I was pleased to appear on a panel on openness with Michael Chasen of Blackboard, Michael Morrison of Syracuse University, and Serge Goldstein of Princeton and moderated by Scott Jaschik, Editor, Inside Higher Ed. I think that this kind of debate is a very interesting way to get ideas out on the table. It is far better than some dry 70-slide PowerPoint presentation narrated in hushed intellectual tones.
In our panel discussion – there were several threads (a) open is not as simple as releasing source – and open software is not anti-commercial – open is more of a philosophy – releasing source code is part of the nature of open, (b) interoperability standards are the path to freedom for end users and faculty, and (c) BlackBoard’s connector is a good step in the right direction but there is more BlackBoard could do to be “open”.
In our talk we just did not have enough time – so I did not get to get all my ideas out. Hence this blog post.
I apologize in advance as this goes in and out of rant-mode. Sometimes I am reasonable and sometimes I get a little out of hand in this post. But I have had a lot of coffee on the plane ride back from Educause 2008 so that is my excuse.