[p2pu-dev] FWD: Accessing Member Email Addresses

[Dan Diebolt]

Those are the settings I initially set up - neither the group is listed in
the Google Directory nor can someone join without approval and I would
basically equate that to being accepted into the course via the signup tasks
negotiated via the p2pu platform. I could relax either of those settings but
I have not gone through the test to see if those changes expose
email addresses to people not in the course. Now you might have
a visceral negative reaction to those settings but I would suggest the
following be considered.

To me the openness should focus on the content of the courses such as
creative commons materials used or produced and the work product
participants create while doing assignments and discussing issues. The chit
chat of introducing members to each other, casually announcing where one is
from or the work they do in not really of the same caliber of information.
Quite frankly much of this noise is ephemera of little long term use. Also,
I don't think you would get the same *"forming, norming and
strorming"* dynamics work
in smaller groups produce if you opened up the discussion for all the world
to listen in on.

The other issue is that if anyone can drop in on a course in progress
without making a contribution, performing the signup tasks and join the
activities as if they were in the course a you sort of devalue the
commitment other members of the course made by performing the requested
acts and meeting the prerequisites. Moreover, from marketing perspective
P2PU should be developing its branding and setting standards to make it the
go to place for online learning cognizant of the principles of openness and
peer learning upon which is founded. Now maybe dev isn't the place for
this discussion as it is technically focused but these are things to
consider.

If you want me to change the settings of the groups let me know after
considering the above points.
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