Tom and Trebor
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ABOUT
The Distributed Learning Project (DLP) provides an infrastructure for groups of researchers and educators of all kinds to create, find, edit, re-use and share up-to-date content situated in new media discourses and production.
The DLP is currently under development.
What is the DLP?
The DLP is a web-based collaborative educational project that is accessible 24 hours 7 days a week for anyone with an internet connection. The DLP is a peer-reviewed experimental knowledge network supporting collective research in new media. The project is for all who are curious, interested and engaged with new media on which ever level or context. It is the aim of the DLP to go beyond the walls of academia by linking knowledge from the audio sound lab, the non-profit organization, the new media art studio, the independent media initiative, the small new media company, cultural organizations that focus on new media, the design studio, the club scene and the many departments and disciplines within universities internationally.
Language
At the center of the structure of the DLP are the terms subject, module, resource, and project. In addition, we speak of participants rather than users. For a description of these terms please consult the DLP glossary.
Linking ideas
Inspired by ideas of topic maps and the semantic web this easy-to-use tool for teaching and research interconnects chunks of knowledge from different departments, disciplines, universities, cultures and professions to aid new media arts education. Knowledge is drawn from fields of inquiry as diverse as conceptual art, film, literature, computer science, sociology, law, political science, social science and cultural theory. In between these contexts the DLP links concepts, people and projects in an engaging way. Use this tool for teaching, researching or just to learn something new.
We may ask: How did ideas in literature or music relate to or precede notions in programming? Modules about loops in programming may link to others on John Cage, Steve Reich and an entry about expanded cinema.
Links within the DLP are enabled when the content in two contributions relates to each other. Words within the module link the participant to relevant other modules based on topic maps and connections made through the semantic web. The DLP offers an area in which participants can assemble modules or resources to aid their research, build lectures, and more.
Open source/ open content
The approach of the DLP actively encourages open source software and open content . We use html, php, xml and mysql in the creation and development of the project. We propose to view the project using a Mozilla browser (http://www.mozilla.org/).
What do I submit?
Anybody interested in new media can share their knowledge by uploading content. Just create a free account and you are ready to start. Each contribution, short or long should focus on a particular topic. Modules mostly include links to resources such as sound, images, readings, or tutorials (pdf or txt format for download).
Text includes lecture notes, code, definitions, case studies, descriptions of artworks with screenshots, thumbnails, references to relevant films or DVDs, animated demonstrations, news items, readings, bibliographies, quizzes, tutorials, timelines and more. Bibliographies are to be submitted in Harvard format. For correct formatting plese see http://referencing.myquestion.net/index.htm
The module description should contain the prerequisites needed for the course. Modules are maintained by the author or 'group initiator.'
What happens to my submission?
Once uploaded a team of new media researchers will review your entry. Contributions are automatically added to the site. However, the review team reserves the right to edit out submitted material.
How do I view the information?
Users can choose in which way they want to view the DLP. They can choose to only see results that refer to one area such as programming. One could choose, for example, to only see all tutorials introducing php. This flexibility allows for individual framing of content.
Project building
Modules selected by a participant can be arranged in an order as part of aproject. They than become a project to which additional material can be added. Application of this are lectures series, research support, or syllabi.
Editing modules
Each author who is logged in can edit her own module. Authors can admit other DLP users to edit their material.
Working as a group
The uploaded teaching resources can be developed by trusted authors- taking the idea of free software to theory and art. A community of authors uploads material to then improve on each others texts. The quality of submissions is based on authorship pride. Rather than the single-author-to-one-text relationship here collaborative inter-authorship appears. Users can change existing texts, and code.
How long will it take me to submit?
It will take you from a few minutes to a few hours to get the material together and format it in the DLP. This is will well worth it and comparatively much more time efficient than spending entire summers searching the web for relevant material.
Intellectual property
Be aware of copyright issues when you upload a file. Never use materials that infringe the copyrights of others. In the text that you add to the image describe the copyright situation. Should you find a fascinating texts that are copyrighted in a book or newspaper article it is important to know that it is the creative expression of ideas that is copyrighted, not the ideas themselves. It is perfectly legal to write about these ideas in your own words.
