OPEN SOURCING

KNOWLEDGETOWARDS A UNIVERSITY 2.0

McLuhan• “Education, which should be helping youth to understand

and adapt to their revolutionary new environments, is instead being used merely as an instrument of cultural aggression, imposing upon retribalized youth the obsolescent visual values of the dying literate age. Our entire educational system is reactionary, oriented to past values and past technologies, and will likely continue so until the old generation relinquishes power. The generation gap is actually a chasm, separating not two age-groups but two vastly divergent cultures. I can understand the ferment in our schools because our educational system is totally rear-view mirror. It’s a dying and outdated system founded on literate values and fragmented and classified data totally unsuited to the needs of the first television generation”.

• LITERATE MODERNITY CLASHING WITH AN ELECTRONIC CULTURE OUTSIDE IT

• HE RECOGNISED DISRUPTIVE IMPACT OF ELECTRONIC TECHNOLOGY

• FOCUS ON FORM NOT CULTURAL DEPLOYMENT

• EDUCATION AND TV FOLLOW THE SAME BROADCAST MODEL

THE BROADCAST MODEL

• A MODEL OF ORGANIZATION OF INFORMATION PRODUCTION, DISTRIBUTION AND CONSUMPTION

• MASS PRODUCTION, DISSEMINATION AND CONSUMPTION

• ‘BIG MEDIA’, TOP-DOWN, ONE-TO-MANY, HUB-AND-SPOKE

• STANDARDISED, UNIFORM, FINISHED PRODUCTS

• SCARCITY MODEL WTH PRE-PRODUCTION FILTERS

• CLOSED, ELITIST, HIERARCHICAL STRUCTURES

• ECONOMIC, TECHNOLOGICAL, POLITICAL AND CULTURAL MONOPOLY

• ‘PUSH MEDIA’

• LECTURE, EXPERT VOICE, AUDIENCE AS RECEIVERS

THE UNIVERSITY AS A BROADCAST MEDIUM

• BROADCASTING AS A CULTURAL, NOT TECHNOLOGICAL PROCESS

• THE CHURCH AS A BROADCAST MEDIUM

• THE RELIGIOUS ORIGIN OF THE UNIVERSITIES

• THEIR BROADCAST STRUCTURE

INTERNAL BROADCASTING

• LATE 19TH-EARLY 20TH C: RISE OF MASS MEDIA AND MASS EDUCATION

• POST-WAR CONSOLIDATION

• MODERN MASS EDUCATION - A SYSTEM OF INTERNAL BROADCASTING TO STUDENTS

EXTERNAL BROADCASTING

• THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE GERMAN (‘HUMBOLDT’) MODEL AND THE MODERN RESEARCH UNIVERSITY

• AND THE INDUSTRIAL DIVISION OF LABOUR AND SPECIALIZED KNOWLEDGE CLASS

• THE DEVELOPMENT OF EXTERNAL BROADCASTING TO THE PUBLIC THROUGH PRINT MEDIA

IN SUMMARY

• … the modern higher education system followed a broadcast model, mass-producing educational experience for mass consumption by a mass of students, within a centralized, hierarchical, hub-and-spoke structure. Its lecturers formed a specialized class of professional knowledge-producers who conducted original research and disseminated it through established, accepted broadcast channels within print culture. And then everything changed.

THE DIGITAL REVOLUTION

• 4 KEY ELEMENTS:

• THE MATERIAL REVOLUTION IN THE PASSAGE TO A DIGITAL FORM

• CONVERGENCE AND HYBRIDITY LEADING TO AN ECOLOGICAL REVOLUTION IN MEDIA FORMS, CONTENT, EXPERIENCES

• A CULTURAL REVOLUTION MOVING FROM BROADCAST TO POST-BROADCAST-ERA

• A PERSONAL REVOLUTION, IN RISE OF ME-DIA

POST-BROADCASTING

• ‘SMALL MEDIA’BOTTOM-UP MICRO-PRODUCTION

• MULTIPLE MODES OF COMMUNICATION

• INDIVIDUAL AND PEER-BASED PRODUCTION

• HORIZONTAL RELATIONSHIPS OUTSIDE BROADCAST STRUCTURES

• PERSONALIZED PRODUCTS WITH A ‘PERPETUAL BETA’

• INFORMATIONAL ABUNDANCE, POST-SCARCITY, NEEDING POST-PRODUCTION FILTERS

• ‘PULL MEDIA’ – INDIVIDUALISED MEDIA ECOLOGIES

• OPEN ACESS TO PRODUCTION AND DISTRIBUTION

• WORLD OF CONVERSATIONS /COLLECTIVE INTELLIGENCE

• THE USER REPLACES THE AUDIENCE

LEADING TO

• … a transformation in the production, distribution, consumption and legitimation of knowledge. Every individual is an empowered producer and commentator and no longer needs to be an expert or an employed specialist to produce. Each individual also has far more capacity to find and collect information and multiple perspectives than in the broadcast era. Each individual has the ability to participate in debates and conversations about their interests and to share the forms of specialist knowledge they do possess.

