1.
Beyond Friending:
@cunycommons and the
Emergence of the Social
University
MITH Digital Dialogue, 2 November 2010
Matthew K. Gold
Assistant Professor of English, New York City College of Technology
Interactive Technology and Pedagogy Program, CUNY Graduate Center
http://mkgold.net @mkgold

2.
The CUNY Academic Commons

3.
The CUNY Academic Commons
History, Strategy, Process, Use

4.
The CUNY Academic Commons
History, Strategy, Process, Use
The Social University

5.
The CUNY Academic Commons
History, Strategy, Process, Use
The Social University
Opportunities, Barriers, Openings

6.
The CUNY Academic Commons
History, Strategy, Process, Use
The Social University
Opportunities, Barriers, Openings
Building a Wider Commons

7.
The CUNY Academic Commons
History, Strategy, Process, Use
The Social University
Opportunities, Barriers, Openings
Building a Wider Commons
Communities, Publics, Possibilities

8.
The CUNY
Academic Commons

9.
City University of
New York (CUNY)
23 Colleges
11 Senior Colleges
6 Community Colleges
6,700 Full-Time Faculty Members
243,000 degree-credit students
273,000 continuing and professional
education students
47% of undergrads have a native language
other than English
41% percent work more than 20 hours a
week
63% attend school full time
15% support children.
60% percent female
29% are 25 or older.
Of first-time freshmen:
37% are born outside the U.S. mainland
70% attended NYC public high schools
source: cuny.edu

10.
City University of
New York (CUNY)
23 Colleges
11 Senior Colleges
6 Community Colleges
6,700 Full-Time Faculty Members
243,000 degree-credit students
273,000 continuing and professional
education students
47% of undergrads have a native language
other than English
41% percent work more than 20 hours a
week
63% attend school full time
15% support children.
60% percent female
29% are 25 or older.
Of first-time freshmen:
37% are born outside the U.S. mainland
70% attended NYC public high schools
source: cuny.edu

11.
City University of
New York (CUNY)
23 Colleges
11 Senior Colleges
6 Community Colleges
6,700 Full-Time Faculty Members
243,000 degree-credit students
273,000 continuing and professional
education students
47% of undergrads have a native language
other than English
41% percent work more than 20 hours a
week
63% attend school full time
15% support children.
60% percent female
29% are 25 or older.
Of first-time freshmen:
37% are born outside the U.S. mainland
70% attended NYC public high schools
source: cuny.edu

12.
City University of
New York (CUNY)
23 Colleges
11 Senior Colleges
6 Community Colleges
6,700 Full-Time Faculty Members
243,000 degree-credit students
273,000 continuing and professional
education students
47% of undergrads have a native language
other than English
41% percent work more than 20 hours a
week
63% attend school full time
15% support children.
60% percent female
29% are 25 or older.
Of first-time freshmen:
37% are born outside the U.S. mainland
70% attended NYC public high schools
source: cuny.edu

13.
City University of
New York (CUNY)
23 Colleges
11 Senior Colleges
6 Community Colleges
6,700 Full-Time Faculty Members
243,000 degree-credit students
273,000 continuing and professional
education students
47% of undergrads have a native language
other than English
41% percent work more than 20 hours a
week
63% attend school full time
15% support children.
60% percent female
29% are 25 or older.
Of first-time freshmen:
37% are born outside the U.S. mainland
70% attended NYC public high schools
source: cuny.edu

14.
City University of
New York (CUNY)
23 Colleges
11 Senior Colleges
6 Community Colleges
6,700 Full-Time Faculty Members
243,000 degree-credit students
273,000 continuing and professional
education students
47% of undergrads have a native language
other than English
41% percent work more than 20 hours a
week
63% attend school full time
15% support children.
60% percent female
29% are 25 or older.
Of first-time freshmen:
37% are born outside the U.S. mainland
70% attended NYC public high schools
source: cuny.edu

15.
source: Newman Library, Baruch College http://newman.baruch.cuny.edu/digital/2001/history/book/chap_07/nyt_75_11_16.htm

16.
CUNY is open source

17.
The CUNY Academic Commons

18.
The CUNY Academic Commons
• What it is
• Why we created it
• What has worked
• What hasn’t worked
• How it’s changing the culture of the university

19.
CUNY PIECUNY PIE
DiFara’s!DiFara’s!

20.
Administrative Need:
an integrated university.
a connected university.

21.
City University of
New York (CUNY)
23 Colleges
11 Senior Colleges
6 Community Colleges
6,700 Full-Time Faculty Members
source: cuny.edu

22.
City University of
New York (CUNY)
23 Colleges
11 Senior Colleges
6 Community Colleges
6,700 Full-Time Faculty Members
source: cuny.edu

23.
City University of
New York (CUNY)
23 Colleges
11 Senior Colleges
6 Community Colleges
6,700 Full-Time Faculty Members
source: cuny.edu

24.
a networked university.

