[P2P-F] updating the status of University Open

Wed Jul 27 17:15:52 CEST 2011

Thank you so much for sharing these really fascinating developments!

Would you mind if I share this on the p2p blog?

If you're on the empyre list this week, you will read my 'p2p' confession
...

Michel

On Wed, Jul 27, 2011 at 9:14 PM, Saul Albert <saul at thepeoplespeak.org.uk>wrote:

> 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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