Making resources free and gratis | infoshare

"The distinction between free (open access) and gratis (no cost) is an important one if we really want to ensure open educational resources are available to everyone. I’ve looked at the different CC licences available and followed the debate on whether or not to use NC on the licence. I’d previously thought this was an automatic choice to include it, to ensure that the resource remained gratis in whatever form it was subsequently shared. The points put forward against use of NC are interesting and I recognise that in order for the resources to be made as widely available as possible there need to be fewer restrictions. One thing I hadn’t realised was that there can be a lot of confusion as to what constitutes commercial use and that using the NC licence could restrict users of the resource as well as distributors. The Share Alike option would ensure that at least the resource would be re-used in the same way that the creator intended but I guess this again restricts choice for other users. Personally I would respect the use of Share Alike on a resource that I want to use as I can understand the creators intentions and rights. However, one of the things thrown up by this course is the complexity of mixing and re-using different sources that have different licences. This is something I hadn’t thought of before and may make me a little more wary when it comes to re-purposing resources I come across that I’d like to mix and adapt. The technology issues are also something that concerns me. I must admit that I didn’t know many of the answers to the quiz on file formats. Having already created various digital resources and documents that I’d like to share openly I’ve come up against several problems with trying to make them available in a format that is not only accessible to all but will not incur any cost to users by requiring software that has to be paid for. It’s been a bit of a struggle knowing what I can use that is both free and compatible with network systems. What would be really useful is a comprehensive guide to file formats and digital formats that can be widely used  on any system. I’ve recently been using Xerte open source software for creating learning objects but have had a lot of resistance to using it from others in my institution who prefer to use the paid for supported software programmes. So I think there’s a long way to go in convincing employers that OERs are the way forward."