constructing the conntent; 2) conventional approaches to constructing the
content, with a twist; 3) new (novel) approaches to constructing content;
and, 4) radical approaches - staying within the framework guidelines - that
set new standards, and stimulate completelt new ways to think about content.
In fact, a testbook project could "live beside itself", in parallel, as many
different potential 'products; and/or, once it gets going, begins to take on
a 'flavor' or demeanor' that resonates with certain contributors.
This is one beauty of open sourcing K-12 content, in that it permits conent
innovation around a basic structure, and can organically evolve in a way
that fills the needs of people beyond the original "textbook content"
intention. Really, a K-12 'textbook' in geometry, authored by wickipedia,
could be one part (or the core, whichever) of a massive project that fills
many needs, outside the initial mandate of the project.
University texts can be treated somewhat differently; there, one can
dispense with preceding structure, and 'go for it'. If the material is
compelling, people will use it. Unfortunately, this is not the case at K-12.
(but open source can slowly help to change that; in fact, *only* open source
can change that...certainly, the commercial publishers never will).
Sanford
the best way to ensure inexpensive texts.
> Again, has competition in this sector led to lower textbook costs?
Go back to the drawing board and think about the difference between
commodity texts and proprietary texts.
> I can walk into Barnes and Noble today and purchase a trade version
> of a geometry text for $25. The very same (or similar) content in a
> commercial textbook will cost *three to four times* that amount. Soo
> where's your commercial 'efficiency'?
My commercial efficiency is demonstrated *right there*, in your hands,
that $25 book, as opposed to the $75-$100 book produced by a
politicized and *proprietary* process.
> You ar completely misunderstanding my proposition. Would you like to
> turn over the highways to private enterprise? How about medical care
> (look what a great job private enterprise has done there)? How about
> pharma (there's a really cool example of private enterprise creating
> something that only the wealthy can afford).
Yes, I think that all of those things should be privatized. Next
question?
> What I am saying, is that we will see (counterintuitively), some
> price inefficiencies rising from that.
Which is why you propose a state takeover of the textbook business.
You say that you don't, but then you turn around and say that you do.
> Now, there might be ways to deal with those inefficiencies. Maybe we
> help the adopting states by finding our own publishers, who are
> willing to state (via contract) up front that they will not charge
> over a certain raw cost percentage of the content. There are many
> (hypothetical, at present) ways to deal with this.
Why do we need to do that, it doesn't make any sense to do that.
I don't think you've thought this through very well at all.
Consider: we create a textbook, call it "Wikimedia: 9th Grade American
History". We get it accepted, as a paper text, by the committee. If
the committee is corrupt (bribed) or whatever, and refuses to consider
it, then that's a big problem, and your lobbying should focus strongly
on that.
But once it's accepted, then the "Wikimedia: 9th Grade American
History" will easily outcompete all the other textbooks on price,
because it can and will be produced by highly competitive low cost
printers. We've removed the proprietary 'edge'. And if those
low cost printers make big profits, all the better!
> With due respect (and I mean that), you are illustrating a complete
> ignorance of the textbook publishing business. The "print" side of the
> business is very competitive, because the barriers to entry are very low
> (more economics).
Right, that's what I've been trying to explain to you.
> The content side is *not* competitive, because there is essentially
> a private content publishing cartel, owned by just a few publishing
> giants.
Right, and that's where we come in.
You see, I do understand this business, and I understand what open
source can do for it, better than you think.
I just don't think you've thought through the implications of what
you're advocating.
--Jimbo
[To all Wikimedia projects, minus mailing lists with an active
discussion already.]
On August 2020, the Wikimedia Foundation board of trustees may decide a
rename to "Wikipedia Foundation" and various other things.
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Foundation_Board_noticeboard/Boar…>
Following a community meeting, a proposed open letter was written:
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Community_open_letter_on_renaming>
«We ask the Wikimedia Foundation to pause or stop its current movement
renaming activities, due to persistent shortcomings in the current
rebranding process. Future work should be restarted only in a way that
ensures equitable decision-making.»
(Sorry for the crossposting. When replying, be mindful of cc. Do
consider forwarding to language-specific discussion venues with a short
translated introduction, or translate the pages on Meta.)
Cheers,
Federico aka Nemo
Hey,
I'm working for a group of researchers at the University of Cologne and
we've created a book over the past year that we'd like to share on
wikibooks. It already is on a mediawiki installation (
openbook.oerlabs.de ) and I have a few questions regarding licensing and
migration.
Since the book already uses a mediawiki I was hoping I could make use of
the import/export feature, but I need a little advise on how to do it
(since I assume I won't have the necessary rights on wikibooks to do it
myself).
Furthermore we'd like to publish the text under Creative Commons Zero,
some of the pictures use different licenses however (CC-BY-SA, CC-BY),
is that okay?
I hope I'm at the right address here, if not kindly tell me where to try
my luck next.
