News soon!

We have been quite overwhelmed by all the feedback & comments we have received so far here and through e-mails, discussions, blogs, etc. Thank you all! It has been terrific, and as it seems to us, generative, way to publish the work. We hope to have some exciting news on the printed version pretty soon … In the meantime, here are some collected notes from the blogosphere:

First, Nick Jankowski from http://digitalstudiesseminar.blogspot.com/2008/04/digital-literacy-and-radical-education.html

“Wikiworld, an online book with the subtitle ‘Political economy of digital literacy, and the promise of participatory media’, provides the kind of theoretical grounding many of us have been missing in much of the fare of literature about digital studies. The long-standing tension between technology and society is presented with reference to Marx, Heidegger, Nietzsche and Marcuse (among others); the radical conceptualization of education as life-long, everyday and emancipatory is related to the ideas of Freire and Illich. And the requirement for digital literacy – extending far beyond skill-building and schooling – is sketched and placed within the parameters of Web-based participatory media as exemplified by wikis. The book merits much more considered attention than I am now able to provide; here I merely wish to signal its publication and open access availability, and recommend its study.”

The idea of “triple-freedom” has been discussed here:

Beim P2P-Workshop 2007 an der Nottingham Trent University zur »politischen Ökonomie der Peer-Produktion« hat Tere Vadén nun einen drauf gesetzt. In Abgrenzung zm »geschlossenen« Paradigma gibt es drei »stages of freedom« (Stufen der Freiheit): »sharing«, »commonist«, »communist«.

Danach gehört »Selbstentfaltung« erst in die zweite Stufe (»commonist«), weil die Mittel (»vehicle«) der Entfaltung nicht frei sind. »Triple Freedom« wäre dann erst in der dritten Stufe (»communist«) erreicht. Tere Vadén holt also die Produktionsmittel in den Fokus der Aufmerksamkeit. Ferner sei es wichtig, nicht nur auf die Veränderung der Medien zu schauen, sondern auch die notwendige Veränderung unserer Lernformen zu beachten.

Here is Teemu Leinonen, being typically right, http://flosse.dicole.org/?item=from-social-to-socialist-media

Now for about two days I have been reading, browsing and making searches to the book. The book offers a valuable historical and political framework to approach and think about the future of learning, education and media. The book has two faces. It is philosophical, humanistic and educational scholarly work but also an advocacy. This is the book’s strength but also its weakness.

I especially like the scholarly parts. They are enlightening many great ideas from earlier works to the discussion about media and education in the digital era. I do not have anything against advocacy, either, but I do not agree with everything the authors have to say. A real problem of advocacy can be, that in the eyes of many people the actual argument will loose its credibility. I also think that this is not only a rhetorical thing as the argument “we should make the world more faire place” (not a quotation from the book) is easy to do without getting pompous.

And here hard-e:

In fact open educational resources and other free software movements are more democratic way to learn and share the knowledge than anything else. Anybody can participate in OER movement and express one’s opinion, and thus create the diversity of knowledge. Tere Waden, has mentioned that civilisation (culture and education) can be the diversity of knowledge, even it is absolute value. By the way, he has written excellent book with Juha Suoranta: Wikiworld.

Predictably, some of the comments has been written in Finnish:

Jere Majava, http://blogit.helsinki.fi/tyonimi/wikiworld.htm

Tere Vadénin ja Juha Suorannan uusi kirja Wikiworld – Political Economy of Digital Literacy and the Promise of Participatory Media on innostavaa luettavaa. Kirjoittajat käsittelevät verkko-opetusta ja sosiaalista mediaa virkistävästi web 2.0 -startuppien ansaintamallien tai oppimistulosten kvantifioinnin sijaan toimijoiden autonomian kasvun näkökulmasta – ja tiukasti vasemmalta: merkinnällä on sama otsikko kuin kirjan kuudennella luvulla.

Parikka, http://www.valt.helsinki.fi/blogs/verkkopeda/wikiworld.htm

Wikiworld – Political Economy of Digital Literacy and the Promise of Participatory Media on Tampereen yliopiston voimakaksikon Juha Suorannan ja Tere Vadénin uusi verkkokirja. Vapaasti verkossa luettavissa ja ladattavissa tietenkin. (…) Kirjan huono puoli ei ole se että se on englanninkielinen. Valitettavaa on se ettei vastaavaa tekstiä ole suomeksi. Lukijakuntaa ja samalla asian ymmärrystä suomenkielisyys laajentaisi. Suomessa.

There is also a page and a discussion group on Wikiversity and a page on the P2P foundation wiki.