The CUNY Academic Commons is an online, academic social network for community members of the
City University of New York (CUNY) system. Designed to foster conversation, collaboration, and connections among the 24 individual colleges that make up the university system, the site, founded in 2009, has quickly grown as a hub for the CUNY community, serving in the process to strengthen a growing group of digital scholars, teachers, and
open-source
Open source is source code that is made freely available for possible modification and redistribution. Products include permission to use the source code, design documents, or content of the product. The open-source model is a decentralized sof ...
projects at the university.
As stated in the site'
Terms of Service members "seek to use the Academic Commons as a means of fulfilling our highest aspirations for integrating technology into our teaching, learning, and collaborating."
Information silos vs. shareable knowledge
In their case study of the CUNY Academic Commons, published in ''On the Horizon''
Gold & Otte(2011) note that, prior to the CUNY Academic Commons, little "cross-campus communication" between like-minded faculty and graduate students existed. CUNY was a "loose federation" of campuses, largely represented by static websites. The need for a university-wide means of sharing knowledge was perceived by CUNY Committee on Academic Technology, and discussions began in early 2008 to find a solution.
Nantel(2010)
Kaya(2010), and others have similarly observed how information can easily get stuck in institutional "silos".
Social networks
A social network is a social structure made up of a set of social actors (such as individuals or organizations), sets of dyadic ties, and other social interactions between actors. The social network perspective provides a set of methods for ...
, like the CUNY Academic Commons, can "help open communications between departments" and improve knowledge transfer
Nantel. While countering the "prospect of missed connections" was a principal reason why the CUNY Academic Commons was formed, serendipitous discovery became a technological goal. Developers of the site (primarily faculty and graduate students) experimented with
social media
Social media are interactive media technologies that facilitate the creation and sharing of information, ideas, interests, and other forms of expression through virtual communities and networks. While challenges to the definition of ''social me ...
tools to see how best to connect scholars, while not being too intrusive in their daily lives.
Background
Work began in 2008 to create a
repository
Repository may refer to:
Archives and online databases
* Content repository, a database with an associated set of data management tools, allowing application-independent access to the content
* Disciplinary repository (or subject repository), an ...
of "
learning object A learning object is "a collection of content items, practice items, and assessment items that are combined based on a single learning objective". The term is credited to Wayne Hodgins, and dates from a working group in 1994 bearing the name. The ...
s" which could be easily shared and archived, and which were designed to constantly evolve. The Committee on Academic Technology reached out to the various campuses for ideas, and feedback indicated that the site should be "open and organic" and flexible enough to respond to the diverse needs of the faculty. The first beta version of the site was created in February, 2009, and after much tinkering, CUNY Academic Commons was officially launched in December of the same year. The site has seen "rapid adoption". Membership as of May 2011 was nearly 2000, while the number of blogs on the site was close to 400. By 2017, even after deleting inactive users, membership was estimated at 7900. In 2017, undergraduates were allowed to join and by 2022, membership skyrocketed to over 40,000.
From the very beginning, the site was a "space of open experimentation, open communication, and open sharing." A participatory network encourages "peer-to-peer learning among faculty members" and is "a generative platform" which makes "the professoriate of the largest urban public university system in the world more visible to itself and to a wider public," according t
Gold & Otte
In her critique in
Yale University
Yale University is a private research university in New Haven, Connecticut. Established in 1701 as the Collegiate School, it is the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and among the most prestigious in the w ...
’s Collaborative Learning Center blog, Kristjiana Gong (2010) finds several ways CUNY Academic Commons is able to build a "social university":
*transparency in development and support
*porous boundaries between users and support at all levels
*regular communication
*users are engaged in creating a warmer community
Since funding did not permit a full-service site, a small team of software developers and community facilitators began to shape the Commons with a "self-service approach" in which faculty and graduate students were largely responsible for building their own sites. An
open-source model
Open source is source code that is made freely available for possible modification and redistribution. Products include permission to use the source code, design documents, or content of the product. The open-source model is a decentralized sof ...
was adopted in which the community as a whole was responsible for testing, defect reporting, and ideas for enhancements.
For a comprehensive history of the Commons, see the timeline "From The Beginning: A Commons Retrospective.".
