Robert Scott Horning wrote:
Michael R. Irwin wrote:
I usually assume since Wikiversity is starting at zero we cannot afford to be limiting our horizons and shrinking. Of course Wikipedia has proven me very wrong. The proper frame of reference is the internet and by shrinking their potential growth and diversity they have achieved a god king ruled encyclopedia which is obviously of decent quality for most people.
Whether a learning institution can achieve success via this formula remains to be seen. Whether the arriving Wikiversity participants will put up with this formula after a few communities form also remains to be seen.
regards, mirwin
I will point out that Wikiversity is not going to have necessarily the God-King type person like Jimbo who is going to be ever-present but yet nowhere. Yeah, Jimbo himself will show up from time to time (hopfully not as damaging as he's been on Wikibooks BTW). There isn't any "one" person that is going to stand out and be able to "pull the plug" on everything, nor have the social standing of Jimbo on Wikipedia. We are going to all be more or less equals in that regard. Yeah, there are going to be some very active and "prominent" individuals that will certainly be leaders, but we won't be having somebody who is going to make pronouncements that are simply unquestioned.
I hope it works out that way for everybody. I still think this type of project has a lot of potential. As a result of some recent research I have become much more aware of the overall "leadership" structure/chain between the Wikimedia Foundation and its projects. I am not confident of any effective mechanism evolving soon to allow specific people to undertake specific tasks with both the solid backing of the local community and a high level of confidence of reasonable responses at higher levels. Unfortunately some projects and tasks that Wikiversity will need to undertake fairly soon are simply too large for a small group of people to tackle on speculation that the decision loops as is can keep up.
Your blackboard proposal is an excellent example unless you plan to develop a generic that can go standalone as well as interface with the Wikimedia code ..... you would know more about the technical end than I. However, I suspect potential participants familar with the Wikimedia Foundation's approach to management would like to hear it could used elsewhere before investing a lot of time.
I think this is a good thing BTW. And it will be very healthy for Wikiversity.
Due to the way that Wikiversity started, I think there will always be a sort of loyal opposition to the WMF board of trustees and a slight attitude of questioning what the board members are thinking about Wikiversity. Still, this is something that is in the Wikimedia family of projects, and the whole reason why we decided to go this route instead of trying to form another on-line educational community independent of everybody else.
Well if things go badly Wikiversity should have enough name recognition by then around the internet that any surviving group should be able to fork under a new name. I doubt the Foundation would give up the name even if they shut down the project locally. Personally I think things will be in a muddle for 12-24 months and then the overall volume of dissatisfaction will force the Wikimedia Foundation to gets its act together and figure out how to allow the various projects to select and ratify their own leadership. I think Wikimedia is coasting on Wikipedia's initial success and the other projects are also feeling the strain.
If you want I can read the tea leaves for you sometime at a ridiculously high fee that we will not mention to the IRS .... or we could go the other way and make the fee trivially small and then keep pestering them for an audit. lol I will be checking my talk page occasionally to see if any algebra students show up with questions. I intend to mention the opportunity to my nephew, maybe he will show up. He might need a slower track as he is in high school. On the other hand it is his second year so maybe he can hack it. 8)
Thanks for your support for custodialship, it was promptly acted on. I left them a note that they can strip it since I no longer need it.
I might lurk here for a while unless the volume gets high or I get too opinionated and voluable. An ongoing personal problem. 8)
high regard, mirwin