Wikiworld

Wikiworld is a 2010 non-fiction book about the revolution on how we think of learning in the future. It provides an overview of the recent social and political changes in the spheres of education and learning. The term Wikiworld refers not only to the technological changes in the Internet but also, and especially, to the social practices people are involved, participate and invent in the Internet as part of their everyday living and learning. There is a Wikiversity reading group on the book (from which the book can be downloaded as pdf).
The authors claim that the way students and other people learn is changing as a result of new information and communication technologies, especially wikis. Thus the Wikiworld. Institutionalized learning at different levels of the schooling system and adult training and adult education is transforming into new forms of critical learning and open collaboration. According to the authors the evolving Wikiworld will eventually advance peoples' autonomy, self-government and actual freedom.
Basic Argument
Authors argue that since the Wikiworld belongs to the commons and is a collective process consisting of wiki-based global multi-language learning projects it has a potential to enhance peoples' powers and possibilities to collaborate, participate and act for the common good. "We are moving towards a progressive transformation from the institutionalised and individualised forms of learning to open learning and collaboration". As an empowering social construction it has positive effects for political and epistemological democracy as well as for modes of critical learning and media literacy. As authors have it: "To paraphrase philosopher J. L. Austin (1911-1960), the question on the Wikiworld is not only How To Do Things with Words, but also How To Do Things with Edits, Saves, Uploads, Downloads, Histories, Revisions, and Discussions."
as an Example
Wikiworld consist of free and open source software solutions, various wikis as collaborative softwares, and their collective use. The emphasis behind the idea of the Wikiworld is on the collaborative turn, or what is called participatory culture. It "includes relatively low barriers to civic engagement and activism, artistic and other sorts of expression, easy access for creating and sharing one’s outputs with others, peer-to-peer relations and informal mentorship, as well as new forms of socialisation, social connections, collectivism and solidarity."
is a case in point. In their estimate and its sister projects like Wikiversity "will soon confront national educational systems. Researchers, educators, teachers and other cultural workers are tired of waiting to get on board the Wikiworld through their institutions, and are building their blogs and wikis and forming alliances globally with their peers and like-minded people. They are part of informal networks and ‘invisible colleges’. Some of them have joined digital temporary autonomous zones. New forms of interaction and knowledge production are flourishing outside closed educational systems. Old organisational structures are like dinosaurs preparing for extinction in the new era. And the potential goes beyond the transformation from formal education to public education: there is Wikinews, Wikileaks, Wikibooks, not to mention all the grass-roots wikis of specific communities."
Contents
*Introduction [http://www.amazon.co.uk/Wikiworld-Juha-Suoranta/dp/0745328911/refsr_1_1?sbooks&ieUTF8&qid1283502548&sr=1-1#reader_0745328911]
*A Critical Paradigm of Education
*Digital Literacy and Political Economy
*Radical Monopolies
*The World Divided in Two
*Edutopias and Active Citizenship
*Stages of Freedom: from Social to Socialist Media
In the Chapter 6 it is argued that the landscape of social media can be classified according to the levels of freedom to participate (see Table 1 Levels of Freedom [http://www.re-public.gr/en/?p=290#more-290]). They suggest the Leninist formula as the next logical step in the development of social media into socialist media. First stage of freedom refers to e.g. YouTube and Google products where a user turns into a produser, and in the second level, e.g. in into a participant. What is needed in going to the level triple-freedom and reaching actual freedom is presented in the following equation: 'electricity + access to the Internet (a wiki flora) + power of of the soviets (control of resources)'. The authors also write for the idea that actual freedom is obtained when basic income is combined with digital resources as the commons. It has been noticed, however, that this 'Leninist formula' is far too straightforward and exaggerated to be operational and even realistic.
*Conclusion

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