Thank you
Randy,
I am honored that you visited my page... it's kinda like having Paul McCartney come to watch you perform at the school talent show or something. I hope my list has value-added... I think it does because every time I find an "extensive" list of free online econ content I find that 95% of is not suitable to base an actual course around. Once I integrate several more lists on it I will try to start publicizing it to econ instructors.
I am finding this to be a great experience ... the world thanks you for all that you have done.
If you have the time I do have a couple of questions...
1. There are obviously network externalities at work with these sights... the more people use them the more valuable they get. So I am wondering what, if any, are the "competing" sights that educators may be visting to connect with each other?
2. How does WE support itself? Is there any chance funding could be cut in the future?
Thanks again.
Cheers,
--Brian Evans 10:03, 3 May 2009 (UTC)
- Hi Brian,
Ahh, the Paul McCartney reference - sounds great, and I'll hang onto it for awhile! <smile>
Right now, most of the materials are snippets - you're right....but we are moving into the next phase of our strategy....As of May 1, the project has moved to an International Centre for Open Education / OER Foundation based in New Zealand. It is still affiliated with the Commonwealth of Learning. We are moving to a membership model, where we will be seeking to engage with educational institutions (i.e., tertiary education - universities and colleges) to start to have their curriculum development, at least in part, done on the wiki. A cluster of 5 people can generate a minimum return of 30% cost-savings, or reduction in time-to-market. Moreover, there will be considerable networking and joint proposal development opportunities between the partners who share like values, etc.
Regarding your questions, I'm not sure that I understand Q1., so, if you could rephrase, that would be very helpful.
Regarding Q2, at this point, WE has 'supported itself' primarily through the Commonwealth of Learning, in terms of infrastructure support and a full-time project leader. In future, as the OER Foundation gets up and running, there is likely to be 3-5 core staff, with a fairly small annual budget. The organization will be primarily virtual and highly-leveraged, working with WikiEducators around the globe on a project basis. The educational members I spoke above, will provide membership fees to support the core operations, and other projects will be funded through proposal development. If you are interested in a particular project - your own, your groups, or something else, please do let us know, and we'll be happy to provide direction and support for you to obtain financial resources for it. So, the WikiEd project will not fail for budgetary reasons, because right now it is running nicely on a very very small level of funding....Community engagement and ownership is key, and we invite you to become more involved, and invite your friends... <smile> -- Randy Fisher 21:12, 4 May 2009 (UTC)
