'Open’ Art Movement

Collaboration, Open Solutions, and Innovation (COSI) are key strategies individuals and organizations ought to embrace in order to compete and succeed in the 21st century. The adoption and application of these strategies is spreading across most industries and fields of study - including the Creative Arts community.

When combined, these COSI strategies create a robust model for accelerating synergy, creativity, and continuous change.  Collaborative development efforts to create innovative, 'open' software tools and applications for use in the Creative Arts is rapidly accelerating.

Creative Arts encompasses the fields of visual and performing arts, e.g. painting, sculpture, graphic design, printmaking, photography, music, theatre, film, interactive media, and more.

 
Many of the innovative 'open' solutions used in the Creative Arts are being released under one or more open source license arrangements that allow higher individuals and institutions to acquire and use these tools at little or no cost.
 
Coupled with the proliferation of 'open access' publications and training materials, open source and other 'open' solutions will have tremendous beneficial consequences for individuals and organizations around the world that face funding challenge.

The 'Open Way' The 'Open Source Way' is more than a software development model; it defines the characteristics of a thriving collaborative, sharing culture. The ‘Open Way’ has the capacity to turn the art world on its head. The 'open way' is about possibility. Open source presents a new way to solve old problems and to share new ideas. The 'open way' way opens doors. It offers a new perspective - Open, not Closed; Collaboration, not Isolation. The 'open way' way multiplies: Knowledge. Effort. Inspiration. Creativity. Innovation. The impact is exponential.

Check out the following sections on the growing ‘Open’ Movement within the ‘Creative Arts’ that now includes Open Access, Open Data, Open Source Software, Open Hardware, Open Knowledge, Open Standards, Open...

Open Access

By ‘Open Access’, we mean permitting any users to view, download, copy, distribute, print, search, share, or link to artworks, books, articles, music, or other materials in the public domain for research, educational, or other lawful purposes. Several variations of open access copyright licenses are available from the Creative Commons organization.  

Check out the following links to open access sites:

• Best of Art History - Portal to art history web sites created by EdTechTeacher Inc.
• Europeana - Providing open access to digital resources of Europe's museums, libraries, archives and audio-visual collections.
• Google Art Project - Providing online access to thousands of artworks from collections around the world.
• Incredible Art - Provides a comprehensive list of links to 'open source' and/or public domain free clip art, photos, images and other artworks.
• Library of Congress - Recognized as the national library of the U.S. Its collections comprise the world's most comprehensive record of American history, human creativity, and knowledge.
• Metropolitan Museum of Art - Offering 'open access' to an online collection of over 400,000 works of  art.
• Open Clip Art Library - An archive of clip art that can be used by anyone for free for any use. 
• Open Music Library - Journal articles, videos and music scores from the world's best digital collections.
• ProjectGutenburg - Offering over 33,000 free eBooks that can be downloaded.
• Public Domain Clip Art - Images that are in the public domain, based on the laws of the U.S.
• WikiMediaCommons - An online repository of freely licensed, shareable educational photos and images available on the internet.

Open Art Organizations

Check out the following selected ‘Open Arts’ organizations:

• Consortium of Community Colleges for Open Education Resources - Providing resources, support and opportunities for collaboration, learning, planning, and implementing successful open educational programs
• Creative Commons - A nonprofit organization dedicated to building a globally-accessible public commons of knowledge and culture.
• LibrePlanetArtists – A network of graphic designers, photographers, illustrators, videographers, animators, and musicians working to create free artwork using open source tools.
• Open Culture - Providing online access to free movies, books, artworks music, and much more. 
• P2P Foundation: World of Free and Open Source Art – Focused on the world of free and open source art.

