[Foundation-l] Wikiversity=>Wikisophia

[Rebecca]

On 5/10/05, Erik Moeller <erik_moeller at gmx.de> wrote:
> Don't panic: We're still a long way from launching anything. I'm not
> going to push this until we have the server situation under control and
> the existing projects have stabilized a bit. Nevertheless, there's one
> issue that I'd like to resolve now, which is the naming of the project.

I'm panicking. Based on what you've announced below, it sounds like
this hijacking of a project that I and others have been keen on for a
long time has been already decided.

> Angela, Jimbo, Daniel Mayer and I agree that the name Wikiversity is
> problematic in that it ties the project very strongly to the idea of
> traditional universities. This may lead to certain expectations as to
> its structure and the services it will provide (e.g. faculties,
> degrees), but also limit the project in other ways, e.g., by being
> perceived primarily or only as an institution of teritary learning.

I've explained a number of ways this could work in the past. There's
basic models in both English and German. It's an excellent way to
expand what Wikimedia does into a whole new area, and boost Wikibooks
in the process - while also utilising the existing resource in
Wikipedia.

> I'd like us to look at ideas for primary and secondary education as
> well, and I don't want to run into a wall because the established people
> of the Wikiversity community will say "It's an electronic university,
> this doesn't belong here."

It depends what you're talking about. Myself and the others who've
been pursuing this have a fair idea of how a tertiary-level system
could work. If you've got a way to expand it to primary and secondary
education (without simply producing textbooks), I'm all ears.

> Angela suggested the name Wikisophia.org/.com, which is currently owned
> by Peter Danenberg (WikiTeX). I loved the idea immediately: the Greek
> sophia means "wisdom", but also has many other meanings in the area of
> learning. It is specific enough to be useful and vague enough to not
> limit the project very early in its nature or scope.

Excuse my terseness, but this is vile. Wikipedia, Wiktionary,
Wikisource and Wikibooks all make it reasonably clear from the title
what the project is actually about. Where Wikiversity would follow
this trend, "Wikisophia" is about as vague as you can get. It just
screams "place to dump random stuff".

> So, after discussing this in a small circle, I'd like to announce my
> intention to move the relevant pages on Meta and edit the summary to
> reflect the name change. This does not affect the existing efforts under
> the Wikibooks domain which use the "Wikiversity" label, but only any
> potential future eLearning/eTeaching project we intend to pursue.
> de.wikiversity.org could be renamed and moved to the new domain once it
> is owned by Wikimedia.

If you move the pages on meta, or change the summary, I'll move/revert
them back, until you actually consult the community and put this
through a vote. You've absolutely no business unilaterally pulling
this - or doing so without consulting anyone but the board. It also
seems pretty damned rich to suggest that it's not going to affect the
English version (which was never meant to be a part of Wikibooks -
it's still there as a beta of what a seperate project would look
like), while in the next sentence stating that you plan to hijack the
German version for your project.

I thought Wikispecies was a terrible idea, and so far, I think I've
been proved right. In terms of disaster ideas, though, this one well
and truly takes the cake.

-- ambi