• Similarly the collaborative production, distribution and consumption of information has also been massively empowered. Groups and networks are easier to form and are empowered to share information and produce content for themselves. The result is we are no longer in a world of informational scarcity nor a world where specialist groups have the monopoly on informational production and its legitimation nor the final say on its content.

HOW DOES THIS AFFECT THE UNIVERSITY?

• HOW DOES POST-BROADCAST TECHNOLOGY AND CULTURE IMPACT UPON:

• THE INTERNAL BROADCAST SYSTEM OF THE UNIVERSITY?

• AND ITS EXTERNAL BROADCAST RELATIONS?

INSIDE THE UNIVERSITY

• THE UNIVERSITY’S POOR USE OF DIGITAL TECHNOLOGY – WEB PAGES AND VLE’s

• THE FAILURE OF WEB 2.0: - PARTICIPATION CAN’T BE FORCED - INSTRUMENTAL ATTITUDE

• OUR DIGITAL LABOUR

• BUT A BIGGER PROBLEM…

WEB 2.0 VS BROADCAST SYSTEM

• COLLABORATION, SHARING, LINKING, TAKING AND USING

• MULTIPLE CENTRES AND PLACES OF PRODUCTION, DISTRIBUTION, CONSUMPTION

• INFORMATIONAL ABUNDANCE

• CONVERSATIONS, NO FINALITY, NO PRE-ORDAINED PRIVILEGE, COMMUNITY ASSESSMENT

USED AGAINST EDUCATION SYSTEM

• DISRUPTION OF BROADCAST-ERA STRUCTURES AND HIERARCHIES:

• USED IN CLASSES

• RATEMYPROFESSOR / FACEBOOK ABUSE

• FACEBOOK AS PLAGIARISM

• YOUTUBE VIDEOS

OUTSIDE THE UNIVERSITY

• THE RELATIONSHIP OF ACADEMIA TO THE PUBLIC…

• ACADEMIC PUBLISHING

• CONTROL OF THE DISCIPLINE

(1) ACADEMIC PUBLISHING

• PROBLEMS OF ACADEMIC PUBLISHING:

• (1) BROADCAST-ERA SCARCITY LIMITATIONS

• (2) POWER OF EDITORS AND REFEREES – CLIQUES, PATRONAGE, GATE-KEEPING, BLINKERS

• (3) LIMITED AUDIENCE – ACADEMIC MARKET

• (4) MARKET BIAS – WHAT WILL SELL /SERVING EXISTING TOPICS AND COURSES

• (5) EDITORIAL CONSERVATIVISM – LACK OF ORIGINALITY AND INNOVATION AND FOCUS ON TEXTBOOKS

• (6) DISCIPLINARY CONSERVATIVISM

• (7) MUCH UNREAD / MOST PRODUCED PURELY FOR REF / GLUT OF MEDIOCRITY AND POINTLESSNESS

• (8) ISSUE OF ACCESSIBILITY

• (9) PROBLEM OF TIME - MATERIAL OUT OF DATE

OUR COLLUSION

• ACADEMICS GIVE FREE LABOUR AS REFEREES

• … TO STOP ARTICLES BEING PUBLISHED

• IN JOURNALS THAT AREN’T READ BY ANYONE BUT THEMSELVES

• AND THAT THEY THEMSELVES RARELY READ

• GOVERNMENT REF VALUES ‘IMPACT’ BUT FORCES US TO PUBLISH IN WAYS THAT HAVE NO IMPACT

(2) THE DISCIPLINE

• MEDIA STUDIES AS PRODUCT AND REFLECTION OF BROADCAST-ERA

• CENTRAL SPINE OF APPROACHES AND CONCERNS

• CENTRED AROUND EFFECT OF MEDIA AND AUDIENCE EXPERIENCE AND BEHAVIOUR AND ORGANIZED AROUND BROADCAST-ERA CONCEPTS

THAT WORLD HAS CHANGED

• MATERIAL REVOLUTION – A MOVE TO DIGITAL MEDIA, OR ‘MEDIA 2.0’

