Thread:A few issues - break up into separate threads as needed (3)

Hi Kim and Seth

mmm -- not sure whether we will be able to get all the important issues sorted before our deadline.

The licensing issue is a tough one in terms of sequencing --

If I'm developing a resource myself from scratch -- I need to know about licensing before I "share" my resource. Share of course is a loaded concept because some licenses would not be deemed as sharing by others. Similarly if I start developing OER by aggregating a bunch of stuff found through searching - the reality is that the educator is pretty much restricted by the existing licenses enforced by the original creator -- unless this can be negotiated with the license holder.

I think that the best way to tack this challenge is to use a flow chart or decision table. We could have a green line showing the decision path of Educator that support the free cutural works definition and a blue line for those who don't -- respecting freedom of choice.

As RMS said -- when faced with the ethical challenge of breaking copyright contravention by unauthorized copying of non-free software versus helping a friend -- RMS's advise was to accept the lessor of two evils and to make an authorized copy. Similarly -- I think that we need to accept the lessor of two evils here -- not all educators will understand the essential freedoms or necessarily agree with them. I have endless challenges with this in WE -- for example including NC images from flickr. In most cases its ignorance of licensing -- educators want to do the right thing. So I typically send a discrete email and spend time talking with the individuals.

At the same time I know that many folk don't share my views on the essential freedoms. And thats fine by me. The important thing is to present accurate information. Sadly all OERs may be accessible but they are definitely not all free

Kim -- I think we should think about developing additional modules or sections to supplement the existing handbook --- going into greater detail on the freedoms we subscribe to. We've come a long way ... 12 months ago I couldn't image a collaborative development of an OER Handbook for K12 +6 being developed across 3 regions of the world!