The CUNY Academic Commons has a strong ethos of giving back to the
WordPress
WordPress (WP or WordPress.org) is a free and open-source content management system (CMS) written in hypertext preprocessor language and paired with a MySQL or MariaDB database with supported HTTPS. Features include a plugin architecture ...
and
BuddyPress
BuddyPress is an open-source social networking software package owned by Automattic since 2008. It is a plugin that can be installed on WordPress to transform it into a social network platform. BuddyPress is designed to allow schools, companies, s ...
community. Writing for WPMU.org
Siobhan Ambrose(2011) notes that the site has released many significant BuddyPress plug-ins and regularly shares tips and hacks with the BuddyPress network.
A Pedagogical Hub
The CUNY Academic Commons been expanded over time to incorporate more robust group and site functionality, and it has become both a hub for sharing pedagological resources and a tool for teaching courses. Although the site was originally open to only faculty, administration, staff, and graduate students, in 2017 the site was opened to undergraduate students and experienced significant growth. Faculty use the platform as an open-source supplement to the university's licensed closed-source
Blackboard
A blackboard (also known as a chalkboard) is a reusable writing surface on which text or drawings are made with sticks of calcium sulphate or calcium carbonate, known, when used for this purpose, as chalk. Blackboards were originally made of ...
system.
While popular LMS systems such as Blackboard aim to provide academic course spaces for individual courses within institutions, the Commons is designed to facilitate conversation and collaboration among colleagues both within and between colleges in the system. Because of its
do-it-yourself
"Do it yourself" ("DIY") is the method of building, modifying, or repairing things by oneself without the direct aid of professionals or certified experts. Academic research has described DIY as behaviors where "individuals use raw and sem ...
, open-source approach to scholarly communication, the Commons has sometimes been characterized as an alternative to LMS systems. But it is not and never will be an LMS. It has no grading system nor does it connect to the CUNY First, the university's student portal.
CUNY teaching projects that share the technical architecture, open source ethos, and DIY approach of the Commons includ
Blogs@Baruchan
Eportfolios@Macaulay an
Looking for Whitman
Facebook comparisons
Many reviews in the current literature point out similarities between the CUNY Academic Commons and
Facebook
Facebook is an online social media and social networking service owned by American company Meta Platforms. Founded in 2004 by Mark Zuckerberg with fellow Harvard College students and roommates Eduardo Saverin, Andrew McCollum, Dustin Mosk ...
. But a
Kaya(2010) contends in the ''
Chronicle of Higher Education
''The Chronicle of Higher Education'' is a newspaper and website that presents news, information, and jobs for college and university faculty and student affairs professionals (staff members and administrators). A subscription is required to rea ...
'', Facebook does not offer the kind of academic interaction that is available with sites such as the CUNY Academic Commons which "mix serious academic work, and connections among working scholars." Indeed, the CUNY Academic Commons emphasizes the "productivity oriented features of social networking" and "collaborative academic work"
Gold & Otte that is not generally found in commercial social networks. A
Gold(2011) writes in "Beyond Friending: BuddyPress and the Social, Networked, Open-Source Classroom" that students are often reluctant to mix social networks with academic networks. Faculty too, it may be inferred, value distinct, professional networks where they can focus on their scholarship.
Open source technical infrastructure
CUNY Academic Commons is built entirely with open source software:
WordPress
WordPress (WP or WordPress.org) is a free and open-source content management system (CMS) written in hypertext preprocessor language and paired with a MySQL or MariaDB database with supported HTTPS. Features include a plugin architecture ...
with Multisite and
BuddyPress
BuddyPress is an open-source social networking software package owned by Automattic since 2008. It is a plugin that can be installed on WordPress to transform it into a social network platform. BuddyPress is designed to allow schools, companies, s ...
. It uses
MYSQL
MySQL () is an open-source relational database management system (RDBMS). Its name is a combination of "My", the name of co-founder Michael Widenius's daughter My, and "SQL", the acronym for Structured Query Language. A relational database orga ...
as a database and runs under
Linux
Linux ( or ) is a family of open-source Unix-like operating systems based on the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released on September 17, 1991, by Linus Torvalds. Linux is typically packaged as a Linux distribution, whic ...
.
