Dear all, I'm just passing on an email which you might find
interesting. It's from Ray Saintonge, who I think was the one who
coined the name "Wikiversity" (which he questions, below). The context
of the mail is that I asked him what he originally meant by a mailing
list post in 2005, in which he said:
"I still prefer the term wikiversity. I
don't feel the strong
association with traditional universities, nor any of the other
perceptions that you have of it. There was a time when university was
another name for a corporation. What I find attractive about
"wikiversity" of turning toward a totality in a more classical approach
to learning."
Here's what he said:
---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Ray Saintonge <saintonge(a)telus.net>
Date: Aug 21, 2006 11:12 PM
Subject: Re: Ray: a clarification
To: Cormac Lawler <cormaggio(a)gmail.com>
[my mail snipped]
Hello Cormac:
It seems that sometimes mailing lists are merely an excuse for a descent
into incoherence. :-)
In trying to paraphrase my intent I risk descending further from
incoherence to speculation..
To a large extent I would say that I was guided by the Latin origins of
the word, and the idea of turning to the one. The Latin and early
English writers saw university/univeritas as equivalent to "universe".
I can even take heart from the words in [[Medieval university]]:
"Initially mediaeval universities did not have a campus. Classes were
taught wherever space was available such as churches and homes, a
university was not a physical space but a collection of individuals
banded together as a universitas (the corporation)."
One can only imagine a conversation between Lawrence Lessig and John
Henry Newman, or wonder how Newman might have viewed a university if the
internet had been available in his time.
I cannot vouch that my use of the word "Wikiversity" was the first when
I first used it in a casual exchange of banter with Mav a few years. At
least I was not then aware that it had been used by anyone else. I've
always felt that a little grandiosity can enhance humour. My use of the
term then was more in jest than in augury.
Newman observed, "We cannot then be without virtual Universities; a
metropolis is such: the simple question is, whether the education sought
and given should be based on principle, formed upon rule, directed to
the highest ends, or left to the random succession of masters and
schools, one after another, with a melancholy waste of thought and an
extreme hazard of truth."
http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/mod/newman/newman-university.html
I have from the beginning hesitant about Wikiversity. When the notions
of accreditation and diplomas are raised, I immediately know that we are
not referring to the same thing. Other interested individuals would
have us assemble a "Summa Wikilogica" that would put us in the same pit
as education in the thirteenth century.
The preparation of elaborate courses will get us nowhere in the absence
of sudents. The prospective student needs to relate the prospectus for
these courses to his own circumstances. What other incentive could he
possibly have for participating? Wikipedia has succeeded because it
began with an original idea that inspired people; that kind of
inspiration is absent from Wikiversity. Perhaps Newman should be
obligatory reading for anyone who seeks to teach a Wikiversity course.
Newman also had words for Wikimania: "A fine time of year is chosen,
when days are long, skies are bright, the earth smiles, and all nature
rejoices; a city or town is taken by turns, of ancient name or modern
opulence, where buildings are spacious and hospitality hearty. The
novelty of place and circumstance, the excitement of strange, or the
refreshment of well - known faces, the majesty of rank or of genius, the
amiable charities of men pleased both with themselves and with each
other; the elevated spirits, the circulation of thought, the curiosity;
the morning sections, the outdoor exercise, the well - furnished, well -
earned board, the not ungraceful hilarity, the evening circle; the
brilliant lecture, the discussions or collisions or guesses of great men
one with another, the narratives of scientific processes, of hopes,
disappointments, conflicts, and successes, the splendid eulogistic
orations; these and the like constituents of the annual celebration, are
considered to do something real and substantial for the advance of
knowledge which can be done in no other way. Of course they can but be
occasional; they answer to the annual Act, or Commencement, or
Commemoration of a University, not to its ordinary condition; but they
are of a University nature; and I can well believe in their utility."
Ray