OLDaily

Introducing InclusiveAccess.org
Cable Green, Creative Commons, 2021/10/11

As Cable Green reports, "a new sales model known as 'Inclusive Access' has taken off. Also known as automatic textbook billing, this model adds the cost of digital course content into students’ tuition and fees." We've covered this model previously. In response, "InclusiveAccess.org is a community-driven initiative to raise awareness of the facts about automatic textbook billing." Green hopes the website "will help decision makers fully consider and understand how automatic textbook billing can impact their institution and students." That's all diplomatically worded, and I think the message should be clearer: 'inclusive access' costs the student a lot more, especially considering the product disappears at the end of the course.

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Global study on Open Education and Open Science: Practices, use cases and potentials during the COVID-19 pandemic and beyond
Christian M. Stracke, et.al., OE Global 2021, 2021/10/11

My contribution to this paper, on which I'm listed as the 19th author, was truly minimal, and limited mostly to moral support. Nonetheless, it was presented at the OE Global Conference last week, which due to my MOOC I had zero time to attend. Nonetheless, all this was sufficient for me to be included in the list of 2021 UNESCO OER Implementation Award Winners along with 281 of my closest friends (yes, I counted). This is not to sell the genuine efforts of everybody who contributed to this conference, and to open education in general, which is and continues to be a key priority for a better world tomorrow. Here are the sessions and recordings (click on the big red buttons for access).

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Education Activist Dirk Tillotson Was as Real as They Come
Courtney E. Martin, Education Post, 2021/10/11

I don't mention the education activists a lot in OLDaily because they're living in a different world, doing different work, almost none of which involves technology. But it's important to note from time to time their importance as an influence here. Sure, the Silicon Valley ethos prevails in much of ed tech, but not here in OLDaily. My history includes union halls for restaurant workers, development education with the Arusha Centre, alternative journalism, and hence, people from a wide variety of fields working for equity and social justice. I just happen to do it with technology. That's why it's important for me to recognize people like Dirk Tillotson. They are the earth to this weblog's steel.

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Scribe
Edward Loveall, 2021/10/11

If you're tired of reading posts on the Medium platform (and really, who isn't?) you can use Scribe. Using it is very simple (this is possible the shortest instruction set I've ever linked to): replace 'medium.com' in the url with 'scribe.rip'. For those who want more, the open source code is available on GitHub, written in a programming language called Crystal (I think this is the first appearance of Crystal in OLDaily). It uses a web framework called Lucky (guide) (also a first mention in OLDaily).

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Len Sassaman and Satoshi: a Cypherpunk History
Evan Hatch, Medium, 2021/10/11

"We’ve lost far too many hackers to suicide," starts this article. "What if Satoshi was one of them?" This is a brilliant in-depth examination of the istory of BitCoin focusing on the achievements of programmer Len Sassaman and asking the question: what if he was Satoshi Nakamoto, the legendary creator of BitCoin? The argument in the article is less important than the tribute to Sassaman and the history of his work. But it does add a fascinating twist. And an important lesson: "Bitcoin was the culmination of decades of accumulated research and discourse within the Cypherpunk community."

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