The rise of the shareable document in Academic Content Academics have come far in terms of sharing scholarship and teaching resources. But if we learn to share in ways that make content easier to work with, using open source software and open document formats, there could be an interesting domino effect, where more and more work is modified and shared. Access is a great thing, but let's not forget the importance of being able to easily modify work (as well as the platforms where the work resides), too. Academics have a strong handle on sharing, in a broad sense, but we need to move beyond file formats that aren't open or are difficult to modify. Open source software addresses this need. The default file format for Microsoft Word is .docx, which is a not entirely open format. Right now LibreOffice, an open source word processor, can open those kinds of files, but what if Microsoft does something to change that? The "open" content will only be available to users who have paid for some sort of Word license. Can that content really be considered be open? This is where open source software becomes important in sharing content. Because the code is viewable, the files created by open source programs are always accessible. That means .odt files, the default LibreOffice word processing file format, are always open and modifiable. Even via other programs (including Word). See http://ift.tt/2cigvW5
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