Dear Joyce and all, Slowly slowly the "promotion criteria for teachers, educators and professors in the higher education system world wide" will reflect the moral conversations that we read here, I dare saying that when I see the news release like the one as shown below. Please do not lose faith and hope. Please allow me to share the below information.
*"**UNESCO launches OER (Open Educational Resources) website".* * * *The UNESCO Communication and Information (CI) Sector has launched an Open Educational Resources (OER) website at: English - www.unesco.org/webworld/en/oer French - www.unesco.org/webworld/fr/oer The website serves as the central CI Sector OER resource for news, events, publications and resources. Together with the Education Sector, UNESCO is building on 8 years of OER development to: 1) Increase the awareness of decision-makers of OER and the development of dynamic, viable OER policies; 2) Developing a new, innovative UNESCO OER Platform which will offer selected UNESCO publications as OERs for free use and re-use UNESCO is a member of the Open Educational Quality (OPAL) Initiative to develop a new, unique Framework of Open Educational Practices. Please feel free to take part in an OPAL Survey at: www.oer-quality.org To receive more information on the CI Sector's activities, you can subscribe to its weekly e-newsletter at: http://www.unesco.org/webworld/newsletter* * * *Yours, Sincerely,* Prof. Dr. Khin Ni Ni Thein (Mrs.) Senior Advisor to the President of AIT Asian Institute of Technology http://www.ait.ac.th * Hon. Senior Professor Water Ph.D Programme Civil Engineering Department Yangon Technological University Yangon, Myanmar * Founder and President Water, Research and Training Centre (WRTC) http://www.wrtcmyan.org * Board Member International Research Associates for Happy Society http://www.happysociety.org Mission e-mail <[email protected]> ---- "Many times a day I realize how much my own inner and outer life is built on the labors of other men, both living and dead, and how earnestly I must exert myself in order to give and return as much as I have received." --Albert Einstein On Thu, Oct 7, 2010 at 5:02 AM, <[email protected]> wrote: > Very insightful comments. I think that we have a good topic here. You > are right on many points. At this stage of my life (60+) I just want to > get my life experiences and hopefully wisdom out to as many people as > possible. At the time I began this publishing venture, Allyn and Bacon > seemed the best way to do it (remember I had never even heard of OER until > 2009 and I began the book and my relationship with Allyn and Bacon in > 2006). At this point, I have had so much help and encouragement from my > editor that I am unwilling to back out...in some ways it is like they say of > soldiers...you don't fight for the government, you fight for the > friend/buddy sharing your foxhole. In some ways my editor and I are sharing > the same foxhole...we are both working for a large impersonal company, but > we believe in one another and in our mutual desire to get important > community organizing information out to as many students and community > activists as possible in a way that the students will find usable, pleasing, > and reasonably inexpensive. > > In the 1940's Rheinhold Neibuhr wrote a book Moral Man and Immoral > Society in which he stated that individual human beings tend to be moral > but as bureaucracies (and societies) grow the tendency to immorality > increases. I think this is true. My experience with a large publisher > has led me to several very moral people who are dedicated to social > justice...but I am not naive enough to think that the corporation as a whole > is a paragon of morality. At any rate, thanks for this conversation. J. > > [email protected] wrote: ----- > > To: [email protected] > From: kirby urner > Sent by: [email protected] > Date: 10/06/2010 05:36PM > Subject: Re: [WikiEducator] An Ethical Dilemma -- Feeling sad :-)- When > publishers don't do what they say they intend to do > > I was just having lunch with my uncle, who self-published a book on > pre-WW1 submarine construction in the North Pacific region of the USA > (Seattle etc.). He shared about his dealings with Amazon, but more > generally with publishers witnessing the digital revolution. I did > his website: > http://web.archive.org/web/20060505050706/beneaththesurface.biz/front.html > > For those who don't know, Amazon now has a huge printing press and any > book that goes out of copyright is fair game to mass produce and sell > as new i.e. hot off the press, on demand with your order (no need to > build inventory, the hardcopy is custom generated, and in such a way > as to still make a profit at $10 a pop -- most traditional publishers > can't compete at these prices). > > I come from the software world, where open source licenses flourished > because software defines working machines, and people are always > wanting to add bells and whistles. With other authored works, such as > novels, it's not the same situation, as you do *not* necessarily want > other authors interleaving their thoughts and characters in your work > of art. That'd be defacement, like spray-painting