Updates to World University and School - http://worlduniversity.wikia.com/wiki/Special:WikiActivity -
like Wikipedia with MIT OCW -
where you can teach, learn, add, create and edit ...
Open Teaching and Learning ...
add great subjects ... http://worlduniversity.wikia.com/wiki/Subjects to the open Subjects' page.
(http://scott-macleod.blogspot.com/2010/10/phlox-actaea-updates-to-world.html - October 26, 2010)
Tuesday, October 26, 2010
Monday, October 25, 2010
Sierra river & illumination: What can ethnography tell us about actual and virtual Harbin in the present vis-a-vis method?
Harbin ethnography:
... To engage Harbin on its own terms, the ethnographic methods I develop here involve reading Ishvara's first impressions in historical record, as actual place and emerging milieu.
What can ethnography tell us about actual and virtual Harbin in the present vis-a-vis method? While understanding some of Ishvara's low-key influence at Harbin over the years opens many possibilities for exploring the remarkable fabric of Harbin life vis-a-vis its emergence from the 1960s, the community, and ways of life, which have emerged at Harbin, since 1972, are especially significant in fathoming Harbin's unique fabric of life and its vision. In addition to one far-reaching interview with Ishvara in 2008 (MacLeod 2008), as well as interviews with a number of long term residents, the significance, in particular, of the Harbin pool area, and especially of the pools themselves, is central to the understanding on-the-ground Harbin. And pool work, emerging out of the practices of ethnographic field work, is a new, anthropological method emerging here, finding form in fluidity and release in an warm aqueous environment, vis-a-vis participant observation. In the context of Harbin as Heart Consciousness Church, interpreting both 1960s language, as well, as New Age processes significantly given form by hippies, in some ways may involve developing relatively unexplored, anthropological connectednesses – in the pools.
To study a virtual Harbin, or virtual Harbins, in relation to an ethnographic interpretation of actual Harbin vis-a-vis its pools, as well as its emergence from the 1960s, involves relatively new approaches to ethnography vis-a-vis cyberspace, and comparison. ...
(http://scott-macleod.blogspot.com/2010/10/sierra-river-illumination-what-can.html - October 25, 2010)
... To engage Harbin on its own terms, the ethnographic methods I develop here involve reading Ishvara's first impressions in historical record, as actual place and emerging milieu.
What can ethnography tell us about actual and virtual Harbin in the present vis-a-vis method? While understanding some of Ishvara's low-key influence at Harbin over the years opens many possibilities for exploring the remarkable fabric of Harbin life vis-a-vis its emergence from the 1960s, the community, and ways of life, which have emerged at Harbin, since 1972, are especially significant in fathoming Harbin's unique fabric of life and its vision. In addition to one far-reaching interview with Ishvara in 2008 (MacLeod 2008), as well as interviews with a number of long term residents, the significance, in particular, of the Harbin pool area, and especially of the pools themselves, is central to the understanding on-the-ground Harbin. And pool work, emerging out of the practices of ethnographic field work, is a new, anthropological method emerging here, finding form in fluidity and release in an warm aqueous environment, vis-a-vis participant observation. In the context of Harbin as Heart Consciousness Church, interpreting both 1960s language, as well, as New Age processes significantly given form by hippies, in some ways may involve developing relatively unexplored, anthropological connectednesses – in the pools.
To study a virtual Harbin, or virtual Harbins, in relation to an ethnographic interpretation of actual Harbin vis-a-vis its pools, as well as its emergence from the 1960s, involves relatively new approaches to ethnography vis-a-vis cyberspace, and comparison. ...
(http://scott-macleod.blogspot.com/2010/10/sierra-river-illumination-what-can.html - October 25, 2010)
Rain Forest, CA: Free, online Public High School in California, Added to Free High School resources at World Univ & Sch, Free Harvard Doctoral Degree
Free, online Public High School in California, through San Jose Unified's online school - (http://www.mercurynews.com/ci_15937948 = http://www.siliconvalley.com/ci_15937948)
I added to Free High School resources at World University & School - http://worlduniversity.wikia.com/wiki/Courses#Free_High_School_Diplomas - It's free high school, - with teachers ... and it's virtual!
It's called Liberty Online - for students in grades 6-12 in Santa Clara County, California - and interested students would call the school district - 408-535-2314 - for further information.
*
Check out World University and School's free degrees - with a link to a free on-the-ground Harvard University education doctoral degree for 25 in 2011 and 2012, as well as to Liberty Online (free, online, grades 6-12 public education in Santa Clara county, California) ... and SO MUCH MORE :) - http://worlduniversity.wikia.com/wiki/Courses#Free_Ph.D.s
(http://scott-macleod.blogspot.com/2010/10/rain-forest-ca-free-online-public-high.html - October 25, 2010)
I added to Free High School resources at World University & School - http://worlduniversity.wikia.com/wiki/Courses#Free_High_School_Diplomas - It's free high school, - with teachers ... and it's virtual!
It's called Liberty Online - for students in grades 6-12 in Santa Clara County, California - and interested students would call the school district - 408-535-2314 - for further information.
