4. The Web is the most successful
information system in history
Shirky: the web combines dissemination, comunication and collaboration.
Benkler: Easy and ad hoc collaboration through lower transaction costs →
peer production a viable alternative
5. Use the Web and apply its lessons
1. Give people tools to put stuff on
the Web;
2. build infrastructure that is
distributed, neutral, open.
The Web is a platform on
which great and innovative
things are build → rinse and
repeat
6. Give names to interesting things and
connect them
The internet: IP and TCPIP; identify
servers and connects them
a distributed and robust architecture,
a neutral and open platform → email,
IM, VOIP, HTTP, Bittorrent, etc. etc.
7. Give names to interesting things and
connect them
The web: URLs and <a href=””>,
identify documents and connect them
a distributed and robust architecture, a
neutral and open platform →
unprecedented access to information,
sharing, colaboration.
8. So...
Give names to important entities
(“end to end” architecture)
and build infrastructure to make
connections between them
Then: don't interfere anymore and
let innovation happen (on the edge
of the network).
Way forward: 1. social web (connect people) 2. semantic web
(do for data what the web did for documents)
9. Stoa: an academic social network and
learning environment
1. Share academic output on the
Web: tools for making news URLs.
2. Take control of digital identity on
the Web
The social web at USP
10. Stoa: Learning Environment
Learning is a social process
(besides a cognitive one)
An informal virtual space
Complementary to a course
management system (LMS,
virtual classrooms)
Complementary to a content
management system
Virtual public spaces, over and
above virtual classrooms
11. Tools for putting stuff on the web
Upload files to your personal web
space: simplest way to make use of
web benefits
Create profiles, connect / “follow”
friends and contacts (what is your
personal network doing?).
Blogs and Forums: discussion
spaces
Student blogs at university server:
one of the first experiments worlwide.
16. Infrastructure for OER resources
How should we organize our
systems?
How do we get as much stuff
on the Web as possible?
Centralized repositories?
“edupunk”, DIY, P2P, “just do
it”?
Where should we be in the
space defined by the axes
centralized – distributed,
application – platform,
individual – collective?
19. Moodle as a federated OER repo
1. Use of common infrastructure strategy: We are creating a
module to Integrate Moodle with USP corporate systems: one click
course creation for teachers, automatic enrolment for students.
Allow groups (even ad hoc) to administrate their own repo / LMS.
2. Use “OpenShare” module for Moodle to “put the power to
control the license and release of resources and
activities in the hands of the course creators.”
20. Thank You
CEPA – Instituto de Física – USP
http://cepa.if.usp.br
coordinator: Prof. Gil da Costa Marques
Contact ewout@usp.br e http://stoa.usp.br/ewout
Stoa: CTI, CEPA and Prof. Efisica: CEPA and Prof. Gil da
Ewout ter Haar (coord.) Costa Marques (coord.)
IPTV: Profa Regina Melo Ecalculo: CEPA and Profa
Silveira (coord.) Maria Cristina Barufi (IME)
