As we move towards the end of the OpenLearn pilot phase, there’s a lot of evaluation and reflection to do, especially on what business models might take us forward. I spent some time this month at the Economies of the Commons conference in Amsterdam. (Other people have blogged the event here so no need to post my 14 pages of notes). Since I’ve returned the Ithaka report on Sustainability and revenue models for online academic resources has been published in draft form for comment.
The conference, as the name suggests, was about how you make money from open content so you can sustain its production. Refreshingly, it wasn’t just about fab shiny young startups making tons of cash for a good idea that’s cheap-ish to produce. Speakers included those managing the digitisation projects for National Archives and the scale of these projects was overwhelming. ...
Interesting questions were raised such as: Are we creating a commons for a rich community? Who is paying for the gift economy? Is free culture just a fad? If scarcity of information is now over, might it return? How do we tip the idea of openness so it becomes commonplace? Are the community the new archivists? When will copyright die?
Free is not an option for digital businesses, it’s a reality. The value of what is easily copyable is low and getting lower. So we need to monetise the uncopyable ... We’ve understood this from the beginning - OpenLearn makes our educational resources freely available but doesn’t replicate the experience of being a student at the University. ...
At this point in the lifecycle of OpenLearn we need to do more than experiment and start work on the new business models. OpenLearn can’t be seen to be a nice standalone experiment that makes everyone at the OU feel good about working here - although it is and does - but as something that presents an ongoing challenge that needs to be worked out for the future sustainability of our entire business. Economic equilibrium takes time as we move from one cultural paradigm to another - it doesn’t happen overnight ...
Posted by
Gavin Baker at 4/28/2008 03:30:00 PM.
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.
