Philippine Commons

Note Verbale: Open education empowers
by Jaime N. Soriano, CPA, MNSA

With the age of information technology at the center stage of human interaction, there is an emerging global consensus for collaboration in providing access to learning and knowledge and developing a wide range of educatinal resources in cyberspace that are free and open for everyone to use outside of the traditional models. It is referred to as “open education.”

The Cape Town Open Education Declaration in September 2007 and now signed by over 1,500 individuals and more than 150 organizations all over the world urges educators and learners participation in the open education movement, and the promotion of open education resources and open education policies (see www.capetowndeclaration.org).

Open education operates on different frameworks, such as Open University, e-learning, open content to wikis, e-books, legal commons or open coursewares. And these methods are not necessarily mutually exclusive.

Sir John Daniel, president and CEO of the Commonwealth of Learning (COL), in a speech before the William Flora Hewlett Foundation Grantees Meeting in a symposium on Open Learning Interplay at the Carnegie Mellon University on March 12, 2008, said:

“Open education broke open the iron triangle of access, cost and quality that had constrained education throughout history and had created the insidious assumption, still prevalent today, that in education you cannot have quality without exclusivity.”

“Open as to people, open as to places, open as to methods, and open as to ideas. That is a good framework to think about open education.” quoting and paraphrasing a 1969 address of The Economist editor, Geoffrey Crowther, an early advocate of open education whose speech was still probably written in a typewriter.

In the first forum dubbed as “Open Education: Are we ready and where are we?” held on April 23, 2008, the Philippine Commons and the e-Law Center of the Arellano University School of Law advanced the idea that “open education” should refer to any scholarly, academic or guided initiative that promotes access to learning and knowledge in a free, open and collaborative environment using the tools and infrastructure of information technology.

Open education is an initiative whose time has come.

In the words of Kristine Mandigma, editor in chief of Vibal Foundation: “In leading economies, technology and knowledge are the critical factors of economic growth.” She emphasized though that innovation is the key.

Greg Moreno of Bayanihan Books believes that open education would eventually fill the gaps in the educational system as technology attempts to address the issue of content quality and commercial viability.

Lawyer Michael Vernon Guerrero of Philippine Commons submits that open education empowers people. He thinks that open content is the first step toward collaboration as international endeavors in this respect continue to grow, develop and mature.

Miriam Coprado of the Department of Education shares the view that while government continues to pursue the integration of information technology in the educational system, the contribution of the private sector remains a most important element.

But the societal significance of open education was best expressed by Siegfried Herzog, resident representative of the Friedrich Naumann Foundation in the Philippines, during the forum when he said:

“Remember, knowledge is power. Whenever access to knowledge is restricted, there is an issue of power behind it—a ruling elite will control knowledge in order to maintain power. If we truly believe that power should be vested in people, not in elites, anything that increases access to knowledge and deepening of knowledge is welcome. Open education is thus not just a nifty tool to enhance skills. It is a way to build a freer society.”

Certainly, open education empowers because it is built upon a platform of collaboration, equal opportunities, and open access to knowledge that could shift the paradigm of conventional educational systems that are perceived to be discriminating.

• This article appeared on print at the Manila Times, and alternatively available at the website of the said newspaper. Atty. Jimmy N. Soriano’s website is available at www.soriano-ph.com
• An article, entitled Philippine Commons Holds Conference on Open Education, and the speech delivered by Herr Sigfried Herzog are available at the Friedrich Naumann Foundation website.

23 April 2008

830-900 :: Registration

900-915 :: Invocation

915-1000 :: Introduction to Open Education
Speaker/org: Creative Commons Philippines
Atty. Jaime “Jimmy” Soriano
1000-1015 Q&A

1015-1030 :: Break

1030-1115 :: Creative empowerment and liberal education
Speaker/org: Friedrich Naumann Stiftung fur die Freiheit
Mr. Sigfried Herzog
1115-1030 Q&A

1130-1215 :: The public direction of Philippine education (primary and secondary)
Speaker/org: Department of Education
Atty. Geronimo “Indy” Sy
1215-1230 Q&A

1230-130 :: Lunch Break

130-215 :: Private initiatives towards open education: International/Local
Speaker/org: Creative Commons Philippines
Atty. Michael Vernon “Berne” Guerrero
215-230 Q&A

230-315 :: Private initiatives towards free and open books
Speaker/org: Bayanihan Books
Mr. Greg Moreno
315-330 Q&A

330-345 :: Break

345-430 :: commercial/business reaction to open content
Speaker/org: Vibal Foundation
Ms. Kristine Mandigma
430-445 Q&A

445-500 :: Closing remarks

Event Info
Name: Philippine Open Education forum
Tagline: Are we ready and where are we?
Sponsor: Philippine Commons
Host: e-Law Center, Arellano University School of Law
Type: Meetings - Club/Group Meeting

Time and Place
Date: Wednesday, April 23, 2008
Time: 8:30am - 5:00pm
Location: Arellano University School of Law
Street: Taft Avenue corner Menlo street
City/Town: Pasay City, Philippines

Contact Info
Phone: 639215173631
Email: guerrero +AT mydestiny +DOT net

Description

The mini-conference aims to inquire upon the feasibility and development of private initiatives to contribute in the Philippine educational or learning system, as alternative else collaborating actors in this matter.

