User talk:JWSchmidt/October 2006 discussions

Note: this is an archive of old discussions. Please do not edit this page. Continue these discussions at User talk:JWSchmidt. There are other archives at User talk:JWSchmidt/Discussion archive.

Goals for Wikiversity?
Hi JWSchmidt i noticed you had moved most of your editing to wikiversity. Prompted by the tag you added to RNAi i came over to check it out. In your opinion, what are the advantages of focusing edits here compared to wikipedia? I have some ideas but I'd like to hear your own rationale. Also is there a page that outlines the long term goals of this project? Thanks for your time, David D. 15:13, 5 October 2006 (UTC) (David D.'s wikipedia home)
 * I struck out the genaral question above as i found the info box on your user page. This project looks very interesting. David D. 15:21, 5 October 2006 (UTC)

Case Study on Victoprine
Please procede as soon as you are inclined with the Vinpocetine case study. Do you envision this as a learning project within the Plantlore Department? Or perhaps it would fit better within the Phytochemistry department? Tell me a bit about what your case study will involve. Once you do begin, please add yourself to our list of active participants.
 * Thanks for the response. I will be looking forward to the reading the case-study. Sonicbiology 05:12, 12 October 2006 (UTC)

Image copyright problem with Image:445px-Chromosome2Insert.png
Thanks for uploading Image:445px-Chromosome2Insert.png. However, the image may soon be deleted unless we can determine the copyright holder and copyright status. The Wikimedia Foundation is very careful about the images included in Wikiversity because of copyright law (see Wikiversity' Copyright policy).

The copyright holder is usually the creator, the creator's employer, or the last person who was transferred ownership rights. Copyright information on images is signified using copyright templates. The three basic license types on Wikibooks are open content, public domain, and fair use. Find the appropriate template in Image copyright tags and place it on the image page like this:.

Please signify the copyright information on any other images you have uploaded or will upload. Remember that images without this important information or giving false information can be deleted by an administrator. If you have any questions, feel free to contact me, or ask them at the Study help desk. Thank you. --SB_Johnny | talk 14:54, 7 October 2006 (UTC)

Courses
Is the goal then to close doors before we've begun? I thought we were trying to be more inclusive, not less? Wikiversity already contains courses, such as the aforementioned Hitler's Germany. Do you wish to shut that down and turn away contributors? I'm somewhat bothered by your insistance on this point; it seems to me that Wikiversity clearly has courses, but that you seem insistent that we call them "learning projects" instead of courses. Why must we use that terminology? It confused me when I first arrived; I came to Wikiversity looking for courses. Eventually, I found them, though some people use the term "courses" and some use the term "learning projects" for courses, when not all "learning projects" are courses. I think it would be helpful to use terminology newcomers are going to be able to understand. The Jade Knight 03:38, 8 October 2006 (UTC)
 * Some people will prefer to create courses, teach courses, and learn in courses. Other people will prefer to avoid courses at all costs, and make other projects, and learn in them.  My opinion is that all of these should be accepted and encouraged; certainly I don't think we should limit Wikiversity to courses, but I don't see the inclusion of courses as at all desirable; if other methods of learning do, in fact, work better, then time will hear that out and their success will foster their growth in comparison to that of "traditional" courses.  It's okay to use "learning project" as a general term so long as there are highly visible links to an explanation of "where are the courses" so that newcomers can find their way.  I do not believe, however, that people should be forced to use the term "learning project".  As you say, a "course" is one type of learning project; so long as it is what we have most of, I see nothing wrong with referring to courses as courses and other learning projects by their applicable titles ("study guides", "group projects", etc.)  The only important thing is that we do not limit the acceptable range of projects, so long as they are effective as learning aids.
 * To be frank, I expect that Wikiversity will initially see much done along the lines of traditional courses, with a slow but steady shift away into other sorts of projects as people see these either as "more fun", "more rewarding", or "more effective" ways of learning. That's great.  However, I've taken traditional courses online before, and I see nothing about Wikiversity that would preclude the ability to have free, effective, on-line traditional-style courses, if that's what people want (/want to make).  As it is, I'm keeping my eyes open for other methods to teach using Wikiversity that might work with History.  I have a few ideas, but the Wikiversity environment, ironically, complicates these.  The Jade Knight 04:18, 8 October 2006 (UTC)
 * Another thought: I really think that Wikipedia should strive to offer top-notch education, as much as is possible.  I'd like to see someone be able to get a Wikiversity degree, and have a potential employer/graduate school be able to tell that the student has clearly learned as much as they would have in a traditional program.  I'd like the student to be that smart, that knowledgeable, and that skilled.  Maybe you can put together a degree like that with nothing but creative wiki-projects.  I suspect, however, that at least a limited amount of traditional coursework will be required to "round out the edges".  I think that's okay, but I'd be glad to be proved wrong.  In the meantime, let's do what we can to help people learn.  The Jade Knight 04:24, 8 October 2006 (UTC)

