Introduction

The CUNY Academic Commons is an online, academic social network for faculty, staff, and graduate students of the City University of New York (CUNY) system. Designed to foster conversation, collaboration, and connections among the 23 individual colleges that make up the university system (Kaya, 2010), 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 projects at the university.

As stated in the site's 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 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 principle 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

The term Social Media refers to the use of web-based and mobile technologies to turn communication into an interactive dialogue. Andreas Kaplan and Michael Haenlein define social media as "a group of Internet-based applications that build on the ideological and technological foundations of Web 2.0,...

 tools to see how best to connect scholars, while not being too intrusive in their daily lives (Gold & Otte).

Background

Work began in 2008 to create a repository

Repository

Repository commonly refers to a location for storage, often for safety or preservation.Repository may also refer to:* Repository clone, concept from distributed revision control...

 of "learning object

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 Hogins when he created a working group in 1994 bearing the name though the concept was first described by Gerard in 1967...

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" (Gold & Otte). Membership as of May, 2011 is approaching 2000, while the number of blogs on the site is close to 400.


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 to Gold & Otte.

In her critique in Yale University

Yale University

Yale University is a private, Ivy League university located in New Haven, Connecticut, United States. Founded in 1701 in the Colony of Connecticut, the university is the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States...

’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 (Gold & Otte).  An open source

Open source

The term open source describes practices in production and development that promote access to the end product's source materials. Some consider open source a philosophy, others consider it a pragmatic methodology...

 model was adopted in which the community as a whole was responsible for testing, defect reporting, and ideas for enhancements. 

The CUNY Academic Commons has a strong ethos of giving back to the WordPress

WordPress

WordPress is a free and open source blogging tool and publishing platform powered by PHP and MySQL. It is often customized into a content management system . It has many features including a plug-in architecture and a template system. WordPress is used by over 14.7% of Alexa Internet's "top 1...

 and BuddyPress

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...

 community.  Writing for WPMU.org, Siobhan Ambrose (2011) notes that the site has released many significant BuddyPress plugins and regularly shares tips and hacks with the BuddyPress network.

More than an LMS

The CUNY Academic Commons is not primarily a Learning Management System (LMS

Learning management system

A learning management system is a software application for the administration, documentation, tracking, and reporting of training programs, classroom and online events, e-learning programs, and training content...

). While popular LMS systems such as Blackboard

Blackboard Learning System

The Blackboard Learning System is a virtual learning environment and course management system developed by Blackboard Inc. Features include course management, a customizable open architecture, and a scalable design that allows for integration with student information systems and authentication...

 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

Do it yourself is a term used to describe building, modifying, or repairing of something without the aid of experts or professionals...

, open-source approach to scholarly communication, the Commons has sometimes been characterized as an alternative to LMS systems. Writing in the ProfHacker blog at the Chronicle of Higher Education, for instance, David Parry (2010) finds that "Blackboard and the other bloated Learning Management Systems" interfere with student learning; Parry writes that the CUNY Academic Commons is "an example of what could be done University wide if the instructors wanted to drop Blackboard and commit to a better solution."

Even though the CUNY Academic Commons is closed to undergraduates, it is still a tool for teaching graduate courses and a hub for sharing pedagological resources. CUNY teaching projects that share the technical architecture, open source ethos, and DIY approach of the Commons include Blogs@Baruch and Eportfolios@Macaulay, and Looking for Whitman.

Facebook Comparisons

Many reviews in the current literature (Gong, 2010; Lamb & Groom, 2011; Kaya, 2010; Roel, 2010) point out similarities between the CUNY Academic Commons and Facebook

Facebook

Facebook is a social networking service and website launched in February 2004, operated and privately owned by Facebook, Inc. , Facebook has more than 800 million active users. Users must register before using the site, after which they may create a personal profile, add other users as...

. But as Kaya (2010) contends in the Chronicle of Higher Education, 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.  As 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

WordPress is a free and open source blogging tool and publishing platform powered by PHP and MySQL. It is often customized into a content management system . It has many features including a plug-in architecture and a template system. WordPress is used by over 14.7% of Alexa Internet's "top 1...

 with Multisite, BuddyPress

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...

 and MediaWiki

MediaWiki

MediaWiki is a popular free web-based wiki software application. Developed by the Wikimedia Foundation, it is used to run all of its projects, including Wikipedia, Wiktionary and Wikinews. Numerous other wikis around the world also use it to power their websites...

