I just saw on Twitter that Martin Weller (whose post on the gap between Web 2.0 and higher education is a must read) is submitting a proposal to this year’s Open Education Conference, hosted by Utah State University’s Center for Open and Sustainable Learning on September 24-26. Which reminded me that I haven’t plugged the call for proposals yet.

This has been one of my favorite and most meaningful events for a long, long time. (See my posts from 2004, 2005, 2006 — and last year was an over-the-top blast.)

The conference is a fantastic mix of academic and practical topics, where open source technology, open content, sustainable models, and net culture mix into a delicious and sneaky subversive brew. And though Logan can seem a bit remote for travelers, the drive through the canyons of Utah to get there is stunningly beautiful, and the city itself has many charms – I’ve come to think of it as one of my adopted homes. Expect the COSL folks to run a conference that is logistically flawless, yet relaxed, friendly and fun.

Every day seems to hammer home the importance of openness in our practice. To offer up an observation from Mike Caulfield, “You need problems of sharing and openness to get people to understand the significance of the network… because the network, to some extent, is how we deal with a hackable, shareable world. Take away the hackable, shareable world, and what’s left for the network to do? Mail Hallmark e-cards or something I suppose.”

The Open Education Conference is one of those rare events where you can connect and work with a community that not only understands that reality, but who are actually shaking things up toward a hackable, sharable and genuinely open educational vision.