Finally, check out some of the following examples of major Free and ‘Open Source’ Software (FOSS) for the Creative Arts:

• Artof Illusion - A free and open source 3D modeling and rendering studio.
• Audacity - A free and open source, cross-platform software tool used for recording and editing sounds.
• Blender - A free and open source 3D content creation suite, available for all major operating systems.
• DarkTable - An open source photography workflow application and RAW developer. A virtual light table and darkroom for photographers.
• GIMP (GNU Image Manipulation Program) - A multi-platform photo and image manipulation tool.  It is an open source alternative to Photoshop.
• GNOME Projects - Hundreds of free and open source GNOME applications are available a vast range of activities, including playing media and editing photos
• Inkscape - An open source vector graphics editor, with capabilities similar to Illustrator or CorelDraw.
• Kaltura - A community developed free and open source video management platform and applications.
• Krita - A full-featured, open source sketching and painting application for digital artists
• MuseScore - Free and open source music composition and notation software.
• MyPaint - An open source graphics application for digital painters. 
• Open Movie Editor - A free and open source video editing program, designed for basic movie making capabilities.
• Scribus - An open source desktop publishing system with and extensive graphics tools.
• Shape Collage - An open source tool that allows you to create picture collages in any imaginable shape or form.
• Synfig Studio - Free and open-source 2D animation software solution for creating film-quality animation using vector and bitmap artwork.
• TuxPaint - A free, award-winning drawing program for children ages 3 to 12.

Visit osalt.com to find other open source alternatives to commercial software products.

The ‘Open Way’ is about sharing your process and challenges the entrenched approach that espouses the solitary nature of the truly creative artist. It allows for emergence of a stronger community of artists and creative worker to work together and more openly share ideas, if they choose.

The 'Open' Education & Training Revolution Continues to Spread

First came free and 'open' source software. Then along came 'Open Access', 'Open' Data, 'Open' Standards, 'Open' IT Architecture, 'Open' Hardware, 'Open' Communities, 'Open' Government, 'Open' Education, and …  The 'Open' Movement continues to spread disrupting almost every industry.  The 'Open' Revolution is a rapidly spreading 21st century global phenomenon.
 
This article focuses on some of the major disruptive changes occurring related to the field of 'Open Education & Training, in both the public and private sector. These include everything from 'open access' journals and textbooks to 'open source' education and training software - and the latest phenomena, Massive Open Online Courses (MOOC).  Pay attention South Carolina!
 
Background
 
The number and quality of free and 'open source' education and training software products out there continues to grow. Have you checked some of them out? They are aimed at students, teachers, and public and private sector education and training organizations.  Have you heard of Sakai, Kuali, Kaltura, Moodle,  or Zotero? Check out some of the better products now available – go to the COSI Open Education web site.
 
You might also want to check out some of the many sources of high quality, free and 'open access' journals and textbooks available on the web. Do you know about Bentham Open Access, OER Commons, Versita Open, or the Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ)? Check out these and many of the other 'Open Access' Education resources.
 
Then there are Massive Open Online Course (MOOC) web sites that offer low cost, online courses aimed at nearly unlimited levels of participation by students or trainees around the globe. In addition to using traditional course materials (e.g. textbooks, videos), MOOCs also provide interactive user forums that help build a community for the students, professors, and instructors. MOOCs are a relatively recent development in distance education.
 
Massive Open Online Courses (MOOC) emerged from the open educational resources (OER) movement. The term MOOC was first coined in 2008 by Dave Cormier of the University of Prince Edward Island and Senior Research Fellow Bryan Alexander of the National Institute for Technology in Liberal Education in Canada. You can read a lot more about the history of MOOCs on Wikipedia.
 
While MOOCs initially emerged and were used in academic settings, many private corporations around the world have begun to embrace them as a new, cost effective alternative for providing training to their employees.
 
Major Examples of 'Open' Education & Training Solutions
 
The following are brief profiles of some of the more notable Massive Open Online Course (MOOC) platforms that are currently available:
 
edX  is a non-profit collaborative organization and web portal offering interactive Massive Open Online Courses (MOOC) in subjects such as law, history, science, engineering, business, social sciences, computer science, public health, and more. Their decision to release their source code to the community was made to further accelerate enhancements to the platform.
Coursera  is an education company that has partnered with top universities and organizations around the world to offer free courses online for anyone to take. Coursera enables its partners to offer their courses to millions of students. It has emerged as the current leader of the pack, with over 10 million enrollments in Coursera from approximately 195 countries.
Udacity  is a for-profit education and training organization offering Massive Open Online Courses (MOOC). Their mission is to help reinvent education for the 21st century by bridging the gap between real-world skills, relevant education, and employment.
Udemy  is another for-profit education and raining company helping its students make career moves – whether it be getting a promotion, breaking into a new industry, starting a company, or furthering a passion.
 