*
Check out World University and School's free degrees - with a link to a free on-the-ground Harvard University education doctoral degree for 25 in 2011 and 2012, as well as to Liberty Online (free, online, grades 6-12 public education in Santa Clara county, California) ... and SO MUCH MORE :) - http://worlduniversity.wikia.com/wiki/Courses#Free_Ph.D.s
(http://scott-macleod.blogspot.com/2010/10/rain-forest-ca-free-online-public-high.html - October 25, 2010)
Saturday, October 23, 2010
Hydra: Chapter 3 - Harbin in its own terms - Anthropological participant observation – Interviews, pool work & virtual field work in the pools
Harbin ethnography:
... How does the virtual generation of the generative virtual here, now, vis-a-vis Harbin communication & language, especially in relation to floating in the warm pool, emerge?
Chapter 3: Method
Harbin on its own terms - Anthropology and ethnography – Participant observation – Interviews, pool work and virtual field work in the pools – Ethics – Claims and reflexivity – Actual Harbin and virtual Harbin compared and contrasted – In warm waters - Virtual world, countercultural communication in a virtual Harbin – What flows between, observationally – Soaking in the waters – Watsu
Harbin on its own terms
Fascinated by the freedom-seeking movements of the 1960s, and the alternative living developments in Haight Ashbury and elsewhere, Bob Hartley (now called Ishvara) moved to Berkeley in 1966 at the time to study, with a dream to start a community vis-a-vis Summerhill (Klages 1991:281). When Ish first arrived at Harbin in 1971(?),
“His first view of the property was the bullet-riddled car and, as he made his way up the road, while he saw the abandoned buildings, the roads rutted by run-off from heavy rains, and the obscenities painted on the sides of the buildings, he also saw what he'd been looking for. The place was a wreck, but it met everyone of the ten criteria on his wish list” (Klages 1991:283).
Ishvara's wish list of ten attributes for the ideal property were: “reasonably priced; not too far or too close to a town; good road access, but no through traffic; no close neighbors, so that nudity would not be a problem; phone, electric and water lines; within a two hour drive of the Bay Area; existing housing and - definitely an ideal but no a necessity – a hot springs” (Klages 1991:282).
Ish's continuity and longevity at Harbin, in addition to his having bought Harbin in 1972, and then sold it to Heart Consciousness Church in 1975, are defining in terms of Harbin's ongoing vision.
To engage Harbin on its own terms, the ethnographic methods I develop here involve reading Ishvara's first impressions in historical record, as actual place and emerging milieu.
What can ethnography tell us about actual and virtual Harbin in the present vis-a-vis method? …
(http://scott-macleod.blogspot.com/2010/10/hydra-chapter-3-harbin-on-its-own-terms.html - October 23, 2010)
... How does the virtual generation of the generative virtual here, now, vis-a-vis Harbin communication & language, especially in relation to floating in the warm pool, emerge?
Chapter 3: Method
Harbin on its own terms - Anthropology and ethnography – Participant observation – Interviews, pool work and virtual field work in the pools – Ethics – Claims and reflexivity – Actual Harbin and virtual Harbin compared and contrasted – In warm waters - Virtual world, countercultural communication in a virtual Harbin – What flows between, observationally – Soaking in the waters – Watsu
Harbin on its own terms
Fascinated by the freedom-seeking movements of the 1960s, and the alternative living developments in Haight Ashbury and elsewhere, Bob Hartley (now called Ishvara) moved to Berkeley in 1966 at the time to study, with a dream to start a community vis-a-vis Summerhill (Klages 1991:281). When Ish first arrived at Harbin in 1971(?),
“His first view of the property was the bullet-riddled car and, as he made his way up the road, while he saw the abandoned buildings, the roads rutted by run-off from heavy rains, and the obscenities painted on the sides of the buildings, he also saw what he'd been looking for. The place was a wreck, but it met everyone of the ten criteria on his wish list” (Klages 1991:283).
Ishvara's wish list of ten attributes for the ideal property were: “reasonably priced; not too far or too close to a town; good road access, but no through traffic; no close neighbors, so that nudity would not be a problem; phone, electric and water lines; within a two hour drive of the Bay Area; existing housing and - definitely an ideal but no a necessity – a hot springs” (Klages 1991:282).
Ish's continuity and longevity at Harbin, in addition to his having bought Harbin in 1972, and then sold it to Heart Consciousness Church in 1975, are defining in terms of Harbin's ongoing vision.
To engage Harbin on its own terms, the ethnographic methods I develop here involve reading Ishvara's first impressions in historical record, as actual place and emerging milieu.
What can ethnography tell us about actual and virtual Harbin in the present vis-a-vis method? …
(http://scott-macleod.blogspot.com/2010/10/hydra-chapter-3-harbin-on-its-own-terms.html - October 23, 2010)
Friday, October 22, 2010
Duck and Ducklings: Lovely music - Synchronized Brains, Guitar Four-hands, Enjoyment, Singing as Synchronizing Brains? Culture, too?
Lovely music:
İşte Gitarı Konuşturmak Ben Buna Derim
İşte Gitarı Konuşturmak Ben Buna Derim by dj_atheros
http://www.dailymotion.com/video/xaavt9_iste-gitari-konusturmak-ben-buna-de_music
Are their brains synchronized? I would say so.
Their bodyminds are synchronized, as well.
Do choral music and choirs also synchronize brains in multiple voices, and is this one understated aspect of the enjoyment of singing in a choir?
*
Is 'culture' also a process of synchronization - for example, are Japanese or Scots synchronized in thinking in some ways?
(Is this another underexplored aspect of 'identity,' anthropologically?)
