[Open-education] Wikimania 2014: Wikipedia belongs in Education

Tue Aug 19 12:28:31 UTC 2014

Thanks Leutha/Fabian,

In a 'Wikipedia serendipitous type way' I was reading up on the history 
of Wikipedia post-Wikimania and was actually musing on why it had 
succeeded - so this ties in nicely.

For those who don't have time to read the paper the following reasons 
are explored:

  * Reason 1: Wikipedia attracted contributors because it was built
    around a familiar product.
  * Reason 2: Wikipedia attracted contributors because it offered low
    barriers to contribution.
  * Reason 3: Wikipedia attracted contributors because it offered low
    attribution and low social ownership of content
  * Alternate reason 1: Wikipedia succeeded because it was
    technologically superior to alternatives.
  * Alternate reason 2: Wikipedia succeeded where other projects fell
    short because Wikipedia's timing was correct and that other projects
    were simply ahead of their time.

These reasons specifically relate to an online encyclopedia but there 
are lessons to be learnt for online communities, in particular our open 
education community.

Personally I think to some extent Wikipedia works because of it's 
clarity - once started the benefits became so obvious to all. This 
clarity isn't a factor of all open education practices and often it is 
difficult to see the benefits or impact of activities.

There is still much work to be done understanding and articulating why 
open education makes sense (economically, socially, culturally, 
pedagogically,....).