BuddyPress
BuddyPress is an open-source social networking software package owned by Automattic since 2008. It is a plugin that can be installed on WordPress to transform it into a social network platform. BuddyPress is designed to allow schools, companies, s ...
, a powerful WordPress
plug-in which transforms a multi-user WordPress site into a
social network
A social network is a social structure made up of a set of social actors (such as individuals or organizations), sets of dyadic ties, and other social interactions between actors. The social network perspective provides a set of methods for an ...
, serves as the site's hub. Users are allowed to create as many
blogs
A blog (a Clipping (morphology), truncation of "weblog") is a discussion or informational website published on the World Wide Web consisting of discrete, often informal diary-style text entries (posts). Posts are typically displayed in Reverse ...
and groups as they want. A
Lamb & Groom(2011) write in ''
Educause
Educause is a nonprofit association in the United States whose mission is "to advance higher education through the use of information technology". Membership is open to institutions of higher education, corporations serving the higher education in ...
'': "the jaw-dropping CUNY Academic Commons … seamlessly integrates the
open-source
Open source is source code that is made freely available for possible modification and redistribution. Products include permission to use the source code, design documents, or content of the product. The open-source model is a decentralized sof ...
… platforms into an appealing and highly sustainable environment."
Grants and awards
Commons in a Box
In November, 2011, the CUNY Academic Commons received a $107,500 grant from the
Alfred P. Sloan Foundation
The Alfred P. Sloan Foundation is an American philanthropic nonprofit organization. It was established in 1934 by Alfred P. Sloan Jr., then-president and chief executive officer of General Motors.
The Sloan Foundation makes grants to support o ...
to create Commons in a Box, a "new
open-source
Open source is source code that is made freely available for possible modification and redistribution. Products include permission to use the source code, design documents, or content of the product. The open-source model is a decentralized sof ...
project that will help other organizations quickly and easily install and customize their own Commons platforms". Writing in the ''
Chronicle of Higher Education
''The Chronicle of Higher Education'' is a newspaper and website that presents news, information, and jobs for college and university faculty and student affairs professionals (staff members and administrators). A subscription is required to rea ...
''
Jennifer Howardnotes that the CUNY Academic Commons will first "work with the
Modern Language Association
The Modern Language Association of America, often referred to as the Modern Language Association (MLA), is widely considered the principal professional association in the United States for scholars of language and literature. The MLA aims to "st ...
on a pilot project to create an 'MLA Commons' for its more than 30,000 members" to help promote their scholarship.
Sloan-C Award For Effective Practice
At thei
5th Annual International Symposium for Emerging Technologies for Online Learningon July 25–27, 2012, the
Sloan Consortium presented an award to the CUNY Academic Commons for effective practices in online and blended education. "The CUNY Academic Commons: Social Network as Hatchery" was one of six winning practices recognized for a number of criteria, including "innovation and replicability" and the ability to advance “the goals of access, learning effectiveness, faculty and student satisfaction, and scalability.”
What members build
The tag line from the site'
brochure- "What will you build?" is a good introduction to the diverse materials posted on the CUNY Academic Commons. The following links provide examples of what is available on the site:
Personal blogs
Helldriver's Pit StopTurf WallsTony's ThoughtsRuthOBrien.org
Group blogs
CUNY Hybrid Initiative Established in November 2012 as an open resource to help faculty, instructional designers, and administrators in creating, teaching, and supporting hybrid courses.
A Living Laboratory: General Education Seminars at City TechQueens College Graduate School of Library and Information StudiesOpen Access at CUNYCUNY Pie – A Pizza blog for CUNY Geeks
Groups and forums
E-Books in the LibrariesMath Matterse-PortfoliosNew Media LabCreative Commons and Copyright: Resources for the Teaching Faculty
Program Community Pages
PhilosophyAnthropologyGraduate Center Music Program Community PortalUrban Education Graduate Commons
See also
*
WordPress
WordPress (WP or WordPress.org) is a free and open-source content management system (CMS) written in hypertext preprocessor language and paired with a MySQL or MariaDB database with supported HTTPS. Features include a plugin architecture ...
*
BuddyPress
BuddyPress is an open-source social networking software package owned by Automattic since 2008. It is a plugin that can be installed on WordPress to transform it into a social network platform. BuddyPress is designed to allow schools, companies, s ...
