Why Open?

During week 2 (August 17-23), we will look a bit further at the meaning of "open," by taking a quick look at Creative Commons licenses, and considering the difference between "open" and "free." We will then start the process of doing some open activities, engaging in open practices, which will continue into next week.

We'll have a Twitter chat this week on Tuesday at 16:00 UTC/ 11:00 am EST. Remember to use #WhyOpen tag to participate in the conversation. We will discuss the meaning of "open," Creative Commons licenses, and the difference between "open" and "free."

We are going to work in small groups for part of this week and next week. Here's how we'll set up the small groups.

• Please write a short post in this Discourse thread, listing your area of interest in openness (education, data, policy, etc.) and what sorts of things you're particularly interested in talking about/learning in this course: http://discourse.p2pu.org/t/week-2-find-a-group-to-join-here/126 You could link to your post on "introduce yourself" thread if you want (see the bottom of each post on a thread; there's a button with a chain link that you can click to get a link to the post).
• Then, everyone should try to find someone on the thread they'd like to join with in a small group. Please reply to their post and create groups that way. Ideally, each group should have about 3 people (2 is fine). It'll be a bit messy on the thread, but it should work!
• Next, once you've found a group, please go to the "Groups" subcategory under "Why Open," and create a new thread for your group. Click on the blue "Why Open" box at the top of any discussion thread, then on the top menu, click on the grey box next to the blue "Why Open" box and select "groups." Or just go there directly from this link! http://discourse.p2pu.org/category/why-open/groups

A. Creative Commons licenses

Looking at Creative Commons licenses is another way we can think about some of the meanings of openness; further, before we get started doing open practices, it's important that we understand some open licenses for created works such as images, texts, videos and more. There are actually numerous kinds of open licenses, but one kind that you'll see around a lot, most likely, are Creative Commons (CC) licenses.

You may already be familiar with the idea of open licenses and the various kinds of CC licenses, but if not, please do the following brief course on P2PU (should take no more than 30 minutes), called "Get CC Savvy": https://p2pu.org/en/groups/get-cc-savvy/

Note also that there is also a relatively new option called the CC0 waiver, which lets you express that you would like your work to be considered to be in the public domain as much as that is possible under current laws. See here for a brief summary, and links to more information: https://creativecommons.org/about/cc0

B. "Open" vs. "Free"

Sometimes we may think of something being open as similar to (or the same thing as) something being free. But there are some important differences, as you can see by reading some of the things below.

Please read at least two of the following, to get a sense of what others have said about the difference between "open" and "free."

http://freedomdefined.org/Definition

http://opencontent.org/definition/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gratis_versus_libre

http://www.forbes.com/2006/03/21/gnu-gplv3-linux-cz_dl_0321stallman2.html

http://www.techradar.com/news/software/free-vs-open-what-s-the-difference-683592

http://mako.cc/writing/coleman-hill-how_free_became_open.pdf

C. Reflective discussion post & comments

Please write a post in which you discuss either "open" and "free" and/or something about Creative Commons licenses (or other open licenses, if you're aware of others), and post it here: http://discourse.p2pu.org/t/week-2-open-vs-free-creative-commons-and-more/121 . You could address one or more of the following questions, or anything else of your choosing that's relevant to what we've looked at so far this week.

• Do the Creative Commons licenses seem to cover most options you think are important for opening up created works? Is there anything missing?

• If you were to choose a CC license for your blog, or for something else you create, which one do you think you might choose, and why? Of course, it may differ according to what sort of thing you're applying it to, so choose a particular example to discuss (such as a photo, a piece of writing, a video, or something else).

• Are there any problems you can imagine with using one or more of the Creative Commons licenses for something you create?

• Did the readings help you get a better sense of the differences between "open" and "free?"

• How do you understand their similarities and differences between "open" and "free" at this point?

• Do you still have questions about "open" and "free," and/or comments or concerns you'd like to share?

• You might consider doing a Venn diagram showing how "open" and "free" overlap and how they are different, if you wish.

As in week 1, please choose two other posts on Discourse from this week to comment on, and consider reading posts by people you didn't read during the first week.

In your comments, you might note and explain what you agree or disagree with, remark on something that strikes you as especially interesting or important, offer and answer to one or more questions if the person asks any in their post, suggest other resources the person might look at, or anything else that comes to mind.

D. Brainstorm open activities in groups

See above for how to create a small group. We'll be working in these groups this week and next week.

For this week, in your group, brainstorm some ideas for what kinds of activities might be "open" ones. You can do this by creating a new topic in the Discourse subcategory called "Why Open/Groups." Please list at least two activities you think could count as "open."

You could work on a collaborative document elsewhere if you wish, rather than on Discourse, but if so, please put a link to your document in your group's thread under Why Open/Groups, so we can all see what others are doing!

Everyone is welcome to take a look at the other threads under the "groups" subcategory and comment, if they wish! To see all the groups' discussions of open activities, go to the "groups" subcategory of Why Open, here: http://discourse.p2pu.org/category/why-open/groups

Notes

Try to think of activities that you or someone else could actually engage in during the course because next week your group will be choosing an activity to do, out of this list and some other options we provide. So, it's best if you can come up with ideas for things you have some notion of how to do, or have someone in mind you could ask for help if you don't. The course facilitators may be able to help, but maybe not, depending on what you're suggesting!

Try not to look at the list of suggested activities for next week, but see what your group can come up with on its own! If you are stuck, of course you can use the list posted in next week's section of the course to help you think of something.