User talk:Cormaggio/Archive 7

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[edit] Action research

Hi Cormac,

I would like to spend some time on action research, but i have no internet at home at the moment. I will be connected tomorrow. I will spend more time on it from then on.--Daanschr 09:12, 31 January 2008 (UTC)

Thanks very much Daanschr - I've very much appreciated your thoughts so far, and of course it's fine to dip in and out as and when you like. I'll start doing some work on the project page and its subpages after I get a bit more clarity on the Colloquium - and we can use these pages to brainstorm and start planning some concrete steps. Cormaggio talk 09:38, 31 January 2008 (UTC)
My suggestion is to arrange regular meetings. I can only be involved in that when i have internet at home. Every meeting can have its own topics for discussion. Three kinds of topics would be very helpfull for the progress: 1) specific tasks for individual participants of the meetings, which will be performed within a certain timeframe. Individual participants are not obliged to perform tasks, but if an individual participant promised to do a task than he should be reminded of it when he didn't perform it. 2) A meeting can be dedicated to analyse a specific topic in a sort of brainstorm session. This way certain philosphical problems can be researched. The tricky part of these kind of discussions is that it will lead to conflicts easily. 3) Thinking of ways to gain new participants from other places.--Daanschr 13:40, 31 January 2008 (UTC)
AR - a success story.
Hi Cormac. I just wanted to say, I think I'm an early example of success in Action Research. Wikiversity has motivated me to get some stuff straight and head back to school (albeit part time) to study teaching. I have some other stuff in the pan, which I'm hoping a little pushing in this new year will bring some results. And Wikimedia Canada looks like it's starting to get rolling again. I'm not sure this exactly fits the theoretical model of AR, but we can talk theories on WCR. :) Historybuff 03:58, 1 February 2008 (UTC)

Hi Cormac, I was a bit ill last couple of days, but i do have internet at home since today. I saw on the colloquium that the discussion has dried up considerably on friday. I like the idea of SB_Johny, but there needs to be an opportunity to be involved without having sound. Perhaps that can be a topic for a meeting?--Daanschr 18:59, 4 February 2008 (UTC)

I'm sorry to hear you've been sick, Daanschr - I hope you've recovered or are on the road to recovery. :-) Yes, the Colloquium discussion has faded a bit - and I've been thinking about how to progress from this point. I think we need to set out a plan of concrete action (or perhaps a number of plans) - and just to clarify, which idea from SB_Johnny did you like? A meeting might help too - and I'm always aware that we need to provide for people who don't have access to audio/visual and other communication tools/platforms, such as yourself (though I think you have access to IRC, right?). I think I'll make a stab at something tomorrow - I've got a meeting with my PhD supervisors tomorrow morning and they might be able to give me some ideas for what to do now. But please don't hesitate in adding your own ideas. :-) Thanks again, Cormaggio talk 19:18, 4 February 2008 (UTC)
I was referring to the major proposal he made a few days ago. SB_Johnny wants to build Wikiversity into a platform to combat climate change and war. He wants Wikiversity to get new people for Wikiversity.
An important thing to note is that Wikiversity exists out of a random collection of people, mainly from the western world. Communication should be adapted to that, otherwise these people will not understand what is being said. The discussion in the colloquium will be abstract from time to time. Certain topics, like the Greek antiquity or climate change are really appealing to people. What could be done aditionally is that different institutions of Wikiversity will be systematically analysed, something like a department for the development of academic institutions on the internet.--Daanschr 09:05, 5 February 2008 (UTC)
Thanks again - I also like SB_Johnny ideas for discussion groups on political (and therefore contested) topics, and I'd like to instigate something along these lines here. (You seem to be interested in conflict - which is great - I'm also very interested in how conflict can lead to learning - both personal and organisational.) On your comments about technology - I'm always aware of keeping a discussion as much as possible on the wiki in order not to exclude anyone - but I'm also aware that other forms of discussions (and mediums) can be more productive in certain ways. I'm certainly not going to stop anyone (nor could I) from using whatever medium they think best - but we should probably keep records of all discussions (logs of IRC chats, recordings of audio chats) and post them to the wiki. More basically, I wonder if we could start exploring what a wiki is good for in facilitating such discussion groups. However, I would also like to raise this (and everything else here) somewhere more public than my talk page. :-) But just on this last post, I agree that Wikiversity is a random collection of people, who are currently predominantly from the western world. But when you say "communication should be adapted to that", are you saying that communication would be somehow only relevant or accessible to the western world? That would be another means of exclusion in my book... Cormaggio talk 13:58, 5 February 2008 (UTC)

I was more referring to the reason why the discussion might have dried up. It was too abstract.

