Open Courseware: realising the potential of standards as enablers of valuable global participation

Introduction The program for the Open Forum 2005 (Colloque Initiatives 2005 1 ) forum includes the statement: The public good that represents our ability to communicate freely, at reasonable cost, in all languages with all people anywhere and anytime, while preserving different cultures, must be at the heart of our concerns and supported by the international community’s generous and open impulse to share as has been stated in the WSIS principles. The question is, how can we identify and exploit the public good to achieve such important goals? How can the energy and expertise available be mobilized to improve educational opportunities for all? The open source software movement has become significant in recent years, particularly with the emergence of software that can be considered viable for major institutions. Open source software is typically developed with one of two production models: either some software is made available with conditions that prescribe its use being available subject to additions and alterations being similarly made available, but where such developments are not prescribed, or it is developed according to what has been called a peer production model, where contributed development is organized in much the same way as traditional commercial development is undertaken. Either way, access to the code is made available precisely so that it can be modified. It is protected by licenses that go beyond the traditional intellectual property relationships to