Posted on January 24, 2008
Foundations, Teachers, Web Gurus Launch Campaign to Promote Free, Online Educational Materials
A coalition of foundations, educators, and Internet pioneers has launched the Cape Town Open Education Declaration to encourage governments and publishers to make publicly funded educational materials freely available over the Internet.

The declaration grew out of a meeting organized by the New York City-based Open Society Institute and the Shuttleworth Foundation in Durbanville, South Africa, last year, when thirty open education leaders gathered in Cape Town. The resulting document is designed to encourage teachers and students around the world to join the growing movement and use the Web to share, remix, and translate classroom materials to make education more accessible, effective, and flexible.

According to the declaration — which already contains the signatures of more than five hundred individuals and fifty organizations — open sourcing education will provide students with unlimited access to high quality, constantly improving course materials. Open education is particularly relevant in developing and emerging economies, where it allows textbooks and learning materials to be created affordably, and enables small scale, local-content producers to create more diverse offerings than large multinational publishing houses.

"Open education allows every person on earth to access and contribute to the vast pool of knowledge on the Web," said Jimmy Wales, founder of Wikipedia and Wikia and an author of the declaration. "Everyone has something to teach and everyone has something to learn."

“Teachers, Students, Web Gurus, and Foundations Launch Campaign to Transform Education, Call for Free, Adaptable Learning Materials Online.” Open Society Institute Press Release 1/22/08.

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