As part of the POERUP project, I have been given the enjoyable task of conducting a case study of the OERu (OER university). The OERu is a global, post-secondary education consortium that currently has 26 member institutions in Canada, the USA, Australia, New Zealand, the UK, India, Spain, South Africa and Fiji (representing 12 Pacific Island nations). These institutions are collaborating to offer OER-based learning and accreditation to adults globablly on a mass scale, targeting individuals who would not be able to afford to participate in mainstream higher education. Member organisations pay an annual membership fee and contribute OERs and expertise to the network. The OERu will formally launch on 1 November 2013. (If you are unfamiliar with the OERu concept, you might find this 2-minute video helpful.)
The OERu case study is one of seven being carried out by the POERUP team in different OER contexts. The lead partners on the case study for POERUP are colleagues from the Open University in the Netherlands, who are making use of their considerable expertise in Social Network Analysis to facilitate our collaborative work on this task. The aim is to identify good practices associated with communities or networks of practice around OERs and to disseminate this information to the global open education community. The case study included three interviews with members who have different roles within the OERu community: Bernard Nkuyubwatsi (a volunteer), Haydn Blackey (an academic from the University of South Wales, one of the member institutions, and the institutional link person between that university and the OERu), and Wayne Mackintosh (founding director of the OER Foundation and coordinator of the OERu network).
In the mini-series of blog posts that follows, I would like to share a few highlights from these interviews. The full transcripts can be found here:
Interview with Wayne Mackintosh
Interview with Bernard Nkuyubwatsi
These three very engaging voices make for compelling reading, and I would like to thank Wayne, Haydn and Bernard for giving of their time and sharing their knowledge with us.
Blog post written by Gabi Witthaus for the Institute of Learning Innovation at the University of Leicester.
Institute of Learning Innovation Blog 
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