[Foundation-l] Vote to create Wikiversity Vote

[Cormac Lawler]

On 11/7/05, Anthony DiPierro <wikilegal at inbox.org> wrote:
>
>
> For my part I think Wikiversity is a great idea, but I don't see where it
> benefits from being part of Wikimedia. Wikimedia is primarily a media
> company, and a university and a media company are only loosely tied with one
> another. Yes, books need to be used by a university, but a) most
> universities don't make all their own books, and b) Wikibooks can handle
> that part of the project without being part of the university (but merely
> working hand-in-hand with the university).
>
> If there is enough support for this project to be at all successful it would
> be no problem to start it up as its own organization separate from the
> Wikimedia Foundation. That doesn't mean it would compete with the WMF, in
> fact the two would likely co-exist quite amicably.
>
> The only way I really think it'd be reasonable to expect Wikiversity to work
> as a Wikimedia project would be if this came from the top down, as a board
> mandate. Even then, for Wikiversity and Wikipedia both to truly be
> successful they would probably have to be run as separate legal and/or
> economic entities. For Wikiversity to be successful it's going to require a
> lot of money. This is not to say donations, it very well could be
> self-sustaining, but I bet a lot of Wikipedians are going to want to know
> that their donations are going to Wikipedia and not to subsidize a
> university. Furthermore, there would probably be legal implications that
> would necessitate forming a separate entity, especially if the university
> ever wants to be accredited (which I think it should).
>
> Maybe I'm just looking too far into the future. Or maybe I'm seeing this as
> a bigger project than it really is. But that's just the way I think. I think
> you've got to set your goals high and plan out the full path too those goals
> early on - not to have everything written in stone but at least to have a
> rough draft of what the future has in store.
>
> Anthony
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There was a discussion about Wikiversity on IRC last night, as part of
the Wikimedia Research Network, details and log of which can be found
here:
http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Research_Network/Meetings/2005-11-06

I think you're raising some interesting points here - I think what's
emerging for me is that some people are quite nervous about
Wikiversity being a Wikimedia project - if it aspires to be an
e-learning resource. I don't personally see the problem, as long as we
start small, stay realistic and grow from there, but it is clear that
more thinking (and probably research) needs to be done. This should be
collated on Meta, probably on a new page like
http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Moving_Wikiversity_forward - please
feel free to add any ideas to related pages. I think at this stage we
need practical proposals, but also practical questions.

Thanks,
Cormac