Thank you so much for sharing these really fascinating developments!<br><br>Would you mind if I share this on the p2p blog?<br><br>If you're on the empyre list this week, you will read my 'p2p' confession ...<br>
<br>Michel<br><br><div class="gmail_quote">On Wed, Jul 27, 2011 at 9:14 PM, Saul Albert <span dir="ltr"><<a href="mailto:saul@thepeoplespeak.org.uk">saul@thepeoplespeak.org.uk</a>></span> wrote:<br><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin: 0pt 0pt 0pt 0.8ex; border-left: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204); padding-left: 1ex;">
Hi Michel,<div><br></div><div>Nice to hear from you again, and thanks for asking.</div><div><br></div><div><div class="gmail_quote"><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin: 0pt 0pt 0pt 0.8ex; border-left: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204); padding-left: 1ex;">
what is the status of the University Open and how has it evolved over the years,<br></blockquote><div><br></div><div>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').</div>
<div><br></div><div>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.</div>
<div><br></div><div>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.</div>
<div><br></div><div>I went off to start the people speak (<a href="http://thepeoplespeak.org.uk" target="_blank">http://thepeoplespeak.org.uk</a>) - 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 (<a href="http://www.schoolofeverything.com" target="_blank">www.schoolofeverything.com</a>) - 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:�<a href="http://www.alytusbiennial.com/" target="_blank">http://www.alytusbiennial.com/</a>.�</div>
<div><br></div><div>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.</div>
<div><br></div><div>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.�</div>
<div><br></div><div>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.�</div>
<div><br></div><div>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.�</div>
<div><br></div><div>Best,</div><div><br></div><font color="#888888"><div>Saul.</div></font></div></div>
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