OPENNESS: HOW INCREASING ACCESSIBILITY AND RESPONSIVENESS CAN TRANSFORM PROCESSES AND SYSTEMS

1. OPENNESS: HOW INCREASING ACCESSIBILITY AND RESPONSIVENESS CAN TRANSFORM PROCESSES AND SYSTEMS O.E.C.D. Paris November 29, 2010 ELLIOT E. MAXWELL

2. Proprietary Software World Wide Web Closed Open Wikipedia Never Shared Open Source

3. A Few Thoughts On Openness …openness is not binary; information or processes are not open or closed. They sit on a broad continuum stretching from closed to open, based on their accessibility and responsiveness… …if information is not availableor available only under restrictive conditions it is less accessible and therefore less “open” …if information can be modified, repurposed, and redistributed freely it is more responsive, and therefore more “open” Openness is facilitated by IT but not dependent on IT

4. Greater openness is not always the best solution • Privacy, security, protecting the rights of creators, fostering competition, are among values that might limit openness. We may, for example, want electronic health records to be open to all those treating us, but not open to employers, insurers, or the government • Purpose and context are critical to determine the appropriate degree of openness • As more information becomes accessible, how will we find the right information—verifiable, reliable, appropriate etc.?

5. Openness and Value Creation I • The traditional theory of Intellectual Property sees control as central to value creation and, therefore, innovation. It focuses on the first creator rather than follow-on innovators • Providing control to the creator (or the rights holder) allows the innovation to be monetized through licensing etc. • The greater the control (longer terms, higher penalties for infringement) the greater the theoretical incentive for innovation by first creators. But incentives for follow-on innovators are reduced. If more freedom is provided to follow-on innovators the reverse is true • Access control e.g. DRM is costly and never perfect • Follow-on innovators outnumber first creators

6. Openness and Value Creation II • Creating value from sharing as in open source software offers a mirror image to the traditional view of IP and control • The wider the sharing, the greater the openness, the more potential value from follow-on innovators. But there may also be more contributions of little or no value. Will someone evaluate these contributions and, if so, who? • Modifying, copying, and distributing are cheap • “With enough eyeballs, all bugs are shallow”, but which eyeballs will discover the bugs?

7. Products of Increased Openness • Wikipedia • Public Library of Science (PLoS) • YouTube and user-generated content of all kinds • Collaborative filtering • Mash-ups and Remixes • Craigslist • Open innovation e.g. P&G—From “not invented here” to “proudly discovered elsewhere” (Is this just outsourcing R&D? Who gets the value?) • Tinkering and other user-led innovation • Clinicaltrials.gov and the Journal of Failed Clinical Trials

8. Open Educational Resources • OER exemplifies the potential of greater openness but many issues remain • Supply side focus • Evaluation of materials • Comparative effectiveness • Incentives for participation and use • Intellectual property rules and licenses • Interoperability • Learning how to collaborate

9. Openness in Teaching and Learning • Digital materials offer new opportunities, particularly for assessment and feedback benefiting students, teachers, the creators of educational materials, and learning scientists • On-line education offers new opportunities for reaching the underserved here and around the world • Government should support open materials for keystone courses • We need better data on: • Student progress • Educational outcomes • Factors that favor or impede student success.  • We need research on: • Comparative effectiveness of digital educational materials • Best practices for online, face-to-face, and blended education

10. Openness in Lab Experiences • Fab labs: small scale workshops with an array of computer controlled tools that can be used to make almost anything, institutionalizing the capacity for “tinkering” • High-quality on-line substitutes for hands-on laboratory and clinical experiences are being created • The open science movement is providing broader access to materials

11. Openness in Research • Increased collaboration and immediate disclosure of results is changing the model for knowledge creation and dissemination • Open-access journals are challenging proprietary models • Institutional digital repositories are emerging offering global access to research • The methods for recognizing scholarly achievement haven’t caught up to these changes • We need research on: • The impact of immediate-release policies and open-access publishing on tenure and advancement practices • New methods of peer review and evaluation in the age of digital scholarship • Best practices for effective collaboration • Standards for meta-data for digital repositories

12. Intellectual Property • Review and recalibrate IP rules to recognize the increasing importance of users as follow-on innovators • Extend permitted uses of proprietary materials under educational exceptions for non commercial use beyond traditional classrooms • Educate faculty about their intellectual property rights • Re-evaluate university licensing policies and favor more open licensing consistent with the university’s mission to create and disseminate knowledge, especially in cases critical to improving health in less developed countries • Improve access to “orphan works”

13. Openness in Administration and Community Services • We should change the default setting for campus events from closed to open • We should support open source administrative software • We should take advantage of greater openness to improve support services • Government should: • Fund the creation and distribution of open online materials e.g. materials aimed at potential applicants for financial assistance • Support increased use of online means of providing counseling and tutoring, including peer to peer efforts • Support increased training for faculty in the area of online education

14. Increasing Access to Information • The public-access policy for NIH funded research—public disclosure within 12 months of publication--should be preserved and extended to cover: • All non-classified research funded by the 11 federal agencies providing over $100 million each in research support • Publicly funded research at institutions of higher education at the state and local level The NIH public-access policy should be extended, under appropriate conditions, to primary data resulting from federally funded research and data gathered in support of government regulatory activities • Federal funding agencies should include funds to pay for publication in open access journals when making grants • Research should examine whether the embargo period for federally supported research should be shortened

15. Transparency and Choice • We know too little about what a degree means or about the value-add of institutions of higher education • Government policy should support: • Development of compatibility, comparability, and portability of degrees and certificates • Increase transparency regarding the educational outcomes at, and the value-added, by institutions of higher education • Broader access to information held by institutions, accrediting bodies, and the government itself should become the norm • Government should encourage accrediting agencies to increase their focus on learning outcomes and the performance of their members in achieving them

16. Compatibility, Comparability, and Transparency regarding Degrees • Government should support research on improving the ability to assess the achievement of learning outcomes including examinations that would more effectively demonstrate mastery for purposes of degrees and certification • Academic and professional societies should be engaged to develop relevant learning outcomes and assessment measures

17. New Means of Certification • New means to certify mastery on a global scale are likely to emerge due to: • Rise of OER and online education transcending borders • Lack of seats at institutions of higher education around the world • Desire by self-directed learners (half of those who download MIT’s OpenCourseWare) to demonstrate mastery for purposes of advancement • Failure of existing system to serve needs of learners, employers, etc.

18. For further information contact • emaxwell@emaxwell.net • www.emaxwell.net