TLDR: learning in public + openly licensed content = learning in the open

I've been thinking about writing this note for a long time. I enjoy thinking. But it's easy for me to get stuck there–in the thinking–without ever getting around to the doing. so naturally I've been thinking about why that is. Is it perfectionism? Am I so paralyzed by the potential of... mediocrity? … typos? … what you'll think about me? … not seeming smart enough?... imperfection? that I choose instead to write nothing? I am certainly enough of the anxiety-ridden-former-gifted-kid type to make this possibility likely.

Learning in Public

I grew up in the early days of the internet. I remember chat rooms and chain mail, had xango and myspace, and joined facebook the same year everyone in my dorm hosted Homestar Runner watch parties. My early adulthood was saturated with the blogosphere, and I had no less than 5 "projects" that included blogging, some that I partnered with friends to build and others that I attempted solo. Blog posts were edited, finished projects ideally including keywords & formatting optimized to boost your SEO. My google drive is a graveyard of partially written drafts, #ideas, and documents to review.

Perhaps it’s no surprise that I love the idea of learning in public or working with the garage door open. It’s like Brene Brown meets tech bro: the learner-creator enters a space of complete vulnerability, offering up unfinished, imperfect work for the entire world to see. I love even more how this concept has birthed the practice of digital gardening, or publishing atomic notes or “seeds” then "growing" or "tending" them over time, ever an evolution, an always-work-in-progress [1].

Learning in the Open

Professionally, I work in the worlds of open scholarship and open education. I am fascinated with how information is shared, how learning works, how new knowledge is created, and how new ways of doing & being are adopted. There are many reasons to copyright intellectual property–career, livelihood, and so forth–but I cannot help but think that for those who can, sharing creative work openly is a gift to the common good.

Like a family recipe that is passed down and tweaked–an ingredient added here, a laborious process eliminated by modern appliances there. Openly licensing content gains its value not in the revenue it earns but in its potential to become something new, or something better, or something that brings good to many.