I am attending thttp://openedconference.org/2012/ http://openedconference.org/2012/ in Vancouver. We had a welcome from BC’s new minister of Advanced Education. This would appear to highlight the importance the government feels about this initiative.

He announced that the BC Government will make 40 of the most popular post-secondary textbooks available free online. Students will pay nothing for digital versions of these texts and a small fee for a print version. This follows similar intiatives in Washington State and California. BC will be the first province in Canada to support OER.