You got a point about wikis. Wikiversity has wiki and university in its name. So, if there will be a lot of chatting and radio listening than maybe it is not wiki enough anymore. I have theorized a certain contradiction to adress this problem, the conflict between quality and participation. These are completely different interests. Stimulating quality (keeping wiki) could mean that only a small group of people are interested. What could be an idea is that the wiki will be the central medium to keep the other media organized together within Wikiversity, but that other media may be used.

A romantic or postmodern answer to what a wiki is good for would be that it depends on who, for what reason and how someone uses a wiki. Nietzsche wrote that it is very hard to establish a method due to laziness and conservatism of people. That it is hard now to get a good working method on Wikiversity doesn't mean that it could be working very good after a century.--Daanschr 14:45, 5 February 2008 (UTC)

Gadzooks! "A century" - I'm holding out for something useful somewhat sooner :-) - if simply to point us to what the limitations of a wiki are. This is implied when I ask "what is a wiki good for?" - I'm talking affordances/constraints - but you're right that these will fluctuate to an extent depending on context. Abstract - I like abstract. ;-) However, I'm too tired right now to make a go of developing our discussion so far into a concrete plan - this will have to wait until tomorrow (and I will promise I'll do it then - I had a few other commitments today which took longer than expected). Cormaggio talk 23:13, 5 February 2008 (UTC)
Okay, untill later than. ;-)--Daanschr 08:06, 6 February 2008 (UTC)
Another idea: Wikiversity could stimulate similar wikis from outside Wikiversity to merge with us. This way, larger communities and networks could emerge. For instance, three of the wikis in this list, which was posted on the colloquium could relate to Wikiversity. There are two wikis dedicated to teachers and one to wild life preservation. Wikiversity could be a networking organization, or an umbrella organization.--Daanschr 08:23, 6 February 2008 (UTC)
Cormac, i like to include case-studies and topics dedicated to increase participation. With case-studies, i mean some small topics, which can say something about the bigger picture, the major concepts. A case-study could be a course on Wikiversity, or a certain text reading, which can be discussed with a broader view in mind. Topics dedicated to increase participation have to do with the perception of what others are interested in in our direct environment. For instance, what do Erkan, John and SB-Johnny want and how can we coordinate their wishes. This way we can directly work with the community we serve. What do you think about it?--Daanschr 18:21, 7 February 2008 (UTC)
How would such a case study actually work? Do you want to explore an issue through discussion - finding out what people are interested in - and then creating a project around common interests? This is what I hope to do through discussion groups and reading groups, for example the ones I've created recently around the Wikiversity learning model. it would be good if you spelled out clearly what kind of project you're thinking of, and how it would work. But I would really prefer this to move to Talk:Developing Wikiversity through action research - I'm going to copy this discussion there now... Cormaggio talk 21:04, 7 February 2008 (UTC)
Cormac, perhaps a good place to actually start looking at a 'case study' would be the reading groups themselves; they seem to me to be an obvious form for a Wikiversity learning project yet they may also reveal a lot to us about how a learning project might be organized, structured, and sustained in the environment. And yes I think that the John Seely Brown readings should be included in the Wikiversity_learning_model/Reading_group. Countrymike 18:47, 8 February 2008 (UTC)

Not sure if this is useful but Lindy McKeown in Qld AU uses action learning as her model for working with SecondLife in education. http://www.lindymckeown.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=18&Itemid=32

[edit] Wikiversity:Bots/Status#User:MichaelFreyTool

Can you as bureaucrat please take a look on Wikiversity:Bots/Status#User:MichaelFreyTool? -- MichaelFrey 12:39, 9 February 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Wikiworld..

I have not read it. But it looks interesting, I will take a look at it. Thank you. It is interesting so far... --Remi 21:58, 10 February 2008 (UTC)

[edit] differences of opinion

Sorry about me now being busy in the real world. "learning can equally come from having significant differences of opinion" <-- one of the original ideas for Wikiversity was that it could host "debate clubs". I expected that some Wikiversity projects such as War Seminar might naturally develop into places where Wikipedians could work outside of the stricter restrictions of doing encyclopedia work. Speaking for myself, I've been reluctant to promote Wikiversity as a place for emotional debates, fearing that until Wikiversity gets larger it could be disrupted if a large group of POV warriors decided to turn Wikiversity into a battle ground. Of course, being guided by such fears cuts Wikiversity off from a key approach to attracting dynamic groups of participants. I do hope that Wikiversity will eventually be strong enough to host scholarly debates that will be both 1) attractive to some Wikipedians and 2) civilized enough to result in the construction of useful learning resources and learning communities. --JWS 14:06, 11 February 2008 (UTC)

[edit] currency

Since it is almost a straight copy of wikipedia, I will change some of the words. Before you told me this, for the paper currency pages, instead of paragraphs on small sized notes, I made a list like the large size notes. On the coins pages, instead of tables? I made them into paragraphs. Those are some of the changes I made for the additions of these pages. On the $2 bill page, I also took out some things. They were not really about the $2 bill. And I wanted to make these United States currency pages "educational". I also have a question— whenever I go to my preferences and change the time zone to EST, it always comes out as UTC when I do -~~~~. How do I really fix this problem?

