From: jkp@cs.HUT.FI (Jyrki Kuoppala)
Subject: "Virtual University" article from Thinknet
Reply-To: jkp@cs.HUT.FI (Jyrki Kuoppala)
Organization: Helsinki University of Technology, Finland
Date: Sun, 30 Aug 1992 07:50:17 GMT

This is a republication of the Thinknet newsletter mentioning the idea
of a Virtual University and also UU.


From: palmer@WORLD.STD.COM (Kent D Palmer)
Newsgroups: alt.cyberspace
Subject: THINKNET E-NEWSLETTER ISSUE#3 LONG
Date: 24 Aug 92 05:50:27 GMT
Reply-To: thinknet@world.std.com

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   |  |   | | |    \|  \ ======== |... \| ..... |.Meta-Theory, And Other..
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-----------------------------------------------------------------
AUGUST 1992           ISSUE  003              VOLUME 1   NUMBER 3
-----------------------------------------------------------------

 Thinknet is a newsletter about cooperative philosophical
thought in cyberspace, both on BBSs and on the networks.

 *CONTENTS*
 THINKNET PUBLICATION DATA
 THINKNET ESSAY & DISCUSSION CHANNELS - a thoughtSource
 A HOME FOR THINKNET ON THE WELL      - a thoughtSpace
 VIRTUAL UNIVERSITY                   - an idea whose time has come
 POST MODERN CULTURE                  - an electronic journal
 EJOURNAL                             - excerpt from a meta-electronic journal
 NET JAM                              - making music on the networks
 BOOK REVIEW: CYBERSPACE: First Steps - exploring the architecture of cyberspace
 ESSAY: On Thought Capsules           - communicating single ideas efficiently 

Issues three and four are a back-to-back double issue with the same number. 
The overflow material is contained in issue four. It has sections on 
Resources and Feedback. If you do not have issue four you are 
missing some of the content of this pair of newsletters. Please 
have a look at that second issue as well. Separating the two issues 
maintains a reasonable file size and makes it easier for the reader 
to refer to the main contents of the newsletter.

<<<<<<Thinknet Electronic Newsletter (c) 1991 Kent Palmer.>>>>>>>

-----------------------------------------------------------------
THINKNET PUBLICATION DATA                                     kdp
----------------------------------------------------------------

 *Scope*

 Thinknet is a review of philosophical debates and discussions
that are ongoing and enabled by computer mediated
communications.  Any meta-theoretical exchanges that border on
philosophy or Systems Theory that are carried out on the
global networks or Bulletin Board Systems are of interest. All
thoughtful discussions within the cyberspace medium are
considered relevant, especially those with an inter-, multi-, or
transdisciplinary character.

 *Sources, Subscriptions & Submissions*

 Thinknet is an occasional publication available in both
electronic and hard copy versions.

 Thinknet is available electronically from the following:

        The WORLD BBS Online Book Initiative Directory
        
        To access ftp world.std.com 
        {telnet address: 192.74.137.5}

        Once connected then login as anonymous, 
        use any password (though an e-mail address as a
        password is the custom). Once in just "cd obi" 
        (or, specifically for thinknet stuff, 
        "cd obi/NewsLetters/Thinknet").

        .................................................... 

        The WELL BBS Thinknet Conference
        27 Gate Five Road
        Sausalito, CA 94965
        modem 415-332-6106        voice 415-332-4335

        Must register as a user to gain access. Once on system
        you can look in the phi (philosophy) conference for 
        the thinknet topic. For newsletter issues see the thinknet
        conference. Send an email message to the host using
        'mail thinknet' to gain entrance. Once you have been 
        let in then look in '/well/info/thinknet' for thinknet files. 

        ....................................................

        GEnie BBS
        (Religion and Ethics Bulletin Board -- Philosophy category #37)
        GEnie Client Services 1-800-638-9636

           The RELIGION BBS has been revamped and the thinknet 
        topic there has been eliminated. From now on thinknet
        issues will be uploaded into the library associated 
        with the Religion BBS. Look for a file with name
        thinkxxx.zip where 'xxx' is the issue number. For example,
        think003.zip. 