Submissions to the DLP may include images, and text quotes used under the U.S. Copyright law "fair use" doctrine. We prefer the use of images with the most free license such as GNU Free Documentation License (GFDL) or public domain. Along with the GFDL all material on this site is licensed under a Creative Commons License. Documents (images and texts) can be copied and distributed as long as the source is stated and non-commercial, free access to the information remains intact. This principle is called copyleft. The contributing author choses one of the license types available at creativecommons.org The DLP allows unlimited modification and distribution of modules, provided authors receive attribution for their work. Commercial use of submitted is not permitted unless otherwise specified. The content contained in the dlp is protected under the creative commons licensed.
What about images from ".gov" or ".mil" websites?
The general rule is that images which were photographed by a government employee as part of her job are public domain. There may however be exceptions to this rule. Always check.
If you suspect copyright infringement...
The DLP does not police materials before participants upload them. We cannot determine if the correct ownership is stated in a given submission. We will immediately remove any material that has infringed the rights of others. If you believe that a particular submission infringes another's copyright, please send us a comment to idc at distributedcreativity dot org. To request removal you must be either the owner of the copyright or a person to act on behalf of the copyright owner. We will email you our fax details so that you can provide us with a statement of claim.
Which file image file formats do you support for upload?
The site currently supports ".jpg," ".jpeg," and ".png" Ideal image file size is between 35KB and a max of 70KB Examination of copyright as it applies to images is required. A no-porn rule is strictly examined.
Goals
The initial stage emerged from the creation of the course "Cultural Theory & Database Art" that Trebor Scholz and Tom Leonhardt created in spring 2004.
URL: http://critical-netcultures.net
short term value:
Linking up of educators and researchers teaching classes on new media. We plan to link up databases with similar projects to ensure richness and diversity of content. With workshop and presentations and through online communication channels a community of users is created.
mid-term value:
Database gets populated with more general new media topics. Increasing quality of entries and number of visitors.
long-term value:
The DLP becomes widely useful for researchers and educators in new media in the United States and Anglophone countries.
MOTIVATION
Researchers and all learners across the United States and internationally teaching in new media find it hard to keep up with a field that is evolving rapidly. They may find it challenging to design new curriculum because there is little precedence for their work and it is challenging to cover both, in-depth knowledge and advanced skills in cultural theory, art (history), and the technical insight needed to produce using emerging technologies.
In the text context of the DLP knowledge trascends the walls of the university lab. Here, collaborative interauthorship appears within groups of researchers, industry professionals, lawyers concerned with Internet law, sociologists, students, media critics, VJs, media artists, musicians, and educators.
The DLP encourages open exchange of knowledge and free distribution of research materials. Collective research (and not password protected syllabi) saves time, and resources and it improves teaching.
Many texts in new media have short expiration dates and textbook are linear, expensive and are often not up-to-date. The DLP offers an alternative to traditional modes of teaching-- it questions the way knowledge is created, developed, and distributed to the public.
Researchers and educators alike search each others materials and syllabi online to learn about topical orientation, or coding problems. But, we ask-- why reinvent the wheel? Why not benefit from platforms of co-operation such as the DLP?
EXAMPLE
Somebody with a background in computer science could choose to only see modules on loops in php programming for instance. But she would also get relevant topics drawn from cultural theory relevant to data-based programming with issues such as the archive, memory and forgetting,human rights, access, and data knitting. A person leaning more towards cultural theory would find information intriguing to them. A data artist would find project descriptions and screen-grabs of database driven online artworks.
GLOSSARY
Subject
Subjects are shared tropes by content in the DLP-- they are the glue of the project and agents of intertextuality. When a participant enters a description for her contribution into the DLP- the text is scanned for terms that DLP authors defined. These terms are associated with other related ones. A participant's search result is displayed together with entries that contain terms associated with search terms. These associated results are ordered by subject, project, module, and resource.
Module
Modules are stand-alone texts or instructions mainly on one particular topic. For example, a module contribution could be an introductory text contextualizing the use and history of databases in an art context. This module can be associated with resources. Several modules can be grouped together to form a project.
Resource
Resources are meant to support modules and projects. These can be media files, URLs, link lists, bibliographies, code-- accompanied by a description.
