MIT -- the Massachusetts Institute of Technology -- best known to hackers as the birthplace of UNIX and the Free Software movement, announced on April 4, 2001 that it will open up nearly all its course materials by making them freely available on the Internet over the next ten years, through a program called OpenCourseWare@MIT. <http://www.swiss.ai.mit.edu/users/hal/misc/ocw/>
University President Charles Vest said "OpenCourseWare looks counterintuitive in a market driven world. It goes against the grain of current material values. But it really is consistent with what I believe is the best about MIT. It is innovative. It expresses our belief in the way education can be advanced -- by constantly widening access to information and by inspiring others to participate," said President Vest." He also called it "a natural marriage of American higher education and the capabilities of the World Wide Web."
The concept was recommended by a study group chartered by MIT's Council on Educational Technology. The group was composed of faculty and staff from MIT, and was assisted by consultants from Booz-Allen & Hamilton.
While this may be a bold move by MIT at the official level, it also expresses compliance with faits accompli. One faculty member, John Lienhard, said "Last year, I posted my undergraduate heat transfer textbook on the web for no-charge distribution. It is a 700 page pdf file, fully hyperlinked, and also properly typeset. In the domestic book market, the cost for this book would be $85 for the hardback or $45 for the paperback. My aim, however, is to provide the knowledge to those who can't afford to buy the book. The book has been downloaded by users from around the globe. Those users include many professors and students at remote universities in the third world. But the book is also being downloaded by students at universities in the United States and engineers in domestic industry." Apparently Dr. Lienhard didn't need an official program to open-source his courseware.
Naturally the University feels a need to defend its business. "Am I worried that the OpenCourseWare project will hurt MIT's enrollment?" asked President Vest. "No. In fact, I am absolutely confident that providing this worldwide window onto an MIT education, showing what we teach, may be a very good thing for attracting prospective students."
David Isenberg, a telecommunicatons industry guru observing MIT's move, said "By putting its course materials on the Web, MIT is doing a huge service to other practitioners of higher education without doing any damage to their 'business model'."
The most interesting question may be the least answerable: How easy was this move made by the groundbreaking work done by the free software and open source movements? It is at least fitting that the move was at least made at the school where Unix was born.
-- Doc Searls