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Category: Open Knowledge

Leveraging OER for COVID-19 Response Efforts and International Partnerships

Open Education
Two high school girls and a high school boy at a computer Deeper learning prepares students to apply content knowledge, think critically, and work collaboratively.
Photo by Allison Shelley/The Verbatim Agency for American Education: Images of Teachers and Students in Action

This post was written in collaboration with Jan Gondol, Ebba Ossiannilsson, Karolina Szczepaniak, and Spencer Ellis. A portion was also published on the Open Government Partnership’s website. Currently, we face both a swell of support for open educational resources (OER) and devastating upheaval of our traditional education systems. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, over 1.5 billion…

From Historic Images to Galactic Datasets: A Look at NASA’s Mission to Be Open

Open Access, Open Science
Astronaut Edwin Aldrin walks on lunar surface near leg of Lunar Module Astronaut Edwin Aldrin walks on lunar surface near leg of Lunar Module. Credit: Neil Armstrong/NASA, (1969) in the public domain.

It’s July 20, 1969.  Along with 600 million people, nine-year-old Chris Hadfield is glued to his television—watching intently as American astronaut Neil Armstrong glides down the ladder of the Lunar Module, and in one swift pounce, touches the dust of a familiar yet alien world. His words forever immortalized, “That’s one small step for man,…

Just One Giant Lab Co-Founder Leo Blondel on the Power of Community and Open Source During COVID-19

Open Science, Technology
The JOGL team by Thomas Landrain (CC BY).

Thousands of strangers working together, almost entirely online, to effectively solve an urgent, global challenge is remarkable—and it’s happening, right now. Recently, we published a post titled, “Open-Source Medical Hardware: What You Should Know and What You Can Do” examining the collaborative efforts by volunteer groups, universities, and research centers to solve the medical supply…

Open Access in Practice: A Conversation with President Larry Kramer of The Hewlett Foundation

Open Access
Participants in the Young Women Leadership Program explain software to each other Image by Paula Bronstein/Getty Images/Images of Empowerment, November 2017 (CC BY-NC)

Since the founding of Creative Commons (CC) in 2001, we’ve been supported by like-minded organizations and individuals who value open access, the open community, and the global commons as much as we do. As we near our 20th anniversary, we are reflecting on the past and planning for the future. What better way to do…

Why Sharing Academic Publications Under “No Derivatives” Licenses is Misguided

Licenses & Tools, Open Education
No Derivatives Feature

The benefits of open access (OA) are undeniable and increasingly evident across all academic disciplines and scientific research: making academic publications1 freely and openly accessible and reusable provides broad visibility for authors, a better return on investment for funders, and greater access to knowledge for other researchers and the general public. And yet, despite OA’s obvious…

Tech Giants Join the CC-Supported Open COVID Pledge

Open Science

Momentum continues to swell in support of the Open COVID Pledge, with the announcement today by Amazon, Facebook, Hewlett Packard Enterprise, IBM, Microsoft, and Sandia National Laboratories, that they are pledging their patents to the public to freely use in support of solving the COVID-19 pandemic. Following in the footsteps of Intel, Fabricatorz Foundation, and…

Open-Source Medical Hardware: What You Should Know and What You Can Do

Open Access, Technology

You’ve heard the stories: engineers 3D printing face shields in their basements; do-it-yourself hobbyists sewing face masks; and fashion designers crafting personal protection gowns.  Globally, people are trying to help fill the medical supply gap caused by the COVID-19 pandemic through open-source medical hardware. It’s a heartwarming display of global ingenuity, innovation, and collaboration. In this…