19.1 Michael feldstein - open source, economics, and higher education  (Page 7/8)

2. michael feldstein - october 31st, 2007 at 1:02 pm

Thanks for the great comments, Gavin. It had been my original intention to have a couple of sections on the practical implications (or prescriptions, as you put it) for open source in higher education, but I realized that it would have doubled or even tripled the length of this post to do so. Ken is already talking about some kind of follow-up activity that focuses on Benkler’s ideas, which I believe can lead to some prescriptions regarding how higher education-focused open source projects could be optimized.

In the meantime, you might want to look at OpenBRR , which is a framework for evaluating open source *products* for implementing institutions. Ken and I did a preliminary analysis of modifying the framework to specifically allow cross-comparison of open source and proprietary LMS platforms by universities. It’s available from the Observatory on Borderless Higher Education . (Sadly, it’s not free. One of these days, Ken and I need to get around to writing a non-proprietary version of our analysis.)

3. ken udas - november 2nd, 2007 at 6:29 am

Hello, Great post. I have been very intrigued by the CBPP since Kim Tucker introduced it to the Series in his posting titled FLOSS, OER, Equality and Digital Inclusion . I think that it is powerful because it is both descriptive and potentially prescriptive. That is, I think that it can help us look beyond the “magic” of OSS, FOSS, and OER in terms of sustainability, growth, etc. One of the problems, I think, is that CBPP is an economic model, which is difficult to grasp without some background in theories of the market or firm and without some prior experience with OSS, FOSS, or OER. That is, the model itself has some concept burden and some content burden. It is my feeling that while Benkler’s articles are masterful, they are quite challenging for the uninitiated or attention-challenged and honestly, as learning tools, are subject to the natural limitations of being “articles”.

What if, a group of people developed a “course” that was designed to break down the underpinning principles of CBPP, and illustrate the model’s assumptions, connections, and limitations through the collection of examples of successful and not-so-successful projects predicated on CBPP. The CBPP model could be represented in multiple formats (mathematics, descriptive text, interactive graphs, visuals, etc.), take advantage of reflective practice, and self assessment to help enhance understanding. I believe that this might be one way to connect theory and practice and introduce explicitly the notion that OSS, FOSS, and OER initiatives exist as part of a larger ecosystem, which does not always provide ideal conditions. Just how “ideal” does the experiment have to be before CBPP breaks down?

Any thoughts? Any interest? Ken

4. michael feldstein - november 2nd, 2007 at 2:47 pm

I think it’s a great idea, Ken. We could either use Benkler’s wiki or possibly start our own, if the feeling is that we’ll be very higher education-focused.