        The editor maintains a topic in the the Philosophy category
        called KNOWLEDGE PAINFULLY ACQUIRED (Topic #15) in which
        a cyberspace science fiction dialogue is under construction 
        called The APIERON. Occasionally there is commentary on the 
        Chinese Neo-Confucian book KNOWLEDGE PAINFULLY ACQUIRED for
        which the topic is named.

        ....................................................

         COMPUSERVE
 
         Electronic Frontier Foundation reportedly has 
         copies of the newsletter in their directory.

        ....................................................

         ALT.CYBERSPACE
         Some one seems to be posting the whole newsletter to
         ALT.CYBERSPACE usenet newsgroup. If this continues you
         may pull it off the net directly.

 You may subscribe electronically to Thinknet by e-mailing to
the following address:

        thinknet@world.std.com

 Use the following message format:

        SENT THINKNET TO YourFullName AT UserId@internet.address


 Hardcopy subscriptions are available at a nominal cost to
cover photocopying, postage and handling.  Write the editor for 
the current rates at the following address:

        Kent Palmer
        PO BOX 8383
        ORANGE CA 92664-8383
        UNITED STATES

 Thinknet invites individuals to submit information, articles,
and news for possible inclusion.  Send submissions to the same
electronic or postal addresses that appear immediately above
for subscriptions.

 If you would like to become a correspondent reporting on
developments on a particular mailing list or bulletin board
please apply.  We would like to provide summaries of ongoing
developments from time to time.

 Thinknet will mention items it receives that are within its
scope and when appropriate, review them.  Electronic
newsletters, BBS services, books, mailing lists, works in
progress, are all of interest.

 Individuals interested in participating in the preparation
and dissemination of this journal are encouraged to apply to the
Thinknet address above.

 We are a particularly interested in identifying Bulletin
Board systems where philosophical discussion is carried out in
a focused manner, i.e. where philosophy has its own category.
Inspiration for the format and design of this electronic journal
is taken from the ARTCOM electronic art's related newsletter
located on the WELL.

 Thinknet may be distributed freely in electronic form.  It
should be considered as shareware.  Thus the copyright notice
must be preserved and the text copied in its entirety without
changes.  It is not allowed for anyone to charge for Thinknet
newsletter except the original producer.

 Thinknet newsletter copyright 1992 Kent Palmer.  All rights
are reserved.  It may be not be distributed in paper form
without permission of the copyright holder.  Single paper
copies for personal study are allowed to be printed.

 *Staff*

 EDITOR

 Kent D. Palmer   -> palmer@world.std.com

 CORE GROUP

 Peter Cash        -> cash@muse.convex.com
 Stephen Clark     -> ap01@liverpool.ac.uk
 Richard Coburn    -> 70712.236@compuserve.com
 Richard Dunn      -> 71330.1712@compuserve.com
 Lance Fletcher    -> 71700.715@compuserve.com
 Brent J. Krawchuk -> brent@myka.questor.wimsey.bc.ca 
                      krawchuk@cs.sfu.ca
 Elan Moritz       -> moritz@well.sf.ca.us
 Mark Peterson     -> hiho@csd4.csd.uwm.edu
 Frank Schroth     -> fschroth@world.std.com (copy editor)
 Bruce Schuman     -> brs@well.sf.ca.us
 Jeff Dooley       -> dooley@well.sf.ca.us

There are over 2000 subscribers to thinknet newsletter. 
Thanks for your patience and continued support.

-----------------------------------------------------------------
 THINKNET ESSAY & DISCUSSION CHANNELS                        kdp
-----------------------------------------------------------------

 The changing focus of Thinknet will be reflected in the
opening of a few associated mailing lists. These mailing lists
will concentrate on the promotion of philosophical discussion
on various topics by changing the normal mailing list format.
Instead of a single mailing list which bears all traffic there
will be several related mailing lists called

       essay@world.std.com
     discuss@world.std.com
 submissions@world.std.com
     talkone@world.std.com
     talktwo@world.std.com
   talkthree@world.std.com
    talkfour@world.std.com
    talkfive@world.std.com

 These are several related channels for information exchange.
The essay channel is moderated and edited, by Brent J.
Krawchuk, and will be a medium for the publishing of quality
essays on any philosophical, systems theoretical,
interdisciplinary, or meta-theoretical topics. In order to
submit an essay for dissemination the author sends it to
submissions@world for consideration. When it is approved it
will be published to the list essay@world. Associated with
this essay channel will be a separate discussion channel in
which the essays or other related topics may be discussed.
When conversation becomes intense on a particular subject then
the participants may request being moved to one of the
talk@world channels to continue their discussion.

