[Oer-community] Introduction to the discussion
Theo Lynn
theodore.g.lynn at gmail.com
Thu Oct 7 15:27:50 MDT 2010
Maybe that is the challenge we need to focus on? How do we use rating systems to signal provenance, quality etc and allow for reversioning? The answer is probably to be found in metadata. Someone like SSRN probably has addressed this with their working papers - the answer probably lies in repository rules
_____________
Dr. Theo Lynn
Director, DCU LINK Research Centre
Dublin City University
t: +35317006873
e: theo.Lynn at dcu.ie
On 7 Oct 2010, at 22:22, Kimberly Wescott <kjw0622 at aol.com> wrote:
>
> As usual, it is the common ground between yes and no where we find solutions. I like the idea of user-rating. However, if, as you suggest (and I'm sure you're right) material is reversioned over an over, how might we keep that rating current? Can we?
>
> Kimberly
> Houston, Texas
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Theo Lynn <theo.lynn at dcu.ie>
> To: timothywayne.cook at gmail.com
> Cc: oer-community at athabascau.ca
> Sent: Thu, Oct 7, 2010 2:17 pm
> Subject: Re: [Oer-community] Introduction to the discussion
>
> For what its worth, I agree that there is no point in reinventing the
> wheel if an acceptable solution i.e. Creative Commons exists.
>
> I think peer review also has difficulties as if the content is truly
> open, it may be adapted and reversioned over and over again - peer
> review may cause all kinds of unanticipated outcomes and may act as a
> barrier for people to contribute. A more appropriate response may be
> an agreed technology-managed user rating system similar to tripadvisor
> etc. Over time cream may rise to the top, but rating systems do help...
>
>
>
> ________________
> Dr. Theo Lynn
> Director, Industry Engagement, DCU Business School
> Director, DCU Leadership, Innovation and Knowledge Research Centre
>
> Address: DCU Business School, Dublin City University, Glasnevin,
> Dublin 9,
> Ireland
> Telephone: +353-1-7006873
> Mobile: +353-87-2261723
> E-mail: theo.lynn at dcu.ie
> Skype: theoatomic
> Twitter: @theolynn | @dculink | @defictionalised
> Blog: http://theolynn.wordpress.com
> Website: www.link.dcu.ie
>
>
>
>
>
>
> On 7 Oct 2010, at 00:10, Tim Cook wrote:
>
> > On Mon, 2010-10-04 at 07:20 -0400, Susan D'Antoni wrote:
> >> Dear Colleagues,
> >>
> >> Welcome to the first interaction in our OER Community from Athabasca
> >> University.
> >
> > Hi All,
> >
> > I am new to this group but not to open content / open source.
> >
> > I have been watching the email traffic the past few days and it is
> > very
> > interesting. I hope I can contribute some of my experience that may
> > help with the issues being raised. Since there are so many good
> > ideas in
> > this thread. I have decided to just comment in general and to not
> > reply
> > directly to any individual email.
> >
> > My comments are from and information systems point of view. So they
> > are
> > not directly inline with "teaching" but I see many similarities as far
> > as open content is concerned.
> >
> > Sustainability:
> > This is a crucial issue. If the program is not sustainable then there
> > is no point; correct?
> >
> > One writer has contributed links to and requested more information
> > about
> > case studies on the value of openness. The world of software has a
> > plethora of examples. Probably the most recognizable is the operating
> > system, Linux. However, there is an enormous number of applications
> > that
> > exist for the common good, that are created by a global community in
> > self organizing groups. I will write up a short white paper on
> > this if
> > you wish.
> >
> > Away from software and closer to the goals of OER; is Wikipedia. I am
> > not recommending the exact model of Wikipedia as one for OER. But
> > collaboration in a controlled environment reduces costs on individuals
> > and organizations by spreading that cost around. Again, there are many
> > examples of self organizing groups with moderate control that come
> > together to create and share valuable content.
> >
> > Licensing:
> > Protecting and promoting original authors of all content should be of
> > the utmost importance. The most extreme way is to not share it at
> > all.
> > This is not very helpful in a promotional sense nor in a value sense.
> >
> > The next best way is to use a license structure that is
> > internationally
> > recognized and offers re-use as well as original author protections.
> > The various Creative Commons licenses are designed for this purpose.
> > Specifically, an author can elect to share content with everyone.
> > Permitting re-use, additions, etc. as well as maybe preventing
> > commercial gain by others and requiring additions to be submitted back
> > for inclusion in newer editions. Since these licenses are well
> > established it should not be difficult to get approval through legal
> > departments where some academics may be required as part of their
> > contracts.
