As Stephen Downes says in his blog post where I found this article: ‘The open source movement is beginning to recognize the open courseware and open educational resources movements.’ Downes’ post points to a LInuxInsider article titled ‘Setting Learning Free.’ The article traces the development of the open courseware movement, beginning at MIT in 2002, and includes these comments toward the future:

Perhaps it is this global reach of the open courseware movement that offers the most radical challenge to the traditional localized method of delivering education. Some of the OpenCourseware Consortium’s members are experimenting with new models. . . .

At the moment, the open courseware movement seems unstoppable, yet most of the initiatives can only carry on through outside funding. Whether universities or governments will want to continue paying to make course materials widely available once this funding runs out is debatable. Putting courseware online may attract new students to an institution, but then again it may not — and the more universities that get in on the act, the smaller the advantage for any individual institution in doing so.

I think the notion of diminishing advantage in opening courseware is untrue. ‘Unstoppable’ is the most accurate of the comments. Into the future, the openness that is at the heart of both Linux and open courseware is the essence of the internet. What is not open — not set free to connect — becomes irrelevant. Open is the bottom line of relevance now for universities and their content.