Well, for a long time I have run my own blogging software - ever since Brian Lamb taught me about blogging!. But over the holiday I gave up, and am now hosting my blog with the fine folks at wordpress.com. Running the software, backing it up, migrating to new versions, applying security patches, etc., was fun for a while. But you know what? I just want my blog to work. I have other things to do in life.
Whether or not you’ve noticed, the URL of my blog is no longer http://opencontent.org/blog/ - it is now http://blog.opencontent.org/. The 301 Redirect should be working for all of you, but probably best to just go ahead and update the URL in your feedreader or bookmarks.
BTW, I would love to do the same with my Mediawiki install… Anybody know a good hosting service to which I can migrate my current Mediawiki?
Twice in the last week I’ve heard the phrase “free knowledge.” I understand that there are many people with more influence in the world than I who like this term (e.g., Jimmy Wales’s “Free Knowledge requires Free Software and Free File Formats“). In fact, I heard Jimmy use this phrase last week at the Shuttleworth/Soros/Hewlett-sponsored meeting in Cape Town. He was describing why he doesn’t like the term “content.” Because “content,” he said, sounds like a static something that can be packaged and shipped. And so he prefers the more living, breathing, dynamic term “knowledge,” which he uses to characterize sites like Wikipeida. Now, fully understanding that many of you could care less, I have to get this off my chest anyway… Continue reading ‘There’s No Such Thing as Free Knowledge’
Next Monday is the beginning of the Introduction to Open Education course! Hurray! We already have over 20 participants from major US instructional technology programs (Georgia, Indiana, George Mason, South Florida) and folks from six countries outside the US signed up to participate. I suppose the USU participants (my school) are all waiting for next week to sign up… =)
I’ve had someone (who isn’t a university student, and therefore doesn’t need or want credits) ask about receiving a certificate from the Center for Open and Sustainable Learning for successful completion of the experience. So here is what I’m going to do (sorry about the detail, but if you ever want to do this at your university the detail may come in handy):
1. If we call this a “non-credit workshop with a credit option,” then everything works well policy-wise / procedure-wise here at USU. And since the majority of the folks who are participating are not doing it for credit, this makes sense.
2. It turns out that the Center can charge as much or as little as it likes for “non-credit workshops” where credit is not being awarded.
3. Therefore, if you don’t need university credits but would like a certificate at the end of the experience saying that you “successfully completed” the workshop, I will invite you to make a $50 donation to the Center. If you do the specified work and successfully complete the course, you’ll then get an official certificate from the Center signed by me saying that you successfully completed the Introduction to Open Education workshop.
4. HOWEVER, if you would like the certificate but can’t afford the $50 donation, just email me to let me know you want to earn the certificate, and I’ll be happy to send you one at the end of the class for free (assuming you do all the work).
I’m really looking forward to the class! See you all next week!
My Freebase invites post was so popular, I’m offering Pownce invites now. Thanks to the dozens of you who asked for Freebase invites; sorry I couldn’t hook you all up.
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