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Seemed like some folks on this list might have thoughts on this post,
particular the part I've pasted below:

http://blog.worldcampus.psu.edu/index.php/2007/09/19/open-source-and-open-standards/

> Postulate number four: Open source can be strategic to the goals of
> educational organizations but I currently only know of one case in
> which it is. Wow! Maybe I finally wrote something controversial.
> Maybe this qualifies as a blog now! It is very sad to me, but also an
> opportunity for those that wish to lead, that "the technologies of
> learning" are not strategic in our education institutions. What I
> mean by "strategic" is that the executive leadership understands that
> investment in technology to support learning is a key priority -- not
> just to further the educational mission of the institution but also
> to further society's progress in the use of technology for learning.
> 
> I kind of wrote a whole article on this topic earlier this year for
> Educause Review. For the purposes of this discussion, I want to point
> out that the same seems to be true of open source learning
> applications. The only exception I know of (there may be others I
> have not yet been exposed to) is the Open University in the U.K. and
> their evolving adoption of Moodle.
> 
> Open U. sees participation in an open source community as a way to
> leverage investment and innovation. As such, Open U. has stepped up
> to a key leadership role in that community and sees this as an
> ongoing core investment. Again, the difference between this strategy
> and others I am aware of is that it is not an IT department strategy.
> It is an institutional strategy that goes hand in hand with the
> philosophy and strategy of Open U.
> 
> I realize that this sort of thing is not easy to pull off in higher
> education institutions, especially the elite institutions with many
> diverse and largely independent schools, divisions, departments, etc.
> And, as I already mentioned, this may be more of an issue with
> technologies for learning in general versus open source versions of
> that technology. It will be interesting to see if other institutions
> can follow suit and which ones will emerge as the leaders in learning
> technology, open source, or both. The relationship to standards
> should be obvious -- institutional buy-in to learning technology
> standards will help move the market to the great benefits of
> standards adoption.
- --
Gavin Baker
http://www.gavinbaker.com/
[log in to unmask]
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