I'm going to San Francisco in a couple of weeks to attend a workshop for a publisher. An editor became interested in how I was using wikis to teach writing when she visited my office a few months ago. I'm looking forward to making some new connections and having a chance to make another pitch for open source. (I gave this talk at a university in Connecticut and many faculty got excited about the potential of using wikis, but the administration wouldn't have anything to with open source -- they were only interested if they could find something to pay for. Boneheads.) I'm also interested in making a pitch for student empowerment. So many of the course management systems are about constraining and limiting student actions: I want systems that empower people: that give them increased flexibility and freedom. That's another pitch that often falls on deaf ears.
While I'm in San Francisco, I'm planning to attend a meeting of 
SFERO and perhaps visit the ELNA office. It will be a good chance to network in anticipation of being more actively involved in ELNA's affairs as vice president. I'm hoping to chat with folks about guerilla marketing and website redesign. I think the issue that needs to precede these discussions is really an issue of vision: What should ELNA's role(s) be? It's a thorny and divisive question. My morning is still open...
StevenBrewer