 The concept behind the structure of the lists is that good
conversation on the internet is limited by having single
channels devoted to particular subjects. So all messages come
down that single channel in a Hodge Podge which is difficult to
keep track of. Many different conversations are mixed up and
it is difficult to concentrate on a particular subject that
only a few people are interested in. In order to achieve depth,
the essay channel supports long posts that are vetted for both
form and content. The criteria for publishing essays will evolve
with the list but at first the filtering will be minimal. The
point of the essay list is to get people to consider internet
as a medium for publishing their ideas in a rough form for
comment by others. That commenting occurs on the discussion
channel. That channel may carry multiple interleaved
conversations of different essays or topics that are brought up
for discussion by the list members. These discussions will be
unfiltered. But as happens with all lists, certain discussions
will take-off. In that case there are the talk channels for
these indepth conversations to move to in order not to take up
the band width of the main discussion list. If one of these
side conversations becomes very long lived I will set up a
special list for them to continue on.

So what you see here is an experiment in the medium of
cyberspace. It is based on the observation of many different
mailing lists in action while attempting to understand
what prevents good conversation form occurring. The answer
formulated here is that one channel is doing the work of several
specialized but related channels. The thinknet channels will
attempt to remedy this problem with this set of interrelated
mailing lists dedicated to thoughtful conversation in
cyberspace. Hope you will join the experiment and help us
discover whether this or some other solution is the answer.

 If you would like to join this venture send your name and
email address to 'thinknet@world.std.com' using the format:

 THINKNET ESSAY & DISCUSSION YourFullName <UserId@Internet.Address>

 Give a short biography and list of interests to introduce
yourself.

 You can join just the essay channel if you wish.

 If you want to make a submission send it to submissions@world.std.com. 
You can request guidelines for essays from that address as well.

 The essence of the internet is personal publishing. The thinknet
channels make it possible for you to publish your working
papers or polished essays and get feed back from a group with
a broad range of interests. However, some attempt will be made
to assure the quality of materials published in order to
make it possible for others to rely on the quality of
information they will receive from this information source.
Thus if you have important things you would like to say and get
a well considered response the thinknet channels are the place.

 Lists of thinknet essays will be offered in subsequent
versions of the Thinknet newsletter. So those who do not want
to subscribe to yet another mailing list will from time to
time get updates of the essays published since the last
issue. However, the essays will no longer be fresh and the
discussion will probably have been long finished.

 Essays of particularly high quality or intrinsic interest may
be published to the thinknet subscription list as a whole. This
makes your audience quite large. So if you are looking for an
audience for your ideas then please consider the thinknet essay
and discussion channels as a place to start that search.


-----------------------------------------------------------------
 A HOME FOR THINKNET ON THE WELL                              kdp 
-----------------------------------------------------------------

 Thinknet now has a BBS home on the WELL in San Francisco. Our
home is a new category dedicated to thinknet alone. Previously we
have posted the newsletter to a topic in the philosophy
category. That topic will continue for the foreseeable future. 
But in addition we will now have our own place to work on future
issues and to hold discussions. Essays and discussions from the
thinknet channels will be archived in the file space associated
with the new category. Also other materials of interest will be
maintained there for your access if you are a member of the
WELL. If not, it is a good investment as it is one of the the
pre-eminent BBSs in the country. It has very active
discussions in many different fields. One of those fields is now
also thinknet.

 The thinknet category on the WELL functions as a workspace for
the CORE group to discuss upcoming issues. Materials that have
been sent in to thinknet will be accessible there which may or
may not find their way into the newsletter. It will give a
historical record of the development of the newsletter and the
discussions among the CORE group that result in each issue.

 Beyond the production of the newsletter, the category is
also a place for indepth discussions modeled on seminars. Each
topic will have its facilitator (or host) and will be geared
toward serious discussions of any topic related to the scope of
thinknet. At the moment the only active seminar under way is on
self-organizing systems. But we are open to new members of the
category and new seminar ideas. So bring your friends and get
ready for some good study and conversation in our new category.