-km 00:49, 17 February 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Topic:Traditional Satanism Studies

Do you think this Topic:Traditional Satanism Studies is appropriate for Wikiversity? --Remi 20:31, 22 February 2008 (UTC)

I asked the same question of Erkan, which led to a debate, which led to Wikiversity:Learning Resources. --McCormack 16:04, 29 February 2008 (UTC)

Unfortunately I do not have a chat history, but I am definitely for keeping that material. There are various reasons - I could state again here, but I hope McCormack has a chat history. I think we thought about to ask the user and also make a non-influencing template ? ----Erkan Yilmaz Wikiversity:Chat 16:10, 29 February 2008 (UTC)
That's interesting - thanks for the context. :-) Cormaggio talk 16:27, 29 February 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Another Seely-Brown gem

see: http://connect.educause.edu/Library/EDUCAUSE+Review/MindsonFireOpenEducationt/45823 Countrymike 06:44, 24 February 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Wording

Yes - that wording is better! --McCormack 16:03, 29 February 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Presentation pics are up, 7 months late

They're here - http://melchua.com/tmp/cormaggio-presentation.zip - do anything you want with them (I hereby release those photos CC-BY). Feel free to host them anywhere you like - just let me know when you've yoinked the files so I don't have to worry about keeping them on my server forever. :) Mchua 05:29, 2 March 2008 (UTC)

I'll try to look in on those links you mentioned - life is finally settling down that I've stopped traveling and moved into Manhattan, so with any luck my presence on Wikiversity will pick up. Mchua 05:29, 2 March 2008 (UTC)

[edit] BCP page creation

Hi Cormaggio, Just saw this!

See http://en.wikiversity.org/w/index.php?title=BCP/Narcissus_pseudonarcissus&action=history

The first edit I made was replacing the page using {{subst:bcp3|Narcissus pseudonarcissus|Daffodil}}, the second edit was making the log page (see that diff for the directions), and the third one was to add info to the templates.

Anything blooming for march? ;-) --SB_Johnny | talk 11:59, 8 March 2008 (UTC)

BTW: I started your keys: Bloom Clock/Keys/Manchester, England/November/All. --SB_Johnny | talk 18:15, 12 March 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Username rename

I'd like my account User:Cool Cat be renamed to User:White Cat as per my wikimedia-wide username rename, thanks. -- Cat chi? 17:43, 12 March 2008 (UTC)

Done. Cormaggio talk 17:56, 12 March 2008 (UTC)
Hey... a bit of silliness on wikibooks brought it to my attention that you might not have confirmed that username change. Just a heads up to be careful about that: it's not absolutely unheard of (cough, cough) for ill-intentioned people to make bad faith requests for username usurpation :). I generally ask them to confirm a message on their wikipedia or commons userpage. --SB_Johnny | talk 18:30, 12 March 2008 (UTC)
If someone is asking for a usurp, I generally will go to WP first to check who has the account name there, or commons if there is no active account there (the latter case usually means they are contributing more in another language). The I just ask them to confirm that they're the one asking on their talk page (while logged in, etc.). We had some problems for a while with banned users on Wikibooks registering accounts using Wikipedia administrators' usernames and then vandalizing with them... likely to happen on Wikiversity as well as things go on.
There is a tool for checking a username across all wikimedia foundation wikis, but honestly I forget the link (will try to find it). checking en.wp almost always comes up with the result though :-). --SB_Johnny | talk 00:36, 13 March 2008 (UTC)
Here it is: http://tools.wikimedia.de/~luxo/contributions/contributions.php --SB_Johnny | talk 00:49, 13 March 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Bot account

No idea what the above is about, but did anyone notice this? --mikeu talk 02:32, 13 March 2008 (UTC)
Yup, the user is doing this atm at many places. See also Wikiversity:Bots/Status#User:Computer ----Erkan Yilmaz Wikiversity:Chat 07:27, 13 March 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Teaching with Technology

FYI, here are some links you might be interested in. I'll be attending a workshop next week on Enhancing Student Engagement: the WIKI Collaborative Workspace. There are some interesting related links here. One of the presenters is Mark Tribe who is teaching classes on Digital Art and Open Source Culture this semester. He also has a Wiki for Teaching and Research. I'll post some notes after the session. --mikeu talk 10:31, 14 March 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Username

Thanks Cormaggio, for changing my username. Terra What do you want? 21:42, 14 March 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Please change usergroup

