Dear Wayne As a newcomer to the list, I am very pleased to hear that WE is making amazing progress and maturing.
I work for an organisation that spends most of its time and resources putting up huge HIV AIDS conferences. Our vision is to widen access and participation and 'improve knowledge and skills' of health care professionals and create healthy communities. How can I work with WE to demonstrate the added-value of moving to OER and 'learning as ecology' around communities of practice, rather than discrete knowledge inputs via traditional conferences and workshops? There are political, organizational and IT capacity challenges, but there are potential benefits of collaborating which could be communicated... I'd like to hear your thoughts on how I can bring WE/OERs into the health, medical education and conferencing industries. - gurmit On May 11, 4:32 am, Wayne Mackintosh <mackintosh.wa...@gmail.com> wrote: > Hi everyone, > > At last -- a long overdue update. > > Moving country with my family, starting a new job and setting up the OER > Foundation (a new independent non-profit entity) have kept me away from > active posting on our community list. Dealing with the withdrawal symptoms > of active participation on our list hasn't been easy ;-). I've also been > pretty busy working on our first funding proposal to the William and Flora > Hewlett Foundation under a general operating support bid. > > The good news is that I will now be working full time in open education > supporting WikiEducator in achieving its strategic objectives. > > Apology for the long post -- but lots of news to update the WE family. > > *Exciting futures for WikiEducator* > > The growth of WikiEducator has far outstripped reasonable expectations and > our strategic plans for the initiative. Our success is driven by a large and > growing number of educators around the world who spend hours volunteering > time in support of the core value of education -- namely to share knowledge > freely. This commitment has enabled WE to claim the accolade of spearheading > the world's largest wiki training project in education under > Learning4Content, not to mention hundreds of exemplary projects hosted on > the WE site*! > > *As a result, WE have outgrown our founding home at the Commonwealth of > Learning (COL) and will now be moving forward as an independent initiative. > This is a significant milestone and confirmation of our collective work. > > *Applauding COL's support for WikiEducator* > > On behalf of our community -- I would like to express our public thanks to > the Commonwealth of Learning for the foresight and commitment from an > international agency in supporting a bold and progressive project. > Notwithstanding the international success of WE, COL has remained true to > its commitment to ensure a community governance model for the project. There > are few organisations in the world who measure performance by the successful > projects they allow to leave the nest and mature in their own right! This > attests to COL's commitment to learning for development. > > Moreover, COL has confirmed a financial contribution to the OER Foundation > to support WikiEducator's technical infrastructure (hardware and software) > for the next three years. Our collective success would not have been > possible without COL's ongoing support. * > > My new role* *-- standing on the shoulders' of OER pioneers > * > As of 1 May 2009, I have taken up a new role as founding Director of the > International Centre for Open Education based at Otago Polytechnic in New > Zealand which we > announced<http://www.wikieducator.org/WikiEducator:OER_Foundation/About/Communi...>back > in September 2008 at the Open Education Conference in Utah. > > Otago Polytechnic is a global leader in the OER movement as evidenced by an > OER > friendly intellectual property > policy<http://www.wikieducator.org/Otago_Polytechnic:_An_IP_policy_for_the_t...>. > The pioneering work of our WE Community Council Members, Leigh Blackhall and > Bronwyn Hegarty, with support from Terry Marler at the Education > Development Centre has been instrumental in establishing Otago > Polytechnic's<http://www.wikieducator.org/Otago_Polytechnic:WikiEducator_helps_adva...>leadership > in open education and supporting a large number of early adopters > among teaching staff at our institution. > > While the major focus of my new role will be external, that is, building > sustainable OER futures for WikiEducator -- I look forward to learning from > the wealth of experience from our open education mentors based here at the > Polytechnic. > > *The OER Foundation* > > The OER Foundation Limited is a new non-profit entity established to support > WikiEducator and open education. The OER Foundation is registered as a > non-profit company and will be the legal entity for raising and > administering funds to support our projects. The vision of the OER > Foundation is to foster the development of a sustainable open education > ecosystem --- after all, OER is a sustainable and renewable resource. > > The activities of the OER Foundation are restricted to charitable education > purposes and the Foundation will be subscribing to the practices of "open > philanthropy<http://commonspace.typepad.com/commonspace/2007/09/what-is-open-ph.html>" > . > > In practical terms, this means that our planning documentation, funding > proposals etc will be developed openly and transparently. In this regard, > I've set up a page node for the OER Foundation on WE. You're not going to > find much content there yet -- that's the point -- we'll be developing this > as we go along. Over the next few day's, I'll start populating these pages > so you can watch as we go along and if you have the time --- I'd welcome > your help and support in moving this process forward. > > Bookmark the OER_Foundation planning page or add this to your watch lists if > you want to keep up to speed with what's happening: > > http://www.wikieducator.org/WikiEducator:OER_Foundation > > *Summary > * > > - Wayne Mackintosh (Founder of WikiEducator) joins the International > Centre for Open Education at Otago Polytechnic. > - OER Foundation Limited, a new non-profit has been registered to support > the achievement of WikiEducator's objectives. > - COL confirms it's financial contribution to support WE's technical > infrastructure. > - The OER Foundation has prepared and submitted a grant proposal for > funding to the Hewlett Foundation (See:http://tinyurl.com/dekzu2) > > Again -- apology for the relative silence on the list these past months. As > you'll appreciate, I've have had a lot on my plate but its great to be back > again in full force! If there are any questions or suggestions -- please > feel free to post these to the list, and we'll do our best to answer them. > > Chat to you soon. > Wayne > > Wayne Mackintosh, Ph.D. > Director, > International Centre for Open Education, > Otago Polytechnic, New Zealand. > Founder and Community Council Member, Wikieducator,www.wikieducator.org --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "WikiEducator" group. To visit wikieducator: http://www.wikieducator.org To visit the discussion forum: http://groups.google.com/group/wikieducator To post to this group, send email to wikieducator@googlegroups.com To unsubscribe from this group, send email to wikieducator-unsubscr...@googlegroups.com -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
