On 6/15/06, Michael R. Irwin <michael_irwin(a)verizon.net> wrote..:
..about 3600 words
I'm not going to respond to all of them, but can I just make a simple
point or two..
I don't envisage Wikiversity's content being moved to other wikis when
it gets to a standard worthy of another project (ie a book). Far from
it. This would be a terrible way of working. Rather, I see Wikiversity
developing learning materials which can be used for a number of
learning projects/activities - ie. a class/lesson plan with relevant
learning material (eg. images, book extracts, audio exercises etc),
which can be set out in any way that seems the best way to construct
this material into a learning process/course, whatever you want to
call it. Keep all this at Wikiversity - no question of moving it
anywhere. If people want to do further research or reading, they can
go to Wikibooks or Wikipedia (etc) - I don't see anything disastrous
about that. Furthermore, if their learning compels them to do so (or
if specified by their learning activity to do so), they can improve
those articles/books, in order to consolidate their learning. But they
will always come back to their learning materials on Wikiversity -
this is the basis of their learning - what they do with that learning
is anyone's guess.
Also, I don't see Wikiversity as being a junior subproject for other
Wikimedia projects - on the contrary, I see it as a meta-project of
them all. I see Wikiversity occupying a space for people to learn
about how to contribute content to any project. I see a space for it
to gather content from all other projects to put them to practical
use. For example, Wikiversity and Wikibooks have been intertwined
since the name "Wikiversity" was first suggested - even though
Wikiversity was developed on Wikibooks, an early suggestion was to
have Wikibooks as the repository of content for Wikiversity. This is
far more the way I see their relationship, and applied to all other
projects too. Obviously, it will take time to get to that stage, but
that is my dream.
Finally, I admit that the process of getting this proposal realised
hasn't been as quick or even as ideal as I would have liked it to be.
However, this is now the final stage, and I personally expect
Wikiversity to be up and running by Wikimania, hopefully sooner.
Cormac