Scott MacLeod's Anthropology of Information Technology & Counterculture: Baltic Marsh Orchid: 'Your Academy, Your Data, Your Courses - Custom Open edX Learning Management System (LMS) by Abstract Technology with AI' * I asked Google AI - "Could I build out in Open edX® sandbox Germany World University and School in German (https://wiki.worlduniversityandschool.org/wiki/Germany from https://wiki.worlduniversityandschool.org/wiki/Nation_States

Wednesday, July 1, 2026

Baltic Marsh Orchid: 'Your Academy, Your Data, Your Courses - Custom Open edX Learning Management System (LMS) by Abstract Technology with AI' * I asked Google AI - "Could I build out in Open edX® sandbox Germany World University and School in German (https://wiki.worlduniversityandschool.org/wiki/Germany from https://wiki.worlduniversityandschool.org/wiki/Nation_States - ...)

Dear Jaimin (and Stefania) at Abstract-Technology.de,

Thanks for your remarkable platform and builds. And greetings from the SF Bay Area. How are you doing?

'Your Academy, Your Data, Your Courses?'

I asked Google AI - "Could I build out in Open edX® sandbox Germany World University and School in German (https://wiki.worlduniversityandschool.org/wiki/Germany from https://wiki.worlduniversityandschool.org/wiki/Nation_States - and WUaS is planning online world class universities in each of all of ~200 countries and in their main languages, per the Olympics), translating courses from https://ocw.mit.edu/ and https://opencw.aprende.org/courses/translated-courses/ and to offer online free-to-students' (due to the Creative Commons 4 licensing of MIT OCW) Bachelor, PhD, Law, Medicine, IB high school / similar, AA / AS and Master's degrees to German students in German and in English, in communication with the German Ministry of Education, and at the same time do this in English too for American students and for speakers of English from all 200 countries?" Developing WUaS in German for free WUaS degrees in key to World Univ & Sch's planning to develop not only in all 200 countries' main languages, but also in all 7159 living languages for speakers of these in wiki schools for wiki-teaching and wiki-learning.

And Google AI replied -

"Yes, you can build out a World University and School (WU&S) instance using the Open edX Sandbox to translate and host MIT OpenCourseWare (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0) courses. Platforms like German UDS have successfully used Open edX to build online-first higher education. [1, 2, 3, 4, 5]

Translating and organizing course materials into full degree programs (Bachelor's, Master's, PhD, Medicine, Law, IB) involves specific logistical and legal steps:

1. The Open edX Platform

Sandbox & Deployment: You can use the Open edX Sandbox to test, build, and explore course-authoring features for free. To scale this to an actual university, you will need to host your own instance, as Open edX is free to use but requires your own infrastructure and maintenance. [1, 2]
Localization: The platform supports robust language localization, allowing you to easily offer the interface and course content in both German and English.

2. Licensing and Course Translations

MIT OCW License: Because MIT OpenCourseWare courses are typically licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0) license, you can translate them, adapt them, and share them for free, provided you give appropriate credit, do not use them for commercial gain, and license your adaptations under identical terms.
Course Sourcing: You can freely adapt materials directly from MIT OpenCourseWare and existing translations like OpenCW Aprende. [1, 2, 3, 4, 5]

3. Accreditation and Degrees

MIT OCW itself does not offer degrees, credits, or certifications. To legally grant accredited Bachelor, Master, PhD, and professional degrees in Germany, your institution must go through the formal state accreditation process (Akkreditierung) overseen by the German Ministry of Education (BMBF) and the German Council of Science and Humanities (Wissenschaftsrat). Similarly, to grant degrees to American students, you would need to meet the standards of US regional accrediting agencies. [1, 2, 3]

If you want, tell me:

What specific degree programs (e.g., Law, Medicine) are your top priorities?
Which stage of the Open edX course-building process would you like to explore first?

I can help you outline an actionable roadmap to get your initiative off the ground."

https://share.google/aimode/riEVYSoDTDbQE95eY

Fascinating and great, and MIT OCW CC-4 licensing says anyone can 1) share it, 2) adapt it eg with AI and ML - or Open edX, but 3) non-commercially, so World University and School as we accredit (and WUaS has the green light to accredit with Middle States Commission on Higher Education in the greater Philadelphia PA area, but this is a very long process) will seek reimbursement from all 200 countries' Ministries of Education per student per year, along the lines of what it costs to attend MIT itself (for the rich countries, and less for middle-income and developing countries). With your experience with developing the German University of Digital Science (German UDS), in what ways might you be able to guide World University and School on the Open edX platform in accrediting even in Germany potentially and with WUaS in German for German speakers (a significant translation process from MIT OCW in English, but made easier with AI and ML and machine translation, I posit), and possibly build this German accreditation into the creation of free online Bachelor's and Master's (new approaches to PhDs navigating AI and ML, and eg 2 year undergraduate AA / AS Associate of Arts / Associate of Science) WUaS degrees (online from home) beginning soon - September 1, 2026?

In the process of potentially developing these 2 World Univ & Sch initial degree-granting universities building on MIT OCW on the Open edX platform, how could we also develop these same free WUaS degrees say in Hindi (which I see you have professional working proficiency Jaimin from LinkedIN) for India World University and School (https://wiki.worlduniversityandschool.org/wiki/India planning free WUaS degrees in all 22 scheduled languages in India) and Latvia World University and School (https://wiki.worlduniversityandschool.org/wiki/Latvia - and just began this university yesterday - and see the letter at the top and blog post about further WUaS planning, and wiki-wise - https://scott-macleod.blogspot.com/2026/06/sea-holly-eryngium-maritimum.html), and potentially to matriculate students this autumn even? World University and School is also in Wikidata, Wikimedia's back end structured knowledge database in roughly 342 languages and datawise, regarding open wiki teaching and wiki learning from here - https://wiki.worlduniversityandschool.org/wiki/Subjects - planned in German and all 200 countries' main languages too +).

