[LINK] New free MIT learning platform 'with a virtual community oflearners worldwide'

[stephen at melbpc.org.au]

Tom writes,

> > M.I.T. Expands Its Free Online Courses (also certificates)
> > By TAMAR LEWIN www.NYTimes.com Published: December 19, 2011 
> >  
> > While students at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology pay
> > thousands of dollars for courses, the university will announce a
> > new program on Monday allowing anyone anywhere to take M.I.T. courses
> > online free of charge - and for the first time earn official
> > certificates for demonstrating mastery of the subjects taught.  
> 
> Uncle Bill was right.
> Universities are about to go the way of libraries.


Well, in terms of education, it is certainly becoming obvious that our
Internet is now starting to live up to an egalitarian, "free education
worldwide" promise. Imagine this dear planet, where everyone, anywhere,
can easily & truly stand on the shoulders of our best science thinkers.

Our intellectual & social/humanitarian growth as a species will surely 
be exponential. After all education is surely our best social-leveller?

Also there are signs, going forward, that the staple food of education,
university research findings, are starting on the same egalitarian path.

 "University implementing open-access policy for faculty publications"

Posted October 31, 2011; 01:41 p.m. by Ushma Patel
<www.princeton.edu/main/news/archive/S32/00/81M86/>

(Princeton) University administrators have begun implementing the 
new "open-access" policy approved this fall by Princeton faculty members 
to expand the public's access to their research ..

<http://www.princeton.edu/dof/policies/publ/fac/open-access-policy/>

The policy gives the University and faculty members rights to republish 
scholarly articles, making it possible for individuals without journal 
subscriptions to access them. Administrators in the Office of the Dean of 
the Faculty, Office of the Provost and Princeton University Library are 
providing guidance to faculty members prior to article submission; have 
provided language for faculty to append to publishing contracts; and are 
exploring plans to build a repository for these articles. Administrators 
have also created an online form for faculty requesting waivers to the 
policy in individual cases in which a journal's copyright contract 
prevents republishing.

"The policy is intended to make the faculty's scholarly articles, 
published in journals and conference proceedings, available to a wider 
audience," Dean of the Faculty David Dobkin said.

The policy, approved by the faculty at their first meeting of the 
academic year, Sept. 19, states that faculty members grant The Trustees 
of Princeton University a "nonexclusive, irrevocable, worldwide license 
to exercise any and all copyrights in his or her scholarly articles 
published in any medium, whether now known or later invented, provided 
the articles are not sold by the University for a profit, and to 
authorize others to do the same."

The new policy protects faculty members from giving away all of their 
publication rights when they publish refereed and conference articles in 
a journal. Access to many journals is restricted by subscription, 
institutional or organizational membership, or other factors.

Under the open-access policy, faculty members may publish their work on 
University sites, personal websites and other not-for-fee venues. A 
Princeton-based online repository would allow professors to post their 
research in a convenient, central location, where the public may easily 
access it, Dobkin said.

In fall 2010, Dobkin appointed an ad hoc faculty committee to study the 
issue of open access to faculty publications. Led by Andrew Appel, the 
Eugene Higgins Professor of Computer Science, the nine-member 
interdisciplinary committee studied other universities' open-access 
policies while formulating their recommendations. In March, the committee 
unanimously approved recommending a policy change to assert the 
University's right to make faculty articles available to the public. 
Committee members also strongly recommended the creation of a voluntary 
database created and maintained by the University to fully realize the 
benefits of the policy change.

The open-access policy applies only to published articles, and does not 
apply to books, fiction, poetry, music, film, lecture notes, case studies 
or unpublished drafts. More information about the policy is available on 
the Office of the Dean of the Faculty's website.

   


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