The Open University (OU) is a distance learning and research university founded by Royal Charter in the United Kingdom. The university is funded by a combination of student fees, contract income, and allocations for teaching and research by the higher education funding bodies throughout the UK. It is notable for having an open entry policy, i.e. students' previous academic achievements are not taken into account for entry to most undergraduate courses.

Slashdot is a technology-related news website owned by the US-based company Dice Holdings, Inc. The site, which bills itself as "News for Nerds. Stuff that Matters", features user-submitted and evaluated news stories about science and technology related topics.

A collaborative discussion website. Articles are created and submitted by Kuro5hin's users and submitted to a queue for evaluation. Site members can vote for or against publishing an article and, once the article has reached a certain number of votes, it is then published to the site or deleted from the queue.The site has been described as "a free-for-all of news and opinion written by readers".