This is pursued especially in light of the developments on Open Education in the international stage (see http://www.capetowndeclaration.org/read-the-declaration ; among others).

Considerations on the development of such initiatives locally would necessarily include the reception (either reactions and plans) of the government and the corporate providers regarding the matter, and thus would necessitate their participation in the mix.

Guests are allowed to bring friends to this event. Please inform us whether you or your friends are coming so that we can make the necessary headcount. No registration fees, by the way. Thank you.

Local electronica group DRIP (Beng Calma-Alcazaren, Malek Lopez, Arvin “Caliph8″ Nogueras, Ian “Morse” Magbanua), Mark Laccay, and Creative Commons Philippines (Atty. Jimmy Soriano and Atty. Berne Guerrero) were guests in the RockEd Radio session (hosted by Lourd de Veyra and Gang Badoy), entitled “Dripping Creativity” on 13 April 2008, 2000H +0800 at the NU107 studio in Pasig City.

Besides performing three of their songs live on the show, DRIP provided audience the rationale why they licensed their second full length album “Identity Theft” under Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Philippines license. Creative Commons Philippines provided a short orientation on copyright and Creative Commons licensing by answering inquiries on the matter during the show.

More pictures at Facebook.

DRIP is scheduled for a radio guesting on the show RockED Radio at NU107 FM on April 13, 8PM at NU107, AIC Gold Tower on Ortigas Avenue, Pasig City. The show features current issues in music and what not, and on occasions, bands or groups also perform live on air. As it was deemed necessary, Creative Commons Philippines was invited to talk about the Creative Commons license and how it works, its application to the Philippines and beyond, and other related topics, in the same session.

Creative Commons Philippines is pleased to announce the release of the maiden issue of the Creative Commons Philippines newsletter, covering January and February this year.

The cover of the newsletter, present and subsequent, will feature the vibrant culture of the Philippines. This issue’s cover features the Sinulog Festival, which is held every January in Cebu City in honor of the Santo Niño (i.e. the infant Jesus).

It includes the following articles: (1) Philippine Launch Celebration: a vibrant member of the global commons, (2) Share, Remix, Reuse — Legally, (3) Strides towards a Philippine Commons — Concept and Direction, (4) Strides towards a Philippine Commons — A sampling, (5) Nightcap: the CC-PH Mini-Concert, (6) The Past Two Months at Creative Commons International, (7) ACIA (Asia and the Commons in the Information Age): Asia Commoners meet in Taipei, (8) Introducing the Arellano Law Singers, (9) Introducing Lisa Diy, (10) The Philippine Legal Commons, (11) Creative Commons Newsletters 1-5, and (12) Bayanihan Books, an Open Textbook Initiative.

Cover: © 2008. Berne Guerrero. “Sugbu.” CC BY-SA 3.0 PH. Includes an image “Magellan’s cross” from his 2 February 2008 trip to Cebu and images from nick kulas/Nicholas Manuel. “sinulog 1.” CC BY-SA 2.0 http://www.flickr.com/photos/nickulas/2225804287/ “Festival Queen of San Carlos.” CC BY-SA 2.0 http://www.flickr.com/photos/nickulas/2216666645/ “sinulog 4.” CC BY-SA 2.0 http://www.flickr.com/photos/nickulas/2225803797/ “sinulog 3.” CC BY-SA 2.0 http://www.flickr.com/photos/nickulas/2225803933/.

Local electronica group DRIP will be launching their independently produced 2nd full length album entitled Identity Theft on 15 March Saturday, 8pm (+0800) at Magnet Café High Street, Bonifacio Global City, City of Taguig, Metro Manila, Philippines. Special guests Us-2-Evil-O, Corporate Lo-Fi, Yosha, and Mark Zero will also be performing. Copies of the CD will be sold for the first time on the event.

This album introduces a first in the Philippines—the enhanced CD contains shared files of some of the song’s elements that DJs and remixers can use to create their own remixes of the songs. The DJs and remixers from all over the world can now use these songs in their sets and can claim them as their own remix provided that they provide a share-alike attribution to the original DRIP songs that they are remixing. This explains the tag line “SOME RIGHTS RESERVED” on the album in lieu of the usual “ALL RIGHTS RESERVED”. The full legal license can be viewed on the Creative Commons website at www.creativecommons.org. DRIP becomes the first Filipino music group to release a Creative Commons licensed full-length album.

What is DRIP?

