Sharing is the nature of creation

Sharing is the nature of creation

Jim Groom’s talk was all about the revolution started when people began sharing, mixing and remixing other people’s work. His point is that syndication is key to that sharing system and to imagine open access educational systems.

He starts with a video of the so-called “RIP: the Remix Manifesto“

Jim quoted Jefferson: “All generations need a new revolution”. Right: we are in the midst of a revolution… The problem is that current copyright law does not allow it! Creative Commons does give some freedom in a way… but it doesn’t solve all problems.

Then, Jim added some ideas from the WPmu installation he got at UMW (UMW Blogs), which is being called a platform for personal publishing. Faculty and students reach a total of 2700+ users with over 2,200 blogs being published currently.

First, at UMW they give everybody the chance to create a blog (or perhaps more), **and** to map a blog with a user-defined internet domain. This way, I may host antonio.com at UMW and at the same time retain full control over my name and everything associated with it (including results form Google searches). Also, I could leave and take my full production(s) away. Thus I have strong motivation to start (and continue) publishing within my institution’s wall, and I don’t feel threatened by my institution’s ownership of my content, over which I have full control. That’s a very strong tenet, and it’s not all. Users use UMW Blogs because, in essence, it is simple to do so, and it’s all theirs. So, ownership of publication is all important!

{In a latest post –Building the Syndication Bus: Plugin Ingredientes– Jim published a list of plugins for WPmu to function that way. I reposted the image of the bus revolution he loves!}

In fact, Jim is a strong critic of current Learning Management Systems (see my discussion with him, earlier last year, starting with my reply about his post “The revolution will be a bus“…). He argues that LMS’s close students’ production within a school’s walls, and does not give it the importance it deserves. In fact, at semester end, administration usually **deletes** students’ interactions in a class…

Summing up: Jim says “don’t give students an email, give everyone a domain!”

See Jim’s full presentation: Blogfesores 2009 – La presentación.

{Image credit: Revolution by Lawrence Whittemore}