we just finished open ed 2006 here at utah state. it was a good 3 days for me, and i heard so much, and more importantly got to connect with a lot of really interesting people. unfortunately, because my brain is on such an overload from EVERYTHING that has to do with july 31st 2006 on, i don’t have anything eloquent to say about the 3 days, but i’ll do my best to write something of pertinance down here.

but first, let me share with you a picture:

yep. we took them on a hike. not too hard, i got to talk with a few very interesting people on the way up and back, and see a beaver dam, and see the sawmill that cut the wood for the logan mormon temple. good stuff.

so, back to the subject at hand. what did i garner from the experience?

• whoo hoo! we coslites aren’t the only freaks in the world saying ‘open it up, give it away!’ there’s actually a whole lot of us. i mean, i knew it, but it was nice to meet the people behind the blogs, wikis and ocws.
• we’re still very much at the beginning of this. i mean, i knew we were, but to listen to some of these presentations it became apparent how much we are still dealing with beginning of the movement issues. this what it must have been like at conferences about things like this whole ‘www’ thing, or later – online learning. still grappling. but thats okay, from my very new view, its just what the beginning of a movement looks like. though, it seems like we’re not at the very beginning, but more like nearing the end of the beginning stage. to see small colleges, non-profits, for-profits, for profit universities there means that this whole idea of mit and the rest of the ocw consortiuum is starting to have an affect.
• we need to start doing more research about all of this. we need data to back up our claims. we can’t simply rest on our laurels. as we move into the next stage of this movement detractors are going to want research data. what to research? well, for me its about localization. i think we also need to understand our different purposes and research our methods for moving forward with those goals.
• we need to remember the people, the users. it was nice to have that confirmed by rex allen from the church of the lds perpetual education fund. just like we need not forget all of us sitting behind blogs and wikis, we also need to remember our users who sit behind our ocws, wikis and blogs.
• what else? localization = good. but doing a detailed user analysis is something i need to do.

i think thats it that my addle-brain can come up with in this moment. to that end, what do i do next, what brilliant ideas did i come up with? oh goodness, good question. seriously.

• my project on localization is a good thing. its important and will lend something to our movement, and i’m excited about it.
• lets start creating a volunteer base here in the united states like they’ve got going, i think, at OOPS in china. i had someone tell me that they’d love to do outreach in connection with cosl, and they’d do it for free. when starting a grassroots movement, you’ve got to have volunteers. volunteers are some of the best advocates for what you are doing, because they love it so much they are willing to do this for free. they are passionate. wikipedia is a great example. lets here in the states follow in the footsteps of our chinese friends and start building that base.
• permaculture. i chatted with brian lamb briefly about his post on permaculture. my friends out at lost valley educational center are permaculture people. i’ve already thought about trying to ocw their ecovillage permaculture certificate program, and after taking a chance (seriously, i’m playing this ‘i’ve only been here for x weeks as long as possible, because i can still say stupid things and people will just put it to ’she’s just new, she’ll get smarter later.), and sharing with him my idea, i was very encouraged by his reaction (thanks brian!). i’ve already emailed my friend who runs the program about meeting with him when i’m in oregon next week for a week. i’m going to take a break, but i want to explore this idea while i’m there in person

thats it for now, but its my intention to listen to as much of the conference as possible on my ipod during my 26 hours going too and from oregon next week and the week after next. i hope i’ll come up with more ideas.