Upcoming Hangout – #101OpenStories for #YearOfOpen

I’m really looking forward to this hangout happening Tuesday July 25 at noon my time (6am EDT/11 BST). Watch/join via this Zoom link)

(watch link now available)

Jenni Hayman did a great job organizing this one. It’s a pretty diverse group: Sukaina Walji who is British but works in South Africa (notable for her ROER4D work), Catherine Cronin who is originally from New York but works in Ireland (we all know her PhD is about open ed), Maha Abdelmoneim (Egyptian who has worked in different places – mostly outside academia) and myself.

I don’t want to burn my story, but writing generally helps me organize my thoughts… And if I had to summarize my open story… It would probably fall into several different points, so I’ll just mention them here and expand during the hangout, as I’m also looking forward to listening to others’ stories.

• Openness as an attitude that isn’t tied to online necessarily
• Becoming pro open access (including illegal kinds even though that doesn’t really count as open access) by necessity at times when saved me
• Openness as a need for myself as a professional in my particular circumstances
• Openness as a critical approach that is more collectively than individually focused, as many (tho not all!) of us who are open are marginal in some way – and thinking of Virtually Connecting and how it shifts the power in academic conferences (I hadn’t been planning on mentioning it, but I’m glad it occurred to me while writing this – so that hopefully I mention it then)
• Risks of openness – watching other women and minorities take those risks, what it means in my own Egyptian political context as well
• Mabel’s garden (story Teresa Mackinnon shared with me) and how building the wall in the garden to protect flowers ends up preventing sunlight – but how this metaphor is beautiful but still flawed, as not all the walls around us are of our own making….

Thanks again to Jenni Hayman and the team working on 101Openstories and to #YearOfOpen – this is the second hangout in a series. And anyone can contribute in writing (or probably whatever format?) to 101openstories.org, including you! And check out stories already there!