[A2k] New Open Access Archive Focuses on Open Educational Resources Movement

Wed Nov 5 07:21:01 2008

This is a multi-part message in MIME format.
--
[ Picked text/plain from multipart/alternative ]
This is fantastic news for anyone involved in open access. William and Flor=
a Hewlett Foundation has partnered with IssueLab to create the OER Research=
 Repository (http://oer.issuelab.org) to ensure that all the valuable knowl=
edge created through Open Educational Resources (OER) projects is readily a=
ccessible to a broad audience.

Envisioned is a vibrant and vital knowledge management center where the mat=
erials and documentation that OER professionals, supporters, and enthusiast=
s use in their work to further the cause of OER are easy to share and acces=
s.

According to Gabriela Fitz, co-founder and co-director of IssueLab, "We are=
 thrilled about this

opportunity to help the Hewlett Foundation create this special research col=
lection. The project is a terrific repurposing of the IssueLab publishing p=
latform and should go a long way toward building awareness about this impor=
tant educational movement."

Any nonprofit organization or university-affiliated research center/lab can=
 create a free research

contributor account with IssueLab and add unlimited materials. Presentation=
s, white papers, data sets,

evaluations, surveys, and other materials related to furthering OER are wel=
come. Ownership rights remain with the contributing organization and contri=
butors maintain full control over how their materials are described.

Anyone can search, browse and access materials shared through this open acc=
ess archive. To further spread the material, an RSS feed is available and I=
ssueLab provides a very simple way to carry the titles included in the OER =
Research Repository on any blog, website, or other web property with just o=
ne line of HTML code. Details are available in the "Syndicate" section of t=
he OER Research Repository website.

A variety of organizations from around the world including the United Kingd=
om, the Netherlands, Germany, and the United States, have contributed docum=
ents to date. This is somewhat similar to what Twidox <http://www.twidox.co=
m/>  is doing, and there is potential to cooperate between both organizatio=
ns. Twidox offers its resources, material and infrastructure free of charge=
 to anyone in order to help develop 'open access' and 'access to knowledge'=
 and already counts the likes of the 'United Nations <http://www.unodc.org/=
> ' and 'Creative Commons Learn <http://learn.creativecommons.org/> ' to it=
s partners.

# # #

IssueLab is an online publishing forum for nonprofit research. Our mission =
is to more effectively archive, distribute and promote the extensive and di=
verse body of work being produced by the third sector. Find us online at ww=
w.issuelab.org.

Nicholas MacGowan von Holstein (BA, LL.M.)

Co-founder

twidox GmbH

Bierstadter Strasse 17

65189 Wiesbaden * Germany

+49 (611) 360877 22 _ Phone

+49 (611) 360877 25 _ Fax

+49 (176) 234989 36 _ Mobile

mailto:nicholas@twidox.com <mailto:nicholas@twidox.com>

http://www.twidox.com <http://www.twidox.com>

http://blog.twidox.com <http://blog.twidox.com>

http://educationload.com

Amtsgericht Wiesbaden, HRB 23640

Gesch=E4ftsf=FChrer: Jan Christof Deppe, Nicholas MacGowan von Holstein

Diese E-Mail enth=E4lt vertrauliche oder rechtlich gesch=FCtzte Information=
en. Wenn Sie nicht der beabsichtigte Empf=E4nger sind, informieren Sie bitt=
e sofort den Absender und l=F6schen Sie diese E-Mail. Das unbefugte Kopiere=
n dieser E-Mail oder die unbefugte Weitergabe der enthaltenen Informationen=
 ist nicht gestattet.

The information contained in this message is confidential or protected by l=
aw. If you are not the intended recipient, please contact the sender and de=
lete this message. Any unauthorised copying of this message or unauthorised=
 distribution of the information contained herein is prohibited.