Web 2.0: Openness to Medical Knowledge

Anywhere I look in internet, I find a trend to openness: Open Access, Open Medicine, Open Course Ware, Open Culture,Open Learn, Open Source, Open Directory, Open Office, etc; what in my opinion it is an amazing change with respect to past years. The information is there, if we want it, we have to take it. As doctors the principal beneficiary of this action will be our patients. But, the most difficult challenge is still ahead of us: The challenge to "Open Our Minds" to the change. We have to plant the seed that stimulates thirst of knowledge and happiness of learning. Now exists a huge gateway of knowledge opens to anyone who wants to learn; but most of us are standing in front of it and do not realize that it exists, or if we know of its existence, we do not cross the door to use the knowledge it contains. Technology can create the misconception that it limits the interaction among people, and it could happen if we become extremists with the use of it, but on the contrary it is the tool will help us to back to the basics of education, an education that teacher and apprentice will be closer than ever. Finally, I want to share with you a phrase of Rita Dove that I found, she says "the library is an arena of possibility, opening both a window into the soul and a door onto the world" , now we do not have to go to a library to access the information we need; but the librarians are still there to help us, as guides to the knowledge that will enrich our minds.

References:
Our Vision? A new, digital literacy
Why Open Medicine?
Technology and 3 Types of Teachers

Open Sites:
ODP - Open Directory Project
SourceForge.net: Welcome to SourceForge.net
Home | Open Source Initiative
Open Culture
Open Medicine
OpenLearn LearningSpace - The Open University
Oxford Open initiative
Open Access Now
Open Access Defined
Directory of Open Access Journals

Open Course Ware Resources:
MIT's OpenCourseWare
Waseda University's OpenCourseWare
Utah State OpenCourseWare
UT's OpenCourseWare
Universia Open Course Ware MIT spanish
Tufts OpenCourseWare
TOKYO TECH OCW
ParisTech Open Course Ware
OCW Finder
Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health's OPENCOURSEWARE
Carnegie Mellon's Open Learning Initiative
KYOTO-U's OpenCourseWare
Keio University's Opencourseware
Fulbright Economics Teaching Program OWC
MERLOT Multimedia Educational Resource for Learning and Online Teaching