Thanks Wayne, and like I said, good decisions, but I am struggling to understand why the request to fix the RSS extension (simply update it to see if it will fix it) has not been done. The video extension looks great! I am excited by it, just as much as the PDF and ODF exports... but meanwhile the RSS is broke and it is a fundamental technology. This is what is frustrating me. My second guessing has less to do with the decisions and more to do with the support.
On Jan 12, 2008 4:45 AM, mackiwg <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > Leigh Blackall wrote: > > > Many of the features Wayne and you have introduced are pretty good > though, but it > > is a concern that they are introduced without any evident consultation > > with the "community" while the "community" requests seem to go by > > without even a trial! > > For the record -- the technology road map where Liquid Threads was > introduced to the community was uploaded on WE on 19 February 2007 -- > (see > http://www.wikieducator.org/index.php?title=WikiEducator_roadmap&oldid=20169 > ). > > It's great to have a technology that records every edit and is open > for anyone to contribute. > > There were no objections noted on the relevant talk pages. > > I ran an online workshop using Moodle and the Newbie Tutorials in > March 2007 with 78 participants around the world. Newbies were > confused by using an external Moodle forum for discussions while the > tutorials were on WE. I recieved numerous complaints from this group > of WikiEducators. We took the decision to resource and develop LQT. I > don't have the exact dates with me -- development commenced in May > 2007. > > There was a window period of at least 3 months for WikiEducators to > communicate that they did not want discussion functionality improved. > Yes - I take full responsibility for the decision to go ahead with > the development of LQT on WE -- which we have released back to the MW > community. > > Thinking about Kaltura ... > > Leigh -- you have unashamedly been the most vocal advocate in the WE > community concerning the need to incorporate 3rd party rich media. I > share your enthusiasm for the pedagogical potential of rich media in > education. In the same breath I have been conservative in simply going > ahead with the incorporation of extensions due to concerns associated > with proprietary software and the risks of excluding the developing > world. Kaltura seemed like a good compromise -- while extensively > based on Flash technology -- the code is being released as open > source. I'm very uncomfortable with this reliance on Flash and > proprietary media formats because this will make it very difficult to > collaborate with other free content projects. > > Leigh you are right -- there was not extensive discussion with the > community whether we should or shouldn't test the extension. I made a > value judgment that it would be in the interests of the community to > test the technology before taking decisions on whether to incorporate > this or not. However -- we did not in any way imply that this was a > community decision -- in Erik's notification he wrote "Per discussion > with Wayne I've turned on the Kaltura extension" and on the > instructions page there was a very clear statement that this was > merely a test. Again - I take full responsibility for this decision. > > WE is a community project funded by an international development > agency. (Note -- we are not a technology company <smile>.) We believe > firmly in the merits of the WE project in widening access to education > by developing a free curriculum. However, we are taking one step at a > time. Relatively speaking we are still a very small community by > comparison to the WMF projects -- consequently the costs of hosting > more than one server have not been warranted. The downside is that we > do run a risk of downtime. > > As the sole funder of WE -- COL has done it's best to ensure and > promote a participatory community governance model. Early in 2007 I > nominated an international advisory board for the project with a clear > statement that when we reach 2500 users we will democratically elect a > WE council for the project. You will be aware of these discussions. As > COL funds this project -- I have a fiduciary responsibility to act and > yes -- take decisions in what I believe to be in the best interests of > the initiative. I'm sure that I've made mistakes and don't get things > right all of the time. But hey -- there are elections coming up and > the community can vote whoever they want onto the Council to lead the > project. > > A successful project is one which can sustain itself -- if after a few > years they project cannot run on its own -- it's been a failure. So > our hosting discussions are an excellent test for the robustness and > commitment of the community to our collective project. I'm > particularly pleased that the contributions to the list so far are > opting for a strong community driven model as opposed to a commercial > hosting solution -- that's a good sign for ongoing success. > > Leigh wrote: > > >>I too hope this community (or I) do not begin second guessing WE, as a > hell of a lot has been invested in it this end. > > I hope that you will not need to second guess WE -- OtagoPoly are > establishing a leadership position within NZ in the free knowledge > movement. That said, I do not want you to feel that your work is at > risk. Therefore, I will arrange for a database dump of all WE content > so that OtagoPoly can access a copy of all your work to date should > you wish to migrate to another hosting solution. > > Paradoxically -- last night Google groups were having major issues. So > if a big corporate like Google can have access issues with their > servers -- I guess its OK for a small operation like COL to have a few > growing pains with its free content project <smile>. > > > Cheers > Wayne > > > > > > > > > -- -- Leigh Blackall +64(0)21736539 skype - leigh_blackall SL - Leroy Goalpost http://learnonline.wordpress.com --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "WikiEducator" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected] To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/wikieducator?hl=en -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
