This is very interesting. I'd like to hear more about their definition of 'open license' - and whether this is effectively compliant with the Open Knowledge Definition!
Jonathan ---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: Ben Moskowitz <[email protected]> Date: Wed, Sep 30, 2009 at 8:13 PM Subject: [FCF-Education] US government support of OER To: [email protected] from TechLaw: http://pblog.bna.com/techlaw/2009/09/sen-durbin-proposes-15-million-in-grants-for-open-textbook-creators.html Sen. Durbin Proposes $15 Million in Grants for Open Textbook Creators Last week Sen. Richard Durbin introduced a bill (S. 1714) that would create a $15 million federal grant program for "open textbooks." The bill is a further example of continuing federal government interest in openness, transparency, and using information-sharing technologies to promote social aims. Sen. Durbin is promoting his bill as a means to drive down the price of college textbooks, but I think it is going to have more far-reaching consequences than that. If it passes. The bill defines "open textbook" as "a textbook or set of course materials in electronic format designed for use in a college course at an institution of higher education that is licensed under an open license." New works and updates to existing works would be eligible for grants. The bill defines "open license" as "an irrevocable intellectual property license that grants the public the right to access, customize, and distribute a copyrighted material." Any college, and professor or group of professors, any for-profit or non-profit organization may apply to the Secretary of Education for a grant to produce open textbooks. It will be interesting to see how this all plays out in the legal education market, particularly in the areas of cyberlaw and intellectual property law where feelings about openness run strong. A shot of federal grant money might be all it takes to spur the development of new teaching materials from law clinics at Harvard or Berkeley, or stimulate interest from an established, commercial technology law publisher like MIT Press. Grant-eligible teaching materials must be both "free as in freedom" and "free as in beer." S. 1714 provides that the "full and complete digital content of each open textbook" must be "made available free of charge to, and may be downloaded, redistributed, changed, revised, or otherwise altered by, any member of the general public." The message to entrepreneurs is this: If you'd like to take the big textbook publishers down, the federal government might be willing to lend a hand. The hard part will be making a buck in the process. _______________________________________________ FCF-Education mailing list [email protected] http://mail.freeknowledge.eu/mailman/listinfo/fcf-education -- Jonathan Gray Community Coordinator The Open Knowledge Foundation http://www.okfn.org _______________________________________________ okfn-discuss mailing list [email protected] http://lists.okfn.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/okfn-discuss
