8. Open Policy
Many of the benefits of openness that discussed in this course - whether OER, open data, open science, or open access - will never materialize unless they are encouraged, incentivized, or even required as a matter of policy. When we talk about "open policy," in essence what we're saying is that publicly funded resources should be openly licensed resources. As I said earlier, when you buy one, you should get one. And that includes things that the public buys with their tax dollars. While there is likely to be an entire School of Open course dedicated open policy as well, we'll spend a little more time here.
In this video, Cable Green of Creative Commons discusses open policy. He doesn't start speaking until 12 minutes into the video, so feel free to skip ahead to that point to begin watching.
Cable Green discusses open policy.
After watching the video, spend some time exploring these additional resources:
- Open Policy Around the World
- The Open Policy Registry
- The California Higher Education Example
- The Washington K-12 Example
- The Utah K-12 Example
Activities for Open Policy
Which aspect of open policy are you the most passionate about? What opportunities exist for you to advocate for open policies? If you had fifteen minutes with a policy maker, which open policy would you try to persuade them to adopt? What would your argument be like? Publish your thoughts (in writing or in video) on your blog.
Remember - to submit (aka share) your work all you have to do is publish your blog post and link to it in a comment below!
For bonus points, contribute something to the Open Policy Registry!