 In order to join you must become a member of the WELL. This
costs about $12 per month and $2 per hour. You can save on long
distance connect charges if you can access the WELL using
telnet. Otherwise the connect charges are extra and can run
anywhere from $1 to $4 per hour. Once you are a WELL member
then send me a letter asking to gain admittance. Thinknet
conference is private so only members can gain access. Mail the
following message:

ENTER THINKNET CONFERENCE YourFullName WellUserId

to 'thinknet'. Once I send you a reply which says you are
admitted then you type 'g thinknet' at the prompt. When you
enter the conference you will see the following menu:

<<<<<<<<<<<<<<< W E L C O M E  T O   T H I N K N E T>>>>>>>>>>>>>

First topic 1, last 14

 Topic - Number of responses - Header

  1   3 ANNOUNCEMENTS
   <topic is frozen>
  2   2 INTRODUCTIONS
  3   5 CORE GROUP TALK
  4   0 READER FEEDBACK
  5   1 INFORMAL CONVERSATION
  6   1 COOPERATIVE THINKING IN CYBERSPACE
  7   0 ESSAY CHANNEL
   <topic is frozen>
  8   0 DISCUSSION CHANNEL
   <topic is frozen>
  9   0 ITEMS OF INTEREST
 10   1 SEMINAR: Emergent Systems Process Philosophy
 11  31 SEMINAR: Self-organizing Systems
 12   7 SEMINAR: Ontology
 13  17 SEMINAR: Epistemology
 14  10 Metatopic: Improving discussion in the Thinknet
Conference

<<<<<<<<<<<<<<< L E A V I N G  T H I N K N E T>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

 Introduce yourself in the INTRODUCTIONS topic so we can get
to know each other. Then type 's n' in order to see all posted
messages. If you want to limit your exposure you might try
'fixseen' and 's n -1' instead.

 I hope you will join us there for serious discussions of your
favorite subject. Bring your philosophically inclined
cyberspace friends. And please mention that you are joining the
WELL in order to participate in thinknet when you join so that
they know that you are interested in keeping this small private
conference going for thoughtful conversations in cyberspace.



-----------------------------------------------------------------
 VIRTUAL UNIVERSITY                                           kdp
-----------------------------------------------------------------

 I would like to breach a subject I have been thinking of for
some time. It is the concept of setting up a virtual university
(VU) in cyberspace. It strikes me that it is possible to do
almost all the functions of a university in the cyberspace
medium. Distance Learning is being explored by many different
institutions. Electronic mail is being used for communications
between students and teachers and between researchers with the
same interests. So slowly this new medium is being incorporated
into the everyday transactions of many universities, colleges
and other institutions of learning. But it seems to me that a
fundamental opportunity is being missed. That is to create a
new institution which is adapted to the cyberspace medium.

 What would a Virtual University be like?
 Who would it serve and how would it work?
 Would it have a football team?

 The Virtual University is a global institution. It serves
students from all over the world and might be patterned on the
External Degree system of the University of London. In as
much as it would offer degrees to students widely dispersed
without their having to physically attend classes. Then again it
might be patterned on Alternative Universities such as those
that grew up in the Sixties. In that it is more open and fluid
an organization than traditional universities.

 Let's sketch out what such an institution might look like.
First the Virtual University is different from other
Universities in that it is not divided into specialist
departments. Its goal is to produce generalists not specialists
and is dedicated to interdisciplinary studies. In this way it
compliments existing university structures which are fractured
by specialization. The virtual university is made up of
research teams. Each team has members of different specialties
on it and has a particular subject it is studying in an
interdisciplinary manner. The research team is made up of at
least three scholars with Ph.D.'s in different disciplines. Teams
are probably no larger than ten scholars. Each team takes on a
number of graduates and undergraduates. Graduates must have a
Bachelors degree. Undergraduates do not yet have Bachelors
degrees. Thus the ranking of members is dependent on their 
external specializations. The graduate and undergraduate students
participate in the research of the core scholars. In the
process, they are assessed based on their contribution and when
a sufficient amount of original contributions are made the
student is then given a virtual degree. The virtual degree indicates
participation in the ongoing interactive interdisciplinary
research. It does not replace the specialized degree but is an
enhancement of that degree which shows the student interacted
with scholars from many different disciplines and was able to
learn from them and even perhaps teach them in turn as part of
his contribution.

