The document proposes running a university like Wikipedia by making it more open, collaborative, and less formally structured. Some key aspects discussed include having no formal admissions process or tenure for professors, instead allowing fluid participation. The university would be governed by community values rather than rules, not grant degrees but certificates, and make all knowledge freely available. It would encourage learning through play and failure, and be administered by community members through guidance rather than control.

1. What if... we ran the university like Wikipedia? David J. Staley, PhD Director, Goldberg Center, The Ohio State University (staley.3@osu.edu) Principal, The DStaley Group (david@dstaleygroup.com) President, Columbus Futurists (columbus.futurists@gmail.com) innovation, technology, education

4. “ By making it easier for groups to self-assemble and for individuals to contribute to group effort without requiring formal management , [social networking tools] have radically altered the old limits on the size, sophistication, and scope of unsupervised effort .”

5. platforms

8. a constructivist classroom

9. The university as a “platform”…

10. … is permeable (no formal admissions process)

11. … consists of voluntary and self-organizing associations of teachers and students

12. … consists of a self-organizing and intellectually fluid curriculum

13. … does not offer tenure to professors (longevity is determined by the community), who move fluidly between the “real world” and the university university “ real world” Professor X

14. … is governed by protocols based on community values and mores rather than on administrative rules and fiats

15. … does not grant diplomas (but does grant certificates)

16. … encourages play (and even failure)

17. … is governed by “intellectual barter” and makes all knowledge created therein free to anyone

18. … is administered by those who “bubble up” from among the members of the community, and who maintain the platform as “choice architects” and lead via “cultivation and care,” not “command and control”

19. … has a fluid temporal structure: there are no “semesters”; teaching and learning are ongoing activities

20. So... ...who’d like to start up a new university?