> At the heart of the Global U is this institution we call The Library.
Absolutely! I think this is the case for for all media affected by the shift in publishing paradigm, regardless of sector. It's (sustainable) economics are supported by the shift in network architecture - from institutional client/server to national and international collaborative group 'clouds'. OER can't come of age, and won't get an institutional buy in, until the economics of cloud infrastructure are understood & adopted. The evolution is similar to the shift from mainframe/dumb terminal to client/server models. Certainly the idea of bringing a National/Global peer.edu group together to produce a shared library of content will save duplications; that's one huge positive. That said, the question is how OER's may encourage their (National institutional) network providers to; 1. Provide 'their' global groups with (access to) their preferred applications. At the moment this primarily means the real time apps, like voice, web conferencing, streaming,storage, etc. The savings here simply make the new OER paradigm's economics, and wider social- ability, more obvious. In NREN technical terms, this means creating a library of apps. which can be shared nationally/globally. Until these are agreed upon, global OERers must do like WE do - go cap in hand to the larger wikipedia world or ask for support by their closest institution = the otagos of this world who would save money by adopting a cloud/shared library architecture. 2. Provide their global groups with the storage required, near to their global co-users. The dreaded internet wait has been overcome, to a degree, by content deliverers like akamai. But the real OER revolution starts with the sharing of 'peering routes' between NREN's. Techs talk about 'on net' and off net'. To simplify, if global groups are 'on net', their National networks don't run up charges. If they work 'off net' (between NRENs, they do. 3. Federate their identities. This means that when you sign on to your institution, you will have reciprocal arrangements (rights and responsibilities) with all the other institutions, to the same library of apps, on the same (NRE)Network. Up to now most of this has (obviously) taken place on a National basis. The discussions in many of the NREN's is now about confederating these identities internationally). The problem is that OERers, in their global communities of interest (as they are called at OCWC), haven't engaged these technicians just yet, or vice versa. 4. The last, and most important, paradigm shift, is what Melville Dewey focussed on in the 1870's, when steam powered printing presses had overwhelmed .edu institutions with their info = a directory. This is one area which is going to change lots of institutionally- limitedl mindsets (I hope, this year). Take a look at Internet2's co-manage page and you'll find them talking about a directory for 'external groups' (external of their NRENs). Sounds like OER community group's (and their communities of interest) to me. http://www.internet2.edu/comanage/ We're (OERers) are still in a mindset which has us separating info and comms, even though both travel down the same IP pipe. That's why WE can't go mainstream (just yet). Every time WE reach to use a 'product' like Elluminate, we pay license fees to a third party (software) publisher, as opposed to insisting that the techs at projects like the Accessgrid and EVO simplify their (open source) interfaces. If you do a search on 'Big Blue Button', you'll find a few NREN techs who are focussed on this problem. OK. Sorry for my wordiness. I write in order to clarify my thinking. Is there a chance WE might consider putting up a strategy page, so WE can get an idea of one another's thinking? So far as Planning/strategy events I'm hoping OER will be a buzzword at a few techie events this year, even if it means having presenters presenting remotely. My 'main' events would be questnet (in Aus), Terena (in Europe) and one of Inernet2's quarterly (US) get togethers. 2011. The year when WE "go it". regards, simon -- 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]
