Is the fact that you can produce and share content online easily, for free, a good or bad thing, and why?

Producing and sharing content online brings a few arguments that I think we could use in our advantage and I’ll mention those that I consider to be the main focus.

- These type of content expand access to learning for everyone but most of all for adults learners, sometimes referred to as non-traditional aged students and thus widen participation in higher education.

- Open sharing will speed up the development of new learning resources, stimulate internal improvement, innovation, reuse and help the institution deriving a better management.

- In this scenario, it’s much more challenging for companies, they have to manage to stay at the front of everyone.

- There’s a highly amount of altruistic incentive, the practice of concern for the welfare of others, everyone are going for the same cause and that’s comforting.

- It can generate publicity (non-monetary gain), reputation within the open community.

- Free sharing can be the best way to go for economic and commercial purposes, as a way of getting publicity, reaching out the markets as quick as possible and then start taking their first steps in the industry.

Some people claimed it to be “the risk of doing nothing in a rapidly changing environment”, when everyone has a huge and almost immediate access to pretty much everything.

There are pros and cons. I believe that are much more positive things rather than negative, although we can’t forget that everything we’re able to be part of isn’t actually free, we’re giving our data and they make loads of money through that way.