[Textbook-l] Wikiversity

Tue Jun 20 16:03:44 UTC 2006

Jon wrote:

>A number of comments:
> 
>1. If the aim is to provide multimedia learning materials for all age
>groups, not just university-level, then Wikiversity is a very bad name.
>Go for another one - Wikilearning, Wikicollege, Wikischool, something
>else. Just something which does not automatically imply that it is just
>for university-level learning. Otherwise, you will put off a lot of your
>target audience just with the name. Seriously. Give a dog a bad name...
>well, you know the rest.
>

I know that you have another intention with the name Wikiversity, and 
this isn't quite the idea you had in mind for that term.  Still, the 
Wikiversity concept as outlined is something that has played out for 
some time on Wikibooks, and means a great many things to many people.  I 
could go into root words for university as well to demonstrate that 
being a university does not necessarily have to be adult learning alone, 
nor does it have to stick with traditional topics that are usually 
associated with college environments.

>2. Do bear in mind that Wikibooks does use multimedia already - 
>at least in terms of audio files - and will wish to continue to do so. Some
>textbooks already have exercises and Q&As. If these can be made
>more dynamic on Wikibooks in the future, then I'm sure they will. Audio
>textbooks also, to my mind, fall within Wikibooks' domain. It's not
>clear to me whether the Wikiversity proposal seeks to dilute effort
>on these elements of textbooks, or not.
>
Honestly it looks like this proposal is going to focus Wikibooks more 
into the textbook-only project that you have been advocating lately, not 
less.  I would have to agree, however, that there does need to be some 
sort of distinction for book-like content that would appear on Wikibooks 
and what other kinds of content would be more exclusive to Wikiversity.

>3. The aims Cormac lists for Wikiversity do not appear to agree with
>Michael Irwin's aims for Wikiversity. If the scope is not clear amongst
>the potential initial participants, it sure won't be clear amongst potential
>students.
>
Just read the proposal.  Mr. Irwin has been given plenty of input in the 
process as well, and I anticipate that he will be adding much more to 
the proposal with this public comment period.  I would even dare say 
that I have yet to find even two people that agree 100% on what 
Wikiversity really ought to be, although there have been some common themes.

> 
>4. Wikiversity seems very ambitious (more ambitious than Wikibooks, and
>Wikibooks, to date, has not yet delivered as much as we would wish). It's
>fair to ask - however noble the ideas- why you think they will work.
> 
>Kind regards
> 
>Jon
>  
>
I could say the same thing about a great many things, including Linux, 
and even Wikipedia.  This is trying to suggest that a project that is 
just starting out is doomed to failure simply because it isn't already a 
complete idea with finished results.  Clearly Wikiversity is going to be 
an experiment with a wide range of activities, and it will be 
interesting to see what will happen.

One thing that I think admins/moderators on Wikiversity is going to have 
to deal with are issues related to explosive growth of its user base.  I 
would anticipate even more active editor/contributors on Wikiversity 
than currently exist on Wikibooks right now in less than six months, and 
perhaps even more if for only the reason that Wikiversity is going to 
get hammered with publicity when it is "turned on".  There are a number 
of Wikimedia users that are interested in the concept, and have been 
cooled off by trying to contribute to the Wikibooks demonstration 
project in part because they see that it might be deleted and their 
efforts wasted.  By being an independent project, many of these 
contributors are going to flock to Wikiversity... especially in the 
initial policy debating period as well when they have to sit down and 
figure out what the standards should be with some actual content to 
reflect against.  In this regard, I think Wikiversity will be much more 
successful than Wikibooks, not less so.

-- 
Robert Scott Horning