It’s the classic trip hop set-up: three quiet Filipino guys in the background to tweak knobs and play instruments, with a hot Filipina female vocalist to enthrall the audience with her voice. But Drip goes beyond mere trip-hop band clichés: they are meta-glamorous, a little dark, and seductively experimental. “Capable of giving you simulated bliss,” wrote the Manila Times about the quartet. With an EP independently released in August of 2003 and constant live performances, Drip’s cult status grew with Manila’s musical cognoscenti. Drip’s 1st full-length album called “Far Side of the World” is still out from Terno Recordings and is also available on the CDBABY.COM website.

DRIP is Beng Calma-Alcazaren on Vocals, Malek Lopez on live keyboards, sound design & programming, Arvin “Caliph8″ Nogueras on Turntables & FX and Ian “Morse” Magbanua on beats, samples & programming.

Learn more about DRIP at http://dripmanila.multiply.com, www.myspace.com/dripmanila, www.deeprockdrive.com/artist/drip, www.friendster.com/drip and http://amp.channelv.com/drip

Press release and image from Caio Cadiz, marketing and promotions manager for the local independent electronica group DRIP. Image remains in full copyright.

From the email of Bayanihan Books’ main proponent, Greg Moreno, it was reported that in the past 10 days, Bayanihan Books’ active community has increased to 43, and counting. Bayanihan Books encourages more to join, suggests documents in http://groups.google.com/group/bayanihanbooks/ for those who want to lead the writing or to start the outline of a book, and persuades those with other materials to share to upload in its website.

Incidentally, Bayanihan Books appeared on Inquirer.net courtesy of Erwin Oliva.¹ Similarly, an article about Bayanihan Books was written by Ms. Jane Park and posted at the Creative Commons website.

1. ++++++++++
   The following link will take you to INQUIRER.net :
   Pinoy uses wiki model to make textbooks for public schools
   <http://newsinfo.inquirer.net/breakingnews/infotech/view/20080203-116516/Pinoy-uses-wiki-model-to-make-textbooks-for-public-schools>
   ++++++++++ [↩]

Regional Trial Court (RTC) Judge Maria Elisa Sempio Diy is attending ACIA (Asia and Commons in the Information Age) conference. She is set to perform in the ACIA Concert (”CC Asia Mega Mix!”) at Riverside Cafe, Taipei, Taiwan on the evening of the 19th. She is releasing two of her compositions under Creative Commons Philippine licenses (”I choose you” and “Isama mo ako”).

About Lisa Diy. RTC Judge Sempio Diy (or Lisa Diy as she is known in the Philippine music industry) is a lyricist and composer. She has written and composed at least twenty popular and best-selling songs for top Filipino singers/artists like Jaya, Lani Misalucha, Regine Velasques, Sharon Cuneta, Roselle Nava, Agot Isidro, Melissa Gibbs, Pops Fernandez, Gabby Eigenmann, Zsa Zsa Padilla, and Dennis Trillo. One of her songs, “To Reach You” achieved a Platinum Award in the Philippine recording industry. She has been designated as CC-PH’s resident artist on music.

Incidentally, Atty. Jaime Soriano and Atty. Michael Vernon Guerrero are in Taiwan, also to participate in the ACIA . They are scheduled to talk about Legal Commons on the 20th, Sunday, during the session on “Case Studies and project showcases,” chaired by Catharina Maracke, Director of Creative Commons International.

Image: (c) 2008. Berne Guerrero. CC BY 3.0 Philippines

Bayanihan Books has signified their intent to be one of the active proponents towards Open Content.

Interestingly, Greg Moreno of Bayanihan Books wrote the article, “How to solve our textbook problems and give every Filipino a better education”, a concern shared by the CC-PH deputy project lead in “An opportunity arising from the new Philippine DepEd policy on public school textbooks”. These articles were written independently, and the two authors were only introduced to each other, over email, by Jun Asis of the Philippine e-Learning Society and MagandangBalita.com, a week before the CC-PH license launching.

Bayanihan Books is a project that aims to solve the textbooks problems in public education using community-based collaboration and a copyright license that promotes sharing and reuse (i.e. Creative Commons) of educational content. Its goals are to (1) Produce textbook materials for every subject in every grade level and make it available on the Internet; and (2) Convince the government to adopt these materials, and print and distribute them to public schools. Currently, Bayanihan Books have the initial text for two books. It has the outline for all subjects but it still needs authors to lead the writing. The links to these books are available at its website, www.BayanihanBooks.org.

Necessarily thus, Bayanihan Books aims to write textbooks in the open where contents are made available on the Internet from initial outline to final manuscript. This would allow every teacher, parent, student, professional, DepEd official, virtually anyone, to review the textbooks even before they get published. It aims to release the textbooks under a license that would permit everyone to use and publish the textbooks without paying royalty to anyone. Thus, saving the government of content development costs and allowing more publishers to fulfill the demands of public (and even private) schools. [ Read more ]