On September 14-15, 2007, the Open Society Institute and the Shuttleworth Foundation convened a meeting in Cape Town to gather leading proponents of open education. The goal was to seek ways for these initiatives to deepen and accelerate their efforts through collaboration. Participants concluded that releasing a declaration of shared vision and common strategies offered a concrete first step towards this kind of collaboration.

A preview version of the Cape Town declaration website has been launched. The declaration is designed to serve as a rallying point for the development of open educational resources, as the Budapest Open Access Initiative did for open access to research literature.

The declaration will be fully launched at the end of January 2008. Over the next six weeks, we are collecting signatures of support. Those interested in the further development of open educational resources are encouraged to visit the website at www.capetowndeclaration.org/ and sign the declaration.