Beyond Friending: @cunycommons and the Emergence of the Social

University

MITH Digital Dialogue, 2 November 2010

Matthew K. GoldAssistant Professor of English, New York City College of Technology

Interactive Technology and Pedagogy Program, CUNY Graduate Centerhttp://mkgold.net @mkgold

The CUNY Academic Commons

The CUNY Academic Commons History, Strategy, Process, Use

The CUNY Academic Commons History, Strategy, Process, Use

The Social University

The CUNY Academic Commons History, Strategy, Process, Use

The Social UniversityOpportunities, Barriers, Openings

The CUNY Academic Commons History, Strategy, Process, Use

The Social UniversityOpportunities, Barriers, Openings

Building a Wider Commons

The CUNY Academic Commons History, Strategy, Process, Use

The Social UniversityOpportunities, Barriers, Openings

Building a Wider CommonsCommunities, Publics, Possibilities

The CUNY Academic Commons

City University of New York (CUNY)

23 Colleges11 Senior Colleges6 Community Colleges

6,700 Full-Time Faculty Members

243,000 degree-credit students 273,000 continuing and professional education students

47% of undergrads have a native language other than English41% percent work more than 20 hours a week63% attend school full time15% support children. 60% percent female29% are 25 or older.

Of first-time freshmen:37% are born outside the U.S. mainland 70% attended NYC public high schools

source: cuny.edu

City University of New York (CUNY)

23 Colleges11 Senior Colleges6 Community Colleges

6,700 Full-Time Faculty Members

243,000 degree-credit students 273,000 continuing and professional education students

47% of undergrads have a native language other than English41% percent work more than 20 hours a week63% attend school full time15% support children. 60% percent female29% are 25 or older.

Of first-time freshmen:37% are born outside the U.S. mainland 70% attended NYC public high schools

source: cuny.edu

City University of New York (CUNY)

23 Colleges11 Senior Colleges6 Community Colleges

6,700 Full-Time Faculty Members

243,000 degree-credit students 273,000 continuing and professional education students

47% of undergrads have a native language other than English41% percent work more than 20 hours a week63% attend school full time15% support children. 60% percent female29% are 25 or older.

Of first-time freshmen:37% are born outside the U.S. mainland 70% attended NYC public high schools

source: cuny.edu

City University of New York (CUNY)

23 Colleges11 Senior Colleges6 Community Colleges

6,700 Full-Time Faculty Members

243,000 degree-credit students 273,000 continuing and professional education students

47% of undergrads have a native language other than English41% percent work more than 20 hours a week63% attend school full time15% support children. 60% percent female29% are 25 or older.

Of first-time freshmen:37% are born outside the U.S. mainland 70% attended NYC public high schools

source: cuny.edu

City University of New York (CUNY)

23 Colleges11 Senior Colleges6 Community Colleges

6,700 Full-Time Faculty Members

243,000 degree-credit students 273,000 continuing and professional education students

47% of undergrads have a native language other than English41% percent work more than 20 hours a week63% attend school full time15% support children. 60% percent female29% are 25 or older.

Of first-time freshmen:37% are born outside the U.S. mainland 70% attended NYC public high schools

source: cuny.edu

City University of New York (CUNY)

23 Colleges11 Senior Colleges6 Community Colleges

6,700 Full-Time Faculty Members

243,000 degree-credit students 273,000 continuing and professional education students

47% of undergrads have a native language other than English41% percent work more than 20 hours a week63% attend school full time15% support children. 60% percent female29% are 25 or older.

Of first-time freshmen:37% are born outside the U.S. mainland 70% attended NYC public high schools

source: cuny.edu

source: Newman Library, Baruch College http://newman.baruch.cuny.edu/digital/2001/history/book/chap_07/nyt_75_11_16.htm

CUNY is open source

The CUNY Academic Commons

The CUNY Academic Commons

• What it is• Why we created it• What has worked• What hasn’t worked• How it’s changing the culture of the university

CUNY PIECUNY PIE

DiFara’s!DiFara’s!

Administrative Need:

an integrated university.

a connected university.

