ICTD2010

From openmichigan

"Information as a Global Public Good: Enabling Access to Knowledge through Open Licenses"

ICTD2010 Session 4403
Thursday 16 December 2010
3:30 to 5:00 p.m.

Organizer: Ted Hanss, University of Michigan Medical School

Presenters: Angela Miller, St. George's, University of London and Ted Hanss

Conference web site: www.ictd2010.org

The session presentation is available for download

Session Description: This session will equip ICTD2010 attendees with the skills to develop and share knowledge for re-use, re-mixing, and re-distribution using open licenses, amplifying information outputs of development projects. We will ground the session in a case study of collaborative production of open educational resources (OER) in Africa that is increasing access to locally developed, high quality learning. Faculty, staff, and students from several African universities are creating and publishing learning materials for local use that are also shared publicly, using Creative Commons licenses that enable people to easily change their copyright terms from the default of “all rights reserved” to “some rights reserved.” The result is knowledge production for Africans by Africans that also contributes to education globally.

After hearing the lessons learned, attendees will engage in an interactive exploration of open production on any topic with a focus on distributed and participatory approaches to knowledge production and sharing. In an education environment, OER publishing can establish a powerful new participatory paradigm by involving students in an active teaching and learning process. Beyond education contexts, the approach supports sustainable grassroots open publishing efforts. Attendees are encouraged to bring examples of their own materials to the session to get feedback.

Reference Web Sites:
OER Africa
The dScribe Process
Creative Commons

Speaker Bios:
Ted Hanss is the Chief Information Officer of the University of Michigan Medical School. In his work at U-M, he has led research groups, software development teams, IT operations and user services projects as well as human resources and training and development initiatives. Ted also previously held an adjunct lecturer position in the U-M Business School. He spent 8 years of his time here on loan to the Internet2 consortium as the Director of Applications Development promoting next generation internet applications and services. He has significant involvement in national and international standards efforts and consortium activities and is a frequent speaker on leading edge technology topics, including interviews with CNN, National Public Radio, The New York Times, Business Week, and numerous trade publications. He has authored or co-authored three book chapters and several journal and magazine articles. Ted has been the principal investigator on more than $7.5 million in grants and is currently the principal investigator on a $624K grant from the Hewlett Foundation, “African Health Open Educational Resources Network.” He is co-principal investigator on a $282K grant from the National Science Foundation, “Virtual Organizations as Socio-Technical Systems: Successful Collaboration between Researchers from Developing and Developed Countries in Virtual Organizations.” Ted has a B.S. in Biology from Boston College, an MBA from U-M, and is in the doctoral program at the U-M School of Information.