Dear all,

First post to list - hello to all.

I am particularly interested in access / digital divide issues regarding online media and Open Educational Resources, particularly with regard to technical issues, such as poor bandwidth or mobile accessibility. I am not sure what discussion there has been on this list regarding digital divide issues around mediawiki / wikipedia, and I am sure there are quite a few ideas around how to improve (low bandwidth) access.

I thought you might be interested in an upcoming mailinglist-based discussion around digital divide / access issues for OER (on the mailing list of UNESCO's international Community on Open Educational Resources), and I would like to invite you all to participate (if interested).

The discussion starts this coming Monday (9th Feb), and to participate you simply subscribe to the mailing list: https://communities.unesco.org/wws/info/iiep-oer-opencontent

Further details below and on http://oerwiki.iiep-unesco.org . Feel free to email me if you have any questions.

I hope this is of interest - apologies if this list isn't quite the right forum.

All the best, Bjoern

UNESCO launches new discussion on Open Educational Resources (OER): access to Open Educational Resources, 9-27 February 2009

The UNESCO Open Educational Resources Community is launching a new three-week discussion on the subject of access issues. The discussion will take place from 9 to 27 February 2009 and is open to all.

During the first week the community will focus on identifying - and attempting to classify - the main problems in accessing OER. The theme of the second and third weeks will be "tried and tested solutions", as participants are invited to share their experiences in working around such problems.

The discussion will be facilitated by Bjoern Hassler of Cambridge University’s Centre for Applied Research in Educational Technologies.

About the community: UNESCO’s international Community on Open Educational Resources has been active since 2005. It connects over 700 individuals in 105 countries to share information and discuss issues surrounding the production and use of Open Educational Resources – web- based materials offered freely and openly for use and reuse in teaching, learning and research. UNESCO’s work on Open Educational Resources is generously supported by the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation.

Participate in the discussion: • For more information, see the Access2OER page on the UNESCO OER Community wiki http://oerwiki.iiep-unesco.org/index.php?title=Access2OER • Subscribe to the mailing list here: https://communities.unesco.org/wws/info/iiep-oer-opencontent