Students for Free Culture plays a big part of the CC community and we frequently look to them for new hires and volunteers. That’s why we’re always excited to highlight the projects they’re working on. Kevin Donovan just posted on the SFC blog about their ongoing Open University Campaign, which is seeking to evaluate universities based on their openness in the following ways:
An open university is one in which:
- The research produced is open access;
- The course materials are open educational resources;
- The university embraces free software and open standards;
- The university’s patents are readily licensed for free software, essential medicine, and the public good;
- The university’s network reflects the open nature of the Internet,
where “university” includes all parts of the community: students, faculty and administration.”
The ultimate goal is to generate a report card for universities in order to help prospective students make informed decisions about the university’s copyright, patent, and technology policies.
SFC needs you to get involved if you fit into any of the following categories:
- Are you a student who can research official university open access policies?
- Are you passionate about FOSS and can develop a questionnaire for IT administrators about FOSS policy?
- Are you statistically-inclined and can handle data on universities?
- Are you a web developer who could create a public website for the Open University Report Cards?
- Are you a graphic designer who could create posters to raise awareness on campuses?