Hi Cormac. Please change the usergroup for User:Terra from (none) to (sysop), so I can start his mentorship :). --SB_Johnny | talk 09:27, 17 March 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Bloom Clock instructions

Hey Cormac. Here's a couple answers for you... I'm going to try to answer as many questions as possible using subpages rather than plain text talk pages, in the hopes of getting the material together for the instructin manual. text below is included from User:SBJ/Bloom clock delayed logging and User:SBJ/Bloom clock multi-location‎

In many cases, you may want to log blooms you saw more than a few days ago, or perhaps log from your archived photographs well after the fact. The easiest way to do this is to simple alter your signature by going to Special:Preferences and altering your signature as follows:

  1. make a signature using today's date and save (or just take an old signature from your talk page), hit edit to get the raw text. and then copy-and paste this (including the date) into the "Nickname" field of the main preferences page.
  2. Alter the date to reflect the day you want to log from.
  3. Make sure to select the "use raw signatures" option
  4. Go ahead and start signing logs, but using three tildes (*~~~) instead of four (this adds everything in the "nickname" field without adding a date)
  5. Make sure to set your signature back to the way it was before editing other pages, since otherwise 2 dates will appear when using four tildes!

To record blooms for multiple locations (for example while on vacation, if you are regularly logging from regions more than 30 milea apart, or are logging in mountainous regions with radically different subclimates), please use an alternate account. While it's not necessary to actually log from this account (you could instead just copy and paste signatures using <linked username> ~~~~~ (five tildes adds the date only), starting up the account allows us to have a unique username to associate with those logs, allowing robotic data-mining in the future. Make sure it is a "real" account as well, so that the username is not taken up unknowingly be someone else in the future. In general, it's best to use a variant of your main username (see, e.g., User:SB_Johnny vs. User:SB Johnny-LM).

--SB_Johnny | talk 09:55, 17 March 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Dutch Wikimedians

Hi Cormac,

Thanks for the suggestions. It isn't a good moment for this, because i get a new job and will have far less access to internet. I will wait for a few months and than i could be interested in it. I just don't know how my job will be like. It will be my first fulltime job with very little access to computers.--Daanschr 11:20, 18 March 2008 (UTC)

I will be around, but i don't know how often. Duty calls.--Daanschr 12:19, 18 March 2008 (UTC)

[edit] ping

Are you around to WV:CHAT? --mikeu talk 11:51, 18 March 2008 (UTC)

FYI, w:User:Jbmurray/Madness "Reflections on the use of wikipedia in the University of British Columbia's course SPAN312, "Murder, Madness, and Mayhem: Latin American Literature in Translation," Spring 2008." --mikeu talk 22:42, 18 March 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Leaflet

Yes, I would like to help with poster/leaflet so I can plaster it up and down the corridors. Your excellent A3 pdf post - can we hack it? Could you post a non-pdf version? I'll have a look at the leaflet notes. Perhaps in the process we could help improve w:Wikiversity too. -- Jtneill - Talk 13:49, 19 March 2008 (UTC)

I did some work just now. Maybe we can play bat and ball for a bit. I don't know the format for the poster, but I'm curious. Is it an open format I could edit with free software? If not, perhaps we can find such a format. I don't know what that could be except .odg. But anyway, the only real edit I thought was perhaps to replace your (beautiful :) ) picture and bio in the bottom right with something more generic. I realise it was for a conference ;). Then I could see myself sneaking into people's offices at night and sticking them up. -- Jtneill - Talk 17:08, 19 March 2008 (UTC)
I've added some 'poster' comments - [1] (I'm having problems working out interwiki link to commons??) -- Jtneill - Talk 05:14, 20 March 2008 (UTC)
Given difficulties converting old poster format to open format, would you be able to extract the text and images, and upload them, then we can rework into a new open format poster? -- Jtneill - Talk 11:10, 30 March 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Draft template for innovative educators

Hi, Cormaggio. You seem to be quite good at making new pages on innovation in education, and also quite good at not linking them into the grand scheme of things! So I have created a navigation template especially for this purpose. Please feel welcome to put this on your pages, and to update the template with your new pages in order to hold everything together. Template:Learning innovation. --McCormack 10:13, 20 March 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Request for WV presentation slides

FYI, see Talk:Presentations about Wikiversity. -- Jtneill - Talk 11:17, 21 March 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Spam Filter Idiocy

Hi Cor,

I'm really angry. I CANNOT edit anything on my requirements specifications pages EVER because of the automated spam filter. Is there no way to turn this off? I understand the motivation, but this has clearly not been properly thought out before implimentation. Try to edit http://en.wikiversity.org/wiki/Technical_writing_specification in any way at all...nothing works!!! Do I have to start over because boy geniuses don't think before they code? (Maybe they should read about requirements and testing first!!!) Sorry, but I'm really, really, really frustrated and angry that this has happened. TWFred 20:29, 25 March 2008 (UTC)