Sincerly,
Felix Husemann
--
Felix Husemann
SHK im Projekt OERlabs
Web: https://oerlabs.de/
Professur für Mediendidaktik/Medienpädagogik
Jun.-Prof. Dr. Sandra Hofhues
Department Erziehungs- und Sozialwissenschaften
Humanwissenschaftliche Fakultät
Universität zu Köln
Postanschrift: Gronewaldstraße 2, D-50931 Köln
Besucheradresse: Triforum Cologne, Innere Kanalstraße 15, 2. Etage, Raum 02.216, D-50823 Köln
I'm under the impression that I've added a reference correctly but am
not seeing the Wikibooks page render the actual mailing list name:
https://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/OpenSSH/Logging_and_Troubleshooting#cite_note…
What have I missed? Or if the reference was done correctly, where
should I report the bug?
/Lars
Those who worked on Wikistories & its sister projects at some point might
appreciate this effort:
---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Vasilis Kostakis <kostakis.b(a)gmail.com>
Hello everyone,
With the chance of this call, I'd like to share an idea proposal about the
potential of technology to help theaters.
Starting question: Could a theatrical play be developed as a Wikipedia
entry?
In 2014 we (i.e. the P2P Lab) created a "wikitheater" platform with the aim
to experiment with the write-up of a theatrical play in a similar fashion
with Wikipedia. In a month, a play in Greek was written by 5 people who had
never met. Till now the play has been performed by more than 13 teams
(professional and amateur) in 7 Greek cities. It is available under a CC
license that allows further development, and free use by non-profits, while
the for-profit teams give us a fee to sustain this commons.
It became obvious that it is possible to produce a coherent narrative by
fulfilling the main criteria of the successful commons-based peer
production projects. To cut a long story short: modularity; granularity;
and low-cost of integration. The design of the plot took all these
characteristics into consideration:
A man is committing suicide falling from the 24th floor of his company's
skyscraper. While he is falling, ready to face his death, time distorts. So
he is observing what is happening in each floor and before he dies -yes, he
dies but some have even changed the ending-, he regrets his decision to
commit suicide. Floor = one module (like a lego brick). You (i.e., actor,
director, audience etc) are free to experiment with these lego bricks, take
some of them out or/and add your own and so on.
This project was documented in a paper
<http://www.p2plab.gr/en/wp-content/uploads/2015/07/New-Media-Society.pdf>
published
by *New Media & Society*. However, since then the case has considerably
advanced. But we cannot keep up with what has been happening in Greece with
this play. Once, we intended to translate the basic structure of the project
in English. We could do that as long as we find people to pass the baton to
them after that.
Nicolas VIGNERON, 11/10/2017 20:32:
> should we try to integrate WSexport functionalities into more general
> tool? (for the second option, we need to exchange about our specific
> needs and desires).
This was already done with mwlib for ZIM and EPUB, but then WMF trashed
it. Three years ago we were told "ePUB and ZIM are likely to return",
now how much do you believe PDFs will ever work again?
https://lists.wikimedia.org/pipermail/wikitech-ambassadors/2014-September/0…https://phabricator.wikimedia.org/T97672https://phabricator.wikimedia.org/T73660
The Italian Wikisource users have used PDF exports nonetheless for a few
things, although they are not as useful as the ZIM exports. Please don't
rely on assumptions about uselessness of something for you to decide
that it's fine to make that something worse.
Federico
Jon Katz, 22/11/2017 03:29:
> The issue you raise, is a known issue being tracked and worked on here
The issue I raise is that you should not make a change that makes life
worse for all users. The feature is currently useless in 100 % of cases,
so you should have rolled back immediately to the previous system as
long as it works even in 0,1 % of the cases.
For now, I'm telling people to use the PediaPress book builder and
ignore the PDFs produced by Wikimedia Foundation. This is not sustainable.
Federico
How do I change the location of the table of contents in the Wikibook I
am maintaining [1]. The body of the print version [2] is just this one
template:
{{printable}}
Strangely it puts the table of contents for the whole book fairly far
into the book. I'd like to move that to the front.
Also, while I'm already asking, how do I add another chapter from the
book to the print version.
/Lars
[1] https://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/OpenSSH
[2] https://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/OpenSSH/Print_version
Anne Gomez, 11/10/2017 02:12:
> In case you're interested, the Foundation will be working to replace OCG
> over the coming months. I wanted to make sure you're aware in case you
> rely on any of this infrastructure and/or have plans for further
> development dependent on it.
>
> What this means in the short term is that PDF book rendering (through
> Book Creator) will be shut off for a few months at least while a
> suitable replacement is researched, tested, and built.
>
> Here's the full write up:
> https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Reading/Web/PDF_Functionality
>
> Let me know if you have any questions or if this has major impact to
> your work.
It does, of course. Wikisource and Wikibooks users sorely need to print
books for offline reading, it's something we keep hearing from anybody
in "real life".
Removing basic functionality and downgrading existing features for no
gain is an excellent long-run method to kill projects like Wikibooks,
Wikisource and Wikiversity whose potential users (such as teachers and
other OER folks) may prefer alternative platforms which show more care.
Nemo