@clhendricksbc I think I will be posting most of my initial thoughts for the weeks on my blog (and then post a link here in the forums, along with a few paragraphs from the top), so it’s nice to have a hashtag that I can use in the blog too 
That’s an excellent idea. We had a blog hub where we got rss feeds from all blogs for the last course, but I think too many people didn’t yet have a blog and may have felt it was too much work to set one up for the course. So this time we decided to hold our discussions here and see how it works out.
But everyone who wants to should indeed post their thoughts on their blogs, and I love the idea of excerpting a couple of paragraphs here to get people interested! I’ll do that too.
Hi all, my name is Fernando Rochaix. I’m Art History instructor at Georgia Perimeter College, the largest community college in metropolitan Atlanta. This “theory” course is particularly good timing. For the past year I’ve been developing an idea for computer cooperative, serving Southern Dekalb county. I’m currently in the planning stages and need some fresh ideas to aid presenting my vision to my home institution, for space and minimal funding. I’d like the project to grow "Openly,"organically, and thoroughly unorthodox to most tech start-ups.
-fernando R.
Hello, I’m Nick Sheppard, work in repositories - OA and OER - at Leeds Metropolitan University. I think I know a bit about Open but always more to learn and particularly interested in the experience and perspective of folk from beyond my national borders. @mrnick on twitter.
Hello All. I’m Joe Jansen a NYC retired from non -profits Raiser’s Edge Database manager. The last 5 years were spent identifying the affinity and capacity of prospective and present donors.
The prompt asks, “Does your reply improve the conversation in some way?”. Well, I want to listen and learn. I feel I am here to expand the audience. I have, as professional audience member, encountered artists with the same “no clue” questions that I have about OPEN. So maybe I’m a connector.
@RsrchMngr3
Joe
Hey peeps,
I’m Nisha Desai from Cape Town. I have my accounting degree and I recently resigned from my 9-5 job and have been trying to think of ways I could contribute to helping humanity. Unfortunately my formal qualifications do not really allow me to continue easily into any other field. I might have had a mini breakdown which I still don’t know if that was real. And I’m hoping this is the right move. I’ve always been open to learning new things… Why stop… I was talking to my friend yesterday and termed myself as a absorption scientific Explorer. I like learning how to talk and listening to people to enable growth. Comfort is good but growth is better. For our society as a whole. I’m just not sure if I’m doing it in the right way.
Hi Fernando:
I’m curious just what a computer cooperative is, and how your home institution might be involved. I’m intrigued!
Kia ora everyone
I’m Nigel from Hamilton, New Zealand. Working at a university supporting staff with the practicalities of digital technologies for learning and research, developing digital literacies, and future thinking for strategy. Open is an adjective which is associated with so many parts of academia and I find there can be a very wide range of awareness and knowledge about what it really means. Beyond the what comes the why and that is the aspect of this course which particularly appeals to me. Looking forward to meeting everyone over the next few weeks.
@easegill on Twitter
Hi all - some familiar names here. I’m A learning technologist and philosopher from Glasgow Uni - here because I want to get better at using open resources.
Yay - you too AK 
Maha has made us a Facebook group as well: https://www.facebook.com/groups/826585524025854/
1 Like
Hi all! I’m Sara Mörtsell from Stockholm, Sweden. I’m Education Manager at Wikimedia Sweden where I facilitate educators’ Wikpedia assignments, OER, Open Badges, Creative Commons etc. I’m also involved in the Wikipedia gender gap issue. As a learner, I like to explore connectivist and peer-2-peer projects.
I feel my relationship with Openness is fairly intense and I think the question Why Open is a terrific one as I feel ready to dig into some of the issues I have and I’m excited to learn from others on such a diverse topic.
@SaraMrtsell on Twitter.
@Sarah_Honeychurch and @akoutropoulos: that Facebook group seems to be for the Connected courses course, not this one, right?
Haha, so it is. I am so ditzy at the moment.
Hello everyone! Cris Crissman is my name and by day I work in writing and producing environmental and educational videos and by night I teach as an adjunct for North Carolina State University. My courses are teaching young adult literature and creative inquiry.
My quest to explore openness in learning and teaching has led me here. I look forward to meeting others here who find this interesting.
I’m with Maha and AK – my blog is where I like to share my ideas. I’ve posted an initial look at openness that’s inspired by this image I created for the DS106 Daily Create. Oh, yeah, I’m sure you’ve heard of the infamous open course DS 106 
Here’s the link to my blog and here’s my image: http://virtuallyfoolproof.com/uncategorized/opening-up/
Hi all - I’m Ashley Shaw, a PhD student/sessional instructor in
the faculty of education at the University of British Columbia, in
Vancouver. I’m interested in how digital technologies and new media are
impacting informal or not-in-school learning.
I’ve long been interested in ideas of open as they revolve around technology and
education, so I’m taking this course to continue my own learning in this
area and to connect with others interested in this stuff. I’m also in
the stage of the PhD where I’m casting about for a topic - I began with
an interest in “learning to learn” in MOOCs, but am falling down the
rabbit hole into the bigger ideas of learning in networks and
communities, what counts as knowledge, and the concepts of closed vs.
open that are so prominent in MOOCs.
I’m not sure how active I’ll be as I’m currently dealing with some ‘real
life’ stuff, but I’m really looking forward to engaging as much as
possible.
Oh, and hi to those who have migrated here from #rhizo14 - looking forward to connecting with you again!
Hi Everyone! I’m Susan Huggins, Director of Open College at Kaplan University (OC@KU) in Ft Lauderdale, FL. This is a new initiative at Kaplan providing a flexible and customizable learning experience using open courses and resources. I am also interested in how ‘open’ courses and resources are being used to help learners take charge of their learning.
Greetings from Valencia, Venezuela.
I am Mitvia, interested in philosophy known as “open” in the context of scientific information resources supports research processes
Jobs in University of Carabobo
Virtual Library and Repositories
Hello everyone,
I’m Shubham Ghimire a undergraduate level computer science student from kathmandu, Nepal. I have joined this course to know about the openness.
I am John Johnston
Primary Teacher turned Education ICT Staff Development Officer in North Lanarkshire Council, Scotland.current seconded to the Scottish Government to work on Glow the Scottish Edu Intranet. Currently mostly working on the blogs & wikis project.
I’ve been ‘open online’ since I started getting my primary pupils to podcast and blog and then joined them. Now at http://johnjohnston.info and @johnjohnston on twitter amoung other places.
My openness is mostly knee-jerk and I am hoping to bolster my arguments for open when evangelising.