The Shuttleworth Foundation in partnership with the Open Society Institute (OSI) and the Hewlett Foundation hosted a physical meeting of a group of informed and involved individuals from the broader open education community in Cape Town, South Africa, on 14 and 15 September 2007 as a first step towards developing a shared understanding of what the term 'open education' may entail and devising core strategies of how it may be achieved.
Both current and aspirant members of the open education community expressed a need for the clear articulation of the concepts and strategies relating to open education. It was decided to develop a declaration on open education to promote cooperation, synergies and movement building without requiring everyone to coordinate or sign up to a single umbrella organisation. The declaration will be modeled on the Budapest Open Access Initiative (BOAI), which served this purpose for the open access movement, It is intended that the Cape Town Open Education Initiative become a similar movement, building initiative to be shared widely by those active and interested in openness in education.
The physical meeting is followed by a round of online consultation with a broader group before the final release of the findings.
The notes from the physical meeting and the current draft of the declaration can be found on the OpenEd wiki.