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If a MOOC instructor moves, who keeps the intellectual property rights? | Inside Higher Ed.

The article doesn’t really touch on the technological element. Professors use university-provided infrastructure, usually of the bricks and mortar variety (ivy optional); Moocs may use a variety of technologies but not bricks nor mortar. Moocs are probably–one hopes–more than videos or fancy PowerPoint slides. They could include a range of interactive elements. And the particular technology used by a Mooc is likely owned by the institution employing the professor, who has created the course. Moving from one institution to another, in many places an exceptional area of intellectual property identity favouring professorial ownership, thus could be complicated by differences in technology and infrastructure.

The differences that technology make to community identity and possibility, as well as to the degrees of practical freedom, come up all the time in open source environments. Having such a manifold of technologies, as well as, inevitably, licenses and governance protocols, does not produce the best environment for collaborative work and innovation. But it does provide for no end of political machinations and tactical market plays; for business (and politics) as usual.