Understand open licensing, types of licenses, issues and challenges, the impact of open licensing and digitization of intellectual property, as well as different business models associated with open licensing.
In 2015, NBA received a grant from the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation to explore the potential for open licensing in enhancing the availability of mother-tongue early-literacy reading resources in the developing world.
Ubongo is a non-profit social enterprise, originating from Tanzania and with staff across Africa, which produces edutainment content for kids and caregivers. Ubongo has two main cartoon shows: Ubongo Kids and Akili and Me.
Openly licensed resources are ‘free’ to access, but there are significant creation, adaptation, production, and use costs. The long-term sustainability of local-language publishing requires that these costs be met fairly, using financial models that will enable people to establish, grow, and maintain effective content creation organizations.
This updated primer discusses challenges and issues faced by content creators, such as publishers, authors, illustrators, and teachers, all of whom have a stake in producing high-quality and cost-effective materials for education. This version includes lessons learned from the COVID-19 lockdowns, technology challenges that still impede access to digital content, and the tradeoffs between digital access and print.