(http://scott-macleod.blogspot.com/2010/10/duck-and-ducklings-lovely-music.html - October 22, 2010)
İşte Gitarı Konuşturmak Ben Buna Derim
İşte Gitarı Konuşturmak Ben Buna Derim by dj_atheros
http://www.dailymotion.com/video/xaavt9_iste-gitari-konusturmak-ben-buna-de_music
Are their brains synchronized? I would say so.
Their bodyminds are synchronized, as well.
Do choral music and choirs also synchronize brains in multiple voices, and is this one understated aspect of the enjoyment of singing in a choir?
*
Is 'culture' also a process of synchronization - for example, are Japanese or Scots synchronized in thinking in some ways?
(Is this another underexplored aspect of 'identity,' anthropologically?)
(http://scott-macleod.blogspot.com/2010/10/duck-and-ducklings-lovely-music.html - October 22, 2010)
Dodonaea fruit: In the next chapter, I examine the methodological implications for studying 'Virtual Harbin Communication,' Virtual generation
Harbin ethnography:
... What's significant about these technologies vis-a-vis virtual Harbin, in this reading, is the possibility to, not only explore but, generate qualities of the neurophysiology of loving bliss, now in emergent virtual places, such as virtual Harbins. 'Virtual Harbin Communication,' then, refers to the possibility, too, to create new kinds of salutary, imaginative and beneficial connectedness, from the comfort of one's own home, and in a virtual world on a computer.
In the next chapter, I examine the methodological implications for studying this {'Virtual Harbin Communication'} thesis, ethnographically. The significance of a placeless, Harbin virtual place, connecting bodyminds-to-bodyminds, even across species, and cyber-hippies-to-cyber-hippies – and here connectible by bodyminds, language and internet protocols to other virtual worlds - makes possible new understandings of counterculture, emerging from the 1960s. We'll have to go in to the aqueous world of the Harbin warm pool, a fluid 'place,' to participant-observe ways in which counterculture finds freedom in intimate, connected, together, naked releasing, - from narratives of Bonobo chimpanzee culture to present, in-world, New Age, digital, interactive representations of Harbin – to explore aspects of free, bodyminds' culture. Welcome to approaches to thinking about and being in virtual Harbin – virtual world, digital address http:// . What is this ease and freedom-generating Harbin, New Age space of connectedness via multimedia? While anthropology has historically generated much knowledge about peoples and cultures around the world, what would happen if ethnography began to generate not only modes of digital communication among all peoples of the world, but in the context of the freedom-seeking explorations of countercultural oneness. In what ways can ethnographic approaches to communication, now digitally mediated, give form to generative readings between 'cultures' and peoples, now vis-vis information technologies, where the making of virtual Harbin Hot Springs as ethnographic field site in Second Life and Open Simulator (MacLeod 2009) becomes a place of anthropologically-represented, bodymind connectedness, as well as mutual learning, – and from one's own, home bath-hub, for example? How does the virtual generation of the generative virtual here, now, vis-a-vis Harbin communication & language, especially in relation to floating in the warm pool, emerge?
Chapter 3: Method
Harbin on its own terms - Anthropology and ethnography – Participant observation – Interviews, pool work and virtual field work in the pools – Ethics – Claims and reflexivity – Actual Harbin and virtual Harbin compared and contrasted – In warm waters - Virtual world, countercultural communication in a virtual Harbin – What flows between, observationally – Soaking in the waters – Watsu ....
(http://scott-macleod.blogspot.com/2010/10/dodonaea-fruit-in-next-chapter-i.html - October 22, 2010)
... What's significant about these technologies vis-a-vis virtual Harbin, in this reading, is the possibility to, not only explore but, generate qualities of the neurophysiology of loving bliss, now in emergent virtual places, such as virtual Harbins. 'Virtual Harbin Communication,' then, refers to the possibility, too, to create new kinds of salutary, imaginative and beneficial connectedness, from the comfort of one's own home, and in a virtual world on a computer.
In the next chapter, I examine the methodological implications for studying this {'Virtual Harbin Communication'} thesis, ethnographically. The significance of a placeless, Harbin virtual place, connecting bodyminds-to-bodyminds, even across species, and cyber-hippies-to-cyber-hippies – and here connectible by bodyminds, language and internet protocols to other virtual worlds - makes possible new understandings of counterculture, emerging from the 1960s. We'll have to go in to the aqueous world of the Harbin warm pool, a fluid 'place,' to participant-observe ways in which counterculture finds freedom in intimate, connected, together, naked releasing, - from narratives of Bonobo chimpanzee culture to present, in-world, New Age, digital, interactive representations of Harbin – to explore aspects of free, bodyminds' culture. Welcome to approaches to thinking about and being in virtual Harbin – virtual world, digital address http:// . What is this ease and freedom-generating Harbin, New Age space of connectedness via multimedia? While anthropology has historically generated much knowledge about peoples and cultures around the world, what would happen if ethnography began to generate not only modes of digital communication among all peoples of the world, but in the context of the freedom-seeking explorations of countercultural oneness. In what ways can ethnographic approaches to communication, now digitally mediated, give form to generative readings between 'cultures' and peoples, now vis-vis information technologies, where the making of virtual Harbin Hot Springs as ethnographic field site in Second Life and Open Simulator (MacLeod 2009) becomes a place of anthropologically-represented, bodymind connectedness, as well as mutual learning, – and from one's own, home bath-hub, for example? How does the virtual generation of the generative virtual here, now, vis-a-vis Harbin communication & language, especially in relation to floating in the warm pool, emerge?