Hi, see the preliminary solution here please. Hope everything fine now ? ----Erkan Yilmaz uses the Wikiversity:Chat (try) 20:40, 25 March 2008 (UTC)

Cor, Erkan fixed it already. Sorry for the anger. I'm just passionate sometimes about this work, and get frustrated by inexplicable blockages. Best. TWFred 21:06, 25 March 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Wikipedia Signpost interview

Signpost is doing a series of interviews about Wikimedia sister projects. Erkan and I have contacted them, but we'd also like to get your input. See Colloquium thread. --mikeu talk 11:17, 27 March 2008 (UTC)

Just to reaffirm, when you've got you're feet back on the ground, this interview could really benefit from your input: User:OhanaUnited/Sister Projects Interview. -- Jtneill - Talk 12:32, 1 April 2008 (UTC)
Yep, I'm currently reading and keeping note of all the developments that have taken place in my absence! Cormaggio talk 12:47, 1 April 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Draft development statement for new main page

Hi Cormaggio. You may remember I solicited your opinion on colours a while back. I can't remember if I asked you to comment on Main_Page/Development_0.5. I decided to rewrite the content of the boxes on the main page in the new draft, and so far nobody has said anything about it! I reckoned you'd be particularly interested in the development box. I don't particularly have any axe to grind with the content of these boxes, other than that at present they are confusing, meandering and unhelpful. --McCormack 16:14, 1 April 2008 (UTC)

Hi again. I've reacted to your comments on the talk page for the draft. Can you have a look and respond further? Hope this doesn't disturb your thesis crisis! --McCormack 05:43, 2 April 2008 (UTC)
Hi Cormaggio, and thanks for your edits. I was glad to see what you did to the community box in particular. It had a lot of "legacy" hyperlinks which I didn't feel bold enough to do away with. Megalomania is best shared ;-) --McCormack 15:42, 2 April 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Another go at WCR?

Hi Cormac,

I'm starting to see the light of day again, and thought it would be a good time to ping you about doing a WCR bit. I'd even be happy to start a text dialog on Education of some sort, whether it be IRC or even talk page stuff. Ping me back and let me know though. Historybuff 07:18, 2 April 2008 (UTC)

I was relaxing towards the end of last week; it's good to hear you also got some time off. I'm back in the thick of things now, and sorting things out. Friday is my flex day this week, let me know if anytime works for you on Friday. As for Asterisk, other then the last horrible episode with you, we've had really good previous success. Countrymike (and a couple other down-unders) had zero trouble on the last iteration of this crazy ride, so it's only you I have to solve, I hope. :) I'm happy to use another medium, btw -- skype, gizmo, whatever -- even plain old ma bell if it works, until we have everything running smooth. Historybuff 20:45, 9 April 2008 (UTC)

It looks like I ended up taking an unintentional wikibreak, just being way too busy IRL. There is lots of goings on here on WV it seems, and I'm thrilled at that. I'm hoping I'll have time this week to sit down and configure a spare server which will allow us to have a semi-permanent home for WCR and conferences for courses. (The perm home should be the sandbox server, if I can chat with the people admining it). I'm still promoting WV in real life, despite being not as active as I'd like on the cyber side of things. I have lots of interesting ideas from school, and I think we should have a discussion just on that level -- be it on-wiki or by voice, if you have some time. Historybuff 19:06, 18 May 2008 (UTC)

Well, another week has slipped by, and while I've caught up on a bunch of WM related projects I'm interested in, um, WV hasn't been getting lots of love from me. And it's not like I've forgotten it, in fact I'm lobbying for a bunch of WV stuff, but I'm starting to feel like a politician and not a civil servant, if you know what I mean. So, I'm going to start focusing more on getting stuff done here, and doing other stuff in time left over. Do you have any free time next week for a chat? :) Historybuff 01:07, 24 May 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Mission statement

Could you offer comment on this User talk:Jtneill#Mission statement. I'm wanting to check whether I am using the official, current mission statement here: Wikiversity:Mission/Current. -- Jtneill - Talk 03:23, 12 April 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Vision

Could you also take a look at Wikiversity:Vision. In particular, could you consider: (a) any original, proposal-type material on WV vision which could be added/linked to from that page; (b) your contributions/thoughts on a draft vision statement -- Jtneill - Talk 03:35, 12 April 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Dave + Hal

Yes, that was what I meant :-) ----Erkan Yilmaz uses the Wikiversity:Chat (try) 13:04, 12 April 2008 (UTC)

