Erik Mõller and Benjamin Mako Hill have launched a wiki to coordinate efforts to define the term "free content". (Thanks to the CC blog.) For them, free content includes the "freedom to make improvements or other changes, and to release modified copies", a freedom not included in some of the major definitions of OA and not in high demand for the major focus of the OA movement (peer-reviewed research articles). If you're comfortable with the rough and ready distinction between "open access" and "open content" that has grown up in the past couple of years, then this effort is on the open content side. But if you think the OA/OC distinction is permeable or even misleading, then the new definition project may overlap significantly with OA. For more details, see the announcement of the definition initiative.
Posted by
Peter Suber at 5/02/2006 08:53:00 AM.
The open access movement:
Putting peer-reviewed scientific and scholarly literature
on the internet. Making it available free of charge and
free of most copyright and licensing restrictions.
Removing the barriers to serious research.
I recommend the OA tracking project (OATP) as the best way to stay on top of new OA developments. You can read the OATP feed on a blog-like web page or subscribe to it by RSS, email, or Twitter. You can also help build the feed by tagging new developments you encounter.