Requesting move
Could you please move Creation of Free Online Univeristy to Creation of Free Online University? I'm trying to use that page as a hub for the whole accreditation discussion. Thanks! The Jade Knight 04:31, 9 October 2006 (UTC)
 * I had thought that, but I don't seem to see a "move" button on any of the pages here at Wikiversity. Is it hidden someplace new?  The Jade Knight 14:43, 9 October 2006 (UTC)
 * Oh, okay! I hadn't known that.  Thanks!  The Jade Knight 16:31, 9 October 2006 (UTC)

From http://beta.wikiversity.org/wiki/Wikiversity:Scope_of_research/En
Hello. I cannot undertand the last sentence below: "First a general observation: the distinction between "primary" and "secondary" research is unknown in German cultural practice. Thus, the only relevant term here is"research" and, as such, this term implies a set of critical methodologies. that transcend the merely literary." (Original: "Zunächst ein genereller Hinweis: Eine Unterscheidung zwischen original research und secondary research ist im deutschsprachigen Kulturraum unbekannt. Der alleinige Begriff ist dort „Forschung“ und impliziert als solcher stets eine über die Beschäftigung mit Literatur hinausgehende methodische Vorgehensweise.")

Could you please explain them to me? Thank you.--Hillgentleman 01:08, 11 October 2006 (UTC)
 * Does "critical" here mean "crucial" or "criticism-related"?
 * Does "literary" here mean "on the surface of the words" or "literature-related"?

Communitas
Hey JW, I think I finally resolved the Wikia/Wikiversity debaucle. I don't know if you remember our disscussion at m:Talk:Communitas but you can have a look/see at Wikia and Wikia:Collaboration:Wikiversity for some progress if you're interested. Thanks for your very important intial question:
 * Is the [ _Communitas_ ] scope just Wikipedia or all of WikiMedia? --JWSurf 21:17, 29 July 2006 (UTC)

That one question urged me down a very long path that may have completed it's first big circle. CQ (Quinobi) 02:44, 12 October 2006 (UTC)

Re: custodian mentor
I would be willing to, but I have so many things going on in real life right now that I don't feel it would be fair to whoever I was mentoring. Perhaps once things calm down in a few months, I might be able to mentor.-- digital  _  me   21:13, 12 October 2006 (UTC)

Reply
I've made the necessary changes as you instructed regarding the term staff. It's been changed to Active Members. I'll try to get involved with the other discussion group if I have time. I'm busy devoting my internet time to getting a skeleton form of this Greek lesson up though.

I have a big question regarding fonts. How can I easily write using Greek characters in these wikis?

I notice that you seem to object to what I assume could be called "traditional courses"? I'm going to try to avoid that as much as possible, but given the subject it maybe be hard. One idea I have is to institute a question box area at the bottom of each lesson plan so that any learner may edit a question to be answered by me or any other user, thereby, hopefully creating a one-on-one learning experience that can also be read by anyone with the same question much like an FAQ. I'll try to hammer out these lessons in a way the wikiversity staff members such as yourself would like to see them written. JManning 17:32, 15 October 2006 (UTC)

Reporting Vandalism?
How do I report vandalism? Portal:Fine_Arts had sections removed and replaced with insults. "09:05, 17 October 2006 204.9.144.54 (Talk) (→5. Institute of Film and Television)" Robert Elliott 12:41, 18 October 2006 (UTC)

Later Note: Guillom fixed it! Robert Elliott 12:57, 18 October 2006 (UTC)

UIUC PHIL 270
The UIUC PHIL 270 discussion, here presents an important precedent I think. I set forth what I think is a bit of diplomacy on Talk:UIUC PHIL 270 in case the poster returned. At any rate, this potential problem should be anticipated by the staff. Maybe we can come up with a polite but firm template and a sort of "jail" for orphaned pages that are suspect as cheatsheets or other malfeasance?

IMO, the tone should be one of simple caution rather than stern warning and certainly not accusational in any way. I can't imagine why or how anyone would want to abuse Wikiversity, but you never know. The prospect of a negative news report is a real concern in my mind, and should be dealt with immediately. I've notified all the posters who commented about the UIUC PHIL 270 piece, saving you and Cormac for last. I think this should float toward the top of policy discussions. That's my view, for what it's worth.

By the way, I appreciate your expedience at getting podcasting into the "mix". I think this realtime audio/video activity is going to be a real catalyst for WV. As if you're not busy enough, would you help with Topic:Internet Audio and Topic:Audio Engineering by posting some "quick and dirty" ways to get sounds into files quickly?

