This is good news: Opencast has been funded. This from the Chron Higher Ed:
The University of California at Berkeley is moving forward with its plan to create open-source software that would let colleges around the world easily post lectures from their most popular professors.
Originally called “Opencast,” the project – now called “Opencast Matterhorn” – received $1.5-million in grants from the Andrew W. Mellon and William and Flora Hewlett Foundations to begin developing software. The first version is scheduled to be released in July 2010, featuring a scheduling tool, software for uploading and encoding video and audio for distribution on iTunes and YouTube, an RSS generator, and a media player, says Adam Hochman, a product manager at Berkeley's Learning Systems Group.
Definitely something to keep an eye on.
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That *is* good news. Interesting that the integration points the article mentions are Sakai and iTunes U. I wonder whether Dartmouth wants to/should re-evaluate iTunes U.
Posted by: Barbara Knauff | July 30, 2009 at 08:53 AM
I've argued, and will continue to argue, that the real opportunity with presentation capture is widely distributing the tool (to faculty and students) and giving them the option of publishing to public platforms (such as YouTube/EDU and iTunesU).
In this sense, I agree with Barbara's every last word.
Posted by: Joshua Kim | July 30, 2009 at 10:43 AM
Should there be ubiquitous lecture capture or even the option for it? And/or, should there really be a fundamental re-thinking of "what," "why," and "when" to lecture capture? Ultimately, LC needs to serve the needs and desires of students, but it cannot be denied that public accessibility will naturally mean that the faculty members and Dartmouth will then come under greater scrutiny by a discerning audience. I hope we can help put the College's best foot (face) forward, so to speak.
Posted by: Anthony Helm | July 31, 2009 at 09:01 AM