*
MediaWiki
MediaWiki is a free and open-source wiki software. It is used on Wikipedia and almost all other Wikimedia websites, including Wiktionary, Wikimedia Commons and Wikidata; these sites define a large part of the requirement set for MediaWik ...
Sources and further reading
*Kaya, T. (2010). "CUNY Social Network Mixes Scholarship With Facebook-Style Friendship." ''Chronicle of Higher Education''. Retrieved from http://chronicle.com/blogs/wiredcampus/cuny-social-network-mixes-scholarship-with-facebook-style-friendship/27266
*Parry. (2010). "WordPress a Better LMS." ''Chronicle of Higher Education''. Retrieved from http://chronicle.com/blogs/profhacker/wordpress-a-better-lms/23050
*Degl'innocenti, J. (2010, December 20). "The 20 Most Outstanding BuddyPress sites of 2010." Retrieved March 25, 2011, from https://web.archive.org/web/20110805140057/http://buddydress.com/2010/12/the-20-most-outstanding-buddypress-sites-of-2010-by-jerome-degl%E2%80%99innocenti
*Kaya, T. (2010). "New College Social Networks, Unlike Facebook, Foster Academic Interaction." ''Chronicle of Higher Education''. Retrieved from http://chronicle.com/article/New-College-Networks-Unlike/124871/
*Nantel, R. (2010, October 1). "Internal Social Networks May Help Break Down Institutional Silos." Retrieved March 21, 2011, from http://www.brandon-hall.com/workplacelearningtoday/?p=12348
*Lamb, B., & Groom, J. (2010). "Never Mind the Edupunks; or, The Great Web 2.0 Swindle" ''EDUCAUSE''. July/August 2010, 45(4), 50–58. Retrieved from https://web.archive.org/web/20110406075133/http://www.educause.edu/EDUCAUSE+Review/EDUCAUSEReviewMagazineVolume45/NeverMindtheEdupunksorTheGreat/209326
*Gold, M. (2011). "Beyond Friending: BuddyPress and the Social, Networked, Open-Source Classroom." Learning Through Digital Media Experiments in Technology and Pedagogy. Retrieved from https://web.archive.org/web/20110621111244/http://learningthroughdigitalmedia.net/beyond-friending-buddypress-and-the-social-networked-open-source-classroom
*Gold, M. (2011). "The CUNY Academic Commons announces the Commons in a Box project." Academic Commons News. Retrieved August 4, 2012, from http://news.commons.gc.cuny.edu/2011/11/22/the-cuny-academic-commons-announces-the-commons-in-a-box-project/
*
*Gong, K. (2011, March 2). "The CUNY Academic Commons: Building the Social University." Collaborative Learning Center, Yale University. Retrieved March 19, 2011, from http://clc.yale.edu/2011/03/02/the-cuny-academic-commons-building-the-social-university/
*Ambrose, S. (2011, February 22). "15 Go-To Places for WordPress and BuddyPress News, Tips and Tutorials." WordPress News at WPMU.org. Retrieved June 8, 2011, from https://web.archive.org/web/20110723021140/http://wpmu.org/15-go-to-places-for-wordpress-and-buddypress-news-tips-and-tutorials/
*Roel, R. (2010, April 1). "A Facebook for Faculty." ''CUNY Matters''. April 2010. Retrieved June 8, 2011, from http://www.cuny.edu/news/publications/cunymatters/april2010/facebook-for-faculty.html
*
*Jones, K. & Farrington, P. (2012). "Learning from Libraries Using WordPress: Content-Management System Best Practices and Case Studies." ALA Editions.
orthcomingRetrieved June 8, 2011 from http://www.alatechsource.org/taxonomy/term/106/using-wordpress-as-a-library-content-management-system
*Howard, J. (2011). "Creating new academic networks with 'Commons in a Box'." ''Chronicle of Higher Education''. Retrieved August 5, 2012 from http://chronicle.com/blogs/wiredcampus/creating-new-academic-networks-with-commons-in-a-box/34453
References
{{Reflist
External links
CUNY Academic Commons(official site)
CUNY Academic Commonson Twitter
Commons In A Boxopen source release of CUNY Academic Commons
Philosophy Commons
City University of New York
Education in New York City
American social networking websites
Public commons
Community building
Community development