recursion

Two years ago, MIT announced it would release video recordings, problem sets, and lecture notes for many of its classes online. Anyone is free to use the MIT course materials as long as they don't try to make a profit. The project is called OpenCourseWare and it's starting to bear fruit.

This week, the BBC announced that it will release its enormous archive under similar terms. This is simply incredible, and I can't wait to see what people do with this huge resource.

The MIT experience presents a major success for the free culture movement, and the BBC's move will only accelerate our progress.

Dave Winer continues his foray into political blogging by asserting that Howard Dean doesn't use the web very well: "The first candidate that helps voters publish their own stories and ideas and drive the campaign is the one who really captures the energy of the Web....I want a candidate to use the Web to listen" (empahsis in original).

Dean certainly isn't using the web as well as he could (who is?) but what Winer says here isn't totally right. The Dean campaign has hired the lead programmer of the DeanSpace project which uses RSS syndication to allow supporters to create interlinked blog communities (you can see a sample site at Seniors4Dean).

Furthermore, a lot of the good ideas in the Dean campaign have come directly from the commenters on his weblog. They are listening.