Other MOOC platforms to check out include Academic Earth, FutureLearn, OER University, OpenCurriculum, and YouTube EDU.
 
Corporate Training & MOOCs 
 
Massively Open Online Courses (MOOC) are starting to impact corporate education and training programs. One of the most obvious benefits of making world-class academic and corporate educational experiences available online is the opportunity to lower training costs.
 
For example, a one day training program for 100 employees at a remote site could easily cost an organization well over $100,000 to hold.  Use of MOOCs allow the costs of developing course content and delivery of training to be amortized over thousands of company employees taking self-paced training sessions – with no major travel, facility, or equipment expenses required.
 
Many of today's knowledge workers are 'always on', expecting to access information and training anywhere, anytime – as needed.  MOOCs are ideally suited to these workers of the future. There is an excellent article posted on Wired.com entitled MOOCs On The Move From Colleges To Companies that is well worth reading and goes into the topic of MOOCs  in much more detail.
 
The article notes that major corporations around the world are adding online courses to their new 'blended learning' training programs with increasing success.  It also states that "Online access to company training courses is making it possible for corporate employees outside of headquarters to have the same opportunity for management training and promotion as their HQ peers; for foreign contractors to perform at the same level as their local peers; and for small companies to provide the same level and frequency of training to their employees as their larger competitors. "
 
An increasing number of corporate Human Resource (HR) management  officials are giving MOOCs a closer look as a new, more cost effective way to deliver training to employees. After trying it out, many early adopters have warming to the idea and are sharing their 'lessons learned' from their pilot initiatives with others.
 
Major Issues & Challenges
 
MOOCs are a relatively new phenomena. As they continue to catch on and gather momentum, resistance to them is increasing. There are numerous obstacles to overcome in the coming years before MOOCs find their place, as the field of education and training rapidly changes to meet the challenges of the 21st century 'Information Age'.
 
Some of the many challenges and issues that must be addressed include:
• Helping people overcome their fear of change and adjust to the new technologies and solutions – whether they be faculty, students, management, employees, young, or old.
• Helping facilitate radical change in how academic institutions and corporations currently offer education and training
• Changing outdated legislation or policies that favor the status quo – traditional classroom training offered by 'brick and mortar' institutions
• Continue to recognize and facilitate the move towards lifelong learning – offered to anyone, anywhere, anytime
• Continue the move towards the privatization of education and training at all levels – high school, college, on-the-job, etc.
• Continue to enhance the technologies and processes needed to provide high quality, online distance learning solutions
• Continue to make changes to current education and training programs and practices – college degrees programs vs. certification programs; obtaining accreditation for online courses; …
• Address the many privacy and security issues raised as we move towards use of many new technologies and more online education & training programs
• Explore and create new revenue opportunities for academic institutions, faculty, and private corporations providing education and training to people around the world.
 
Conclusions
 
Bottom Line - Traditional educational institutions are going to change dramatically over the coming years – investing more heavily in new technologies; increasingly going online; going after corporate customers; thinking global; offering certificates in addition to degrees; using open access textbooks; cutting costs while simultaneously offering more services; reducing academic staff; learning to be more flexible and 'open' minded…
 
Corporate training program will continue to evolve and outsource much of their training – the difference being that they will increasing make use of low cost, Massive Open Online Courses (MOOC) offerings by public and private sector organizations.  Some of the larger corporations will  stand up their own MOOC systems – using some of the many high quality 'open source' software tools now available, as well as using 'open access' textbooks and raining materials. They may even generate revenue by offering training to others outside their own organization.
 
Globalization, international competitiveness, and the growth of the knowledge-based industries of the 21st century will drive the growth of MOOCs. India has already grabbed the #2 spot in use of MOOCs, after the U.S.  Expect Europe, China, and a growing number of other countries to quickly take advantage of MOOCs as they compete in the global marketplace.
 
Have you used a MOOC? What was the experience like? How can they be improved? Do you think the use of MOOCs will spread to South Carolina? Share your constructive impressions and ideas with us.

