This posting could have led in a number of directions. Kim seeded a direction when he indicated that it would be productive to discuss some of the motivators for development and use of FLOSS based on just doing “the right thing.” I believe that we did pursue his suggestion, but obviously not fully.
The two principal directions that I saw the comments in this posting take were around how to make OER and FLOSS an important feature in African development, and how might commons-based peer production be used to impact education and society?
How do we make the future happen for Africa using free content? There are significant access issues. How can OER communities be engaged in such a way that they develop content so they are coherent with the development of positive use patterns in Africa? Kim pointed to two perspectives on how to approach this issue:
- ALL investment should go into enabling access. Only then do we even think about content, and enable this via the local communities. Actually, it is not about content-it is about learning activities, which will be greatly enhanced when it is possible to engage with the global knowledge society.
- Focus on developing (libre) learning resources among those who have access. These automatically become a foundation as soon as new communities gain access. Moreover, in this process, local skills will be developed to take it forward.
Is there the need to develop curriculum around commons-based peer development? Kim responded positively to this question, but drilled down into another related question that pointed directly to the larger potential of impact CBPP.
Would it help to generate a culture that supports and actively promotes peer development, investment in technologies that support collaborative creation, law that favors (reduces barriers and creates incentives) community production, etc? Kim responded with the following questions:
- Would it help what? (Reduce inequalities of access to knowledge/learning?)
- Whom would it help in what way? (Those that are ahead already may simply move further ahead together at a faster rate.)
- When? (Only after people have physical access to computers and the Internet?)
- Why do we think this is important? (Will it lead to a sustainable planet and world peace?)
- 833 reads
