I'm curious about the status of open-source production and peer production in Rhetoric and Composition, and in particular projects that bridge scholarship, teaching, and research. This interested is spurred by reading about peer to peer (P2P) theory, particularly Michel Bauwens work via the P2P Foundation.
Bauwens defines p2p theory as comprised of peer governance, peer production, and peer property, that is to say that such work is created, managed, and shared among a group or community. While this heuristic seems simple and straight forward, I haven't found a lot of examples from the field that meet all three criteria. Still, the following list presents links to some specific projects that approach "p2p" as defined by Bauwens.
Open Professional Writing
Developed by Dr. Adam Pope as part of his dissertation research, this project provides a Drupal-based open-acesss and open-source content management system (CMS). As I understand it, neither peer-production, nor peer governance came into play in developing the project beyond having instructors at Purdue University teaching professional writing employ, test, and provide feedback for future iterations of the CMS. Still, the project is important for the field because it represents peer property, that is to say a non-proprietary software that can be adapted to local needs.
Writing Spaces: Readings on Writing
Described as an "open textbook" project, Writing Spaces is a multi-volume, creative-commons licensed composition textbook. Pdfs of individual essays or entire volumes can be downloaded from the site. I find the project particularly interesting because of how it is constructed. On one hand, it clings to traditional notions of expertise associated with the modernist university (blind peer review and publishing work by experts written for novices). On the other hand, it bucks the textbook industry by providing the materials to instructors and students free of charge. Like Open Digital Writing, it questions the value of corporate ownership and fosters participation in the sense that the textbook itself can be adapted to local needs. Still, it represents another example of inbetweenness (almost, but not quite p2p).
Sweetland Digital Rhetoric Collaborative Wiki
A relatively new project, the Wiki hopes to create a nonlinear history of Rhetoric and Composition. It's run largely by graduate students who serve as DRC Fellows (a program created in 2013). To date there is little content on the site, but based on my experience, I'd say it's not difficult to be added as a contributor.
Writing Studies Tree
The Writing Studies Tree collects user-submitted information about students and faculty in writing studies programs and adds this information to a database (which in turn powers a a visualization of the field). The project emphasizes peer production and peer property, but like many of the resources in our field, it relies on overworked faculty and students to submit information and this information is not necessarily at the center of our day-to-day work. Of course it's important to document our histories as a field and to use new tools to do so, but how can we do that without pushing ourselves beyond the breaking point?
The more I search the web and find remnants of past projects, the more I feel that Rhetoric and Composition has been particularly bad at creating sustainable p2p projects. Part of the issue might stem from how we imagine peer production, governance, and property. We give them a lot of attention as democratic principles to strive for, but we give little thought about how to implement them within and through our day-to-day work. It is particularly important to me to provide cases that have implemented or attempted to implement p2p models as such.
Questions to pursue:
What exactly do p2p models in software development look like? How are they structured? How do technologies shape this structure?
Are there analogous structures from teaching, research, and service in Rhetoric and Composition? If so, what are they?
Bauwens defines p2p theory as comprised of peer governance, peer production, and peer property, that is to say that such work is created, managed, and shared among a group or community. While this heuristic seems simple and straight forward, I haven't found a lot of examples from the field that meet all three criteria. Still, the following list presents links to some specific projects that approach "p2p" as defined by Bauwens.
Open Professional Writing
Developed by Dr. Adam Pope as part of his dissertation research, this project provides a Drupal-based open-acesss and open-source content management system (CMS). As I understand it, neither peer-production, nor peer governance came into play in developing the project beyond having instructors at Purdue University teaching professional writing employ, test, and provide feedback for future iterations of the CMS. Still, the project is important for the field because it represents peer property, that is to say a non-proprietary software that can be adapted to local needs.
Writing Spaces: Readings on Writing
Described as an "open textbook" project, Writing Spaces is a multi-volume, creative-commons licensed composition textbook. Pdfs of individual essays or entire volumes can be downloaded from the site. I find the project particularly interesting because of how it is constructed. On one hand, it clings to traditional notions of expertise associated with the modernist university (blind peer review and publishing work by experts written for novices). On the other hand, it bucks the textbook industry by providing the materials to instructors and students free of charge. Like Open Digital Writing, it questions the value of corporate ownership and fosters participation in the sense that the textbook itself can be adapted to local needs. Still, it represents another example of inbetweenness (almost, but not quite p2p).
Sweetland Digital Rhetoric Collaborative Wiki
A relatively new project, the Wiki hopes to create a nonlinear history of Rhetoric and Composition. It's run largely by graduate students who serve as DRC Fellows (a program created in 2013). To date there is little content on the site, but based on my experience, I'd say it's not difficult to be added as a contributor.
Writing Studies Tree
The Writing Studies Tree collects user-submitted information about students and faculty in writing studies programs and adds this information to a database (which in turn powers a a visualization of the field). The project emphasizes peer production and peer property, but like many of the resources in our field, it relies on overworked faculty and students to submit information and this information is not necessarily at the center of our day-to-day work. Of course it's important to document our histories as a field and to use new tools to do so, but how can we do that without pushing ourselves beyond the breaking point?
The more I search the web and find remnants of past projects, the more I feel that Rhetoric and Composition has been particularly bad at creating sustainable p2p projects. Part of the issue might stem from how we imagine peer production, governance, and property. We give them a lot of attention as democratic principles to strive for, but we give little thought about how to implement them within and through our day-to-day work. It is particularly important to me to provide cases that have implemented or attempted to implement p2p models as such.
Questions to pursue:
What exactly do p2p models in software development look like? How are they structured? How do technologies shape this structure?
Are there analogous structures from teaching, research, and service in Rhetoric and Composition? If so, what are they?