Repository – differences between Open Source and OER and implications – Creative dissatisfaction

"@OpenKuroko is lucky enough to be attending OER18, which got off with a bang on Twitter last night. This brief bit of thinking out loud explores the differences in understanding of the word repository by two different, but related communities, open source software and Open Educational Resources. It’s sparked by a combination of some recent work that has me returning to my open source software use/development origins and this tweet from @OpenKuroko. The tweet reports a comment from #OER18 t

here are plenty of #OER repositories, but no one outside academia knows about them’

Based on the following, perhaps there are some lessons to be learned by the OER/OEP movement from the open source software community about how to re-conceptualise and redesign repositories so that they are actually not only known about, but actually actively used. One lesson appears to stop thinking about the repository as a place to store and share resources, but reframe it as an environment to help a community engage in relevant open (educational) practices. At some level it echoes the “A way forward” section in Albion, Jones, Jones and Campbell (2017)..."