Erik Moeller wrote:
The
important thing is that we form a network of free content platforms
for collaboration among educators.
Interesting perspective. I think it is too narrow or inverted. The
most interesting opportunity to me is to create the network of free
content platforms accessible to the general population or "students".
In my view our entire society has structured itself around gatekeepers
of all kinds enabled by information protection techniques ranging from
secrecy to legal regulation to practical regulation.
There will inevitably be large changes which I view as beneficial and
contributing to individual human rights and freedoms when there is
sufficient free information floating around to reduce the impact of
gatekeepers of all kinds on our societies and individuals.
The tricky question for me is what to do with how-tos.
I think they do
have a place in Wikimedia, and a separate project for them might be a
good idea. This could include gaming walkthroughs -- instructional
materials of any kind. But my biggest hope is for documents from the
open source community to be migrated into the wiki context. There are
thousands of FAQs, HOWTOs and man pages which are still maintained by
single individuals. I made a small effort to change this with
OpenFacts, but this was in 2002, when many of the relevant people were
still convinced that the future was in using a strict workflow
approach within a CMS.
I think How tos and other kinds of information have an obvious place in
Wikiversity. In my view the range of useful information should be made
more accessible by the existence of Wikiverisity. Theoretical
electromagnetism as well as the "How-Tos" regarding installation and
calibration of transformers that were deleted early from Wikipedia
because it was "an encyclopedia" and appropriate only for summaries, not
useful detailed information.
regards,
lazyquasar