Some of you may have heard about a School of Open, especially if you follow us on Twitter/Identi.ca/Facebook, or if you’re already a part of the P2PU community and follow their blog. Whether you have or not, the School of Open is still very much a concept, and one which we invite you to join in building.

What open means to you / johndbritton / CC BY-SA

What is School of Open?

The School of Open is a collaboration between Creative Commons and P2PU (Peer 2 Peer University). Its aim is to provide easily digestible educational exercises, resources, and professional development courses that help individuals and institutions learn about and employ open tools, such as the CC licenses.

Why is CC doing this?

Also known as,

What problem are we trying to solve? / johndbritton / CC BY-SA

Several reasons, including, but not limited to:

• Universal access to and participation in research, education, and culture is made possible by openness, but not enough people know what it means or how to take advantage of it. One solution: peer learning on what “open” means and how it applies to you, powered by mentors and learners like you, self-organized into study groups which themselves leverage existing “open” learning materials. We imagine artists, educators, learners, scientists, archivists, and other creators improving their fields via the use of open tools and materials. Eventually, we’d like to offer certification around “open” skills that result in the spread of openness.
• The CC community has often expressed a need for more community/communications support regarding best practices, explanatory materials, help generally in convincing entities (whether GLAMs, IGOs, governments) to use CC and other open tools. The School of Open is a great place for this.
• Community members have also expressed priorities regarding open advocacy and policy activities. The School of Open could be one venue for open advocates to work together to develop and provide these resources.
• In regards to content that Creative Commons itself will develop: We want to provide better education around CC tools, and we would love community appropriation and adaptation/translation of these resources.

Working with P2PU

School of Open leverages P2PU’s active peer learning platform for developing courses, challenges, and study groups. The P2PU community has been a part of the open education movement since 2009 and promoted openness to the education sector. P2PU ran a number of successful courses on licensing for educators, which will become part of the School of Open. All peer-produced resources on p2pu.org are defaulted under CC BY-SA, the same license as Wikipedia.

School of Open is hosted on the P2PU platform, but courses will also link out to other websites and use a variety of social media tools. We want people to use (open) tools they are already comfortable with. The School of Open is the umbrella under which all of these activities are to take place, a landing spot for those who want get involved but follow different tracks.

Multiple Languages

You should feel free to develop materials in your native language, especially since we want education around openness to reach all cultures and sectors of society. Depending on interest/demand, the P2PU platform may incorporate additional languages (current user interface already translated into Spanish, Swedish, and Mandarin), or as mentioned above link out to the tools/resources that are being run in your language.

What is CC doing on School of Open now?

Essential elements of a School of Open / johndbritton / CC BY-SA

Jane Park (that’s me) is transitioning to be Project Manager in education at CC. A major component of my new position is to establish School of Open in collaboration with the CC, P2PU, and related open communities. First thing is to lay a road and skills map for School of Open, and seed the School with a few core resources and courses. Imminent events include:

• Berlin, Germany (July 2012): School of Open month-long workshop as part of the P2PU pop-up office. Jane and P2PU community members will start mapping and developing some key components of the School. An evening hands-on event will be held Thur, 26 July in Berlin that is open to the public. You’re invited (RSVP here). If you’re nearby, please join us!
• Helsinki, Finland (September 2012): OKFestival’s Open Research and Education track includes an “Open Peer Learning: School of Open and School of Data” workshop to engage the OKFN, CC, and European open communities. Will take place Wed afternoon, 19 September before the CC Europe regional meeting to allow CC affiliates to participate.
• Palo Alto, CA, U.S. (October 2012): School of Open and Open Policy Institute convening to get key funders and representatives from the various “open” sectors on board and involved, eg. open policy, open licenses, open GLAM, open data, open science, open education, etc.
• CC affiliate regional meetings (various): discussion and/or workshop on School of Open at these meetings (led by CC Affiliate Coordinator Jessica Coates)

Get Involved

In addition to participating in one of the above events, feel free to:

• Sign up for announcements.
• Check out the very alpha landing page, which also has the sign-up link
• Read more about the origins
• Add to this pad your ideas for the resource, course, or challenge you want to help create
• Register for a P2PU account and create a test challenge, or just poke around
• Email me and let me know what you did, or tell me how you want to get involved: janepark [at] creativecommons [dot] org