25.
2006
2008 ???

26.
Institutional Mandate
Alexandra W. Logue
Executive Vice Chancellor
and University Provost
George Otte
University Director
of Academic Technology

27.
Institutional Structure
CUNY Committee on Academic Technology (CAT)
George Otte, Chair
Two members from each CUNY campus
Established September 2008

28.
Charged with creating
an “academic technology
commons”

29.
Faculty Need:
University-sponsored open-source platforms.

30.
source: MikeLeSombre http://is.gd/gAb9R

31.
Faculty Need:
New hires across CUNY ~
need for renewed institutional connections.

32.
What we didn’t want

33.
photo by FredR http://www.flickr.com/photos/fredr/262344284/
THE INSTITUTIONAL REPOSITORY

34.
Photo by myguerrilla http://www.flickr.com/photos/myguerrilla/1303099901/
THE PERFECT TAXONOMY

35.
Source: Abby flat-coat http://www.flickr.com/photos/22912005@N06/4104714854/
THE HARD SELL

36.
Source: Medieval Helpdesk http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pQHX-SjgQvQ
TRADITIONAL MODELS OF TECH SUPPORT

37.
What we did want

38.
Source: akashgoyal http://www.flickr.com/photos/a_goyal/2169624754/
OPEN

39.
Source: bernat... http://www.flickr.com/photos/bernatcg/509261808/
ORGANIC

40.
Source: jbushnell http://www.flickr.com/photos/jbushnell/569748609/
DECENTERED

41.
Source: jcn http://www.flickr.com/photos/jcn/4568432782/
OPEN SOURCE

42.
Outreach strategies, or,
The Commons and Its Publics

43.
rough prototypes

44.
word of mouth

45.
tech savvy

46.
D I Y

47.
engaging open-source
communities

48.
“we judge our tools by one key metric
above all others: use. Successful tools are tools
that are used.
“
Tom Scheinfeldt
“Lessons from One Week | One Tool – Part 2, Use.” Found
History. 2 August 2010. <http://www.foundhistory.org/
2010/08/02/lessons-from-one-week-one-tool-part-2-use/>
“

49.
39,632 downloads*
* as of 2 November 2010

50.
use cases

51.
SERENDIPITY

52.
The SOCIAL
University

53.
CRISIS

54.
GAHHHHHHHH
HHHHHHH!!!!!

55.
The Academy and Its Publics

56.
“Dare to be reductive.”
Gerald Graff, Clueless in Academe
(2003)

57.
“Dare to be public.”
Matthew K. Gold, “Beyond
Friending.” MITH Digital Dialogue
(2010)

58.
The converted
?

59.
Hey! we’re all on twitter!

60.
Challenges

61.
Challenges
interaction fatigue

62.
Why should our institutions
be our frame?
Challenges

63.
a few principles

64.
Build recursive publics

65.
Build recursive publics
“Free Software . . . is not simply a technical pursuit but also the
creation of a ‘public,’ a collective that asserts itself as a check on
other constituted forms of power—like states, the church, and
corporations—but which remains independent of these domains of
power. Free Software is a response to this reorientation that has
resulted in a novel form of democratic political action, a means by
which publics can be created and maintained in forms not at all
familiar to us from the past. Free Software is a public of a particular
kind: a recursive public. Recursive publics are publics concerned
with the ability to build, control, modify, and maintain the
infrastructure that allows them to come into being in the first place
and which, in turn, constitutes their everyday practical
commitments and the identities of the participants as creative and
autonomous individuals.”
– Christopher Kelty, Two Bits: The Cultural Significance of Free
Software (2008)

66.
Build generative communities

67.
Build generative communities
“Generativity is a system’s capacity to produce unanticipated
change through unfiltered contributions from broad and varied
audiences. . . . Generativity pairs an input consisting of unfiltered
contributions from diverse people and groups, who may or may not
be working in concert, with the output of unanticipated change.”
– Jonathan Zittrain, The Future of the Internet - And How to Stop It
(2008)

68.
Blog your process

69.
Share your work