Definately moving down the line that online communities, including learning communities are much better off being open than closed if they are going to utilise the full potential of the web - just need to convince the academics!
THE INTERNET IS A BRAIN … AND THE WEB IS ITS MIND .. some very interesting thoughts here, especially for developers of learning management systems, which still very much try and 'lock' the learning into very restricted 'course' site, much the same as locking students into room with a teacher in front of them, rather than looking at the learning potential of the open 'global brain' that the web is becoming.
Have been thinking about how viable it is to use agile development methodologies as a 'lone' developer. Definately coming to agree with Patrick Morrison's view that when it come to programming teams "The smallest number is never a single programmer."
Back after of few days of driving a digger and back filling a drive with 150 cubic metres of shingle (and that is only half the drive!). Much more fun than developing software!
Now back from the real to the virtual, just downloaded Alistair Cockburn's 'Crystal Clear' manuscript for a bit of bed time reading - now just have to work out the bext way of printing 213 pages 
"Software development is a (series of) cooperative game(s), in which people use markers and props to inform, remind and inspire themselves and each other in getting to the next move in the game. The endpoint of the game is an operating software system; the residue of the game is a set of markers to inform and assist the players of the next game. The next game is the alteration or replacement of the system, or creation of a neighboring system."
from http://alistair.cockburn.us/crystal/articles/cgm/manifesto.html
So that's why I enjoy this job so much
Picking up on Derek W's thoughts I think that some sort of elearning startegy is required, but I can't help but think that those developing such strategies could have the same problems as traditional software development methodologies in coping with the rate of change in the current environment, ie. by the time you have done the research/analysis and devised the perfect strategy the playing field has moved.
Perhaps those in government and tertiary organisations responsible for devising such strategies need to adopt more agile methods. Sure, have a very loose 5 year vision, but then get around the table with XP like cards and use that "simple form of planning and tracking to decide what should be done next and to predict when the project will be done. Predicting what will be accomplished by the due date, and determining what to do next. The emphasis is on steering the project — which is quite straightforward — rather than on exact prediction of what will be needed and how long it will take — which is quite difficult" (quoted from http://www.xprogramming.com/xpmag/whatisxp.htm)
Just a thought.
In the Coherent Social Systems for Learning article mentioned previously found a line which covered what I am trying to achieve with the new knowledge base component in Interact.
"A Community of Practice creates a shared understanding by annotating knowledge-assets with “lessons learned” or “best practice”.
