyone would be clearer. Paint a "Kept Left" on the asphalt.Alright. Finally managed to 'dump' all the observations that I think can be resolved in the near term. It's not exhaustive of course. Maybe there are budgetary or infrastructural reasons that prevent more significant improvements to be made. In any case, I hope the feedback would be of use to the authorities (NParks? URA? LTA?)Would be great if there was a dedicated Singapore Government website on the National Cycling Plan. For now, one can refer to the 2012 Budget website (near the end of the page). Or see this post of Mr Lui Tuck Yew's (Minister for Transport) parliament speech on 7 Mar 2012, where he mentioned the National Cycling Plan and Cycling Paths.I'm glad to see that cycling was once again part of the Budget in 2013.I've written about how I appreciate our Park Connector Network. If there was one on the National Cycling Plan, I'd love to be part of it. ASIDE: I can now better appreciate the usefulness of having a National Conversation framework. Previously I've not been that enthusiastic about any of the National Conversation topics. But thinking about the National Cycling Plan, I'd like to listen to the official views, their thinking behind the plans, and also be able to constructively provide feedback and ideas. (Thanks to Siva for the idea to blog my suggestions, and for reposting at the Cycling In Singapore) blog.   Web ramblinglibrarian.blogspot.com myrightbrain.wordpress.com roughnotes.wordpress.com

The Learning Resource Metadata Initiative (LRMI) specification (14 properties) has been accepted and published as a part of Schema.org, the collaboration between major search engines Google, Bing, Yahoo, and Yandex (press release). This marks the culmination of a year’s worth of open collaboration with the LRMI Technical Working Group and the wider education publishing community. To view the LRMI properties within the context of the full Schema.org hierarchy, visit schema.org/CreativeWork. See this post by Phil Barker for additional detail.

The LRMI, a simple tagging schema that draws from and maps easily to existing metadata frameworks (e.g., IEEE, LOM and Dublin Core), is intended to be an easy way for open and proprietary content publishers to standardize the way they describe the education specific characteristics of their resources.

This is wonderful news as the LRMI specification will be a piece of the future of education, especially as it pertains to Open Educational Resources (OER). Some of the features of LRMI will allow next generation learning systems based on personalized guided learning. To get a better idea of what kinds of things are possible with LRMI, watch this OSCON keynote by Danny Hillis describing the concept of a Learning Map.

Creative Commons is currently working with 10 different OER platforms and repositories to implement LRMI support and we hope to announce the first few complete implementations in the coming months.

To join the ongoing discussions around LRMI support and implementation, please join the public mailing list.

And… Creative Commons is hiring a new LRMI Project Manager. Please send us the best and brightest to lead this important project!

Arbeidsgruppen i Creative Commons Norge består i dag av noen få personer og vi har begrenset kapasitet. Vi ønsker nå å styrke aktiviteten, og ønsker derfor kontakt med folk som kan tenke seg å bidra aktivt i arbeidet med å spre kunnskapen om fri kultur på ulike måter. Du bestemmer selv hvor mye du vil bidra, og hva du vil bidra med. Vi er også åpne for innspill for hvordan du kan tenke deg å bidra. Punktlisten nedenfor inneholder noen av de tingene vi ønsker oss:read more 2013-04-16T02:17:08Z Webmaster

Σας παρουσιάζουμε το video της ομιλίας του Βασίλη Κωστάκη στο TEDx Ιωαννίνων στις 5 Απριλίου. Ο Βασίλης Κωστάκης δημιουργός του βιβλίου Ομότιμο Μανιφέστο: Δημιουργώντας τον κόσμο που θέλουμε μέσα στον κόσμο που θέλουμε να ξεπεράσουμε, Βορειοδυτικές Εκδόσεις εξηγεί σε μια εξαιρετικά ενδιαφέρουσα παρουσίαση τι είναι το Ομότιμο Κίνημα και γενικά η Ανοιχτή Φιλοσοφία στην νέα [...]

1. Na blogu projektu wolnych e-podręczników Fundacji Saylorów pojawił się ciekawy post zbierający najczęstsze obawy i zastrzeżenia autorów i instytucji prze otwieraniem swoich zasobów do których zwrócił się Saylor.org. 2. Kolejny ciekawy opis przypadku na stronach amerykańskiego Creative Commons:  David Liao stworzył i prowadzi otwarty kurs  A Mathematical Way to Think about Biology do którego stworzył i opublikował na [...] 2013-04-15T06:01:18Z

On April 8 & 9, 2013 BCcampus hosted, and Creative Commons facilitated, an Open Textbook Summit in Vancouver British Columbia Canada. The Open Textbook Summit brought together government representatives, student groups, and open textbook developers in an effort to coordinate and leverage open textbook initiatives. Participants included: BCcampus BC Ministry of Advanced Education, Innovation and [...]

La Cumbre Mundial de Creative Commons, que se realizará este año en Buenos Aires – Argentina, lanzó oficialmente la Convocatoria a Sesiones y Charlas, que harán parte del programa principal de la Cumbre. “Los asistentes a la cumbre discutirán las estrategias para fortalecer Creative Commons y su comunidad en todo el mundo, aprender sobre los [...]

