Hi Steve. 2009/11/8 Steve Foerster <[email protected]>
> > Wayne wrote: > > << Agree we need to be very careful with mass-email which can arguably > and justifiably be labelled as WE spam. I would suggest implementing > an option for new users to subscribe to a news / letter magazine. We > can consider a once off notification to WE account holders regarding > the option to subscribe to the news letter once this option has been > implemented for new account holders. However -- this would need to be > an affirmative action to subscribe rather than a default that everyone > gets the newsletter unless they opt out. >> > > Good, that's a reasonable approach. > Also, considering that supplying email addresses is optional when registering an account -- I think that this is a responsible approach. > > > << Personally, I'd like to see both -- they serve different audiences > and I don't see one replacing and / or duplicating the other. > WikiEducator has extensive reach in the developing world -- places > where connectivity is difficult, unreliable and expensive. The > newsletter / WE magazine is an innovative way to "connect" the > "disconnected" and keep those who want to stay abreast of what is > happening online. Notifying teachers around the world of exemplary > resources that may be of use. Profiling and sharing experiences of the > efforts in setting up national OER collaborations (eg Uganda, > Bangladesh, India etc.) --- These experiences are invaluable for > other countries trying to bootstrap OER. We could have a low- > resolution version to simplify local reproduction and keep costs to a > minimum. Certainly, within the formal education sector -- there are > still large numbers of educators who do not surf the blog sphere --- > lets cast a wide net for open education :-) >> > > Very well, but there's no reason that a blog and a dead-trees > newsletter couldn't have the same content. We could have the official > news blog, and when there have been enough posts to fill however many > pages we want the newsletter to be, we release the same content as > PDF, RTF, ODT, etc. (Our actually printing and posting it sounds > expensive, I assume that's not the intent here?) > > One potential issue with treeware is that some countries use Letter > size and some use A4. (My wife's doing an LLB through a school in the > UK from here in the U.S. where A4 is annoyingly hard to find, so we've > been hit in the head by this one.) > That's a good point -- I've had the privilege of working in both A4 and Letter format countries -- and you're right, it can be a pain. PDF will provide a best fit solution, and using open file formats I'm confident community members will assist wtih the DTP for the different sizes. > > > << Hopefully there will be more people than Wayne, Jim posting -- we > should also include posts from Council members, workgroup leaders, > featured teachers etc. This model would need some sort of editorial > team to oversee alignment with community values etc. >> > > Valerie edited the workgroup charter to have us continue to oversee > whatever blogs come out of this process. That's okay with me, at > least as a starting point. > > That's a useful approach and as we progress, we may be able to develop editorial guidelines to help us with the task. > > << We definitely need an outlet that isn't edited --- we just need a > clear communication / disclaimer that the posts are the opinions of > the individuals writing them. >> > > Very good, so then it seems our workgroup should refine the approach > of having three blogs: > > 1. Terra Incognita if possible, or if not then a sort of "Nova Terra > Incognita". > I like the ring of "Nova Terra Incognita" -- lets see what Ken thinks. > > 2. An official newsletter blog, the contents of which are also > periodically released in paper format. > And also cross-fertilisation of the newsletter / ezine where commissioned or featured pieces can be harvested and reworked for the blog formats. > > 3. An open blog where WikiEducators can easily add posts and there's > light-handed moderation. > > -=Steve=- > > > -- Wayne Mackintosh, Ph.D. Director, International Centre for Open Education, Otago Polytechnic, New Zealand. Board of Directors, OER Foundation. Founder and Community Council Member, Wikieducator, www.wikieducator.org Mobile +64 21 2436 380 Skype: WGMNZ1 Twitter: OERFoundation, Mackiwg --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ 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 [email protected] To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected] -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