Chapter 3: Method
Harbin on its own terms - Anthropology and ethnography – Participant observation – Interviews, pool work and virtual field work in the pools – Ethics – Claims and reflexivity – Actual Harbin and virtual Harbin compared and contrasted – In warm waters - Virtual world, countercultural communication in a virtual Harbin – What flows between, observationally – Soaking in the waters – Watsu ....
(http://scott-macleod.blogspot.com/2010/10/dodonaea-fruit-in-next-chapter-i.html - October 22, 2010)
Thursday, October 21, 2010
Sierra winter: Coined 'Virtual Harbin Communication' to characterize sociocultural processes in virtual place & time, 1960's freedom seeking movements
Harbin ethnography:
... potentially from your own bathtub as well, vis-a-vis the relaxation response (Benson, 1972 - who was scientifically studying Transcendental Meditation), and is informed by novel and singular, digital processes, vis-a-vis language and communication.
I coin the phrase 'Virtual Harbin Communication' here to characterize sociocultural processes in digital place and time, emerging out of the freedom seeking movements of the 1960s, and giving rise to the emergence of virtual Harbin, with which the pools (as well as psychedelics, for example – e.g. mushroom picking in the autumn in some parts of the world) in conjunction with developing, virtual world technologies, may give form to, vis-a-vis multiple, new kinds of communication, connectedness and beneficial symbolizating processes, understood in a freeing sense, as consciousness – especially vis-a-vis the relaxation response. Information technologies' contribution to these seminal processes - where technology is the use of scientific knowledge to replicating information, and information, “what is conveyed or represented by a particular arrangement or sequence of things” (Apple Dictionary 2007 – v.2.0.3), here, signs – electronic, binary 1s and 0s – used to create meaningful representations used for communicating. What's significant about these technologies vis-a-vis virtual Harbin, in this reading, is the possibility to, not only explore but, generate qualities of the neurophysiology of loving bliss, now in emergent virtual places, such as virtual Harbins. 'Virtual Harbin Communication,' then, refers to the possibility, too, to create new kinds of salutary, imaginative and beneficial connectedness, from the comfort of one's own home, and in a virtual world on a computer.
In the next chapter, I examine the methodological implications for studying this {'Virtual Harbin Communication'} thesis, ethnographically. ...
(http://scott-macleod.blogspot.com/2010/10/sierra-winter-coin-virtual-harbin.html - October 21, 2010)
... potentially from your own bathtub as well, vis-a-vis the relaxation response (Benson, 1972 - who was scientifically studying Transcendental Meditation), and is informed by novel and singular, digital processes, vis-a-vis language and communication.
I coin the phrase 'Virtual Harbin Communication' here to characterize sociocultural processes in digital place and time, emerging out of the freedom seeking movements of the 1960s, and giving rise to the emergence of virtual Harbin, with which the pools (as well as psychedelics, for example – e.g. mushroom picking in the autumn in some parts of the world) in conjunction with developing, virtual world technologies, may give form to, vis-a-vis multiple, new kinds of communication, connectedness and beneficial symbolizating processes, understood in a freeing sense, as consciousness – especially vis-a-vis the relaxation response. Information technologies' contribution to these seminal processes - where technology is the use of scientific knowledge to replicating information, and information, “what is conveyed or represented by a particular arrangement or sequence of things” (Apple Dictionary 2007 – v.2.0.3), here, signs – electronic, binary 1s and 0s – used to create meaningful representations used for communicating. What's significant about these technologies vis-a-vis virtual Harbin, in this reading, is the possibility to, not only explore but, generate qualities of the neurophysiology of loving bliss, now in emergent virtual places, such as virtual Harbins. 'Virtual Harbin Communication,' then, refers to the possibility, too, to create new kinds of salutary, imaginative and beneficial connectedness, from the comfort of one's own home, and in a virtual world on a computer.
In the next chapter, I examine the methodological implications for studying this {'Virtual Harbin Communication'} thesis, ethnographically. ...
(http://scott-macleod.blogspot.com/2010/10/sierra-winter-coin-virtual-harbin.html - October 21, 2010)
Wednesday, October 20, 2010
Gentiana crinita: DIFFERENCES between WIKIVERSITY and World University & School, Joseph Reagle's New Book on Wikipedia's Culture (MIT), Nesson & Wiki
Dear Joseph,
Thanks for your reply and question, and thanks again for a fascinating Harvard talk (http://cyber.law.harvard.edu/events/luncheon/2010/10/reagle). Your new book - "Good Faith Collaboration: The Culture of Wikipedia," also partly available here in free dissertation form http://reagle.org/joseph/blog/social/wikipedia/annc-in-good-faith - on the culture of Wikipedia looks fascinating, and very relevant to WUaS ahead. Here are a few, main differences between Wikiversity (which like Wikipedia, is part of the Wikimedia project) and World University and School.
Here's Wikiversity's Wikipedia page: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikiversity. Its primary goals are to
* "Create and host a range of free-content, multilingual learning materials/resources, for all age groups in all languages.
* Host scholarly/learning projects and communities that support these materials.
The Wikiversity e-Learning model places emphasis on "learning groups" and "learning by doing"
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikiversity)."