Today’s latte, HTML5Yuko Honda / CC BY-SA Creative Commons strongly believes in the respect of copyright and the wishes of content creators. That’s why CC has created a range of legal tools that rely in part on copyright to enable our vision of a shared commons of creative and intellectual works. But when creators’ rights [...]

Today the Public Library of Science announced the Accelerating Science Award Program (ASAP). The award program seeks nominations of individuals who have used, applied, or remixed scientific research — published through open access — in order to realize innovations in science, medicine, and technology. The goal of ASAP is to build awareness of and encourage the use of scientific research published through open access. Major sponsors include the Wellcome Trust and Google.

Three winners will each receive $30,000. The nomination period opens today and runs through June 15, 2013. Potential nominees may include individuals, teams, or groups of collaborators -– such as scientists, researchers, educators, social services, technology leaders, entrepreneurs, policy makers, patient advocates, public health workers, and students -– who have used scientific research in transformative ways. The winners will be announced in Washington, DC, in October 2013 at an Open Access Week event hosted by SPARC and the World Bank.

Creative Commons is a supporter of ASAP, along with several other library organizations, publishers, and research organizations.

For more information, including the full details of the ASAP program, nomination process, and the award specifics, go to http://asap.plos.org/. For program rules visit http://asap.plos.org/nominate/rules/.

Last week a researcher and educator by the name of David Liao contacted our team at Creative Commons about open courseware he had created, which we tweeted: “A mathematical way to think about biology.” Really well put-together CC BY-SA course. qbio.lookatphysics.com @lookatphysics #oer — creativecommons (@creativecommons) March 25, 2013 I sat down last Wednesday to [...]

Η Ελληνική κοινότητα της Wikipedia επ’ευκαιρία της άφιξης στην Ελλάδα του εκπροσώπου του Ιδρύματος Wikipedia Asaf Bartov (Head of Global South Relationships) θα οργανώσει διάφορες εκδηλώσεις που στόχο έχουν την ενημέρωση του ελληνικού κοινού για την χρήση της Βικιπαιδείας, τον τρόπο συμμετοχής, την Ανοιχτή Εκπαίδευση και το Ανοιχτό Περιεχόμενο γενικά στην Ελλάδα. Ο Asaf Bartov [...]

OCL How-to Guide / SBCTC / CC BY

A year and a half ago, the Washington State Board for Community and Technical Colleges (SBCTC) released the first 42 of Washington state’s 81 high-enrollment courses under the Creative Commons Attribution license (CC BY). Now they have released the remaining 39 under the same terms, which means that anyone, anywhere, including the state’s 34 public community and technical colleges and four-year colleges and universities, can use, customize, and distribute the course materials.

The Open Course Library project is funded by the Washington State Legislature and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. It adheres to SBCTC’s open policy, which requires that all materials created through system grants be openly licensed for the public to freely use, adapt, and distribute under CC BY.

For further background on the project, read our 2010 feature about the project when it was just beginning. All 81 courses are available at the recently redesigned Open Course Library website where each individual course is marked with the CC BY license to enable discovery through Google and other search services on the web.

Update

The SBCTC held a press call today bringing to light a new Cost Analysis report on savings for students where Open Course Library courses have been used in lieu of traditional course materials. For more info, please see:

• Affordable Textbooks For Washington Students: An Updated Cost Analysis of the Open Course Library – Among other findings, “The Open Course Library has saved students $5.5 million in textbook costs to date, including $2.9 million during the 2012-2013 academic year alone.”
• Official SBCTC press release announcing Phase 2 courses (pdf)
• Audio of the Open Course Library media conference call with Q&A (mp3)

開放取用/開放近用(Open Access)的概念其實也推動了好一陣子，目前已逐漸翻轉學術期刊圈的營利模式。這樣運動其實也是自由文化 (Free Culture)的一項重點。 4月26日(五)有一個針對圖書館員與研究人員召開的CONCERT / Springer Open Access Seminar (開放取用研討會)，主題將訂在『開放取用–由機構典藏到全面開放取用（Open Access – from Green Road to Gold Road）』，希望提供這樣的機會，讓研究者與圖書館員認識開放取用/開放近用運動，並整理概述在推動上所面臨的狀況。 會中除了簡介開放取用的世界趨勢外，也邀請加拿大知名大學館員現身說法，分享圖書館員在開放取用出版中所扮演的角色，臺灣學者從生醫期刊主編的角度闡述開放取用對作者和使用者的益處。台灣創用CC計畫也很榮幸受邀，分享在開放取用中扮演要角的創用CC授權，其概念與現況。閱讀全文 2013-04-10T04:13:09Z emyleo

Το Αποθετήριο Ελεύθερου Λογισμικού / Λογισμικού Ανοιχτού Κώδικα (ΕΛ/ΛΑΚ)αποτελεί υποδομή οργανωμένου ψηφιακού περιεχομένου, που παρέχει ανοικτή διαδικτυακή πρόσβαση σε υλικό που παράγεται μέσα από δράσεις που αφορούν το Ελεύθερο Λογισμικό, τις Ανοιχτές Τεχνολογίες και το Ανοιχτό Περιεχόμενο. Το αποθετήριο συμβάλλει στη συστηματική συλλογή, οργανωμένη διαχείριση και ηλεκτρονική διάθεση ανοιχτού περιεχομένου  ενώ παράλληλα, συνεισφέρει στην αποθήκευση [...]