Open Education

Without a doubt, this is an extremely difficult nut to crack.  Knowledge and courses are the life blood of educational institutions and will be aggressively protected.  And

that's even before one looks into whether the course is simply free, or whether it lives up to the open source principles of sharing and modification of course material.

Due to the limitations of available courseware based on open source principles, we will be looking at a number of free courses as well, since any education is good education, in the end, if it serves the student and potentially society.

IP law : Copyrights and patents

So first, the disclaimer.  I, the author, am not a lawyer.  This article does not constitute legal advice and one should ALWAYS seek legal advice in accordance to legal concerns.

A further preamble is, laws are laws, and most laws are subject to interpretation at any given time.  Some laws are more vague than others, and as such, copyright laws have a tendency to be more subject to interpretation than patent laws.

The powers that be whom write and edit wikipedia articles, describe patents as follows: "A patent (/ˈpætənt/ or /ˈpeɪtənt/) is a set of exclusive rights granted by a sovereign state to an inventor or their assignee for a limited period of time, in exchange for the public disclosure of the invention. An invention is a solution to a specific technological problem, and may be a product or a process.^[1]:17 Patents are a form of intellectual property."

And they describe copyright as follows: "Copyright is a legal concept, enacted by most governments, that grants the creator of an original work exclusive rights to its use and distribution, usually for a limited time, with the intention of enabling the creator of intellectual wealth (e.g. the photographer of a photograph or the author of a book) to receive compensation for their work and be able to financially support themselves."

Open source food?!

Yes, Open Source Food.  But in all things, there is a catch.

As mentioned in the previous post, we will be discussing copyright and patents in an upcoming topic.  For now, it is proper to note that a recipe may be copyright as it would fall under "prior art".  So one cannot simply share the recipes we collect without understanding that we could possibly be sued.  Even worse, and more crazy sounding, if you get a recipe and change it while following it, that also can fall under copyright infringement.

Starting point: Software

Even though sharing and collaboration has been around for as long as humans began to group together into tribes and civilizations, probably the most talked about Open Source projects have been software, in modern times.  We'll list some well known and some not so well known Free or Open Source software at the end of this article.

What is "Embracing Open"?

There is a term that many people have heard of, called "Open Source".  It generally refers to Software which is often free to download and use, but more importantly, it is software of which the "source code" is available for others to look at and modify as they so desire.

It stems from a time that pre-dates the 1980's, when computers were still in their infancy and there were few programs and fewer programmers, so useful and functional, or error free software was difficult to get.  Due to those circumstances, a lot of software was shared in a way that allowed others to modify it and share it back.

This concept is now beginning to creep into many other aspects of society.  From Do It Yourself web sites showing how to create crafts, toys, furniture and other household tips, recipes, instructions and self help, to building your own 3D printer and vehicles and energy alternatives, and even more.

Our Google Plus page

+embracing open is the Google Plus page associated with this blog.  Please feel free to follow us there.  Depending on how the integration works, most if not all of the entries here will be cross posted there.  If necessary, lengthy posts here will be simply referenced from the Google Plus page.

Welcome, first post

While many people feel that the world we find ourselves in is not the utopia we would hope for, there are many others who are content with our current situation and the safe, methodical way our world changes.

It is not the intention of this group to suggest everyone move to a simple, minimalist lifestyle.  Rather, to provide information for those who are looking for alternatives as well as hopefully being a catalyst for everyone to move towards a better future, in their own way.

Stay tune and keep discovering!