City University of New York (CUNY)

23 Colleges11 Senior Colleges6 Community Colleges

6,700 Full-Time Faculty Members

source: cuny.edu

City University of New York (CUNY)

23 Colleges11 Senior Colleges6 Community Colleges

6,700 Full-Time Faculty Members

source: cuny.edu

City University of New York (CUNY)

23 Colleges11 Senior Colleges6 Community Colleges

6,700 Full-Time Faculty Members

source: cuny.edu

a networked university.

2006

2008 ???

Institutional Mandate

Alexandra W. LogueExecutive Vice Chancellor

and University Provost

George OtteUniversity Director

of Academic Technology

Institutional Structure

CUNY Committee on Academic Technology (CAT)George Otte, Chair

Two members from each CUNY campus

Established September 2008

Charged with creating an “academic technology

commons”

Faculty Need:

University-sponsored open-source platforms.

source: MikeLeSombre http://is.gd/gAb9R

Faculty Need:

New hires across CUNY ~

need for renewed institutional connections.

What we didn’t want

photo by FredR http://www.flickr.com/photos/fredr/262344284/

THE INSTITUTIONAL REPOSITORY

Photo by myguerrilla http://www.flickr.com/photos/myguerrilla/1303099901/

THE PERFECT TAXONOMY

Source: Abby flat-coat http://www.flickr.com/photos/22912005@N06/4104714854/

THE HARD SELL

Source: Medieval Helpdesk http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pQHX-SjgQvQ

TRADITIONAL MODELS OF TECH SUPPORT

What we did want

Source: akashgoyal http://www.flickr.com/photos/a_goyal/2169624754/

OPEN

Source: bernat... http://www.flickr.com/photos/bernatcg/509261808/

ORGANIC

Source: jbushnell http://www.flickr.com/photos/jbushnell/569748609/

DECENTERED

Source: jcn http://www.flickr.com/photos/jcn/4568432782/

OPEN SOURCE

Outreach strategies, or, The Commons and Its Publics

rough prototypes

word of mouth

tech savvy

D I Y

engaging open-sourcecommunities

“we judge our tools by one key metric

above all others: use. Successful tools are tools

that are used.“

Tom Scheinfeldt

“Lessons from One Week | One Tool – Part 2, Use.” Found History. 2 August 2010. <http://www.foundhistory.org/

2010/08/02/lessons-from-one-week-one-tool-part-2-use/>

“

39,632 downloads*

* as of 2 November 2010

use cases

SERENDIPITY

The SOCIAL University

CRISIS

GAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!

The Academy and Its Publics

“Dare to be reductive.”

Gerald Graff, Clueless in Academe (2003)

“Dare to be public.”

Matthew K. Gold, “Beyond Friending.” MITH Digital Dialogue

(2010)

The converted?

Hey! we’re all on twitter!

Challenges

Challenges

interaction fatigue

Why should our institutions be our frame?

Challenges

a few principles

Build recursive publics

Build recursive publics“Free Software . . . is not simply a technical pursuit but also the creation of a ‘public,’ a collective that asserts itself as a check on other constituted forms of power—like states, the church, and corporations—but which remains independent of these domains of power. Free Software is a response to this reorientation that has resulted in a novel form of democratic political action, a means by which publics can be created and maintained in forms not at all familiar to us from the past. Free Software is a public of a particular kind: a recursive public. Recursive publics are publics concerned with the ability to build, control, modify, and maintain the infrastructure that allows them to come into being in the first place and which, in turn, constitutes their everyday practical commitments and the identities of the participants as creative and autonomous individuals.”– Christopher Kelty, Two Bits: The Cultural Significance of Free Software (2008)

Build generative communities

Build generative communities“Generativity is a system’s capacity to produce unanticipated change through unfiltered contributions from broad and varied audiences. . . . Generativity pairs an input consisting of unfiltered contributions from diverse people and groups, who may or may not be working in concert, with the output of unanticipated change.”

– Jonathan Zittrain, The Future of the Internet - And How to Stop It (2008)

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