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Should OER favour commercial use?

A key issue in the open education arena is whether OER should favour commercial use.

This is a complex topic involving a wide range of perspectives which suggests a continuum of considerations rather than a definitive binary answer.

This discussion will roughly mirror the structure of an Oxford-style debate. However, in the pursuit of improved understanding of a complex topic the participants will be the ultimate winners by virtue of your engagement. 

Your votes and comments are needed to build a collective stream of digital consciousness in changing our world for the better -- that is, through degrees of openness in education.

You will need an account on this platform to cast a vote. If you don't have an account for the UNESCO OER Community, you can request an account from Abel Caine (email: a.caine@unesco.org) or Wayne Mackintosh during the course of the debate (email: wayne@oerfoundation.org).

Debate timeline: 18 April 2011 - 6 May 2011

This is an archived debate.

This debate is closed. See below for the summary of the debate.

Your vote

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This debate has finished. Voting is now closed.

Votes

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Yes: 57%
No: 43%
Yes: 65%
No: 35%
Yes: 66%
No: 34%
Yes: 65%
No: 35%
Yes: 67%
No: 33%
Yes: 66%
No: 34%
Yes: 65%
No: 35%
Yes: 67%
No: 33%
Yes: 65%
No: 35%
Yes: 62%
No: 38%
Yes: 59%
No: 41%
Yes: 58%
No: 42%
Yes: 57%
No: 43%
Yes: 57%
No: 43%
Yes: 57%
No: 43%
Yes: 57%
No: 43%
Yes: 57%
No: 43%
Yes: 56%
No: 44%
Yes: 57%
No: 43%
Yes: 57%
No: 43%
TotalDay 1Day 2Day 3Day 4Day 5Day 6Day 7Day 8Day 9Day 10Day 11Day 12Day 13Day 14Day 15Day 16Day 17Day 18Day 19

Position of the house

The foundations for our debate were established by two leading icons in the open education world: David Wiley, argued that on technical grounds the Non-commercial (NC) clause generates a number of non-trivial issues relating to what others may, or may not, do wi ... more

OER is based on a simple but powerful idea that the world's knowledge is a public good to be shared for the benefit of society. This debate has confirmed that the question of whether OER should favour commercial use is a complex topic involving a wide range of perspectives, justifications and opinions from a variety of different contexts ... more

Debate participants

Founding Director of the OER Foundation and active WikiEducator
Deputy Director, Wikimedia Foundation
President and founder of the Institute for the Study of Knowledge Management in Education
OER Strategist, OER Africa, SAIDE
Co-founder and Executive Director of the CK-12 Foundation
Deputy Chief Executive, Otago Polytechnic; Chair of the OER Foundation Board of Directors

Comments

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