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?

There is no such thing as disembodied knowledge. To know requires a knower, and what that knower knows is knowledge. Only a knower can know something; that is, only a knower can have knowledge. Now, a knower may make an attempt to create an externalization of what s/he knows – an artifact of their knowing. But this artifact of their knowing is no more knowledge than a fossilized dinosaur footprint or bone is a dinosaur. A webpage cannot know, a website cannot know, and even a highly interconnected, frequently updated website cannot know. Because we can only understand the “free” in “free knowledge” to mean “free from embodiment, free from the necessary prerequisite of a knower,” the entire idea of “free knowledge” is a contradiction in terms that means absolutely nothing.

And while I have great respect for the incredible resource that Wikipedia is, it is nothing more than that – a resource. Wikipedia is content, because at any point in time I can visit the page on economics and download, “package,” and “ship” it. Now, someone will immediately say, “but it will be updated, and then what you’ve shipped will miss out on these updates.” This is completely true, just like when I visit Wikipedia to learn something about economics, I don’t get an automated email the next day saying, “this paragraph you read yesterday has changed.” Just like when I purchase a textbook about economics I don’t get the updates included in the next edition of the book. The fact that the Wikipedia page is updated much more frequently than the textbook, and that these updates are freely available to me does not change the fact that Wikipedia and other websites are resources. A publicly accessible edit tab does not somehow make it magically possible to disembody knowledge from a knower – it simply makes it possible to update content very quickly and in a highly scalable way. The difference in the speed and scalability with which updates occur never allows the resource to cross an imaginary qualitative boundary which transforms static content into a knower.

Please note that my disdain for the term “free knowledge” has nothing to do with the seemingly eternal “free versus open” disagreement. The term “open knowledge” is equally without meaning. I chose the term “open content” very specifically. Websites, videos, podcasts, PDFs, and other files that can be transfered or streamed across the network show by the very fact that they can be transfered or streamed across the network show that they can be “packaged” and “shipped” via internet protocols. They are content. They are resources. They are artifacts. They are not knowledge.

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!

What does this attitude mean for people working in open educational resources?

Creative Commons is seeking an Executive Director for CC Learn, a new division that will focus on education, broadly defined — from kindergarten to graduate school, to lifelong learning. The mission of this new division will be to promote vigorous networks of Open Educational Resources: materials offered freely and openly for educators, students and self-learners to use, modify and re-use for teaching, learning and research.

More details. Too bad that in this day and age the person has to be located in San Fran… Shucks.

Q9: What should be the scope of the universities that open up their lecture materials? (Sample size=1,050)

• Just well-known public and private universities 17.2%
• As many public universities as possible 14.2%
• As many private universities as possible 3.4%
• As many public and private universities as possible 64.8%
• Other 0.4%

Two out of three surveyed felt that as many schools as possible should open access to their courses. I agre with them. =)

Unknown Quantity: A Real And Imaginary History of Algebra

Author: John Derbyshire

Year: 2006

Publisher: Joseph Henry Press

ISBN: 030909657X

This was an absolutely fascinating book that I had a very difficult time putting down each night… Many hours of sleep lost to its pages! The book wanders through lots of territory, including rings and fields, different algebras, etc. Derbyshire’s writing style is the perfect mix of fun historical narrative and clearly explained mathematics. The best thing about the book was the depth Derbyshire was willing to go into with the math and the clarity of his explanations – I very seldom felt either confused or like I wish he had given me more.