Cool. :-) Cormaggio talk 14:05, 12 April 2008 (UTC)
Actually I didn't knew that Dave earlier - a certain person in the WV:Chat brought my attention to HAL 9000 - before we had the post in the Colloquium. See you later, ----Erkan Yilmaz uses the Wikiversity:Chat (try) 14:12, 12 April 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Copyvios in Design for the Environment course

That was a cut & paste mistake. I pasted the url for a Jeep engine on the fuel cell image page instead of Image:Flex.JPG. I am pretty sure that the fuel cell is also a copyvio, but I don't yet know the source. --mikeu talk 18:15, 14 April 2008 (UTC)

BTW, we have the same problem with the students at Introduction to Computers. There are still a lot of images in those pages that need to get looked at. See also User:Mu301/todo for general image cleanup I've been doing. (removing duplicates, copying to commons, etc.) --mikeu talk 11:00, 15 April 2008 (UTC)
We should probably leave a note for User talk:SRego about the images used in DFE pages. It looks like he will be doing this again next semester. --mikeu talk 11:07, 15 April 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Jtneill

Hi, Cormac. Can you activate sysop status for User:jtneill to that he can start his probationary custodianship? Thanks. --McCormack 09:29, 16 April 2008 (UTC)

Thanks! --McCormack 09:40, 16 April 2008 (UTC)
Thanks for the support and activation; I'm underway. Sincerely, -- Jtneill - Talk 13:13, 16 April 2008 (UTC)

[edit] New main page

Hi, Cormac. I see you're busy uploading screenshots. I'm thinking of activating the new main page, notwithstanding layout issues - we can always tweak those later. Any last minute objections? I've talked to quite a lot of people both on IRC and the colloquium, and the general feeling is very good, although with questions and minor points. Did you see the FAQ I created? --McCormack 12:21, 21 April 2008 (UTC)

Here: Main page learning project/April 2008 Redesign --McCormack 12:27, 21 April 2008 (UTC)

[edit] re:Structuring

Yeah, I've been informed quite a few times on IRC already :-)... honestly I think the namespaces were a silly idea from the start, but I'm also not particularly interested in the subject right now. I'm pretty busy on the farm, etc., and really only have time for the Bloom Clock (etc.) these days. --SB_Johnny | talk 16:56, 27 April 2008 (UTC)

Oh, no apologies necessary at all! It's nice to see you being involved :-). --SB_Johnny | talk 00:25, 28 April 2008 (UTC)

`

[edit] Wikimedia Radio..

Please see n:WN:RADIO Urgently :) 62.56.54.110 20:19, 27 April 2008 (UTC)

[edit] namespaces

Thanks for the note on my talk page. A couple of the most interesting and surprising things for me about the wiki world have been 1) the invention of organized content development projects (in the form of "wikiprojects" at Wikipedia) and, 2) the fact that most people do not seem to care about organized content development projects. Given my past experience with the limited success of wikiprojects within the much larger community of Wikipedia, I cannot say that I have been surprised by how hard it has been to get the Wikiversity community to utilize the school and topic mamespaces as places for organized content development projects. I guess its just one of those things that will only ever be of interest to a minority group. For several years I wondered why wikiprojects were so well hidden at Wikipedia....I guess they are just one of those things that it is best to hide away in a safe place where hopefully the majority will ignore it rather than try to vote it out of existence. --JWSchmidt 04:13, 28 April 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Schedule

Yup, that's the only time I know for sure I'm free (that's 4-5:30 AM here). I'd say don't try to schedule around me... even that time period can be unpredictable depending on how the goats behave. Otherwise I'm really just here when I happen to be here (if you can perhaps schedule it for the next day it rains (or perhaps wait until December through February), I'll be available most any time :-). --SB_Johnny | talk 15:37, 30 April 2008 (UTC)

[edit] mentat wiki month

Mentat wiki month looks like it's going to be a nifty adventure. We've got some of the original authors of the mentat wiki on there, too. Mchua 20:18, 5 May 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Random mascot welcome

Crystal Clear app gnome.png
Mascot welcome
Being a twin means you always have a pillow or blanket handy.jpg

Hi! Our name is Vicky-Verity. We are twins and are Wikiversity mascots. We think Wikiversity is a great place to learn and make friends (when we aren't sleeping). Leave us a message!