World University & School is different from Wikiversity (http://en.wikiversity.org/wiki/Wikiversity:Main_Page) in the following ways, as far as I know:
World University & School is planning to offer free, online degrees for some matriculating classes in 2014 - B.A. Law, M.D. and Ph.D. degrees. This can occur in video, and interactively in virtual worlds like Second Life, where WUaS becomes a kind of meta-directory. To do this, WUaS is planning to collaborate with Berkeley Webcast, MIT OCW and other great open course ware for academic standards. In January, WUaS will offer, concurrently with U.C. Berkeley, a Biological Anthropology course for WUaS credit, but not yet for degrees. WUaS already links a free, on-the-ground Harvard doctoral degree in education for 25 students in 2011 and 2012 - http://worlduniversity.wikia.com/wiki/Courses#Free_Ph.D.s .
World University & School also facilitates free, people-to-people teaching and learning. If you, for example, want to teach a course to your web camera, or in a virtual world, post it to a video-hosting site, and add it here: http://worlduniversity.wikia.com/wiki/Courses#Individual_courses . So on the first, main page (*http://worlduniversity.wikia.com/wiki/Courses), WUaS is course-centric, unlike Wikiversity.
World University & School already has many open, free teaching and learning resources which are quite different from Wikiversity current content, that I have seen. Unlike Wikiversity, World University and School's main pages are focused in specific ways; here are the main pages:
*http://worlduniversity.wikia.com/wiki/World_University
*http://worlduniversity.wikia.com/wiki/Courses
*http://worlduniversity.wikia.com/wiki/Subjects
*http://worlduniversity.wikia.com/wiki/Languages
*http://worlduniversity.wikia.com/wiki/Library_Resources
*http://worlduniversity.wikia.com/wiki/Nation_States
*http://worlduniversity.wikia.com/wiki/You_at_World_University
*http://worlduniversity.wikia.com/wiki/Educational_Software
*http://worlduniversity.wikia.com/wiki/Museums
*http://worlduniversity.wikia.com/wiki/Research
*http://worlduniversity.wikia.com/wiki/Hardware_Resource_Possibilities
*http://worlduniversity.wikia.com/wiki/World_University_Foundation
*http://worlduniversity.wikia.com/wiki/SUBJECT_TEMPLATE
The openness of the WUaS Subject Template, where one creates a new subject at WUaS, allows individuals to develop a new interdisciplinary subject in ANYTHING. The Subject Template is also key to understanding WUaS. MIT OCW, Berkeley Webcast, Yale OYC and Stanford Engineering Everywhere, for example, are anchors for WUaS' academic focus at the Subject Template, and ANY subject is possible. The Subject Template will become a basis for Musical Instruments (http://worlduniversity.wikia.com/wiki/World_University_Music_School) and Languages.
WUaS would like to list links to all open, free libraries (http://worlduniversity.wikia.com/wiki/Library_Resources) and musems in the world (http://worlduniversity.wikia.com/wiki/Museums) as teaching and learning resources. And World Univ. & Sch is generating a great list of free, open Educational Software (http://worlduniversity.wikia.com/wiki/Educational_Software), none of which Wikiversity has that I know of. World University and School also has a main Research page: http://worlduniversity.wikia.com/wiki/Research
In addition, World University & School is planning to be in all 3,000-8,000 languages, unlike Wikiversity, which is in just a few. Wikipedia, by way of comparison, is in around 272. And World Univ & Sch would like to plan for and develop a Universal Translator building on Google Translate, starting with the current Wikipedia languages.
World University and School lists Wikiversity and a variety of other open educational resources here: http://worlduniversity.wikia.com/wiki/Courses#Course_listings.27_aggregates.
World University and School, for its academic side, focuses on these great universities' open course ware: http://worlduniversity.wikia.com/wiki/Courses#University_course_listings but it's open to all great university content. World University and School aspires to come into conversation with great universities.
While like Wikiversity, WUaS will link all levels (elementary, middle school, high school, etc.), of great, open, free, course ware, its main focus is on the University level, with a further focus, again, on great universities' open course ware, as well as networking with these, for web cameras in classrooms.
These are just a few differences between Wikiversity and WUaS.
As an expert on Wikipedia, I'm curious about some of your thoughts about this, and WUaS.
Thanks again for a fascinating presentation on your book at Harvard.
Sincerely,
Scott
http://scottmacleod.com
*
Here's Harvard Law Professor Charlie Nesson's blog post about Reagle's "On Good Faith Collaboration" - http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/nesson/2010/10/19/community-of-good-faith/
(http://scott-macleod.blogspot.com/2010/10/gentiana-crinita-differences-between.html - October 20, 2010)
Thanks for your reply and question, and thanks again for a fascinating Harvard talk (http://cyber.law.harvard.edu/events/luncheon/2010/10/reagle). Your new book - "Good Faith Collaboration: The Culture of Wikipedia," also partly available here in free dissertation form http://reagle.org/joseph/blog/social/wikipedia/annc-in-good-faith - on the culture of Wikipedia looks fascinating, and very relevant to WUaS ahead. Here are a few, main differences between Wikiversity (which like Wikipedia, is part of the Wikimedia project) and World University and School.
Here's Wikiversity's Wikipedia page: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikiversity. Its primary goals are to
* "Create and host a range of free-content, multilingual learning materials/resources, for all age groups in all languages.
* Host scholarly/learning projects and communities that support these materials.
The Wikiversity e-Learning model places emphasis on "learning groups" and "learning by doing"
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikiversity)."