Startup still World University and School is seeking further to deploy with the full US federal toolkit, and just attended yesterday as Simplify Grants.gov webinar, but has no money to speak of whatsoever presently. Given all of this, how might we best explore proceeding?

Thanks, best regards, Alles Gute,

Scott

https://worlduniversityandschool.blogspot.com/search/label/Europe

https://worlduniversityandschool.blogspot.com/search/label/India

Tuesday, June 30, 2026

Sea holly (Eryngium maritimum): "It's been a very long time......" * * * Just created free-to-students' (wiki too) Latvia World University and School - https://wiki.worlduniversityandschool.org/wiki/Latvia - (https://wiki.worlduniversityandschool.org/wiki/Nation_States), building on MIT OCW in 7 languages, for free online WUaS degrees planned in the Latvian language (and as wiki schools too) - and potentially as Latvian students (from Latvia with a population of about 1.8 million people) travel nomadically around Latvia and Europe in Toyota Sienna minivans and similar studying for their free-to-students' 4 years' Bachelor, 2 years' AA / AS, 6 years'? PhD, 3 years' Law, 6 years' MD, 4 years' IB high school or similar, and 2 years' Master's degrees while underway (or from home). And as Latvians wiki teach and wiki-learn in Latvian as well (eg from and to - https://wiki.worlduniversityandschool.org/wiki/Subjects - in Latvian). WUaS is also in a #GrowWithGoogleWUaS program, for your information . . .

https://scott-macleod.blogspot.com/2026/06/sea-holly-eryngium-maritimum.html (in daily blog)

PPS

https://www.linkedin.com/in/jaiminpavashiya

https://www.linkedin.com/in/stefania-trabucchi-80110459/

- Scott GK MacLeod

Founder, President, CEO & Professor

at / of best STEAM CC licensed OCW, Wiki,

World University & School (WUaS)

- USPS US Post Office, PO Box 132, General Delivery, Canyon, CA 94516

1) non-profit 501(c)(3) Public Charity

best STEAM CC licensed OCW, Wiki,

wiki https://wiki.worlduniversityandschool.org/wiki/Subjects,

https://wiki.worlduniversityandschool.org/wiki/The_College_at_World_University_and_School

World University and School - http://worlduniversityandschool.org

- president@worlduniversityandschool.org

- https://twitter.com/WorldUnivAndSch

2) for profit general stock company WUaS Corporation in CA - http://worlduniversityandschool.org/AcademicPress.html

wuas_ceo@worlduniversityandschool.org

- https://twitter.com/WUaSPress

(o) 415 480 4577 (Google voice #) - sgkmacleod@worlduniversityandschool.org

alternate email: worldunivandsch@scottmacleod.com

(m) 412 478 0116 - sgkmacleod@gmail.com

World Univ & Sch Innovation Research -

- scottmacleod.com

- https://twitter.com/scottmacleod

- https://x.com/Q_YogaMacFlower/status/1815700381474689273

- http://www.linkedin.com/in/scottgkmacleod

- https://twitter.com/sgkmacleod (all 7,159 known living languages at WUaS)

- https://scott-macleod.blogspot.com/search/label/global%20university

- https://worlduniversityandschool.blogspot.com/search/label/global%20university

Your Academy, Your Data, Your Courses - Custom Open edX® LMS by Abstract Technology, Now Smarter with AI

Dear Sir/Madam,

Behind every learning platform is someone who cared enough to build something - courses, curricula, a real community of learners. We work with organisations who've done exactly that, and want a platform that finally matches your learning, your data, your academy and creating your platform using your exciting course content and the ambition behind it.

My name is Jaimin Pavashiya, and I work with Abstract Technology GmbH - a Europe-based Verified Open edX® Service Partner with over a decade of experience and 150+ deployments across universities, academies, enterprises, NGOs and public institutions.

We have been speaking recently with several organisations running Open edX through MOOC.IT, and the same pattern keeps surfacing - platforms held back on outdated release lines, with functionality that has simply not kept pace with what institutions actually need today.

The good news is straightforward - you do not need to change platforms. You need to change what sits around the platform.

Open edX has evolved dramatically, with every release bringing meaningful advances in learner experience, authoring, analytics, and AI. The current release, Ulmo, and the forthcoming Verawood are structural improvements that genuinely change what your platform can do. As an active contributor to the Open edX core, our team works at the source - meaning our clients always run current, supported releases and benefit directly from our involvement in shaping the platform's direction. Add a native Open edX mobile app and dedicated GDPR-compliant EU hosting, and the distance between where your platform sits today and where it could be becomes very clear.

We build complete, custom learning environments - clean migration from older release lines with no loss of content or learner data, AI-powered course creation and learner assistants, Payload CMS integration, and a setup tailored to your institution's goals. Not a template, not a generic deployment.

As a reference point, we built the entire online infrastructure for the German University of Digital Science - within one year, they were ranked #1 in international orientation in the SZ-Ranking 2026. Case study attached.

We are happy to offer a live demo (30 to 45 minutes) and a complimentary one-month trial of a fully configured Open edX® sandbox - no commitment required. Brochure attached for further context.

If any of this resonates, I would genuinely welcome a short conversation about where your platform could go next - simply share a few slots that work on your side, and we can take it from there.

Feel free to explore our services in the meantime at www.abstract-technology.de

Best regards,