Key Massive 'Open' Online Courses (MOOC) Links

• Academic Earth  • Coursera • edX • FutureLearn • Khan Academy  • LearnZillion • MOOC.org

• OER University (OERu) • OpenCurriculum • Peer to Peer University (P2PU)   • Udacity • Udemy   • YouTube EDU

Introduction to 'Open Agriculture' Tools and Resources

Collaboration, Open Solutions, and Innovation (COSI) are the key management strategies individuals and organizations need to embrace and incorporate in their daily lives and business practices in order to compete and succeed in the 21st century. The growing acceptance, adoption and application of these new management strategies is already evident in almost every sector of the economy.

Industries and businesses throughout the world are being revolutionized through the application of these three unique and powerful management strategies. When combined, these COSI strategies create a robust model for accelerating change, achieving significant operational efficiencies, and improving the quality of products and services being provided by public and private sector organizations in the U.S. and other countries.

Collaborative development efforts to create innovative, free and open source software (FOSS) tools, applications, and other solutions for use by individuals and corporations involved in agriculture are also well underway. These innovative 'Open Agriculture' solutions are being released under one or more 'open' licensing or copyright arrangements that allow both public and private institutions to acquire and use these tools at little or no cost. This has tremendous potential consequences for individuals and organizations around the world that face funding challenges.

Find out more about 'open source' software, 'open data', 'open access' information, and 'open communities' and other resources for use in Agriculture, AgriTourism, Farming... at http://Agriculture.COSITech.Net

 Collaboration, Open Solutions & Innovation in Agriculture

Check out Summerton 'Open' Technology & Solutions

Collaboration, Open Solutions, and Innovation (COSI) are key strategies individuals and organizations need to embrace in order to compete and succeed in the 21st century 'Information Age'. This applies to every individual and organization right here in Summerton, S.C.

On the Summerton 'Open' Technology web site you will be introduced to many of these free and 'open' technologies and solutions. You will learn about free and 'open' source software (FOSS), 'open' source hardware, 'open' access materials, 'open' data, 'open' standards, and much more.

For example, check out:

• Apache Software - Originally known for being an open-source web server solution, it has now grown into a large collaborative software community with a wide range of complementary projects and products.
• Civic Commons - A non-profit initiative helping cities and local governments build and use shared and open technologies to improve public services.

• Code For America - Enlisting talents of the web industry into public service to use their skills to solve core problems facing our communities, cities, and government at all levels.

• Creative Commons - Helping people to share knowledge, research, and educational materials with others around the world. Videos
• Data.Gov - Providing open access to a wide range of datasets that are generated and/or held by the U.S. Government.

• Libre Office - A comprehensive open source software suite of office applications (e.g. word processing, spreadsheet) similar to MS Office.

• Linux - A widely used open source operating system for small and large scale computer systems originally created by Linus Torvalds

• Mozilla & Firefox - A wide range of open source software products developed by the growing Mozilla 'open' development community. Products include the FireFox web browser, Thunderbird email, etc.
• Open Educational Resources (OER) Commons - Providing access to a wide range of teaching and learning materials that may be freely used and shared - for elementary schools, high schools, and universities.

• Open Office - A comprehensive open source software suite of office applications (e.g. word processing, spreadsheet, etc.) that provide very similar capabilities as MS Office.

• OpenProject - A free and open source project management software solution that can serve as a replacement for MS Project.

* See blog on Understanding 'Open' Terminology.

Is this the first time you have been exposed to free and 'open' technologies and solutions? Let us know what you think after you have checked out some of these resources.

Local History & Genealogy Resources

Interested in local History and Genealogy? The following are links to key web sites to reference when searching for more detail on the history of Clarendon County and Summerton, S.C.:

• 'Best of History' Web Sites
• Clarendon County Archives
• Clarendon County Chamber of Commerce
• Clarendon County Historical Society
• Clarendon County Murals
• Clarendon County Plantations
• FamilySearch – Clarendon County, S.C.
• Genealogy Inc. - Clarendon, County, S.C.
• Histopolis - Clarendon County Cemetaries
• Interment.net: Clarendon County
• National Register of Historic Places
• SCGenWeb: Clarendon County
• S.C. Historical Society
• S.C. Historic Preservation Office
• S.C. State Museum - State History
• SCIWay – S.C. History & Culture
• Smithsonian Museum of American History
• U.S. Library of Congress
• U.S. National Archives

 A wealth of free and 'open source' software tools and 'open access' reference materials can be found on the Historic Summerton, S.C. web site. Check it out.