[P2P-F] updating the status of University Open

Wed Jul 27 16:14:01 CEST 2011

Hi Michel,

Nice to hear from you again, and thanks for asking.

what is the status of the University Open and how has it evolved over the
> years,
>

Well, I guess it's dormant at the moment. A few years ago, after regular use
of the mailing list and wiki had stopped (which was the index of activity at
the Uo), I sent out an email asking if it was ok with people if I closed it
down (around the same time that the Copenhagen Free University closed it's
'doors').

There was an outcry - nobody wanted it offline, and there was a brief flurry
of activity again, then it died down. I guess many of the people who
invested their knowledge and time in the Uo wanted it maintained and for the
possibility of its future use to remain open. That's where it is... still
waiting for some activity.

That, however, is probably a technical description of its infrastructure.
The people who made it an interesting place to be for a few years
(2002-2006) are still around, and many have gone on to do interestingly
related things.

I went off to start the people speak (http://thepeoplespeak.org.uk) - which
was about convening collectives of people spontaneously - which was my
favourite part of the Uo process. Some other people went on to start the
School of Everything (www.schoolofeverything.com) - which started as a
social enterprise to stimulate mass peer-learning, but got derailed by
investors into becoming a kind of ebay for learning (which didn't work so
well). Now they're back to doing more interesting stuff. Others have gone on
to get involved in the World Congress of Data Miners and Travailleurs
Psychique: http://www.alytusbiennial.com/.

However, this is just a partial view of some of the things some people have
gone on to. Many of the people who got involved in the Uo, I still don't
know face to face, or I wouldn't be able to put a name to a wiki handle, so
what they're doing now is a mystery to me.

Personally, I found it to be one of the most empowering educational
experiences I've had, and now I'm back in formal education, I can see what a
tremendous freedom it was to share knowledge in a very self-directed and
multifarious way. I aspire to recapture that in the contexts I now move in
(academic conferences, formal research methods, ethics committees etc.)
which is a real challenge.

But I like the fact that nobody wanted it shut down, perhaps it's nice to
know that it's there if we need it. Quite possibly some people are still
using the Uo context, networks and knowledge to socialise their research.

I like the idea that the Uo might spring to life again at some point,
although I'm not sure what it would mean to start a self-institution for
socialised research these days. In many ways, that mission of the Uo seems
like the most obvious (even dominant) modus operandi of any contemporary
knowledge production process, and also, in some ways, an argument that is
used in justifying the social disinvestment in higher education evident in
the UK.

Best,

Saul.
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