World University & School is different from Wikiversity (http://en.wikiversity.org/wiki/Wikiversity:Main_Page) in the following ways, as far as I know:
World University & School is planning to offer free, online degrees for some matriculating classes in 2014 - B.A. Law, M.D. and Ph.D. degrees. This can occur in video, and interactively in virtual worlds like Second Life, where WUaS becomes a kind of meta-directory. To do this, WUaS is planning to collaborate with Berkeley Webcast, MIT OCW and other great open course ware for academic standards. In January, WUaS will offer, concurrently with U.C. Berkeley, a Biological Anthropology course for WUaS credit, but not yet for degrees. WUaS already links a free, on-the-ground Harvard doctoral degree in education for 25 students in 2011 and 2012 - http://worlduniversity.wikia.com/wiki/Courses#Free_Ph.D.s .
World University & School also facilitates free, people-to-people teaching and learning. If you, for example, want to teach a course to your web camera, or in a virtual world, post it to a video-hosting site, and add it here: http://worlduniversity.wikia.com/wiki/Courses#Individual_courses . So on the first, main page (*http://worlduniversity.wikia.com/wiki/Courses), WUaS is course-centric, unlike Wikiversity.
World University & School already has many open, free teaching and learning resources which are quite different from Wikiversity current content, that I have seen. Unlike Wikiversity, World University and School's main pages are focused in specific ways; here are the main pages:
*http://worlduniversity.wikia.com/wiki/World_University
*http://worlduniversity.wikia.com/wiki/Courses
*http://worlduniversity.wikia.com/wiki/Subjects
*http://worlduniversity.wikia.com/wiki/Languages
*http://worlduniversity.wikia.com/wiki/Library_Resources
*http://worlduniversity.wikia.com/wiki/Nation_States
*http://worlduniversity.wikia.com/wiki/You_at_World_University
*http://worlduniversity.wikia.com/wiki/Educational_Software
*http://worlduniversity.wikia.com/wiki/Museums
*http://worlduniversity.wikia.com/wiki/Research
*http://worlduniversity.wikia.com/wiki/Hardware_Resource_Possibilities
*http://worlduniversity.wikia.com/wiki/World_University_Foundation
*http://worlduniversity.wikia.com/wiki/SUBJECT_TEMPLATE
The openness of the WUaS Subject Template, where one creates a new subject at WUaS, allows individuals to develop a new interdisciplinary subject in ANYTHING. The Subject Template is also key to understanding WUaS. MIT OCW, Berkeley Webcast, Yale OYC and Stanford Engineering Everywhere, for example, are anchors for WUaS' academic focus at the Subject Template, and ANY subject is possible. The Subject Template will become a basis for Musical Instruments (http://worlduniversity.wikia.com/wiki/World_University_Music_School) and Languages.
WUaS would like to list links to all open, free libraries (http://worlduniversity.wikia.com/wiki/Library_Resources) and musems in the world (http://worlduniversity.wikia.com/wiki/Museums) as teaching and learning resources. And World Univ. & Sch is generating a great list of free, open Educational Software (http://worlduniversity.wikia.com/wiki/Educational_Software), none of which Wikiversity has that I know of. World University and School also has a main Research page: http://worlduniversity.wikia.com/wiki/Research
In addition, World University & School is planning to be in all 3,000-8,000 languages, unlike Wikiversity, which is in just a few. Wikipedia, by way of comparison, is in around 272. And World Univ & Sch would like to plan for and develop a Universal Translator building on Google Translate, starting with the current Wikipedia languages.
World University and School lists Wikiversity and a variety of other open educational resources here: http://worlduniversity.wikia.com/wiki/Courses#Course_listings.27_aggregates.
World University and School, for its academic side, focuses on these great universities' open course ware: http://worlduniversity.wikia.com/wiki/Courses#University_course_listings but it's open to all great university content. World University and School aspires to come into conversation with great universities.
While like Wikiversity, WUaS will link all levels (elementary, middle school, high school, etc.), of great, open, free, course ware, its main focus is on the University level, with a further focus, again, on great universities' open course ware, as well as networking with these, for web cameras in classrooms.
These are just a few differences between Wikiversity and WUaS.
As an expert on Wikipedia, I'm curious about some of your thoughts about this, and WUaS.
Thanks again for a fascinating presentation on your book at Harvard.
Sincerely,
Scott
http://scottmacleod.com
*
Here's Harvard Law Professor Charlie Nesson's blog post about Reagle's "On Good Faith Collaboration" - http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/nesson/2010/10/19/community-of-good-faith/
(http://scott-macleod.blogspot.com/2010/10/gentiana-crinita-differences-between.html - October 20, 2010)
Eastern Sierra Autumn: What's new about communication in digital, virtual worlds, Qualities of communication, Free from Modern Conditions
Harbin ethnography:
... The implications, digitally, for western philosophy in terms of understanding, with veracity, ideas, knowledge generation and representations of reality, and thinking, vis-a-vis epistemology, metaphysics as well as ontology – in the one now - are linguistic in terms of new kinds of narrativity, vis-a-vis the creative and generative possibilities of words and language, and, for example, especially metaphor (Rorty 1989:48), currently mediated digitally, - with the possibility for ongoing conversations about anything that finds form, for example, in a virtual Harbin, - emerging, as it does, out of the milieu of the radical 1960s.