> >
> > Interoperability/shareability:
> > Common standards or specifications should be used where available in
> > order to promote ease of use. For example; when creating content the
> > Scholarly Works Application Profile
> > http://www.ukoln.ac.uk/repositories/digirep/index/SWAP provides for
> > consistent meta-data formats in order to increase discover-ability. In
> > turn, SWAP is based on the commonly used Dublin Core Meta-data
> > Initiative.
> >
> > In cases of meta-data exchanges there is the Statistical Data Meta-
> > data
> > eXchange specification (SDMX) http://www.sdmx.org There are a
> > number of
> > subsets being developed specifically for aggregating purposes. My
> > research group is working with the World Health Organization on the
> > SDMX
> > Health Domain (SDMX-HD) http://sdmx-hd.org/ implementation.
> >
> > Well, I started this email this morning and just now returned to
> > find 26
> > new emails. That is great activity even if many were about properly
> > using mailing lists. Email is easy, lightweight, easy to sort and view
> > in different ways and used everywhere. If your inbox is overflowing
> > you
> > should learn how to use mail filtering on your client. If you want to
> > unsubscribe read the footer. It is there for a reason. Just my 2
> > cents :)
> >
> > Now back to the issues before us. While following these
> > specifications
> > may seem to be a lot of extra work. The reality is that if we ever
> > plan
> > to get beyond a flat WWW, we have to do the work. The work that this
> > group is proposing will yield artifacts that will likely last for
> > centuries. While we do not have a real crystal ball to see the future.
> > We do know the errors of our recent past. Meta-data is one answer.
> > More are coming. It appears to me that there has been a hardworking
> > core
> > group at this for quite some time. The time is likely ripe for
> > expansion for a number of reasons; technological and social. Do the
> > best we can from the start and it is easier to establish norms than
> > after several hundred or thousands are participating.
> >
> > Stephen Carson pointed out and identified visions for OER in his email
> > dated 10/06/2010 09:37:16 AM
> >
> > Those different visions are actually fully compatible. Again we can
> > look at how software is being developed globally by an adhoc group.
> > The
> > first issue is trust. The software groups have various methods in
> > place
> > in order to judge the trust level of an individual. They generally
> > consist of a history of contributions via mailing lists that allow the
> > community to judge the persons subject knowledge and their desire to
> > participate. Versioning software is used to house the artifacts.
> > This
> > software provides a means to allow those with permission to update
> > certain files. Non-repudiation is maintained by virtue of a public key
> > pair where only the author knows the passphrase. Even at this level
> > you
> > could have a person become malicious. In that event it is easy enough
> > to roll back the changes to a known point. The most popular open
> > source
> > version control systems are BZR, GIT and SVN. BZR and GIT are
> > probably
> > most appropriate in this context.
> >
> > This comes down to the matter once again of specifications. IMHO,
> > each
> > primary author becomes a defacto project manager for their document.
> > They of course can choose which format they wish to use. However I
> > would recommend something that is an ISO standard. This could be the
> > OpenOffice Document format (ISO Standard) which is open source and
> > cross
> > platform software and is very similar to MS Office from a user
> > perspective. But for better long term flexibility using LaTex format
> > may be best. The LyX editor is also open source and cross
> > platform. It
> > does take a bit of getting used to but it takes the stance that once
> > you
> > have a template. The content creators only need to select the type of
> > content they are entering; e.g. header, chapter title, regular text...
> > They never have to worry about any formatting. If you have ever
> > exchanged MS Word documents between a large group you have experienced
> > the constant reformatting issues as well as not everyone having the
> > same
> > fonts, etc.
> >
> > I'll close with something I have already seen on this list. Remember
> > that the goal is to be as inclusive as possible. This sometimes means
> > that you or I need to step slightly out of our comfort zone. But we
> > will usually learn something in the process; and that is always a good
> > thing.
> >
> > Cheers,
> > Tim
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> > --
> > ***************************************************************
> > Timothy Cook, MSc
> > Project Lead - Multi-Level Healthcare Information Modeling
> > http://www.mlhim.org
> >
> > LinkedIn Profile:http://www.linkedin.com/in/timothywaynecook
> > Skype ID == timothy.cook
> > Academic.Edu Profile: http://uff.academia.edu/TimothyCook
> >
> > You may get my Public GPG key from popular keyservers or
> > from this link http://timothywayne.cook.googlepages.com/home
> >
> >
> > _______________________________________________
> > Oer-community mailing list
> > Oer-community at athabascau.ca
> > https://deimos.cs.athabascau.ca/mailman/listinfo/oer-community
>
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