A Great Babbling Bazaar

• Brad Payne & Hugh McGuire• Richmond, VA• November 2, 2016

@bdolor @hughmcguire#OpenEd16

A Great Babbling Bazaar

‘The Cathedral & The Bazaar’ by Hades2K (Flickr) is licenced CC-BY-SA

Why Open Up the Publishing Process?

¯\_(ツ)_/¯ because...• It's 2016

• It’s open

• It already works for Open Source Software (OSS)

• It’s likely to increase the quality and quantity of OER (Network

Effect)

How would you do it?

¯\_(ツ)_/¯ • A Stigmergic Framework

“...cannot communicate directly with one another, but rather must engage indirectly via a medium.”“...indirect communication based on modification of the environment.”“...a hint-based system”

Stigmergy https://wiki.p2pfoundation.net/Stigmergy is licensed CC-BY-SA

Terms

Stigmergy

‘Ant paths built from pheromone trails’ by Mehmet Karatay (Wikipedia) is licensed CC-BY-SA

In the 50's French biologist Pierre-Paul Grassé defined stigmergy as “the stimulation of the workers by the very performances they have achieved”.

"The concept of stigmergy provides a theory for explaining how disparate, distributed, ad hoc contributions from individuals could lead to the emergence

of large collaborative enterprises"

X. Cui, J. Beaver, J. Treadwell, T. Potok and L. Pullum, “A Stigmergy Approach for Open Source Software Developer Community Simulation,” Computational Science and Engineering, 2009. CSE ’09. International Conference on, Vancouver, BC, 2009, pp. 602-606. doi: 10.1109/CSE.2009.288

Assumptions

Ants Matter

‘Ant paths built from pheromone trails’ by Mehmet Karatay (Wikipedia) is licensed CC-BY-SA

Caulfield, M., Choral Explanations and OER: A Summary of Thinking to Date https://hapgood.us/2016/07/12/choral-explanations-and-oer-a-summary-of-thinking-to-date/

“What about the production side of the equation? How do choral explanations fit into a new model of producing texts? Part of the answer can be found in the

concept of stigmergy.”

“The future of the sustainable development of effective OER will be characterized by stigmergy”

Wiley, D., OER: Some Questions and Answers http://opencontent.org/blog/archives/4529

Examples

Stigmergy

Platform Stigmergic pattern (traces)

Ant pheromones

Github list of previous commits

Wiki list of previous edits

Pressbooks list of post revisions

Examples of Stigmergy - wiki

Examples of Stigmergy - github

Examples of Stigmergy - pressbooks

Current status of collaborative elements in Pressbooks, Mediawiki and Github

Problem Definition

¯\_(ツ)_/¯ How do we make quality OER given that the tools/systems/infrastructure to support an open academic publishing process are in their infancy?

Proposition

\ (•◡•) /• Look at what works in Open Source Software (OSS)

• Look at how simple insects make complicated things (stigmergy)

• Listen to what faculty need

• Borrow, build and assemble

Assumptions

1. OSS Influences OER

Wiley, D. (26). Open source, openness, and higher education. Innovate Journal of Online Education, 3(1).

“Open source software has influenced, and continues to effect the creation of open educational resources (OER), from the very specific ways to openly licence

a resource to a more broad culture of openness.”

“Because for years we have imagined (or at least most people I know have imagined) an approach to OER production that looks like wiki or open source

code production.”

Caulfield, M., Choral Explanations and OER: A Summary of Thinking to Date https://hapgood.us/2016/07/12/choral-explanations-and-oer-a-summary-of-thinking-to-date/

Assumptions

2. Tools Matter

Wiley, D. Examining the Reuse of Open Textbooks http://www.irrodl.org/index.php/irrodl/article/view/1137/2130

“Software development has transitioned from a predominantly solo activity of developing standalone programs, to a highly distributed and collaborative approach that depends on or contributes to large and complex software

ecosystems.”

“If this is the case, it stands to reason that the easier it becomes to revise, the more revisions will take place.”

M. A. Storey; A. Zagalsky; F. Filho; L. Singer; D. German, “How Social and Communication Channels Shape and Challenge a Participatory Culture in Software Development,” in IEEE Transactions on Software Engineering , vol.PP, no.99, pp.1-1 doi: 10.1109/TSE.2016.2584053

Assumptions

3. Process Matters

“...until the focus of OER is on “production” instead of “reuse” it could not be considered a mainstream adoption.”

Daniel, J. Retrieved from Measuring Use and Creation of Open Educational Resources in Higher Education http://www.irrodl.org/index.php/irrodl/article/view/1573/2637

An Introduction to the Bazaar

Anyone with an internet connection can:

● Download my code ● View every edit I've made, ● View every contribution I've made ● View my profile (who I follow, what repos I like)● View any issue or bug with your code

Grand Bazaar by Albert Skibinski (Flickr) is licensed CC-BY

An Introduction to the Bazaar

Any authenticated user (with a Github account) can:

● Follow me ● ‘Star’ my repository● ‘Watch’ my code (get notifications for every change)● Open up a bug report or an issue● Make a Pull Request (a request to make a change)

Grand Bazaar by Albert Skibinski (Flickr) is licensed CC-BY

Stigmergy requires the publishing process be open

How comfortable are you with that?

Feedback

https://urls.bccampus.ca/ants

Thank You

https://bradpayne.ca@bdolor#OpenEd16