Education Wants to be Free?:
a draft of a Free Curricula License has been released by the by the The Open Source Education Foundation [unfortunately their web page renders really poorly in IE6 (but okay in Netscape 6); you might also look at OpenSchooling, an associated site.]
It’s a disappointing release, primarily because it has already been done better by OpenContent, which several years ago published the Open Content License and the Open Publication License. OpenContent is a project by David Wiley, a prominent researcher in the field of instructional technology and re-usable learning objects. I interviewed Wiley in 1999 (for a Salon article that never made it to publication…long story); one of the driving forces behind the OpenContent project was Wiley’s desire to provide a license under which educational content could be shared and collaborated upon in a “bazaar” kind of environment, like open source software.
Seems to me like the OSEF wants to be heading in the same direction, but I don’t think they’re executing as clearly and well as Wiley does…probably because the OSEF organization appears to be primarily technology enthusiasts, instead of education enthusiasts.