Interdisciplinary Graduate Seminar
Columbia University School of the Arts
Fall 2004

This seminar examined the intersection of intellectual property, technology, and the arts. Offered in the fall 2004 semester at the Columbia University School of the Arts, it attracted students from Art History, Computer Science, Curatorial Studies, Economics, History, the Law School, Music, Teacher's College, and Theater.

Click here for the Open Source Culture course description

Click here for the Open Source Culture syllabus

Click here for Open Source Culture Filez

In this seminar, I sought to apply open source principles to my pedagogy by designing the course as a collaborative research and web publishing project. Assignments included readings, viewing art, online research, an in-class presentation, online discussion, and collaborative web publishing.

I set up an Open Source Culture web site for student discussion and collaborative publishing using a free, open source content management system called OpenMute. This site has three main features: a blog, a wiki, and a discussion forum.

A blog, or web log, is a web site that presents posts in reverse-chronological order. Blogging has become an important form of distributed web publishing. Students used the Open Source Culture blog to post announcements (e.g. when they found a relevant article online) and brief comments.

Screen shot of the blog:

Click here to go to the Open Source Culture blog

A wiki is a web site that allows users to create and modify pages simply by clicking on a ubiquitous "edit this page" link and typing into a web form. Students used the Open Source Culture wiki to familiarize themselves with collaborative wiki publishing. For example, they added to and annotated the Open Source Culture mediography and collaborated on lecture outlines.

Screen shot of the Open Source Culture mediography wiki page:

Click here to go to the mediography page of the Open Source Culture wiki

Once they were comfortable with wiki publishing, they worked together to publish their work on Wikipedia, a "'copyleft' encyclopedia that is designed to be read and edited by anyone." By publishing their work there, students effectively open sourced it.

Screen shot of the Open Source Culture Wikipedia page:

Click here to go to the Open Source Culture project page on Wikipedia

A discussion forum is a web site that allows for threaded discussion. Students used discussion forum for in-depth conversations about readings, lectures, and research.

Screen shot of the discussion forum:

Click here to go to the Open Source Culture discussion forum