Forum Network

The WGBH Educational Foundation, with support from the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation and the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, hosts a conference on Open Content and Public Broadcasting. Listen in as over 100 participants come together with industry leaders to explore issues related to producing and distributing open access content across multiple public broadcasting platforms.

Open access content means the digital distribution of materials free of charge, free of most licensing restrictions, and available to all to copy, revise, and distribute as they wish. The Open Content movement is driven by a bold new set of ideas and has the potential to change production and business models for large portions of the media.

Conference attendees include key stakeholders in the public broadcasting system, academics who have promoted Open Content in higher education, industry leaders in new media and technology, experts in intellectual property rights, and leaders in philanthropy. Together they examine how the Open Content movement might further public broadcasting's public service mission, emphasizing the need for new strategic business models and sustainable solutions. They discuss existing models and efforts that might guide public broadcasting initiatives in Open Content possible barriers to adopting Open Content models in public broadcasting; and opportunities for public broadcasting to pursue in this arena.

Read a transcript of this panel
View Marshall S. Smith's slides
View Dennis L. Haarsager's slides.

Listen to a complementary interview with Henry Becton on Thoughcast.org, a podcast and public radio interview program on authors, academics and intellectuals.