[Wikiversity-l] Greek Wikiversity

Fri Dec 7 15:58:42 UTC 2007

Hi all,

I am lucky that Cormac is clearing us what happened in Wikimedia Netherlands
Conference. At first I would like to apologise my poor English.

According the first paragraph GerardM stopped the process of Greek
Wikiversity responding to Cormac´s presentation. Well, I think it was not a
good idea, to form a view to this issue just from someones presentation.
Conferences are here to show peoples ideas, but not to refer about e.g.
projects. What is more amazing to me, that he offers to go deeper this
problem, but after several month (as it was said "next year"). There is also
a question, how they understud "that there is a luck of structure". It would
be nice to explain this, how it was menstion on the site of Cormaggio and
how it is unerstood by others. Here I would like to highlight that fact,
that Wikiversity wouldnt need so much structer as on other projects - as it
was somewhere discussed.

Relationship between Wikibooks and Wikiversity:
Well, here I personaly doesnt feel a problem - I mean we can exist
separetly. I personaly think, there is a problem on the site of Wikibooks to
find their own identity. It would be a nice to get more opinions and ideas
of people from Wikibooks, who like to cover Wikiversity by Wikibooks. I
think that wikibookians they are affraid of loosing something, but I dont
think so, they will lost.

Finally, ir there was set by Cormaggio a problem of the relationship between
these to projects it would be probably nice to make another IRC session with
people from Wikibooks.

Thats all for me, I am looking forward tomorrow, well have a clear chat.

Regards,
Juan

2007/12/7, Cormac Lawler <cormaggio at gmail.com>:
>
> Hi all,
>
> In advance of the IRC meeting on Saturday (UTC) [1], I'm raising the
> issue of the Greek Wikiversity to give some background to the current
> situation [2].
>
> According to [2] (and from personal correspondences), GerardM, a
> member of the language subcommittee [3], "is concerned about a lack of
> structure and maturity in the Wikiversity project" and is therefore
> reluctant to authorise a new Greek Wikiversity. This acknowledgement
> of a lacking of structure is attributed to me, from my recent talk at
> the Wikimedia Nederland conference in Amsterdam. However, I'd first of
> all like to clear up what I said - which was that there are *questions
> that Wikiversity needs to address*, amongst which its ongoing
> relationship with Wikibooks. I explicitly acknowledged that
> Wikiversity was set up as an experiment, and was in the process of
> finding out how best to organise its resources, both internally, and
> with respect to other projects, particularly Wikibooks. I also
> acknowledged that my understanding of Wikiversity is hugely biased
> towards the English Wikiversity, and that there were different ways of
> organising materials and activities on other language Wikiversities.
> And, from the day as a whole, I observed that there is still some
> confusion between Wikiversity and Wikibooks, and that some Wikibooks
> communities (at least the Dutch) are incorporating non-textbook
> pedagogic material in Wikibooks in order to avoid "splitting" the
> existing Wikibooks community.
>
> There's nothing much new in the above - we have always known that
> there is a subtle line between Wikiversity and Wikibooks, as well as
> being multiple perspectives on what either project should include.
> *However*, I would like to point out that these are issues that the
> Wikiversity, Wikibooks, and other communities will be working out as
> we develop - and, as has been made clear in our previous discussions
> on this list, will be negotiated in the context of each language
> community *on its/their own terms*.
>
> Moving onto the current situation with the Greek Wikiversity, this is
> in the hands of the language subcommittee, seemingly being stalled by
> GerardM. However, as I've raised with the language subcommittee, and
> according to [3], the subcommittee is asked to assess the "feasibility
> of new language wikis" - which is *not* the 'feasibility of the
> *project*'. In my correspondence with the language subcommittee,
> GerardM has indicated that it might be problematic to authorise new
> language projects when questions still remain about the project as a
> whole - to which I have responded that this is outside the scope of
> the language subcommittee (also acknowledged by Pathoschild, a member
> of the langcom [4]), and asked GerardM to state clearly how his
> concerns relate to the scope of the subcommittee. I received no reply;
> I asked again two days ago, and am still awaiting response. (I've also
> made clear that my comments can be posted in public [4] - which hasn't
> been done yet.)
>
> So, if the language subcommittee remains stalled on this issue (and
> whether or not GerardM has a veto, I don't know), then it would
> possibly be a matter for the board. (The special projects committee -
> of which I am a member, and which authorised the language subcommittee
> - has not responded to this issue, and is effectively dead in any
> case.) However, I would like the language subcommittee to make at
> least some response to what I've raised, so I would ask for some more
> time before bringing it up with the board (if that is necessary - and
> I hope it won't be). In the meantime, we can use the IRC meeting to
> discuss whether the Wikiversity community at large thinks it is a good
> idea to set up new language projects (one of GerardM's proposals), as
> well as further the discussion about Wikibooks and Wikiversity across
> different languages.
>
> Thanks,
> Cormac
>
> [1]
> http://beta.wikiversity.org/wiki/Wikiversity:IRC_meeting:What_is_Wikiversity%3F
> [2] http://incubator.wikimedia.org/wiki/User:Pathoschild/Status/wv-el
> [3]
> http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Special_projects_subcommittees/Languages
> [4]
> http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Special_projects_subcommittees/Languages/Archives/2007-11
>
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>
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