Intellectual property, Second Life and education

One of the questions I have been asked about the virtual birth unit is how the work has been licensed.

How have Intellectual Property issues been addressed?
Right from the outset the Second Life Education New Zealand team has opted to be totally open about its work, and place a Creative Commons license on the resources it has developed. This approach has been driven by the team's desire to share resources, as well as the learning the team gained during this project.

Critics
This open approach to research and development is different because many educational institutions and research companies like to keep their work to themselves so they can make maximum profit from it.

We believe that 'profit' comes from the collaboration that ensues when you make research and education resources freely available.

I have a dream...
I have become increasingly aware of the number of projects that are being developed in Second Life for medical, nursing and midwifery education. And million of dollars are being spent on the development of these resources.

My dream is that developers and educators all work in an open environment...that we all make our resources freely available and coordinate our efforts, thus saving time and finances, making sure that we're not forever re-inventing the wheel and ensuring our resources become more sustainable.

So the New Zealand birth unit work is continued....Vanderbilt University in the USA develops a secondary hospital unit and Coventry University in the UK develops an ante natal unit...and we integrate each other's resources and work together with each other's students.

How do you think about this as a model of international collaboration? Is it something that you'd be interested in becoming a part of? Do you think we could achieve this level of cooperation, or do you think universities would put their foot down and prevent that level of openness?


Image: And so I am become a knight of the Kingdom of Dreams and Shadows
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[ r ♥ c e y t ♥ y ] {I br♥ke for bokeh}