Open Source Composition

An interesting article in Computers and Composition on "Open Source and Academia." For those who don't know, "open source" refers to a particular mode of software development in which the programming code for an application is freely available (as opposed to being encrypted proprietary information as in the case of Microsoft or Apple). The result of this is that a public community of programmers can work together to improve an application.

Where am I going with this? Well, this article discusses how the Open Source model might be applied to education, and specifically to composition. The fundamental difference here is between our traditional notion of authorship, which is individualistic, private, and proprietary, and a contemporary "networked" mode of composition/production, which is collective, public, and held in common. The Wikipedia is a good example of how this model works in terms of general knowledge production. The Wikipedia is an encyclopedia that is openly revisable by anyone who wishes to register and join the collective process. The process relies on a type of application known as "wikis" (hence the name).

[Now one might wonder about the accuracy of the entries, given this public process. It is a fair question. All Open Source projects rely upon the community keeping track of itself and correcting errors as they are discovered. Of course, one might also place this in comparison with "official" sources of information from government to news media with an equal degree of skepticism.]

Anyway, the point here (and in this article) is to conceive of composition as a site where writing pedagogy follows the open source model. The article gives several examples, but I will give another.

Let's say we did a wiki pilot program with ten sections of CPN 100, approx. 200 students and five instructors. We could pick a topic, let's say youth culture. We could identify three or four readings that would provide us with basic methods for cultural analysis. We then select a couple online periodicals/sites (b/c they're free) to read regularly. We would ask the students to read these sites and then produce weekly entries for an "encyclopedia" on youth culture. The application would require students to log in so we could track their activities to ensure they were participating. In addition to posting new material each week, starting in week three we might also ask them to revise or extend an existing article. Part of their task would be to create links between their posts and others.

In class then we could discuss the posts in a variety of ways from style to audience to argumentative structures. We could discuss the importance of having references and incorporating citations as a way to establish legitimacy for an argument. We could chart the most-linked-to articles and discuss their popularity. In addition, we could ask students to write reflective pieces on their work, on the idea of writing process, and so on.

By the end of the semester, we would have a wikipedia on youth culture with over 2500 entries and a million words. Now imagine what it would be like if we did it with all the sections of CPN 100 ... and CPN 101 the following semester ... and we continued doing this for 3-5 years.

We would be able to create a substantial record of youth culture written in the voice of Cortland's students. We could create a product that might actually be useful for high school teachers and other college instructors.

Imagine what would happen if we opened participation to all of SUNY or any comp instructor anywhere. The diversity of perspective could be invaluable.

And do you think our students would be learning something? Would they be seeing themselves as writers? As writers with an audience and peers? Would they recognize the importance of revision?