• Purpose of the Course
• Methodology
  • Assumptions
  • Methods

Purpose of the Course

The purpose of this course is to assist participants who are already active in free/libre/open supplier and user communities to refine their approach to free/libre/open licensing and contracting. Operational outcomes for participants and their organizations are envisioned in terms of two week, two month and two year time horizons, towards:

• Improving business risk management by advancing the capability of participating developers to determine what is legally in and out of bounds.
• Optimizing business value by helping the participating developers understand the potential of diverse licensing and contracting options.
• Enabling more effective communication between you and your colleagues, including your lawyer(s), on a variety of topics associated with intellectual capital management. 

Version 1.00 of the course was originally developed and delivered in June 2013, and was adapted to Version 2.00 for generic OSI use inb February 2014. Your collaboration is invited towards improving subsequent iterations, and to freely adapt the content in whole or in part, to your own circumstances. 

Methodology

Assumptions

1. In general it is assumed that each participant has access to an Internet-enabled device, since the syllabus materials are entirely online. However we attempt to ensure that offline use of the materials is also practical.
2. It  is assumed that anyone designing and delivering a course based on this syllabus will be serving as a short-term coach who is accountable to design a program for the particular needs and learning styles of the client team. This coaching role differs from instructors/lecturers teaching students/attendees. A coach must design and deliver conditions for self-motivated learning to occur in alignment with the team's priorities, preferences, time and budget. Ahead of tailoring the course, a learning coach might consider conducting a quick online survey with the planned participants to help gauge their particular needs and preferences, both as a team, and as individual professionals.
3. An assumption behind the design of this syllabus is that the outcomes really matter: "By the end of the US$100,000 seminar, participants have become acquainted with each other, have exchanged views on important problems, have listened to experts, have evaluated the seminar positively, and have accumulated seminar materials for future reference. But have they acquired information or made decisions that will change their professional behavior? How will they synthesize two years from now the words of wisdom they heard in the seminar?" (Abadzi,H. 1990. Cognitive Psychology in the Seminar Room, The World Bank. (pg 3). 

Methods

1. The process employs a structured interactive team-based approach to learning that is centered upon participant discussion and co-drafting, guided by short selected readings and team Q&A interviews with primary authorities (or audio recordings of such interviews from previous instances of this course). 
2. Learning coaches should consider including video or audio call-in sessions with off-site subject matter experts, in order to engage the participants in substantive conversations on key topics. The current syllabus includes several audio and video files, in free/libre/open formats. Course participants may be provided some time ahead of each such call, to undertake focused preparation prior to each interview. Discussion with a specialist will participants an opportunity to question and clarify points or implications in terms of their own context. Good-quality recordings of these interviews (following editorial review) may be shared as part of this syllabus under suitable CC-BY-SA and GNU-FDL licenses. This approach has several benefits:
   1. The invited external authorities already know their topics, so while precise scheduling is required, substantive preparation prior to the interview is not. 
   2. This approach minimizes logistical overhead, financial outlay and hydrocarbon use. It optimizes for the efficiency of discussants' time-use, and for overall syllabus re-usability. 
   3. A moderate honorarium is normally paid to discussants or to their organizations.
3. In addition to the discussions participants are asked to take note of their own perspectives regarding important or meaningful ideas relating to their own work, their team's operations, and their organization's business, policies and procedures. These valuable insights can be contributed back to the syllabus project. The overall concept for this syllabus is inspired by the attitudes of:
   1. The Agile Manifesto, http://agilemanifesto.org/
   2. How Jazz Musicians Improvise, http://psych.princeton.edu/psychology/research/johnson_laird/pdfs/2002HowJazzmusicians.pdf 
   3. The design the Mars Curiosity Rover landing sequence. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h2I8AoB1xgU
4. The discussion-oriented approach employed here generally applies the principles expressed in the so-called andragogy approach to adult learning https://digital.library.txstate.edu/bitstream/handle/10877/3580/fulltext.pdf?sequence=1 originally introduced to adult learning in Germany in the early 1800s and elsewhere since then. http://www.ncolr.org/jiol/issues/pdf/6.2.3.pdf  The present course design adapts elements of the case-method (originating in the late 1800s at Harvard Law School) and the problem-method (originating in the 1940s at McMaster Medical School) of learning. The pedagogical style of this course is influenced by the work of applied cognitive neuroscientist Helen Abadzi, http://www.unescobkk.org/education/learning-throughout-life/efa/efanews/news-details/article/how-to-apply-cognitive-neuroscience-to-education-interview-with-dr-helen-abadzi/ in particular her 1990 Cognitive psychology in the seminar room http://go.worldbank.org/79NNHZHQ10 in which she reasons: 
5. Mnemonic Devices

• 3D Mnemonic Device — Factors of Production (Pronounced "naimonik"; the first "m" is silent.)
• An academic overview of mnemonic devices: http://www.jstor.org/discover/10.2307/1170198?uid=2129&uid=2&uid=70&uid=4&sid=21102380592657 
• A commercial use of mnemonic devices: http://www.mindtools.com/pages/article/newTIM_00.htm