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