Why Open?

In the fourth week of the course (Aug. 26-Sept. 1) we will delve more deeply into the value of openness, as well as some issues that can emerge when doing work openly. We'll be doing parts 4 and 5 of the course during this third week (see menu at left for part 5 of the course).

Please try to complete the activities under this section by Thursday, August 29 (time zones in the Americas). We'll do section 5 of the course during the rest of that week.

Our course pad is acting up (actually, all etherpads at P2PU, I think), and we can't make changes at the moment. You can still see what's there (http://pad.p2pu.org/p/Why_open_course_pad), but changing it isn't working. Christina has created a new document where updates are being recorded, on Google docs: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1xPaQHiZTj61xxQf-9uBHt9LRHWN8oSSEO53ZuLY3l3o/edit# Please see there for updates since the beginning of Sept.!

There will be a synchronous Google Hangout this week, on Thursday, Aug. 29, 19:00 UTC (12:00 Pacific Daylight Time, 15:00 Eastern Daylight Time, 22:00 East Africa Time, 21:00 Central European Summer time, 7am Aug. 30 New Zealand Time). Please sign up on the course pad to be invited to this hangout: http://pad.p2pu.org/p/Why_open_course_pad. Due to only course facilitators signing up for this hangout, we decided to cancel it.

We will also have a Twitter chat this week (hashtag: #whyopen)--it was Tuesday, Aug. 27, 18:00 UTC (11:00am Pacific Daylight Time, 14:00 Eastern Daylight Time, 21:00 East Africa Time, 20:00 Central European Summer time, 6am Aug. 30 New Zealand Time). Here is the archive of our Week 4 Twitter chat: http://storify.com/clhendricksbc/whyopen-twitter-chat-for-week-4-aug-27-2013

At our first Google Hangout session, we decided to create a couple of collaborative documents. Please contribute to them if you'd like!

• Answering the question "Why Open?" collaboratively: http://pad.p2pu.org/Why_open_discussion
• How to market/spread/educate others about openness? http://pad.p2pu.org/p/How_to_spread_open

A couple of us are also working on a mind map started by one of the course participants, that discusses the various definitions of "openness" we've seen in the course, from the survey discussed in week 1 to participants' blog posts. The mind map will also have links to resources on the ideas raised in these different meanings of "open." We'd love collaborators! See more here: http://pad.p2pu.org/p/Why_open_meaning_of_open (you can also let us know if you do NOT want your blog post put into this mind map, after looking at the map and the document about it).

A. Brainstorm barriers or problems that open content or practices could help with

Given what we've done so far in the course, and thinking beyond the course as well, try to come up with one or two things you would like to do, but experience barriers to that openness could help with. What sorts of open tools, resources or methods might help to overcome these barriers?

Share your thoughts in the discussion area, below, and feel free to comment on what others have written as well.

B. Case Studies and stories of openness

Read at least two stories from one or more of the following, which describe benefits of openness, issues with openness, and barriers from closed content, practices and methods. You can discuss these in your final blog post if you wish (see section 5 at left).

If you have suggestions for other stories/case studies of either benefits or potential issues with openness, please put them in the discussion area, below!

• True Stories of Openness, a set of video stories collected by Alan Levine (each year has a number of stories; just pick a year and watch one or more). Most recent stories: http://stories.cogdogblog.com/ Earlier stories can be found here (with links to even earlier ones): http://cogdogblog.com/stuff/etug11/

• Who needs access? You need access! This site has stories of why public access to scientific research is important. It's still in progress, but has some good stories already. http://whoneedsaccess.org/

• The Right to Research Coalition's video interview with Dr. Francis Collins, Director of the US National Institutes of Health, and Jack Andraka, the 16-year-old inventor of a breakthrough cancer diagnostic, discussing the importance of Open Access: http://youtu.be/G55hlnSD1Ys / News story: http://www.righttoresearch.org/blog/open-access-empowers-16-year-old-to-create-breakth.shtml