I'm lame in that area because my hardware is an old Debian box with Audio-crippled performance. :(Sad for a musician of my calibre). But I hope to get my delux DeMuDi Audio Workstation back and running soon so I can lay down some tracks for Topic:Basic Blues & Rock and Wikiversity the Movie/music :)

Keep up the great work, JW! CQ 02:39, 19 October 2006 (UTC)

Namespace podcast
Hi John - I just had a look at your Namespace podcast - which is really good (hopefully we'll have a way of embedding video, especially ogg.theora, into MediaWiki soon). But, err, what's with the female bum? :-) Cormaggio 10:16, 20 October 2006 (UTC)
 * Yes, I saw that you'd changed it - you're really getting rather good at this. :-) Cormaggio 07:23, 21 October 2006 (UTC)

Re: MIT Opencoursework
I haven't done a lot of reading into philosophy thus far. Hence my choice to start on the 24.00 Course. Perhaps I'll cross reference a few needy sections of the philosophy school and their relation to materials covered in the OCW. It's a start. Keep in mind this is beyond the scope of any of my wikicontributions thus far. So it will indeed be a learning experience. RichMac 03:55, 21 October 2006 (UTC)

Philosophical Greetings
Hey JW - I've not yet taken the plunge and posted a comment on your discussion page, preferring instead to lurk. My confidence was shaken by the recent 'request for deletion' to an innocent posting I made on the Philosphy School main page. It made me feel something of an outlaw. But I've been sharing my overall enthusiasm for Wikiversity with my colleagues, students & clients at the university where I work: I work in a business school. I guess I'm just not sure where to start contributing. My interest is in continental philosophy, particularly deconstruction and, as you know, poststructuralism. Any suggestions? -- executivezen 19:57, 21 October 2006 (UTC)

Uploading Sound Files and Playing Sound Files?
I am a bit confused how sounds files are uploaded and accessed. I notice the sample sound file in the HELP pages is not working. What works? Robert Elliott 05:01, 26 October 2006 (UTC)


 * Problem #1
 * Uploading a sound file which is AIF produces a cryptic error message saying this is a "bad format" (or it said "poor format", I forget). This error message appears at the end of the upload and the upload is apparently cancelled because it does not appear in my contributions.


 * Problem #2
 * The only help section I can find on Sound Files is at Help:Editing but the example file is missing (red). Since the music appears to be by Sigmund Romberg, I thought you might have uploaded it.


 * Problem #3
 * Note that files are still appearing and disappearing. If I reference WikiBooks' Movie Making Manual - Film Scoring Theory, it sometimes is red and sometimes the link is working.  Maybe this happens because I work late at night.Robert Elliott 12:12, 26 October 2006 (UTC) (5am PDT)


 * Problem #4
 * When I try to upload an MP3 file, I get the following error message after waiting the normal time to upload this size file. Upload warning→  ".mp3" is not a recommended image file format.  The upload is not listed in my contributions so I guess it did not make it.


 * Ogg seems to work though. I uploaded this sound file "[[media:Sound_Of_Fear.ogg|Sound_Of_Fear.ogg]]" and added the word "Media:" . I will continue testing this. Robert Elliott 15:55, 26 October 2006 (UTC)

Exploring science through fiction
It is interesting, but I do not know much about the literature. What is your plan? Most of the good science fictions do not include the new advances in science (beyond general relativity or quantum mechanics?)--Hillgentleman 14:09, 28 October 2006 (UTC)
 * Have you certain books (or topics) in mind?--Hillgentleman 17:58, 28 October 2006 (UTC)
 * Thank you. I can contribute to some of the discussions.--Hillgentleman 13:10, 30 October 2006 (UTC)

Education boilerplate
Thanks for the heads up on this. Looks interesting. I've sent Piotrus a message asking whether he's interested in becoming involved in developing something along this line for the Wikiversity. morley 15:55, 31 October 2006 (UTC)

User:JWSchmidt/Semantic prosthetic}}}
Hello, and welcome to Wikiversity! We welcome and appreciate your contributions, such as, but we regretfully cannot accept copyrighted text or images borrowed from either web sites or printed material. This article appears to be a direct copy from. As a copyright violation, appears to qualify for deletion. has been tagged for deletion, and may have been deleted by the time you see this message. If the source is a credible one, please consider rewriting the content and citing the source.

If you believe that the article is not a copyright violation, or if you have permission from the copyright holder to release the content freely under the GFDL, you can comment to that effect on Talk:. If the article has already been deleted, but you have a proper release, you can reenter the content at, after describing the release on the talk page. However, you may want to consider rewriting the content in your own words. Thank you, and please feel free to continue contributing to Wikiversity.