Hi Everyone, LOL -- The OER Foundation and WikiEducator is certainly not in the business of competing with badges ;-) -- That would be going against our core values of respecting freedom of choice but more importantly eroding the core business of the OER Foundation to nurture the development of sustainable OER ecosystems.
We need free content to multiply, grow and scale by an order of magnitude. The more projects and initiatives which commit to building the free culture -- the better IMHO. I think Stephens initiative is a good idea to build awareness and a growing community network of bloggers around free content. Chris has alluded to the different interpretations of what "free" means to different folk. Stephen -- perhaps articulating what the "Free learning" badge means would be a good idea. WikiEducator subscribes to free cultural works licensing -- a value position we have held since our inception, and we use the FCW button on our site: http://freedomdefined.org/Logos_and_buttons That said -- I do think its a good idea for the WE community to have buttons or badges which they can use to identify their association with what we're doing -- not in competition to any initiative but in partnership adding to the growth of a critical mass of educators working at the heart of the education endeavour -- to share knowledge freely. Cheers Wayne On 28 June 2010 22:41, Stephen Downes <[email protected]> wrote: > Hiya Folks, > > Is this serious? Competing badges? Come on now. > > The purpose of my 'free learning' badge is to counter the fake 'top 50 > blog' listings being used to convince legitimate bloggers to point to SEO > sites. I created it in response to a request. What I am doing is offering a > page on my website to link to legitimate bloggers. That way bloggers can > gain from my Google ranking, rather than bleed Google ranking to SEOs. > > People who support free learning, offer free learning and talk about free > learning can all get the badge. I'm not picking and choosing. I don't even > really care if they post the badge, what matters to me is that (a) they are > real people and exist, and (b) they support free learning in some way. > > None of the links on the http://www.downes.ca/freelearning.htm page is > broken (except for the 'contact' link, which I am fixing today, an artifact > of the new design on downes.ca I started rolling out on the weekend). > > I have used the phrase 'free learning' for a few years. I would never be so > audacious as to claim that I invented the concept, nor do I claim credit for > the concept. That would be utterly ridiculous. > > All of my publications are available in HTML. Check it out for yourself. > http://www.downes.ca/me/publications.htm Click on the [Post] link to get > the HTML version. You can also obtain hundreds of articles in HTML format. > Check for yourself. http://www.downes.ca/me/articles.htm > > Every person who has posted the badge and sent me an email (which I ask > them to do, since the point is for me to link to them) receives a 'thank > you' and the URL of the freelearning.htm web page, so they can see exactly > what they are supporting. I thought about creating a more detailed > statement, but decided in the end to make the page state, simply, "We > support free learning and have posted the Free Learning badge." > > The last thing I expected from this was an ill-informed flame. I think most > people in the community know who I am and consider that I have a good track > record of supporting free learning. I have certainly offered support for and > numerous links to WikiEducator over the years. > > The suggestion that the landing page link to actual free learning resources > is a good one. I may actually create such a link at rthe top, so people can > find these resources. It is a large task to create a decent page for free > learning resources. There are many initiatives over and above WikiEducator. > If someone knows of a good *inclusive* free learning page please let me > know. > > > -- Stephen > > > > > > On 06/28/2010 1:30 AM, Chris Harvey wrote: > > Here's some info on web badges http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Web_badge > > That free learning badge looks like a free link exchange to Downes web > site. > A free learning badge should link to a free learning site not to a page > full of links which are mostly broken. > I think that guy is always going to claim credit for some concept of free > learning even though most of his publications are only available in > proprietary file formats. > It would surprise me if any of the people who have that badge even know > what it is that they are supporting. > > Here's a much better badge for that > http://www.libre.org/communities/about/emblems > > Warm Regards > Chris Harvey > http://chris.superuser.com.au > > On Mon, Jun 28, 2010 at 1:46 PM, Vtaylor <[email protected]> wrote: > >> I prefer that size and shape of the Free Learning badge. Perhaps there >> can be a couple of styles for each message - donate, participate... >> >> >> On Jun 27, 1:47 pm, Wayne Mackintosh <[email protected]> >> wrote: >> > Hi Valerie, >> > >> > That's a good idea -- no sure why we haven't done this before and >> certainly >> > worth doing. >> > >> > Coincidently, a few days ago, Anil suggested that we develop a badge for >> the >> > upcoming gifting campaign - - you can take a peek at the draft which is >> > ready for the launch of the campaign here: >> > >> > http://wikieducator.org/OERF:Donate/How_you_can_help >> > >> > It's relatively easy to develop a few badges -- what badges do folk >> suggest? >> > >> > Eg: >> > >> > * I'm a WikiEducator >> > * I a L4C participant >> > * Others? >> > >> > ANy graphic design volunteers to help make the badges purty? >> > >> > Cheers >> > Wayne >> > >> >> -- >> 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] > > > > -- > [image: Signature] Stephen Downes > Research Officer, National Research Council Canada > 100 rue des Aboiteaux, Moncton, New Brunswick, Canada E1A 7R1 > Website: http://www.downes.ca ~ Email: [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]