Project
Projects are aggregated content from within the DLP. Participants browse the data available in the project and mark them to become part of a project. A group of participants can decide to work together on one project (ie. edit a text collaboratively).
Participant vs. User
We talk of participants rather than users as the latter is a misleading term derived more a shopping user of a corporate website. We rather think of creating, distributing and shaping than using.
Topic Maps
Topic maps address the information overload that we are faced with.
Book indexes basically perform a similar function. Topic Maps are the online equivalent of printed indexes-- they are made up of multiple links. Knowledge is described and associated in more complex ways. Topics are grouped in classes of topic types. Topics maps are about optimization of navigation. They are "connection hubs" between the modules. Information is accessed through a semantically associated list terms that offers all entries that semantically relate to the search term (for example "employment" would be associated with "employee" and "employer". This method is more effective than the alphabetical arrangement of keywords. This is made possible by XML technology. The navigation allows you to visualize connections between concepts, code, theory, and art. Module A module is a self-contained component of a system, which has a well-defined interface to the other components; something is modular if it is constructed so as to facilitate easy assembly, flexible arrangement, and/or repair of the components. We refer to modules here as knowledge chunks.
Semantic web
URL: http://www.semanticweb.org/
The Semantic Web is a project that intends to create a universal medium for information exchange by giving meaning, in a manner understandable by machines, to the content of documents on the Web. Currently under the direction of its creator, Tim Berners-Lee of the World Wide Web Consortium, the Semantic Web extends the ability of the World Wide Web through the use of standards, markup languages and related processing tools.
Metadata
Metadata is data about data. An example is a library catalog card, which contains data about the nature and location of a book: It is data about the data in the book referred to by the card. The content combined with its metadata is often called a content package.
RELATED PROJECTS
What are related projects?
H20
URL: http://h2o.law.harvard.edu/index.jsp
The H2O project is building an interlocking collection of communities based on the free creation and exchange of ideas. The recent development of the Internet has been overwhelmingly driven by commercial interests. Commercial websites must ultimately focus on making money. The founding premise of the H2O project is that the university world has something to add to the growth of the Internet that the commercial world cannot contribute. H2O aims to apply Internet technologies to the underlying aims of the academy -- the free creation and exchange of ideas and the communities formed around those ideas -- both within and beyond the confines of the traditional university setting.
NODAL: A Network-Oriented Document Abstraction Language
URL: http://nodal.sourceforge.net/
NODAL (a Network-Oriented Document Abstraction Language) is a proposal for a new infrastructure and model for building collaborative applications. The two documents below represent a high level description (the white paper) and more detailed discussion of some of the API building blocks for the system.
KEEP toolkit Tool for Knowledge Exchange, Exhibition and presentation
URL: http://www.carnegiefoundation.org/KML/KEEP/index.htm
The KEEP toolkit is a set of web-based tools that help teachers, students and institutions quickly create compact and engaging knowledge representations on the Web.
Scholarly Ontologies Project
URL: http://kmi.open.ac.uk/projects/scholonto/
The ScholOnto Project is a 3 year effort (2001-2004) to build and deploy a prototype infrastructure for making scholarly claims about the significance of research documents. 'Claims' are made by making connections between ideas. Any claim is of course open to counterarguments. The connections are grounded in a discourse/argumentation ontology, which makes possible innovative services for navigating, visualizing and analysing the network as it grows.
The Open Knowledge Initiative
URL: http://www.okiproject.org/
The Open Knowledge Initiative develops specifications that describe how the components of an educational software environment communicate with each other and with other enterprise systems. O.K.I. specifications address broad interoperability agreements that allow for adaptation and further specification by communities of practice. In this way, O.K.I. seeks to open new markets for educational tools and content.
MITOpenCourseware
URL: http://ocw.mit.edu/index.html
MIT's OpenCourseWare is a free and open educational resource for faculty, students, and self-learners around the world. OCW supports MIT's mission to advance knowledge and education, and serve the world in the 21st century. It is true to MIT's values of excellence, innovation, and leadership.
Connexions
URL: http://cnx.rice.edu/
Knowledge should be free, open, and shared. Connexions is a rapidly growing collection of free scholarly materials and a powerful set of free software tools to help authors publish and collaborate, instructors rapidly build and share custom courses and learners explore the links among concepts, courses, and disciplines.
