OpenEd-Free vs. not quite completely free

In Giving Knowledge for Free – The Emergence of Open Educational Resources, the authors talk about what “open” really means. One issue that comes up frequently in this regard is the various restrictions that an author may include as a part of the license terms. Some think that licenses that restrict the ability to modify a work or to use it commercially mean that the work is no longer “open” or “free.”

I just listened to some interesting related commentary on Joi Ito’s opening presentation at Wikimania on the WikipediaWeekly podcast.

They talked about open content that is completely free ala the free culture movement vs. various Creative Commons licenses that allow some commercial variations. Many in the free culture movement have argued that anything less that completely free is not free at all. The discussion on the podcast and Ito’s talk dispute this however.

One interesting point they sited was that people need a way to “get their feet wet” with something comfortable. (And completely free is uncomfortable to many.) People dabbling in open content often begin by offering their own content with a more restrictive license. However, over time, they then move to licenses are that completely free, shareable, and alterable.

This has certainly been my own experience. I am a product of a background that includes stints in textbook and software publishing, as well as various for-profit education ventures. Also, I live in the United States, the undisputed home of free market capitalism and a make-all-the-money-you-can culture. ;) As such, my first reaction to open content a while back was something like “That sound nice for some people [academics, hobbyists, etc.], but it doesn’t make a lot of sense for ‘real’ [for-profit] information providers to make all their stuff free.”

Over time, though, my thinking has expanded (I hope :). A big milestone for me was reading Wikinomics. This book discussed in depth the fact that capitalism and open resources are not mutually exclusive. It also got me really excited about the potential that mass collaboration has to change the world.

And once you start thinking about changing the world, who cares how much money you make? :)