• ECOLOGICAL REVOLUTION – FORMS OF BROADCAST-ERA BECOME DIGITAL CONTENT IN A MORE COMPLEX ECOLOGY

• CULTURAL REVOLUTION – NEW POSSIBILITIES AND MODES OF ORGANIZATION OF INFORMATION

• PERSONAL REVOLUTION – NEW ROLE OF INDIVIDUAL AND RELATIONSHIPS

• IDEA OF A CLOSED, SPECIALIZED SPHERE OF KNOWLEDGE, LOCATED IN UNIVERSITIES AND PROFESSIONALS LESS VALID

• ESPECIALLY IN RELATION TO MEDIA…

• NEW MODES OF KNOWLEDGE IN PERSONALIZED ECOLOGIES

• A RANGE OF EXPERTS

THE PROBLEM

• WEB 2.0 TECHNOLOGIES DON’T WORK IN A BROADCAST SYSTEM

• INSTEAD OF TRYING TO FORCE THEM INSIDE, WE NEED TO FORCE THE UNIVERSITY OUTSIDE

• TO PARTICIPATE IN THE WORLD

• CAN WE HAVE A UNIVERSITY 2.0?

WHAT WE NEED

• TO RETHINK BROADCAST-ERA INSTITUTIONS AND PROCESSES

• TO OPEN ITS KNOWLEDGE STRUCTURES, ORGANIZATION AND VALUES:

• (1) AN OPEN-SOURCING OF THE DISCIPLINE

• (2) AND ITS MODES OF DISSEMINATION

(1) OPEN SOURCING THE DISCIPLINE

• A ‘MEDIA STUDIES 2.0’ FOR MEDIA 2.0

• NOT JUST A CHANGE IN ITS CONTENT TO REFLECT DIFFERENT ERA

• A CHANGE IN WHO PRODUCES IT

• STUDENTS THINK THEY COME TO STUDY MEDIA BUT ACTUALLY COME TO STUDY ‘MEDIA STUDIES’

• TODAY THERE IS A GAP BETWEEN THE TWO

• STUDENTS TAUGHT TAUGHT CONTENT NOT FORM OF DISCIPLINE

WE NEED TO

• MAKE THE SOURCE-CODE OF DISCIPLINE VISIBLE

• BEGIN FROM THE STUDENTS/THE PUBLIC AND THEIR EXPERIENCES

• INCLUDE THEIR VOICES/KNOWLEDGE INTO THE DISCIPLINE

• OPEN THEIR WORK OUT BEYOND THE INSTITUTION TO CONNECT WITH THE WORLD

(2) CHANGING DISSEMINATION

• ESCHEW PRE-PRODUCTION FILTERS/REFEREES

• MOVE TO WEB PUBLICATION

• FAST AND FREE

• PUBLIC – OPEN SOURCES THE DISICIPLINE

• ALLOWS CONVERSATIONS /FEEDBACK

• MORE PUBLISHED

• AVOIDS GATE-KEEPING AND MARKET CONTRAINTS

• ENCOURAGES ORIGINAL THOUGHTS AND RESPONSES

• INTERVENE IN REAL-WORLD DEBATES AND DEVELOPMENTS

• REQUIRES A CHANGE IN OUR VALUE SYSTEM AND RESEARCH EVALUATION SYSTEM

WITHOUT THESE CHANGES

• THE DISCIPLINE HAS NO HOPE OF RELEVANCE OR EFFECT

• IT WILL REMAIN STRUCTURALLY OUTSIDE OF DEBATES AND CONVERSATIONS

• TALKING ONLY TO ITSELF AND ITS STUDENTS

• REMAINING AS MARGINALIZED AS IT IS NOW…

AN OPEN CONCLUSION…

• WHAT IS THE FUTURE OF THE UNIVERSITY…

• AS A SPACE OF SPECIALIZATION AND EXPERTISE?

• IN RELATION TO ITS OTHER FUNCTIONS (THE REPRODUCTION OF PRIVILEGE)

• AND OTHER PRESSURES (FEES, PROFIT, GRANT CAPTURE, KPI’s, CUTS…)

• WILL A SPACE FOR UNIVERSITIES REMAIN?

• ARE WE THE EQUIVALENT OF JOURNALISTS BEMOANING THEIR DEPROFESSIONALIZATION AND DECLINE?

• SHOULD WE CELEBRATE THE SOCIAL DISPERSAL OF KNOWLEDGE?

• OR SHOULD WE BE WARY ABOUT SUCH DEVELOPMENTS WITHIN THE BROADER CLIMATE?