XplanaZine

The great thing about the Internet is that it fosters such tremendous community while, simultaneously, championing intense individualism. In some ways the Internet is, in fact, Adam Smith’s perfect version of capitalism — a place where self-interested rational agents run around acting in the most self-interested manner possible. Okay, maybe I was a bit heavy on the “rational” part, but you get the idea.

Open source communities are a great example. One such effort that I happen to work with, SINAPSE, is a student-centered development group that produces a modular portal for student groups, professional organizations, and educators. True to the community ideal of the Internet, SINAPSE produces tools that are based on collaboration and has created a national development group that is very strong. On the other hand, the success of their model — rapid development and an entirely user-centered model — is dependent on strong individualism. SINAPSE counts on the fact that those who adopt their product will want even more functionality and, thus, will create new modules on their own. Once you have fifty to one hundred school doing this, the results are amazing. People belong to a community but are driven by their individual needs. It’s their formula for success.

The reason all of this is possible is that the Web is such an open architecture, both in terms of technology and politics. It is incredibly egalitarian in the sense that anyone can join and participate, and it is inviting because there are so many solutions to every technological need. It is a low-prices bazaar with almost everything you’ve ever dreamed of. But, if you discover there is something missing, something you need isn’t available, you (or you and a few others) can make any additions you like.

A great example of this happened recently with a teacher and student at the University of Oklahoma. Laura Gibbs teaches Latin and Greek at OU and began talking with one of her students, Randy Hoyt, about the lack of a good Unicode converter for Greek. Here’s a snippet from the first e-mail Laura sent me regarding the outcome of her discussions with Randy. “Here is some good news: genius Greek student Randy Hoyt, now > > doing Ms. in MIS degree in Bus. College, is working on a Unicode converter starting with polytonic Greek, where you can type in according to a standard Romanization system and get beautiful Unicode font to come out, which can then be cut-and-pasted into whatever application your heart desires (a form box on a webpage, an HTML editor, Word, etc.) he’s writing it in VB right now, plans to move it over to java, and is about to start learning php.”

A mockup of Randy’s converter shows the development of a wonderful tool with many possibilities. What is equally amazing is the fact that people all over the world or “filling in the blanks” just like Randy everyday. They need a tool? They build one or find someone else who can.

This is the reason those of us in education should not ever feel like we are held hostage by technologists or someone who “controls” our network. The truth is that the Internet and our connection to it cannot be controlled. There are too many options out there. This should also motivate us to form better and more collaborative partnerships with our students. They will team up with us to help create the tools we need for and the solutions we must have.