Marieke

On 13/08/2014 13:53, leutha at fabiant.eu wrote:
> Hi all,
> One of the Wikimania  sessions I really enjoyed Informed but 
> unempowered 
> <http://wikimania2014.wikimedia.org/wiki/Submissions/Informed_but_unempowered> 
> was given by Mako Hill.
> Check his academic page <http://mako.cc/academic/> to download a pdf 
> of his /Almost Wikipedia: What eight early online collaborative 
> encyclopedia projects reveal about the mechanisms of collective action/.
> He uses Resource Mobilization Theory in the context of an environment 
> where "many peer production projects leave behind "digital traces" in 
> the form of publicly available archival data. These data are of scope 
> and scale that was unavailable to previous scholars of mobilization. 
> This more complete record *allows researchers to explore nascent 
> attempts at movements that did not succeed in attracting any 
> additional participants or that attracted participants but did not 
> accomplish their initial goals*."
> This looks like an interesting approach to the problem outlined below, 
> and the more we are able to produce comparable data sets about 
> projects the easier it will be to develop more effective models of 
> resource mobilisation.
> all the best
> Leutha
>> On 12 August 2014 at 14:54 Rebecca Kahn <bekka.kahn at gmail.com> wrote:
>>
>> Thanks so much, Lorna - that's a really useful post, and articulates 
>> so much of what we've been discussing internally at P2PU and elsewhere.
>> And thanks to Marieke, as always, for the thoughtful, useful summaries.
>> Yay for the librarians!
>>
>>
>> On 12 August 2014 14:39, Lorna M Campbell 
>> <lorna.m.campbell at icloud.com <mailto:lorna.m.campbell at icloud.com>> 
>> wrote:
>>
>>     Hi Marieke,
>>     No, no, not tangential at all!  I think these are fundamental
>>     issues that need to be addressed by the "open community", if such
>>     a thing can be said to exist.  Unfortunately it's not an issue
>>     that I have any answers for, in fact it's something I've been
>>     grappling with myself over the last year.  The more we have to
>>     focus on bringing in project funding to pay the bills, the less
>>     time we often have to devote to open education practice. That
>>     certainly doesn't mean that I am any less committed to open
>>     education, far from it, but it does make it harder to engage with
>>     open education initiatives.
>>     My former Cetis colleague Sheila MacNeill recently wrote an
>>     intersting blog post exploring some of these issues and asking
>>     whether open education is a "luxury item or everyday essential"
>>     http://howsheilaseesit.wordpress.com/2014/06/06/open-education-practice-luxury-item-or-everyday-essential-openscot/
>>
>>     Cheers
>>     Lorna
>>
>>     On 12 Aug 2014, at 13:27, Marieke Guy wrote:
>>
>>>     Hi Lorna,
>>>
>>>     Thanks for reading!
>>>
>>>     The argument Luis Villa from the Wikimedia Foundation Counsel
>>>     was making was that despite lawyers and economists telling us to
>>>     be weary people still want to share. It is almost an internal
>>>     need - reciprocity. Or 'give and take'.
>>>
>>>     I think this is an incredibly important point. At the heart of
>>>     Open Movements there is fundamental belief that openness and
>>>     sharing are good things. I'm sure most of us on this list will
>>>     share this belief. And for many education sits at the core of
>>>     openness and sharing. Education (possibly not traditional
>>>     education systems but new open education systems) will get us
>>>     out of the mess that selfishness and closed attitudes have got
>>>     us in to. As Nelson Mandela said "Education is the most powerful
>>>     weapon which you can use to change the world."
>>>
>>>     However for many of us there is a problem here. We still need to
>>>     pay the bills...openness needs funding. And when there is money
>>>     available sometimes this leads to competition between
>>>     organisations (which is why I was pleased to be involved in the
>>>     Open Coallition workshop). And when there isn't money available
>>>     it means many people who believe in open have to pay their bills
>>>     in another way.
>>>
>>>     So what is the answer?
>>>
>>>     I'm not sure, maybe a significant rethinking of our economy.
>>>     Wikipedia have made it work and it's not a easy task. However I
>>>     do believe that an open movement - a body of people who believe
>>>     that sharing is a good thing, and equity and equality are good
>>>     things - this is a step in the right direction.
>>>
>>>     Hope I haven't gone off in a complete tangent here...!
>>>
>>>     Marieke
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>     On 12/08/2014 12:04, Lorna M Campbell wrote:
>>>>     Hi Marieke,
>>>>     Thanks for sharing this really great write up of Wikimania.  I
>>>>     was really disappointed not to be able to get there myself, so
>>>>     this is the next best thing!
>>>>     It sounds like education is very firmly at the heart of
>>>>     Wikimedia's mission, which I certainly see as a good thing.
>>>>     I'm also really interested to see the issue of reciprocity
>>>>     being discussed in relation to "free" and "open".  This comes
>>>>     up from time to time, but I think it warrants  greater
>>>>     exploration, particularly at a time when it's increasingly
>>>>     difficult for some colleagues to engage with voluntary and
>>>>     un-funded open education initiatives.
>>>>     Cheers
>>>>     Lorna
>>>>
>>>>     On 12 Aug 2014, at 11:13, Marieke Guy wrote:
>>>>
>>>>>     Hi Everyone,
>>>>>
>>>>>     We had a great time at Wikimania last week. It was lovely to
>>>>>     meet so many of you at our community stand and hopefully get
>>>>>     some new recruits for the working group too! There were lots
>>>>>     of great sessions on education and open learning and teaching
>>>>>     practice. We've written two posts about the event:
>>>>>
>>>>>       * Wikimania 2014: Wikipedia belongs in Education
>>>>>         <http://education.okfn.org/wikimania-2014-wikipedia-belongs-in-education/>
>>>>>       * Wikimania 2014: Wikidata all the way
>>>>>
>>>>>     If you attended how about sharing your thoughts and take homes!
>>>>>
>>>>>     Marieke
>>>>>
>>>>>     -- 
>>>>>
>>>>>     Marieke Guy
>>>>>     LinkedUp <http://linkedup-project.eu/> Project Community
>>>>>     Coordinator | skype: mariekeguy | tel: 44 (0) 1285 885681
>>>>>     <tel:44%20%280%29%201285%20885681> | @mariekeguy
>>>>>     <http://twitter.com/mariekeguy>
>>>>>     Open Knowledge <http://okfn.org/>
>>>>>     /Empowering through Open Knowledge/
>>>>>     http://okfn.org/ | @okfn <http://twitter.com/okfn>| OKF on
>>>>>     Facebook | Blog | Newsletter
>>>>>     http://remoteworker.wordpress.com
>>>>>     <http://remoteworker.wordpress.com/>
>>>>>
>>>>>     _______________________________________________
>>>>>     open-education mailing list
>>>>>     open-education at lists.okfn.org
>>>>>     <mailto:open-education at lists.okfn.org>
>>>>>     https://lists.okfn.org/mailman/listinfo/open-education 
>>>>
>>>>     -- Lorna M Campbell --
>>>>     Assistant Director, Cetis
>>>>     Web: www.cetis.ac.uk <http://www.cetis.ac.uk/>
>>>>     Blog: lornamcampbell.wordpress.com
>>>>     <http://lornamcampbell.wordpress.com/>
>>>>     Mail: lorna.m.campbell at icloud.com
>>>>     <mailto:lorna.m.campbell at icloud.com>
>>>>     Twitter: LornaMCampbell
>>>>     Skype: lorna120768
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>     _______________________________________________
>>>>     open-education mailing list
>>>>     open-education at lists.okfn.org  <mailto:open-education at lists.okfn.org>
>>>>     https://lists.okfn.org/mailman/listinfo/open-education
>>>
>>>
>>>     -- 
>>>
>>>     Marieke Guy
>>>     LinkedUp <http://linkedup-project.eu/> Project Community
>>>     Coordinator | skype: mariekeguy | tel: 44 (0) 1285 885681 |
>>>     @mariekeguy <http://twitter.com/mariekeguy>
>>>     Open Knowledge <http://okfn.org/>
>>>     /Empowering through Open Knowledge/
>>>     http://okfn.org/ | @okfn <http://twitter.com/okfn>| OKF on
>>>     Facebook | Blog | Newsletter
>>>     http://remoteworker.wordpress.com
>>>     <http://remoteworker.wordpress.com/>
>>>
>>>     _______________________________________________
>>>     open-education mailing list
>>>     open-education at lists.okfn.org
>>>     <mailto:open-education at lists.okfn.org>
>>>     https://lists.okfn.org/mailman/listinfo/open-education 
>>
>>     -- Lorna M Campbell --
>>     Assistant Director, Cetis
>>     Web: www.cetis.ac.uk <http://www.cetis.ac.uk>
>>     Blog: lornamcampbell.wordpress.com
>>     <http://lornamcampbell.wordpress.com>
>>     Mail: lorna.m.campbell at icloud.com
>>     <mailto:lorna.m.campbell at icloud.com>
>>     Twitter: LornaMCampbell
>>     Skype: lorna120768
>>
>>
>>     _______________________________________________
>>     open-education mailing list
>>     open-education at lists.okfn.org <mailto:open-education at lists.okfn.org>
>>     https://lists.okfn.org/mailman/listinfo/open-education
>>
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-- 

Marieke Guy
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<http://twitter.com/mariekeguy>
Open Knowledge <http://okfn.org/>
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