. It uses MYSQL

MySQL

MySQL officially, but also commonly "My Sequel") is a relational database management system that runs as a server providing multi-user access to a number of databases. It is named after developer Michael Widenius' daughter, My...

 as a database and runs under Linux

Linux

Linux is a Unix-like computer operating system assembled under the model of free and open source software development and distribution. The defining component of any Linux system is the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released October 5, 1991 by Linus Torvalds...

. BuddyPress

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...

, a powerful WordPress plug-in

Plug-in

The term plug-in may refer to any of the following.In Automotive:* Plug-in hybrid electric vehicleIn Computers:* Plug-in , a piece of software which enhances another software application and usually cannot be run independently...

 which transforms a multi-user WordPress site into a social network

Social network

A social network is a social structure made up of individuals called "nodes", which are tied by one or more specific types of interdependency, such as friendship, kinship, common interest, financial exchange, dislike, sexual relationships, or relationships of beliefs, knowledge or prestige.Social...

, serves as the site's hub. As one of its spokes, MediaWiki is seamlessly integrated into the site and lets users collaborate on projects and build knowledge bases. Users are allowed to create as many blogs and groups as they want.  As Lamb & Groom (2011) write in Educause

Educause

EDUCAUSE is a nonprofit association whose mission is "to advance higher education by promoting the intelligent use of information technology." Membership is open to institutions of higher education, corporations serving the higher education information technology market, and other related...

: "the jaw-dropping CUNY Academic Commons … seamlessly integrates the open-source ... platforms into an appealing and highly sustainable environment."

What members build

The tag line from the site's 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 Stop
• Turf Walls
• Tony's Thoughts
• Open Access at CUNY

Group Blogs

• A Living Laboratory: General Education Seminars at City Tech
• Queens College Graduate School of Library and Information Studies
• Open Access Week 2010
• CUNY Pie - A Pizza blog for CUNY Geeks

Groups and Forums

• E-Books in the Libraries
• Math Matters
• e-Portfolios
• New Media Lab
• Creative Commons and Copyright: Resources for the Teaching Faculty

Wiki pages

• The CUNY Digital Humanities Resource Guide
• Resources for Teaching and Learning with Technology
• CUNY on I-Tunes U
• Information Literacy Resources at CUNY
• e-Portfolios at CUNY

Related Pages

• CUNY Academic Commons on Twitter
• WordPress
  WordPress
  WordPress is a free and open source blogging tool and publishing platform powered by PHP and MySQL. It is often customized into a content management system . It has many features including a plug-in architecture and a template system. WordPress is used by over 14.7% of Alexa Internet's "top 1...
  
  
• BuddyPress
  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...
  
  
• MediaWiki
  MediaWiki
  MediaWiki is a popular free web-based wiki software application. Developed by the Wikimedia Foundation, it is used to run all of its projects, including Wikipedia, Wiktionary and Wikinews. Numerous other wikis around the world also use it to power their websites...
  
  

Sources and Further Reading

• Kaya, T. (2010). CUNY Social Network Mixes Scholarship With Facebook-Style Friendship - Wired Campus. 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
• Deglʼinnocenti, J. (2010, December 20). The 20 Most Outstanding BuddyPress sites of 2010. Retrieved March 25, 2011, from 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 Review) | EDUCAUSE. July/August 2010, 45(4), 50-58. Retrieved from 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 http://learningthroughdigitalmedia.net/beyond-friending-buddypress-and-the-social-networked-open-source-classroom
• Gold, M., & Otte, G. (2011). The CUNY Academic Commons: fostering faculty use of the social web. On the Horizon, 19(1), 24-32.doi:10.1108/10748121111107681
• 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 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
• Hanley, L. (2011). Mashing Up the Institution: Teacher as Bricoleur. The Radical Teacher, (90), 9-14. Retrieved June 8, 2011, from http://www.jstor.org/pss/10.5406/radicalteacher.90.0009
• Jones, K. & Farrington, P. (2012). Learning from Libraries Using WordPress: Content-Management System Best Practices and Case Studies. ALA Editions. [Forthcoming] Retrieved June 8, 2011 from http://www.alatechsource.org/taxonomy/term/106/using-wordpress-as-a-library-content-management-system