About the only “notes” I took during Northern Voice 2007 were during Willinsky’s talk. In large letters near the top of the page, I wrote the line that spoke to me the most:

“GO PUBLIC!” – John Willinsky

The way he talks about having students build upon each others’ works, and on the works of previous cohorts, it just makes so much sense. Mixed with Dean Shareski’s “cleaning out my locker” post, it seems pretty obvious that anything less than GO PUBLIC! is actually doing an active disservice against students.

If we encourage them to work in isolation, on disposable/hidden things that nobody else will ever see, we are telling them that what they are doing doesn’t really matter. It’s not important, and that nobody else will value it either.

Much better to instill the virtues of contributing to the greater good, and building on each other’s work, than the alternative.