Hi Chris, I agree these types of awards do more for the blog hosting company and do push their traffic a little. One consultation is that Eublogs have built their service on top of free software :-). It would be interesting to measure how much organisations like Edublogs (and others) put back into the community.
Great links alluding to the issues and ethics associated with building sustainable ecosystems around free software and OER in the formal education sector. Speaking from the desk of the OER Foundation --- I question the ethics of auto advertising links. There are a large number of WikiEducator's who have migrated from commercially hosted wiki sites because of inappropriate advertising. For this reason, WikiEducator.org and Wikiresearcher.org (which we will launching in the new year :-) ) -- will not carry advertising. However as a non-profit we also need to think about revenue streams to sustain scalable growth. We practice open philanthropy publishing all our planning documents openly and transparently in the wiki (including funding proposals!) -- see for example: http://wikieducator.org/OERF:Planning The model we're adopting is a mixture of philanthropy and institutional memberships where we will provide services in helping organisations achieve *their* objectives through OER (See for example: http://wikieducator.org/OERF:Join ). The great thing about being a non-profit is that we will be able to invest all surplus revenue back into OER development, capacity development etc. These are exciting times -- and I believe that nurturing the development of OER ecosystems will make the world a better place :-). Cheers Wayne 2009/12/14 Chris Harvey <[email protected]> > I voted for wikieducator. > > I don't know if these awards are taken seriously, it probably does more for > the blog hosting company than it does for educators and besides that IMHO > hardly any of the best blogs/people are even nominated. > > Theres also this. > > http://gwegner.edublogs.org/2008/12/21/sorry-james-but/ > > I think wikieducators are familiar with how powerful hyperlinks are for > educaitonal purposes. A simple explanation would be one Ive heard from > teachers many times. They say if your reading a book and come to a word that > you dont understand then look it up, so some teachers have an awareness that > learners may not understand a word so they decide to use a hyperlink, In > this case I have to wonder if those auto advertisement links are ethical. > > Here's also some interesting history of edublogs. > http://incsub.org/2005/the-open-source-5 > > Warm kind loving regards and best wishes sincerely > Chris Harvey > > > On Mon, Dec 14, 2009 at 3:57 PM, Wayne Mackintosh < > [email protected]> wrote: > >> Hi Everyone, >> >> Wow -- I see that WE have made two nominations on the short list for the >> best educational wiki on the the 2009 Edublog awards!!! One for WIkiEducator >> itself and another for the Learning4Content project. WE can stand proud that >> the international blogging community have recognised our community >> achievements again. >> >> Gee this is a tough decision -- but I voted for WikiEducator which >> supports and oversees the Learning4Content project. In my view, a vote for >> WikiEducator is a vote for Learning4Content :-). With thanks and >> appreciation to the blogging community who have nominated two of our >> community projects for 2009 <blush>. >> >> With only two day's left for voting --- I encourage all WikiEducators to >> visit the 2009 Edublog Awards site and to cast your vote. See: >> >> http://edublogawards.com/2009/best-educational-wiki-2009/ >> >> WE made the short list in 2008 -- but will be interesting to see how we >> fair with the voting this year ;-) >> >> Good luck to all nominees! >> >> Cheers >> Wayne >> >> -- >> 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 [email protected] >> To unsubscribe from this group, send email to >> [email protected] > > > -- > 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] -- 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 [email protected] To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected]