[edit] Project boxes

Hi, Cormaggio. Thanks for your encouraging feedback! I reckoned you'd like this. Actually the idea has been in my head for a very long time. A lot of the things I've been doing on WV in the last couple of months have been kind of embryonic for the last year. The project boxes are already catching on. User:Robert Elliott seems to be quite encouraged by this kind of infrastructure, as does User:Fasten. Now, if you'd like to tag your own initiatives and projects...! Perhaps we need a box for resources of type "Template:exploratory thoughts"? Or even "Template:PhD snippets"? --McCormack 12:54, 11 May 2008 (UTC)


[edit] Wikiversity:Meetings

Hi Cormac, did you have already some chats with someone or feedback from other participants about a date ? ----Erkan Yilmaz uses the Wikiversity:Chat (try) PS: Tag a learning project with completion status !! 15:29, 25 May 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Username change

Compwhizii → CWii

It's for SUL. Thanks, Compwhizii 01:11, 27 May 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Checkuser

Hi Cormac, there were set up now 2 new pages for the voting. ----Erkan Yilmaz uses the Wikiversity:Chat (try) PS: Tag a learning project with completion status !! 21:49, 28 May 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Quote "It's not that easy boy"

Hi, Cormac. If you wish to put it back, fine. I reckoned it detracted from your very sensible contribution below. The comment was added by an anonymous user, unsigned, rather poor choice of language, unexplained, etc.... I'd call it borderline vandalism, and I didn't really like seeing it hovering above your serious contribution. But add it back if you like. --McCormack 14:58, 31 May 2008 (UTC)

[edit] re: IRC meeting

I saw. My schedule at this time of year is far too unpredictable for me to commit to any time, but I'll try to pop in whenever you set the time. --SB_Johnny | talk 14:45, 1 June 2008 (UTC)

Hi Cormac, I have send you an additional email, ----Erkan Yilmaz uses the Wikiversity:Chat (try) PS: Tag a learning project with completion status !! 06:35, 4 June 2008 (UTC)

[edit] RussBot and more than double redirects

Hi, I'm wondering does RussBot work on more than double redirects (ie triple, quadruple redirects)? It would be great to have that function. In any case, we're looking for something that cleans up redirects on Wikiversity. Would the bot script need to be modified for use there, and if so, would it be possible for you to do so? You're more likely to reach me on my WV talk page, but I do also check WP. Thanks! Cormaggio is learning 10:02, 5 June 2008 (UTC)
Yes, the bot script can handle double-redirects on Wikiversity if you want, and it should be able to detect triple- and quadruple-redirects (although I can't imagine that would be a big problem; even on en.wikipedia.org, which has exponentially more double-redirects than any other project that I know of, triple-redirects occur very rarely). --R'n'B 12:58, 5 June 2008 (UTC)

Well, I can just run the bot myself (once I get around to activating SUL for it), or you could install Pywikipediabot on your own machine and run the redirect.py script. Are you looking to cover just this wiki, or all of the *.wikiversity.org sites? --R'n'B 15:48, 5 June 2008 (UTC)

It makes no difference to me. I'll give the bot a try sometime within the next few days. I must confess, however, to some curiosity about this request--according to Special:DoubleRedirects, there were only 5 doubles at the last update, so what's the big deal? --R'n'B 20:14, 5 June 2008 (UTC)

  • User:RussBot is now SUL'ed, so you might want to give it the bot flag on this wiki. But it can run either with or without the flag, I believe. --R'n'B 20:50, 5 June 2008 (UTC)
    • Of course, you should monitor the account's contributions to make sure it doesn't (or I don't) go bezerk. :) FYI, I ran a complete scan on this wiki yesterday and found ZERO double-redirects. The person who originally raised this issue on the discussion page either was mistaken or was addressing a problem that has since been fixed by other users. --R'n'B 13:54, 6 June 2008 (UTC)

[edit] SUL

I want to usurp user:orion(no contribution)for SUL account unification and vandal prevention. I'm a active editor of zh:user:orion,The confirmation here[2],Thank You.--Orionn 07:04, 6 June 2008 (UTC)

Please go to Wikiversity:Changing_username#Usurpation: please request there (also by pointing then with a link to the request from your home wiki - the one given above just proves, that that user made an edit, nothing else) and insert Template:Usurpation requested by using {{subst:usurpation requested}} on the user talk page to start the process. ----Erkan Yilmaz uses the Wikiversity:Chat (try) PS: Tag a learning project with completion status !! 15:34, 6 June 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Name...

SUL is nice. But yes, it seems SUL logs me out of User:Remi when I sign in on Emesee on other projects, and vice versa. I'm not really using accounts for different types of edits, so to speak. When I need to perform custodial actions it hasn't seemed to be much of a hassle just to re-login so far. If changing flags to this username in the future is an option, that would be nice. --Emesee 10:32, 8 June 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Action research

I recently found Developing Wikiversity through action research/List of uses of Wikiversity, which suggested an answer to a question that had been occupying me lately - the question being: is what I've been doing recently with things like Help:Resource types and its related pages (i.e. empirical analysis of existing resource types aims at producing a taxonomy with which to advise new contributors on possible uses of WV) something which qualifies as a low brow form of "action research"? --McCormack 12:31, 9 June 2008 (UTC)

[edit] "betawikiversity closure vote isn't going anywhere"

