Fantastic thread - Pat, I'm late on this one ;-). When leading the NZ OER project we grappled with this concept of accreditation of content quite a bit. A key consideration for us was that we produced OERs of high quality (in an e-Learning pedagogy sense) and fit for purpose to address a particular curriculum need. So while not formally stamped with anyone's approval I can see this approach evolving to where a Moderator group “approves” a specific version of content for use in a particular field of study much in the same way as prescribed text-books. However it could never be some over-arching body like UNESCO – I agree the notion is absurd. However, content moderation is a parallel of what happens in the FOSS world – “benevolent dictatorship” is what Linus Torvalds once referred it to as. There's also an undercurrent that true OERs need to have the lowest barriers to entry. Unfortunately I see this often leading to lowest common denominator approaches that fail to inspire the learner. Media neutral source files can alleviate that tension but this can also raise the bar in creation. Sure, wikis are part of the solution but in a Web 2.0 OERs must be much more than that.
Derek, on another note you might want to check out http://www.mahara.org - early stages of a PLE project & at http://www.myportfolio.ac.nz an attempt with Mahara to break down institutional barriers.
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