What's new about communication in digital, virtual worlds on the internet, vis-a-vis this ethnographic history of actual and virtual Harbin Hot Springs, are the qualities of communication possibilities in multimedia virtual worlds, now making possible brain-to-brain, bodymind-to-bodymind, and so consciousness-to-consciousness communication with headsets, all in real time, via a distributed, worldwide, communication network ,as conversation, - giving new significance to the concept of virtual. While biological, communication processes are very old, across multiple species, the 1960s in response to modernity, Harbin Hot Springs' emergence from this, as well as the conversations about virtuality which emerge in interactive, digital worlds are new, and 'converse' with each other in unique ways, due to their emergence, both temporally and processually (Cerwonka and Malkki 2007). While at times free from the modern conditions emerging from a technological, rational, bureaucratic, legal order (Weber), inclusive now of capital and knowledge 'regimes,' especially in their virtual, liminal aspects (Victor Turner), the virtual nevertheless, here, vis-a-vis clothing-optional, virtual, Harbin Hot Spring's New Age retreat, gives form to ongoing oneness, in the here and now, in the Harbin warm pool, and potentially from your own bathtub as well, vis-a-vis the relaxation response (Benson, 1972 - who was scientifically studying Transcendental Meditation), and is informed by novel and singular, digital processes, vis-a-vis language and communication.
I coin the phrase 'Virtual Harbin Communication' here to characterize sociocultural processes in digital place and time, emerging out of the freedom seeking movements of the 1960s, and giving rise to the emergence of virtual Harbin, with which the pools (as well as psychedelics, for example – e.g. mushroom picking in the autumn in some parts of the world) in conjunction with developing, virtual world technologies, may give form to, vis-a-vis multiple, new kinds of communication, connectedness and beneficial symbolizating processes, understood in a freeing sense, as consciousness – especially vis-a-vis the relaxation response. ...
(http://scott-macleod.blogspot.com/2010/10/eastern-sierra-autumn-whats-new-about.html - October 20, 2010)
... The implications, digitally, for western philosophy in terms of understanding, with veracity, ideas, knowledge generation and representations of reality, and thinking, vis-a-vis epistemology, metaphysics as well as ontology – in the one now - are linguistic in terms of new kinds of narrativity, vis-a-vis the creative and generative possibilities of words and language, and, for example, especially metaphor (Rorty 1989:48), currently mediated digitally, - with the possibility for ongoing conversations about anything that finds form, for example, in a virtual Harbin, - emerging, as it does, out of the milieu of the radical 1960s.
What's new about communication in digital, virtual worlds on the internet, vis-a-vis this ethnographic history of actual and virtual Harbin Hot Springs, are the qualities of communication possibilities in multimedia virtual worlds, now making possible brain-to-brain, bodymind-to-bodymind, and so consciousness-to-consciousness communication with headsets, all in real time, via a distributed, worldwide, communication network ,as conversation, - giving new significance to the concept of virtual. While biological, communication processes are very old, across multiple species, the 1960s in response to modernity, Harbin Hot Springs' emergence from this, as well as the conversations about virtuality which emerge in interactive, digital worlds are new, and 'converse' with each other in unique ways, due to their emergence, both temporally and processually (Cerwonka and Malkki 2007). While at times free from the modern conditions emerging from a technological, rational, bureaucratic, legal order (Weber), inclusive now of capital and knowledge 'regimes,' especially in their virtual, liminal aspects (Victor Turner), the virtual nevertheless, here, vis-a-vis clothing-optional, virtual, Harbin Hot Spring's New Age retreat, gives form to ongoing oneness, in the here and now, in the Harbin warm pool, and potentially from your own bathtub as well, vis-a-vis the relaxation response (Benson, 1972 - who was scientifically studying Transcendental Meditation), and is informed by novel and singular, digital processes, vis-a-vis language and communication.
I coin the phrase 'Virtual Harbin Communication' here to characterize sociocultural processes in digital place and time, emerging out of the freedom seeking movements of the 1960s, and giving rise to the emergence of virtual Harbin, with which the pools (as well as psychedelics, for example – e.g. mushroom picking in the autumn in some parts of the world) in conjunction with developing, virtual world technologies, may give form to, vis-a-vis multiple, new kinds of communication, connectedness and beneficial symbolizating processes, understood in a freeing sense, as consciousness – especially vis-a-vis the relaxation response. ...
(http://scott-macleod.blogspot.com/2010/10/eastern-sierra-autumn-whats-new-about.html - October 20, 2010)
Tuesday, October 19, 2010
Crustose lichen: Connecting consciousnesses (Tan Le's Headset), Avatar agency (e.g. Rorty example), Communication, Language, Virtual Worlds
Harbin ethnography:
... Thus agency, imagination and the milieu originating out of the 1960s give form to ongoing, potential generation of countercultural Harbin, as well as cyber-hippy, avatar agency.