• The Power of Open, a collection of stories of people who have chosen to use Creative Commons licenses for their work, and saying why. This publication from Creative Commons includes stories from artists, journalists, educators and more. http://thepowerofopen.org/

• Dispatches From the Commons: Creative Commons Annual Report, 2012: this site has numerous stories about open practices, content and methods. Pick one or more that sound interesting to you! http://dispatches.creativecommons.org/

• What does Creative Commons mean for science? http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2011-12/15/what-does-creative-commons-mean-for-science

• Arguments about benefits and drawbacks of specific Creative Commons licenses:

  Problems with the CC-BY-NC (noncommercial) license: http://freedomdefined.org/NC and http://kefletcher.blogspot.com.au/2011/10/why-not-nc-non-commercial.html and http://openglam.org/files/2013/01/iRights_CC-NC_Guide_English.pdf

  Arguments for using CC-BY-NC: http://www.wsis-community.org/pg/debates/group:14358/viewstatement/251476/252288/252322 and http://halfanhour.blogspot.com.au/2008/12/open-content-enclosure-and-conversion.html

  Problems with "no derivatives" licenses: http://freedomdefined.org/ND

  Arguments for using "share alike" licenses: http://www.bgsu.edu/departments/english/cconline/open/climate-of-trust-in-commons-development.html

  The Open Knowledge Foundations arguments about "share alike" vs. "noncommercial": http://blog.okfn.org/2010/06/24/why-share-alike-licenses-are-open-but-non-commercial-ones-arent/

  David Wiley's rebuttal to the Open Knowledge Foundations arguments above, arguing for CC-BY over CC-BY-SA: http://opencontent.org/blog/archives/1498

  Rob Myers' arguments about how CC-BY-NC-SA is not the same as "copyleft": http://robmyers.org/2008/02/24/noncommercial-sharealike-is-not-copyleft/ And more on copyleft here: https://www.gnu.org/copyleft/ and even more here, if you're interested: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Copyleft

• Stories of issues with openness, problems that people have run into when opening their work or practices:

  Creative Commons Has Failed Me and My Heart is Breaking: http://www.dr-chuck.com/csev-blog/2013/04/creative-commons-has-failed-me-and-my-heart-is-breaking/ And a response here: http://funnymonkey.com/blog/creative-commons-and-human-nature

  Further posts by Dr. Severance on this issue: http://www.dr-chuck.com/csev-blog/2013/05/the-day-after-cc-by-fail-cc-infinity/ and http://www.dr-chuck.com/csev-blog/2013/05/one-more-day-of-thought-introducing-cc-one-formerly-cc-infinity/

  Problems with open data: http://crookedtimber.org/2012/06/25/seeing-like-a-geek/

  Bad experience with media reporting on research: http://ellenblogsresearch.blogspot.ca/2013/08/is-openness-always-best.html?spref=tw

  Article arguing that "free" and "open" movements, organizations and practices often perpetuate gender gaps, in part because a heavy focus on freedom and lack of formal structure can lead to perpetuating already-existing inequalities: http://journals.uic.edu/ojs/index.php/fm/article/view/4291/3381

  ASCAP (American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers) letter attacking open culture - part 1 (https://twitpic.com/1zai6e ) part 2 (https://twitpic.com/1zai66 ); CC's response: https://creativecommons.org/weblog/entry/22643 (The ASCAP Legislative Fund for the Arts is a "political action committee" in the United States, which uses donations to contribute to political campaigns of particular people, or to try to help get certain laws passed by talking to lawmakers, education campaigns, and more.) Mike Rugnetta posted these 2 parts of a letter (or email) he received from ASCAP, asking him to donate to this political action committee.

  Lawrence Lessig (Professor of Law at Harvard, previously Stanford) versus Jack Valenti (Pres. of Motion Picture Assoc. of America) debate from 2001 (a long one; you could just watch part of it): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DnbyRnZlLH0