a Picasso with > Marvin the Martian (criminal -- though you could do it on a digital > copy). > > I know the Oz books underwent a transition, but the new author didn't > rewrite any of the original Frank Baum stuff did he? Likewise the > Disney characters progress through generations of artist, but it's not > like you wanna go back and "deface" the originals. > http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Oz_books (re Oz as the > prototypical Open Source world) > > In software, it's maybe a little different. We have version control, > so might keep the old stuff around indefinitely, but few are > interested in reading it. The most-in-demand stuff is usually cutting > edge, sporting the latest new features. > > Engineer-artists of software actually expect (aim, hope) to have their > work included in derivative works. That's the intention. You write > hoping your stuff will be absorbed, as your currency in the software > meritocracy is your reputation as an author. You want your name > associated with your "text" but it's not like you expect royalty > payments. More, you expect to be granted the privileges (such as > deferential respect) of royalty by your peers and the lay public, as > it's clear in the accounts that you're a person of merit (or a "jolly > good fellow" as they said in Queen Victoria's era). > > Academia is already like this. It's not how much you sold out for, so > much as how much of your academic integrity remains after X presumably > profitable publications. Edwin Black (the historian) comes to mind, > as a successful academic who nevertheless insists on telling it as he > finds it, upsetting a lot of carefully guarded apple carts in the > process. His books continue to sell because he's still a trusted > source of scholarship by enough accounts to keep him in the game as a > bestselling author. > > Publishing is essentially free via the Internet, but then distribution > matters. How will the right people hear of your work? Twitter? > > There's always the "visibility problem" of gaining a following, what > some might call "marketing" though in academia there's a somewhat > cynical attitude towards either "selling oneself" or "self promotion" > although I'd say ethics have changed, and now some professors engage > in "self branding", creating such personalities as Dr. Ruth, and Dr. > Chuck (a Python guy, whom I've worked with) also even Dr. Phil (the > guy Britney made a fool of). > > Anyway, what's interesting to me is to see more academic professorial > types (vs code wrangler geeks) grapple with the challenges of the > loaves and the fishes, i.e. the miracle technology makes makes > possible, of spreading of communications extremely efficient at almost > no marginal cost per copy. > > So what business models are based on artificially creating scarcity > where their needn't be any? > > Those are the ones most worried about what to do next, and I > empathize. Putting a floor form of tenure under the meritocracy, a > safety net, would make it all more like Finland (of Finlandia fame). > > A geek encampment, known for great code, might compensate all its > people with room and board, kitchen access, wifi, days for fishing and > goofing off, and yet not all of them have a commit bit on every > project (some are not committing code at all, such as when busy > learning new languages), some of which projects may have quite low bus > numbers indeed (using the geek shop talk, sorry if it sounds opaque > **). > > On the other hand, many resources remain scarce. Not every science > fiction writer is as good as every other. > > Not everyone is as good a writer, period. Same in software. Same in > the visual arts. > > They say the most productive coders are freakishly more productive, by > orders of magnitude. What's that about? > > I'm just pointing out that good (sometimes technical, sometimes > professional) writing is not always easy to come by. > > Creating scarcity artificially (where it's technologically > unnecessary) is different from simply accepting the fact of only so > much gold and silver in "them thar hills" (noting in passing that many > precious metals are recycled, not mined anew). > > Kirby > > ** "bus number" is the number of people that'd need to be hit by the > proverbial bus before a project would seem pretty much unintelligible > to the other geeks, i.e. there'd be no one left to pass the torch. > "Low bus numbers" mean only a few people understand and work with a > given project or code repository. > > On Wed, Oct 6, 2010 at 10:55 AM, <[email protected]> wrote: > > Thank you. I think that it is important that we work on these issues > > together as cordially as possible. Big publishers don't particularly like > > OER either as my editor reminded me just this morning...I don't want to be > > caught in the middle but I have been a mediator many times in my > > life...perhaps there is a place for such skills here. Joyce > > > > -- > 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 > [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] -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "WikiEducator" group. 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