[Textbook-l] Wikiversity and Wikibooks: can we answer the perennial question?

[Cormac Lawler]

Hi,

I want to raise an important (and very frequently-asked) question: How
do Wikiversity and Wikibooks relate to eachother (and within this: do
they overlap unnecessarily, and how might they be aligned most
productively)? I'm asking this as an *international* question (ie as
it relates to present and future projects), although perhaps, in
asking this, we could ask: in what ways might different language
communities deal differently with these definitions and distinctions?
(And yes, I also realise this is several questions, and that there are
a few more to come. :-))

The context of this is that there are some Wikibooks communities that
seem to want to hold off on creating a new Wikiversity, as well as
there being some people who want to clarify the distinction between
the projects before setting up new ones. On the former, in some cases
(or at least, in the Dutch, from what I gather), this has had the
practical outcome that these communities have extended the scope of
the Wikibooks project from what other Wikibooks projects are doing -
in hosting lesson plans and pedagogic guidance for using these
textbooks in class. (This latter seems to be more suited to
Wikiversity in my mind at least - is this also the same for you,
and/or is it a problem?) But the larger question is: can different
languages define differently what Wikiversity and Wikibooks do, or can
a Wikiversity be effectively subsumed in Wikibooks (or even the other
way around)? Put another way: what does Wikiversity do (or intend to
do) that Wikibooks can never do, as presently defined?

So, the 'international' dimension here comes down to whether it is
possible - or useful - to define how Wikiversity and Wikibooks would
relate _in_all_languages. If it is possible and/or useful, then it
might be timely to actively construct such a map of how the two
projects relate (eg how much overlap is ok, what the scope of each is,
and how they can share resources etc), and set out a framework for how
different languages can be set up, defined and organised around
various activities.

I'd really welcome any comments on anything here that sparks your
imagination, or that speaks to your experience.

Thanks,

Cormac
[[:v:en:User:Cormaggio]]