[Osdc-edu-authors] Red meat article

[Greg DeKoenigsberg]

I'm way overdue in providing opensource.com a bit of content -- so here's a
first draft of a short "red meat" piece.  I don't yet know if ISKME will be
comfortable having our name associated; if not, I will happily offer the
byline to someone else.

Feedback welcome.

* * * * *

TITLE: Providers of Proprietary Education Resources Concerned About Federal
Investment in Non-Proprietary Education Resources

LEDE: Some high-powered executives in the proprietary education world are
speaking their minds about the Obama administration's two billion dollar
investment in open educational resources.  Those of us from the open source
world have heard similar sentiments before.

The original article from <a href="
http://chronicle.com/blogs/wiredcampus/publishers-criticize-federal-investment-in-open-educational-resources/31483">the
Chronicle of Higher Education</a> speaks for itself, but there are some
wonderfully illustrative quotes that absolutely scream for rebuttal.

Wonderfully illustrative quote #1: “I think it’s very dangerous for them to
be in the product business.” Bill Hughes, vice president of business
development and innovation at Pearson Education.

Okay, Mr. Hughes.  But maybe you should consider the notion that the
government isn't actually in the "product business", as you call it.
 Because the Commons only becomes a product when participants in that
Commons decide to treat it as such.  The great thing about the Commons is
that everyone has equal access to it -- and because the Obama administration
mandated the use of the very liberal and business-friendly CC-BY license for
this grant, that means that everyone has the equal right to make their own
products from the resulting content.  (That includes you, Mr. Hughes.  Which
you must surely know already, since you're including the CC-BY licensed
REDACTED in your REDACTED.  And you don't have to pay REDACTED one red cent
for all their hard work.)

Wonderfully illustrative quote #2: “There’s no free lunch.” James Kourmadas,
vice president of strategic marketing at McGraw-Hill Higher Education.

True, Mr. Kourmadas, but only to a point.  It's often said that "free
software is only free if your time is worth nothing," and there's a lot of
truth to that -- and it may well turn out to be the case that similar rules
will apply in the world of the Education Commons.  Then again, Euclid wrote
his elements 2500 years ago, and textbook companies have been remixing
Euclidean geometry content ever since.  I wonder if McGraw-Hill is still
keeping up with its royalty payments to Euclid's estate?

Wonderfully illustrative quote #3: “I fear when big bucks from government is
put into certain places, it actually stops pushing people to innovate.”
Kevin Wiggen, chief technology officer of Blackboard Xythos.

Perhaps, Mr. Wiggen.  But perhaps it's just as possible that a Commons, no
matter how it's initially seeded, will actually spur innovation.  When
people are free to reuse content without asking permission of the original
content holders, isn't it possible that innovation will actually accelerate?
 Because that's precisely how it's happened in the world of free software.
 Which you must know better than anyone -- the presence of Moodle in the
marketplace has pushed Blackboard to innovate more aggressively than ever,
wouldn't you agree?

Wonderfully illustrative quote #4: "The federal government can put some
money into OER, but what is much more important is we can help you all in
whatever way you need help in opening doors and building global business."
 Karen Cator, director of educational technology, U.S. Department of
Education.

In other words: quit complaining and start innovating.

(Special thanks to the <a href="http://chronicle.com/">Chronicle of Higher
Education</a> for breaking this story.)

--g
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