Hi Simon, The OER Foundation is very receptive to facilitating shared infrastructure. That said, to date we've not had much success with Karen yet in figuring our how WikiEdcuator.nz for example could collaborate and share the local NREN. Obviously synchronous communication tools would be a great value addition to this "OER learning infrastructure"
mmm -- I don't see that the CNX-WE project is duplication -- rather a step in the right direction to improve OER interoperability and hopefully contribute to less duplication of effort. I'm I missing something. At the end of the day -- this comes down to dollars -- the folk who take the decisions about resource allocation. From OERFs perspective -- we have no preference for the infrastructure that is used - -as long as its free software. So what are you proposing? A couple of Video conferences bringing folk from the OER community together with the NRENs? That seems like a sensible thing to be do. What do we want to talk about? Is this about NRENS hosting installations like WE? (not such a bad idea IMHO -- most of the newer NRENs need content to generate the traffic to warrant the investment ;-) ) -- But hey -- sites like WE are not white listed on Karen (to the best of my knowledge) -- so while, for example our institution has theoretical "access" to this amazing bandwidth, NZ WikiEducator usesr must chug along using the narrow pipe alternatives for access. How do we mediate the language between the technogeeks and the technophobes (we teachers ;-) ) during these discussions. Cheers Wayne 2009/11/30 simonfj <simo...@cols.com.au> > Congrats guys, > > Yu really are doing wonderful stuff. > > Can I bring up this one about the "technology required to make the OER > vision a reality". I wish i could talk about the physical > infrastructure/distribution meaningfully but this is beyond me. I've > set myself up an impossible enough task by attempting to get the > content creators, many of whom are OERers, and the infrastructure > guys, to collaborate. Or at least gain some understanding of what each > community is doing. Their ends do coincide, if not their language and > agendas. > > Most of the global infrastructure developments in the edu/research/gov > domains can be seen through this euro centric portal. > http://global.dante.net/ > > So far as the language in this technical space is concerned, the main > language revolves around what is called "Middleware"; the software > layer that helps apps talk to one another and sits above different > operating systems. The apps are what content creators just want access > to. We need a user name & password, usually issued by single > institution to their version of an app and content = duplicate ad > infinatum. This is something the OER Foundation is addressing > fundamentally. > > At the moment, throughout the (mainly developed) world, there is a > push on by all NREN to create federations. Rather than going into > great detail, let me just point you at this Aussie initiative. Take > for granted with a bit of work i could point at a similar initiative > in your country. http://www.aaf.edu.au/index.php/services/ > > Long story short, we are getting to the point whare the NREN are > reconfiguring to support global groups (taskforces/ committees) rather > than national institutions. All the groups tend to be subject specific > in their interests and the bandwidth, apps - in short, the 'network > services' - which their global community will want to use. The > middleware guys in each NREN understand that the only way they can > satisfy these disparate needs is to try and talk to each community, > which is a bit like herding cats on a global basis = impossible > > So we have a catch 22. Communities like wikipedia and wikiedicator. > i.e. passionate people who prefer to use one tool to produce open > content often duplicate wonderful stuff in their attempts to acheive > their related visions. Rarely do they have an opportunity to > contemplate what other ICT services may be identified which could be > shared between communities. (I noticed the Connexions Google group as > another duplication) Meanwhile, the Middleware guys who must allocate > resources, and try and figure out what service may be demanded and > when, are simply bamboozled. > > OK. That the rave. I'm sorry for it. I'm sitting in Manila after > talking to their preginet, after taking for years with the likes of > aarnet, karen, internet2 (do a google search on NREN if yu want the > list), and it seems like the right time and place to start looking at > this. Let me bring it down to something concrete. If you're in the > APac region, this is the hub of the geekly get together. > http://www.apan.net/meetings/Sydney2010/schedule.php > My interest is in the e-culture thread, cause the WP community has it, > and APAN members have a clue but no experience of it. > > I'll be be talking to terena's taskforces who look at this convergence > and be pushing to have a VC link up between Euro sites and Sydney. It > would be great if we could get the ice broken here to run, not just > for a singular event, but a series of get togethers which might help > welcome a few nearsiders to the e-culture fold, and give us an > opportunity to see which basic tools (services) many global OER > communities could share. > > > regards, > > PS Randy, How about Canada (canarie)? > > > > > On Nov 28, 10:35 am, Wayne Mackintosh <mackintosh.wa...@gmail.com> > wrote: > > Hi Edward, > > > > Always interested in talking about the learning infrastructure needed > > to make OER happen globally :-) > > > > > > Are you interested in discussing the infrastructure needed to make > > > this happen globally? > > -- > 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 > -- 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 User Page: http://wikieducator.org/User:Mackiwg 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 wikieducator@googlegroups.com To unsubscribe from this group, send email to wikieducator-unsubscr...@googlegroups.com
