In the past year, O'Reilly has released the contents of several books under a variety of open source licenses (http://www.oreilly.com/openbook/) and participated in the development of the Open Publication License.

"We're experimenting with open-content development and publication," stated Oram. "At this point, there are more questions than answers. And although it's interesting to release documents under an open source license, the really interesting question is how to develop them in a way that's more like open source software. We're hoping that this forum will identify how the publishing world can learn from the open source development model."

The conference discussion will focus on issues such as:

• Should publishers involve developers of open source software more directly in the creation of documentation?

• How is the open source software development process applicable to creating open content?

• How to ensure quality control when dealing with multiple authors and versions.

• What is fair compensation for primary authors, contributors, editors, and publishers?