The water metaphor illustrates the ease of flow and transparency that Nesson identifies with open code.

In a recent e-mail message to legal and Internet scholars across the country, Nesson, Zittrain and Berkman Professor Lawrence Lessig laid out their vision of the Internet's potential for revolutionizing education.

"The Net offers amazing prospects for transforming the way we teach, both adjunct to physical-world classrooms and in its own right as a teaching medium," the message read.

Recipients of the e-mail have been invited to a conference on May 20 at which the formation of a new non-profit organization will be discussed.

The message states that "membership and leadership [of the new organization will be] open to all individuals, research centers, and universities who wish to contribute to its vision and/or actively sponsor the development of open software for pedagogy."

Other Priorities

Along with open code, Nesson lists open content, open governance, security and open commerce as the center's chief areas of research.

Nesson says content issues lie within Lessig's domain at the center, as Lessig specializes in the field of intellectual property rights.