Not only can these digital, communication technologies via the internet make possible connecting consciousnesses (e.g. Tan Le's “Tan Le: A headset that reads your brainwaves” TED Talk: http://www.ted.com/talks/tan_le_a_headset_that_reads_your_brainwaves.html, and Andrew Junker's Brainfingers - http://brainfingers.com) – as well as make potential avatar agency (e.g. in the Rorty example above), and now potentially in virtual worlds, they also open the possibility for developing, digital communication creativity and innovation via computer languages. Using Tan Le's headset, one could conceivably be creating virtual objects, or mentally articulating words which are then digitally represented, directly with one's mind in real time in a virtual world, together with other end users, even while on psylocybin in mushrooms. For example, in virtual Harbin, with your brain on a headset, you could be building the Taj Mahal, while I create the Ganges river, streaming from the infinite distance of way over there, coiling around, kundalini-serpent-like your Taj Mahal, and streaming off into infinite timelessness up there some nowhere. While I have suggested that languages' emergence in human primates (vis-a-vis Professor Terrence Deacon's “The Symbolic Species: The Co-evolution of Brain and Language“ (1997)) is perhaps the starting point for these current, remarkable, digital developments in communication processes, especially virtual worlds like OpenSimulator and Second Life, the influence of human language, vis-a-vis the expressions of virtual, now digital, beyond-the-significance-of-signs' signifiers can now become a Harbin melody in the form of virtual Harbin. Vis-a-vis virtual Harbin, a kind of New Age, digital, Om oasis, from one's home bathtub especially – for the relaxation response - and with a brain-computer head set, the ongoing generation of virtual worlds with actual Harbin as a seed, becomes possible, similar to the way Vedic traditions (in India) have imagined (which Upanishad, or Veda, and heard about at Harbin?), now instantiated in multimedia (Packer and Jordan 2001 – e.g. interactivity, integration, immersion, hypermedia and new forms of narrativity) forms, especially in virtual worlds. The implications, digitally, for western philosophy in terms of understanding, with veracity, ideas, knowledge generation and representations of reality, and thinking, vis-a-vis epistemology, metaphysics as well as ontology – in the one now - are linguistic in terms of new kinds of narrativity, vis-a-vis the creative and generative possibilities of words and language, and, for example, especially metaphor (Rorty 1989:48), currently mediated digitally, - with the possibility for ongoing conversations about anything that finds form, for example, in a virtual Harbin, - emerging, as it does, out of the milieu of the radical 1960s.
What's new about communication in digital, virtual worlds on the internet, vis-a-vis this ethnographic history of actual and virtual Harbin Hot Springs, are the qualities of communication possibilities in multimedia virtual worlds, now making possible brain-to-brain, bodymind-to-bodymind, and so consciousness-to-consciousness communication with headsets, all in real time, via a distributed, worldwide, communication network ,as conversation, - giving new significance to the concept of virtual. ...
(http://scott-macleod.blogspot.com/2010/10/crustose-lichen-connecting.html - October 19, 2010)
... Thus agency, imagination and the milieu originating out of the 1960s give form to ongoing, potential generation of countercultural Harbin, as well as cyber-hippy, avatar agency.
Not only can these digital, communication technologies via the internet make possible connecting consciousnesses (e.g. Tan Le's “Tan Le: A headset that reads your brainwaves” TED Talk: http://www.ted.com/talks/tan_le_a_headset_that_reads_your_brainwaves.html, and Andrew Junker's Brainfingers - http://brainfingers.com) – as well as make potential avatar agency (e.g. in the Rorty example above), and now potentially in virtual worlds, they also open the possibility for developing, digital communication creativity and innovation via computer languages. Using Tan Le's headset, one could conceivably be creating virtual objects, or mentally articulating words which are then digitally represented, directly with one's mind in real time in a virtual world, together with other end users, even while on psylocybin in mushrooms. For example, in virtual Harbin, with your brain on a headset, you could be building the Taj Mahal, while I create the Ganges river, streaming from the infinite distance of way over there, coiling around, kundalini-serpent-like your Taj Mahal, and streaming off into infinite timelessness up there some nowhere. While I have suggested that languages' emergence in human primates (vis-a-vis Professor Terrence Deacon's “The Symbolic Species: The Co-evolution of Brain and Language“ (1997)) is perhaps the starting point for these current, remarkable, digital developments in communication processes, especially virtual worlds like OpenSimulator and Second Life, the influence of human language, vis-a-vis the expressions of virtual, now digital, beyond-the-significance-of-signs' signifiers can now become a Harbin melody in the form of virtual Harbin. Vis-a-vis virtual Harbin, a kind of New Age, digital, Om oasis, from one's home bathtub especially – for the relaxation response - and with a brain-computer head set, the ongoing generation of virtual worlds with actual Harbin as a seed, becomes possible, similar to the way Vedic traditions (in India) have imagined (which Upanishad, or Veda, and heard about at Harbin?), now instantiated in multimedia (Packer and Jordan 2001 – e.g. interactivity, integration, immersion, hypermedia and new forms of narrativity) forms, especially in virtual worlds. The implications, digitally, for western philosophy in terms of understanding, with veracity, ideas, knowledge generation and representations of reality, and thinking, vis-a-vis epistemology, metaphysics as well as ontology – in the one now - are linguistic in terms of new kinds of narrativity, vis-a-vis the creative and generative possibilities of words and language, and, for example, especially metaphor (Rorty 1989:48), currently mediated digitally, - with the possibility for ongoing conversations about anything that finds form, for example, in a virtual Harbin, - emerging, as it does, out of the milieu of the radical 1960s.
What's new about communication in digital, virtual worlds on the internet, vis-a-vis this ethnographic history of actual and virtual Harbin Hot Springs, are the qualities of communication possibilities in multimedia virtual worlds, now making possible brain-to-brain, bodymind-to-bodymind, and so consciousness-to-consciousness communication with headsets, all in real time, via a distributed, worldwide, communication network ,as conversation, - giving new significance to the concept of virtual. ...
(http://scott-macleod.blogspot.com/2010/10/crustose-lichen-connecting.html - October 19, 2010)
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