development of an education license or license option for Creative Commons

[George Siemens <GSiemens AT rrc.mb.ca>]

Hi, I’ve been following this debate between edu.cc bad...edu.cc good since
Wouter posted his well thought out response on the potential limiting impact
of an educational CC license. Stephen responded by enlarging Wouter's
arguments to include the negative impact of excluding informal
learning...and driving learners to more expensive forms of learning (i.e.
the marketplace would be favorably slanted to formal learning content
creators - an issue of discrimination against fields of endeavor). 
 
To these concerns, David replied that a license was needed that plays an
intermediary role - between those content creators who would like to keep as
much control as possible (the majority) and those who would release
everything into the commons (the minority). By utilizing a license that is
focused on the needs of the educational market, some content creators may be
inclined to move from "as much control as possible" towards more lenient
licensing...thereby increasing the amount of content available under
licenses other than copyright.
 
I'm not able to form a strong opinion in disagreement of either
argument...only in favour of both (talk about confusion!).
 
The difficulty with both arguments is that they are both true in certain
contexts, but neither is absolutely always true. For example, an educator
that is comfortable releasing content ONLY if restrictions are in place to
prevent military use, may find comfort in edu.cc (in contrast to copyright).
By the same account, this same educator may be giving consideration to
releasing her/his content into the commons, but then comes across the edu.cc
license, and chooses to release it under more restrictive license. Both
scenarios will occur depending on the instructor...and both can be good/bad.
 
I'm not convinced that writing off edu.cc is a good idea. I think that
having a CC license "branded" as educational will make it an easier sell to
decision makers in education circles. I think educators are too good at
following copyright laws (they are probably the most copyright compliant
sector of society - which is why RIAA is trying to place responsibility for
monitoring music trading on colleges/universities). I have seen very little
embracing of the CC by educators (which was the reason for my earlier
question on the success of CC adoption). I'm concerned that educators may
perceive CC as not applicable - too fringe.
 
While my interest is more on creating an environment that accepts and
encourages sharing of materials, I realize that discussion on technical
requirements of a license is needed...so I hope that this debate continues
according to the process David outlined several emails ago - "talk, talk,
keep talking, ask questions, hopefully get answers, make suggestions,
incorporate suggestions, talk some more." 
 
We may disagree on many points of the license (I personally am not
completely comfortable with it in its present form), but I think it is
important to focus on the fact that there is only a very small segment of
the education field that is discussing open content. From what I know of
those discussing it, the "leaders" are represented in this forum. We need to
realize that we are on the same side of the fence. We all have the same goal
- open content, shared freely, for the benefit of learners (and as a result,
society). As an emerging community, these discussions are good practice for
when we have to advocate for the value of open education...:).
 
George