Hi Cormac, as you know written language is ambiguous: [3] I am not sure if I understood in full what that means ? You mean that beta will not be closed and therefore we don't need to make others aware anymore about the current proposal which is still ongoing ? ----Erkan Yilmaz uses the Wikiversity:Chat (try) 15:24, 10 June 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Custodian flag

If we can keep User:Remi and User:Emesee both flagged as custodians, please make the switch for this username. It may make things easier for the time being. Thanks. --Emesee 03:30, 15 June 2008 (UTC)

Hi, just a remark: User:Remi0o has also custodian flag: [4]. Then this would mean there would be 3 accounts which belong to you with custodian flag :-)
Remi, why not use one custodian user account - is there a specific reason ? ----Erkan Yilmaz uses the Wikiversity:Chat (try) 15:38, 15 June 2008 (UTC)
ah - well one option would be also to use the User:Remi0o account instead ? ----Erkan Yilmaz uses the Wikiversity:Chat (try) 16:04, 15 June 2008 (UTC)
see here, ----Erkan Yilmaz uses the Wikiversity:Chat (try) 08:22, 21 June 2008 (UTC)
ping, ----Erkan Yilmaz uses the Wikiversity:Chat (try) 16:50, 23 June 2008 (UTC)

[edit] log about last meeting (7th June 2008)

In case you didn't receive my mail: when will it be published ? ----Erkan Yilmaz uses the Wikiversity:Chat (try) 15:41, 15 June 2008 (UTC)

see my mail please, ----Erkan Yilmaz uses the Wikiversity:Chat (try) 19:34, 19 June 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Welcome back

Hi Cormac. Hope you had a good holiday. Loads of new stuff on WV for you to catch up on. In the talk pages of some of my help pages for specific resource types, I have been noting down how the resource type concept originated, as I take it this would be of interest to action research. --McCormack 09:45, 24 June 2008 (UTC)

http://en.wikiversity.org/wiki/Photoproject#New_Camera Elatanatari 22:38, 24 June 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Thoughts on a clock:

See User:SBJ/Produce clock. Interested? --SB_Johnny | talk 14:12, 25 June 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Vision statement

Do we have an authoritative vision statement yet? --McCormack 07:46, 29 June 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Wiki research

I added what I thought might be an amusing image at the top of Help:How to write an educational resource, and then wondered if I should re-think! Well, I have this thinking problem... I think I wasn't thinking when I thought it up. What do you think? --McCormack 18:23, 4 July 2008 (UTC)

I found the image funny - thinking to use it elsewhere also :-) ----Erkan Yilmaz uses the Wikiversity:Chat (try) 20:41, 4 July 2008 (UTC)
Nice image! I think the explanatory tag is also good - but I wonder if the image itself would be better placed on another page which is more explicitly about "the use of wikis in web-based education"? Surely we (ie humans) know a little bit more about writing educational resources? :-) Cormaggio talk 11:17, 7 July 2008 (UTC)
"better placed on another page which is more explicitly about..." --> the image can, of course, be used many times, but how about Template:Welcome? --McCormack 11:26, 7 July 2008 (UTC)
Using it on Template:Welcome just might send out the wrong message ("old-timers consider newcomers as monkeys") - although a fresh eye over that template makes me think we need to emphasise that we are genuinely engaged in an act of exploration with regard to wiki-based learning, and we invite others to join that process. Where's the best place (existing or imagined) to link newcomers to to inspire this engagement? I also think the image would be better off on somewhere like Wikiversity:Learning or Wikiversity:FAQ (or perhaps a newly articulated space) than the welcome template, or indeed where it is now... Cormaggio talk 11:49, 7 July 2008 (UTC)
I'm afraid I was kidding with Template:Welcome. Being serious for a moment, images do liven up the help pages, especially if they are slightly whacky or tongue-in-cheek. But if one tries that kind of thing, one has to be careful to strike exactly the right note. Humour is a dangerous thing. For example, the 4 port-a-loos to symbolize the 4 P's of lesson structure might be going too far. --McCormack 12:35, 7 July 2008 (UTC)
Yup. :-) I think that's why humorous images need to be set in just the right context, and framed by just the right explanation/tone - in order to communicate the fun that they're about, as well as the at least semi-serious point behind them. I'm afraid I once again fell into the trap of taking you too seriously. :-) Cormaggio talk 21:48, 7 July 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Blog

Hi Cormaggio. The wiki2blog feature is too buggy for general use, so it's not something Wikia is going to continue running. We might pick it up again in the future, but for now, you might want to delete the demo page at MediaWiki:Blog snippet which was feeding into the test blog. Angela 05:58, 30 July 2008 (UTC)

Thanks - done now. Cormaggio talk 10:39, 30 July 2008 (UTC)
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