[OSGeo-Edu] Discussion of recommended standards for OSGeo educational material

[Ned Horning]

Chralie,

I think this is an approach that is worth throwing into the mix. It 
would be neat if someone or a group within OSGeo could work with the 
Wikieducator folks. I'm not a big fan of Wiki publishing but that's 
mostly because I haven't had much luck with previous Wiki experiences. 
For some groups a Wiki approach will work well. My gut feeling is that 
the Wiki platform may work for collecting and managing content but I 
don't think the Wiki community approach is ideal for writing books and 
training material because it's too complex. Some of this probably stems 
from my ignorance of what makes successful Wiki projects work.

Ned

Charlie Schweik wrote:
> Hi everyone- 
>
> Apologies in advance for a lengthy note. Anyone who has educational
> content to share or may in the future -- this note is for you. And make
> sure you see the request IN CAPS at the bottom -- I'm asking you all to
> add your names on a wiki page about preferred content formats. 
>
> (This loosely links to the current thread by Landon about Docbook-HTML)
>
> A few weeks back Tyler was contacted by a group called
> "wikieducator.org". They are a broader effort trying to develop open
> access educational content using a wiki platform. They are supported by
> an international group called the Commonwealth of Learning
> (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Commonwealth_of_Learning). They were
> explaining they also have a connection to the Wikipedia foundation
> somehow.
>
> I think they contacted Tyler first because they were interested adding
> some web-based geographic functionality to their wiki. But the
> conversation also turned to the issues we've been discussing -- getting
> free educational material online for others to get to, and also how to
> allow for new derivative works. The wiki format is their approach
> (obviously). In our discussions, they convinced me that new derivatives
> are possible and manageable in a wiki format. I'm still not sure about
> the ability to search for modules easily in a wiki though (looking a few
> years, probably down the road). But they appear to have resources, and
> if we worked with them we might be able to encourage new searching
> components to be developed perhaps.
>
> So this led back to the question of whether we wanted to consider wiki
> pages (and maybe even their platform) for new tutorial development. They
> have tutorials on how to develop wiki content.
>
> So, it appears we still are trying to get our arms around this idea of
> some kind of recommended standard for content. And a question now is
> whether we want to try and join forces with this larger wikieducator
> effort. We have that opportunity if we want to take it. We could
> establish an OSGeo education "Identity Page" on their site like
> http://www.wikieducator.org/Otago_Polytechnic.
>
> But I've added this as a task (TASK G) again on our to do list.
> http://wiki.osgeo.org/wiki/Education_Committee_Work_Program#TASK_G._CONTENT_FORMAT_RECOMMENDATIONS_FOR_EDUCATIONAL_MATERIAL
>
> I've also created a new wiki page for us to debate the pros and cons of
> various options. I've added my own thoughts.
> http://wiki.osgeo.org/wiki/Possible_edu_content_format_standards
>
> IN SHORT, TWO REQUESTS:
>
> 1) PLEASE VISIT
> http://wiki.osgeo.org/wiki/Possible_edu_content_format_standards AND ADD
> YOUR NAME TO YOUR PREFERRED FORMAT (Latex, DocBook, Open Office Writer,
> Wiki, OTHER? ADD ANY PROS/CONS YOU SEE FOR ANY FORMATS AS WELL. 
>
> 2) ALSO, I'M CURIOUS WHAT OTHER PEOPLE THINK ABOUT A POSSIBLE LINK TO
> THE WIKIEDUCATOR PROJECT. The challenge is that this will probably
> require us to adopt the wiki format. The last section on the above wiki
> page regarding that for people's feeback.
>
> Cheers
> Charlie
>
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