Wednesday, July 16, 2014

Herring: Quaker Friend in Germany and World University and School 'building blocks', MIT OCW, Pharmacology and wiki subjects at WUaS and Friendly International Networking


Dear Christopher,

Very nice to get your email, and thanks for sharing your thoughts especially about WUaS. I'll reply to some specific items below.


On 7/14/14 5:20 AM, Christopher H wrote:
> Dear Scott,
>
> As a "semi-active" member of Quakers & Business I know and have met Elizabeth
> Redfer a couple of times. I came to Germany in 2003, transferring my membership
> in 2006 from Britain YM to German YM.


I'm active with Quakers in San Francisco, and also among Nontheist Friends, the latter mostly via email. Roughly how big is the Quaker Meeting local to you (Is this it - http://www.internations.org/places/view/friends-meeting-for-worship-4711 - with the address here too - http://www.fwccemes.org/fam/?mg=7 )? In addition to developing CC MIT OCW-centric World University and School, which hasn't hired yet, I've also just finished writing an actual / virtual ethnographic book about Harbin Hot Springs in northern California, 2.5 hours NE of where I live in the SF Bay Area.
Here are some Quaker related subjects at WUaS -
Quakers ...
Nontheist Friends (atheist Quakers?) ...


>
> Alas I do not know the Krügs and only a coupe of the fFriends in the Munich.

The Meeting in Munich is/was quite small.


>
> This WUaS is a very very ambitious and resource-intensive project (as there
> needs to be a concerted effort as providing internet access/internet ready
> equipment to such areas).

Fortunately, many related "building blocks" continue to develop and grow:
MIT OCW has about 2,150 courses in English for free (C.C.) - http://ocw.mit.edu/ - 150 undergraduate and graduate courses in English in video - http://ocw.mit.edu/courses/audio-video-courses/ - and has course ware in at least 8 non-English languages - http://ocw.mit.edu/courses/translated-courses/ .
Wikipedia is in at least 200-300 languages, and WikiMedia / Wikipedia / Wikidata have just created and deployed a new multilingual database (amazing!), all of which is also Creative Commons' (C.C.) licensed. Wikidata's 3 core developers were initially based in Berlin, with Wikimedia Deutschland.
Creative Commons' (C.C.) licensing / law is also growing and in at least 70 countries. (See: http://worlduniversity.wikia.com/wiki/Creative_Commons_Law ).
WUaS is a potential "growth story" for all of these, with plans to be in 7,106 languages and 242 countries. While WUaS is seeking to offer a free accrediting online MIT OCW-centric online undergraduate education in English first ( http://worlduniversity.wikia.com/wiki/The_College_at_World_University_and_School#World_University_and_School_Links ), students registering for this historic opportunity will need to have their own computers and broadband (for 32 courses over 4 years). Broadband will develop and improve around the world, and free MIT-centric universal education (WUaS) may be one reason governments eventually facilitate this. Here's the WUaS Broadband Development (see: http://worlduniversity.wikia.com/wiki/WUaS_Broadband_Development#World_University_and_School_Links ) for open teaching and learning and sharing of ideas about this. WUaS may eventually help facilitate access to hardware as we grow.


For me this is seen in the Mission statement which
> whilst worthy and blue-skied (to me) is also too wide, and at the moment I do
> not have the time / energy / concentration to be part of this .

By way of comparison, it's amazing to me that Wikipedia is now in at least 300 languages, and we all wrote it, - and mostly as volunteers.


I guess this is
> because I am not feeling called by God and my spiritual gifts were given to me
> to help in a small-scale people based arena, instead of a large-scale
> theoretical, structural arena.  That is not to say there are others that have
> these gifts, of couse there are gifted people out there that can help bring this
> about in the next  20  - 60 years.  The physical maintenance of sites, links,
> the need to keep file sizes SMALL, so that slower overloaded networks can be
> used to download material will be critical to the success of this project.
>
> However I do agree with your statement re. Licensing, about being a community of
> learners and teachers, and being strengthened by the rich diversity of the human
> family. I wish you all the best in welcoming students and faculty etc based on
> differences (i.e. anything different from the white cis heterosexual
> male/female).  This statement however is very "North American Centric and the
> 501(c) tax exempt status US(A) exclusive.
The mission statement is meant to be inclusive, and certainly emerges from the past few decades of raising consciousness of inclusiveness and eqaulity in the US, - and it is also Quaker-informed.
What distinguishes WUaS from many other good educational projects is WUaS's all-language plans; WUaS mission statements will probably emerge differently in different languages.
>
> At some point, I hope you can simplify some of the language used, whilst
> remaining inclusive, not legalistic. e.g. ...WUaS welcomes all languages and
> cultures, students, faculty, board members and staff regardless of who you, your
> background are and how you choose to live your life. * (this assumes people have
> this choice!!)

The Wiki side of WUaS (as one wing, where the other wing is the free CC MIT OCW-centric university degree side in many languages) facilitates actual inclusiveness - where we all can become producers of open knowledge sharing - including to some degree potentially rewriting the mission statement in different languages (but which would probably be then considered in monthly business meeting, - conducted in the manner of fFriends).


>
> I quickly checked the pharmacology section, and a couple of the links did not
> work for me, e.g.
>
> http://ocw.mit.edu/courses/special-programs/sp-236-exploring-pharmacology-spring-2009/
Thanks ... updated this link with http://ocw.edu.ht/courses/special-programs/sp-236-exploring-pharmacology-spring-2009/ ...
>
> http://ocw.mit.edu/courses/biological-engineering/20-201-mechanisms-of-drug-actions-fall-2005/index.htm

updated this link too with http://bazzim.mit.edu/oeit/OcwWeb/Biological-Engineering/20-201Fall-2005/CourseHome/index.htm ... interesting to learn how MIT OCW courses develop


>
> I need to sign-off Scott, but if this is meant to happen, and you are being
> called to help bring people together so that they can learn,

WUaS is very much an unfolding 'leading,' but kind of in a Nontheistically Friendly sense ...


then God will
> provide the skills and resources, and the powers that be (the powers that have
> fallen away from God) will do lots to help frustrate you all, distract you all,
> keep you busy.

Eventually, WUaS would like to facilitate clinical trials engaging the distributed nature of the internet, now in all countries and most languages - http://worlduniversity.wikia.com/wiki/Clinical_Trials_at_WUaS_(for_all_languages) . It would be great to stay in touch about this as well.

What are your current foci and specialities in pharmacology?

Bist du ein Deutscher oder Engländer? Is Englisch oder Deutsch deine Muttersprache?

Looking forward to staying in touch, Christopher, and would be interested in communicating further with German Friends in a variety of ways with time, including attending Meetings, as well as vis-a-vis WUaS.


>
> Blessings
>
> Christopher

Friendly regards,
Scott

See too:
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