Hi Valerie, Looks like a great project concept and I like the idea of sourcing OERs which WE are free to adapt modify and redistribute :-). Therefore when categorising and listing content resources it would be useful to include licensing and or copyright information.
Sadly the majority of resource links on the WE_Collaborate page point to materials which we are NOT free to adapt, modify and redistribute :-(. For example -- take a look at Merlot's Copyright License -- it is VERY misleading. On the main landing pages they have a link which says: "Content on this site is licensed under Creative Commons License Conditions<http://taste.merlot.org/acceptableuserpolicy.html>" note that on this page they do not state what creative commons licenses." Further examination will reveal that this is not a licensing culture of permissions -- but rather a IP policy designed to restrict use. Reading the Merlot licensing regime you will find that they have own complicated and restrictive licensing policy in place. The short answer is WE cannot touch these materials because they do not meet the requirements of the Free Cultural Works definition and from WikiEducator's perspective Merlot resources do not qualify is free/libre content. Merlot provides different rights to different categories of people, and a convoluted and complex licensing policy which dishes out different freedoms to different people. In our view this is unacceptable. "Partners Only" is a category of Merlot users who require written permission from Merlot -- Quoting from their site: "Partner-only materials require written permission from MERLOT for reuse. After receiving such permission, the materials fall under the Creative Commons conditions described in Table 1 (which provides a complicated licensing framework for different types of materials). Partners who pay or contribute resources have access to a different set of materials from the general education public. Merlot members have different licensing conditions to the general public. Merlot also uses different licenses for different types of material, eg metadata, assignments, member comments". Moreover, the fact that MERLOT has applied additional licensing conditions than the standard Creative Commons licenses -- effectively restricts remix and reuse. Reading further you will see that the use of Learning Materials by all other users is effectively all rights reserved copyright. Merlot's licensing requirements are not aligned with our values and IMHO we should not use valuable community time to reference WE resources on Merlot. I think its a good idea to partner and support initiatives which subscribe to our values and meaning of freedom. Together we can achieve more than working alone. It is up to us to ensure that the world will have access to free/libre content -- sadly, content which you are free to adapt, modify and reuse is still in the minority. However, WE are going to make a difference! Cheers Wayne 2009/11/18 valerie <vtay...@gmail.com> > > I have been collecting and annotating lots of links to OER directories > and repositories. > http://www.wikieducator.org/WE_Collaborate/Science6 > > Now I would like to have a template for a one line status indicator > that can include a few basic bits of information from pull-down menus > (so I don't have to remember / lookup the values every time), and > perhaps some automatically provided values ? date this added or > changed. > > I'd really appreciate some help with building the template - I can do > really simple ones, but this is beyond me. > > Thanks > ..Valerie > > > -- Wayne Mackintosh, Ph.D. Director, International Centre for Open Education, Otago Polytechnic, New Zealand. Board of Directors, OER Foundation. Founder and Community Council Member, Wikieducator, www.wikieducator.org Mobile +64 21 2436 380 Skype: WGMNZ1 Twitter: OERFoundation, Mackiwg --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "WikiEducator" group. To visit wikieducator: http://www.wikieducator.org To visit the discussion forum: http://groups.google.com/group/wikieducator To post to this group, send email to wikieducator@googlegroups.com To unsubscribe from this group, send email to wikieducator-unsubscr...@googlegroups.com -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
