E-Learning 3.0 Newsletter


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Blockchain

The key innovation of blockchain is that it proposed a new understanding of how distributed communities can achieve consensus. This is important because the factors that characterize distributed communities - there is no common basis in trust, identity or even facts - is what also characterizes today's complex information-age society. Definitions - and decision-making methods - of community that worked when everybody in the room could be seen as relevantly the same (whether in origin, ambition, or values) no longer apply. So we need to rethink our understanding of community - and therefore, our understanding of any aspect of education based on community. Which, arguably, is a lot.

This week's video is an outline of blockchain showing how some of the key concepts we've already looked at in the course - data, identity, graph - combine with consensus systems to create new mechanisms for distribute community. The resources describe different approaches to consensus that have emerged since then, and contrast them with a couple of oldder approaches - traditional consensus-building techniques such as Delphi, and Wenger-Traynor's communities of practice model.

Videos

Distributed Ledger Technologies like Blockchain…looking under the hood Dec 06, 2018 video As part of the E-Learning 3.0 course, I take a look at the technology underlying digital currencies like Bitcoin. The talk covers how blocks are constructed, how consensus is established, applications of blockchain, coins, digital wallets, distributed applications, frameworks, and issues related to blockchain. URL: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d50dPV8epn0

Posts

#El30 Task – Community Proposal
Roland, Learning with Moocs, 2018/12/06

So how be one community? That’s this week’s task for the course E-learning 3.0. Do we even want to be one community? Do we want to celebrate our similarities or our differences? Do we need to celebrate anything at all? I think the best way to “solve” this task is to find a viable minimal […]

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Community Vs Network Vs Affinity Space
dogtrax, EL30 – Kevin's Meandering Mind, 2018/12/06

We are beginning to explore the concept of “community” in the E-Learning 3.0 course. That word has long been one of those rather nebulous ones, which we as open learners in various platforms and spaces use as a default to suggest a gathering of people. I’m not all that sure it is the right term […]

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Consensus And Community In The Distributed Web
jennymackness, e-learning 3.0 – Jenny Connected, 2018/12/06

The topic for this week in the E-Learning 3.0 MOOC is Community. I struggled last week to understand how the concept of ‘Recognition’ was being interpreted in relation to the distributed web, and I suspect I am going to struggle this… Continue reading →

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#El30 Week 7: Response To Proposals
x28, EL30 – x28's new Blog, 2018/12/06

Thanks to Laura for the proposal which makes the consensus task stretching again, whereas Roland’s good proposal might have been just nodded through. I think that a shared definition of such a complex term as ‘community’ is unnecessary and therefore … Continue reading →

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The Quest for Community
Laura Ritchie, lauraritchie.com, 2018/12/06

This week’s #el30 topic is community. This is my second post on the topic and I’d like to begin with a couple of definitions given in the interview/chat that Stephen Downes held with Pete Forsyth.

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Resources

ConsensusPedia: An Encyclopedia of 30 Consensus Algorithms
vasa, HackerNoon, 2018/12/06

Consensus algorithms are the basis of all the blockchains/DAGs. They are the most important part of the blockchain/DAG platforms. Without them(consensus algorithms) we will be left with just a dumb, immutable database. Here we list all the major consensus algorithms and will evaluate their pros and cons.

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SoK: Consensus in the age of blockchains
Adrian Colyer, the morning paper, 2018/12/06

"The inherent complexity of consensus protocols and their rapid and dramatic evolution makes it hard to contextualize the design landscape. We address this challenge by conducting a systematic and comprehensive study of blockchain consensus protocols." Summary of SoK: Consensus in the age of blockchains Bano et al., arXiv 2017.

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Is There a Consensus on Consensus Methodology? Descriptions and Recommendations for Future Consensus Research
Jane Waggoner, el.al., Academic Medicine, 2018/12/06

"The authors of this article reviewed the methodology of three common consensus methods: nominal group process, consensus development panels, and the Delphi technique. The authors set out to determine how a majority of researchers are conducting these studies, how they are analyzing results, and subsequently the manner in which they are reporting their findings."

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Effective Community Decision Making
Jane Muegge, Government of Ontario, 2018/12/07

"A healthy community relies on a balance of economic, social, human and environmental factors to promote the physical, mental and social well-being of people who live and work in the community." 1997

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