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@telus.net Date: Aug 21, 2006 11:12 PM Subject: Re: Ray: a clarification To: Cormac Lawler cormaggio@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