edX has been making waves in the online learning space ever since its announcement. Even so, one has to comb through a lot of news to find very many details about it.

Today, I present to you a profile piece on Harvard Magazine which helps with this situation. Even though it doesn’t provide much new information, it concisely summarizes all that we do know about the venture so far.

Here are some highlights of edX excerpted from the article:

• A Cambridge-based nonprofit organization, owned and governed equally by Harvard and MIT; each is committing $30 million in institutional funds, grants, and philanthropic gifts to capitalize the venture.
• MITx technology, initially designed to offer noncredit, online versions of MIT courses (incorporating video lessons, embedded quizzes, immediate feedback on student work, online laboratories, and student-paced learning); this platform will be “open-source” software, enabling other institutions to contribute to its development and to add features.
• Harvardx and MITx noncredit courses offered by each institution, beginning in the fall of 2012—with similar identification offered to other institutions that join the venture under the edX parent.
• “Certificates of mastery” for motivated students who wish to demonstrate their knowledge of course content.

Does anyone know how to contribute to the open source effort?