Together in the Wiki World

"We are on the cusp of a global revolution in teaching and learning. Educators worldwide are developing a vast pool of educational resources on the Internet, open and free for all to use. These educators are creating a world where each and every person on earth can access and contribute to the sum of all human knowledge. They are also planting the seeds of a new pedagogy where educators and learners create, shape and evolve knowledge together, deepening their skills and understanding as they go."

These are the opening lines of the Cape Town Open Education Declaration, which has the title "Unlocking the promise of open educational resources". The declaration arises from a meeting held in that South African city in September 2007. The aim of the meeting was to accelerate efforts to promote open resources, technology and teaching practices. The Declaration now has more than 2000 signatories, who are individuals and organisations. In tune with the spirit of the declaration two other noteworthy initiatives are taking shape, the Open Education Resource Foundation, which aims to become a leader in international open education, and WikiEducator, "an evolving community" employing a wiki platform where people worldwide are working together in the planning of education projects linked with the development of free content, especially relating to e-learning, the building of open education resources, and the creation of networks on funding proposals developed as free content.

The Declaration points out that the growing wealth of resources are the fruit of and "nourish the kind of participatory culture of learning, creating, sharing and cooperation that rapidly changing knowledge societies need". That culture of sharing is, in fact, what societies of all kind need to thrive.