 The Virtual University is merely a network of these
interdisciplinary research teams. The Virtual University serves
as a means for teams to share their results. Each research team
has a representative on the Assembly of the Virtual University.
The Assembly votes on the policies and standards for the whole
of the Virtual University. Each team has one vote. The team
must reach a consensus on how to cast their vote. The central
function of the University is the archiving and dissemination
of team results. It acts as a clearing house for setting up
teams and connecting people who are interested in research in
the same subject. It administers the records of the students
who participate.

 The Virtual University is really like a switchboard connecting
scholars in all the Universities of the World encouraging them
to work together in interdisciplinary ways and to breakdown the
barriers between specialties. But the Virtual University is
not tied to the Universities of the world either economically
or institutionally. It would not be fulfilling its role if it
were merely an arm of the existing University structure.
Instead, the Virtual University is a catalyst for change within
the world by connecting scholars throughout the world many of
whom are not affiliated with any University or College. It is a
mediator between the independent scholars and the academic
community.

 It is a little known fact that in the beginning anyone who had 
a Ph.D. was able to grant a Ph.D. to someone else. Thus, the heart 
of the Virtual University is the independent research team which sets 
up its own research program and decides what requirements the
students have to fulfill as they are participating in that
program in order to get a degree. The virtual degrees are
really signs of the students ability to network and participate
in the research of the scholars who are working together. It is
really just a means for others to get involved in the ongoing
research of scholars who are actively working together.

 Today many scholars communicate over E-mail. But few actually
carry out their research with others using this medium. The
fact that people scattered all over the world can coordinate
their work and work together using mailing lists and e-mail
means that the ecology of scholarship is broken. The fact that
each Real University can only have a few specialists in a
certain area does not matter because these specialists can have
their own forum. A research team has the whole world to search
for people interested in the same subject from different
disciplines. Once those few people have been located then it is
just a matter of setting up the proper mailing lists or BBS
forum for the work to proceed. For instance, thinknet core can be
seen as a nascent research team. The topic of thinknet is
cooperative thinking in cyberspace. Like thinknet the research
team would set up its newsletter to publish partial results.
Like thinknet the research team might have their BBS category
on some home system to act as an archive. It might also have
its associated cluster of Mailing lists some for general
discussion others for special topics. The virtual university
would collect the newsletters and reports from the team and
route these to all the other teams on the network. What is
missing from thinknet is the relation of student to teacher
that is envisaged as a key ingredient of the Virtual University.

The Virtual University may be seen as the lost heart of the
academic world. The academic world is lost in specialization.
Real degrees do not mean much when the different specialists
who possess them cannot talk to each other or cooperate. Virtual
degrees signify the ability to learn to talk to different
specialists and cooperate with them in mutual research. Virtual
Post-doctorates result from this cooperative research when
other teams review the results of the cooperative work of one
particular team. Virtual doctorates and masters, as well as
bachelors result from the participation of undergraduates and
graduates in the interdisciplinary research. Virtual degrees
enhance Real degrees. They exist in a dimension orthogonal to
that of the real degree. It is the dimension of cooperative
thought, interdisciplinary research, and meta-disciplines like
general systems theory and philosophy.

Welcome to the Virtual University. Welcome to the network of
nodes that are the intersections of all the specialties. Classes 
will begin when you realize the possibilities of this new medium 
for bringing people together who normally would never hear of each 
other isolated each in their own socio-ecological niche.

If you are interested in participating in a inter-, multi- or
trans-disciplinary research team then contact us at thinknet.

..................................................................

NOTE: After writing this I was lucky enough to see what Jyrki Kuoppala 
is doing with the new groups alt.uu.xxxxxx. Clearly he has a similar
idea and he has started to put his idea into action by setting up
the Usenet University. I wish him well and though the effort
seems somewhat disorganized right now it is perhaps a beginning 
of exactly the kind of organizaion I was alluding to above. Here
is his FAQ on his efforts

..................................................................
      distance:327 misc.education:5252 comp.edu:3376 alt.education.
      disabled:206 sci.edu:1757 alt.culture.usenet:167