Method of Operation

From Superuser Wiki

For a broader overview see Describing Free Knowledge Communities.

Using a collection of libre collaborative networked social software for development means that its very quick and simple for anyone to contribute with minimal effort usually by doing the things they would normally do online.

By combining editable content and web feeds from multiple external sources from all over the internet we can rapidly gather vast amounts of high quality information for any purpose and make it available to anyone with an internet capable device and publish a hard copy in part or in total.

Wiki

The Wiki is where it all comes together. The Wiki is so simple to use that anyone can do it. A Wiki is basically an editable webpage so you can learn by editing existing pages and then move onto creating your own pages. We also use the wiki to display published web feeds. Feel free to play in the Sandpit. Using Firefox web browser and the Wikipedia toolbar will turn your web browser into a powerful wiki editing tool. Install Firefox web browser extensions Spellbound for spell checking and Wordcount for word counting.

Calendar

Anyone can add events to the public calendar. This allows us to collaborate with proactive self organising members of online communities and stay up to date with whats current and whats relevant. Our Upcoming events page displays the web feed published by our Web calendar software.

Blog

Most bloggers share their information through publishing web feeds. We simply subscribe to the bloggers feeds that we find useful and use our own blogs to publish articles and generate web feeds.

Social Bookmarking

Sharing our bookmarks makes its possible for us to be on the same page in an instant. Using tags as filters makes it easy for anyone to create a custom feed that can be displayed on the Wiki. For example here's the most Recent bookmarks aggregated from the rss feed generated by our social bookmark software. Using Firefox web browser and the scuttle extension will turn your web browser into a powerful bookmarking tool.

Guestmap

The guestmap is optional at the moment. Its used to show our location. The benefit of the guestmap is people can add themselves and their contact details. Currently the guestmap is an attempt to localize our group in Australia but the most innovative developments are happening outside Australia so this will have to change. It shows the software is flexible, we could use it on the school intranet or any project where mapping is useful. Changing the map is simple.

Audiocast Software

An audiocast/podcast subscription is much like a newspaper subscription, people can get regular updates in a convenient way. Its gives a personal touch to distributed learning and makes for an entertaining audio show. It also relies on web feed technology so its easy to integrate into our method of operating. Our audiocast is on the task list but we have the software setup so if your keen contact us. Use Juice podcatcher to start downloading podcast media files.

External Links

• Leigh Blackall Workshops An overview of the Networked Learning and a range of new developments in communications technologies and how they are being used in educational settings.