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It makes sense to me that my participation in the OSAS to grow from the form it took when this was just a blog. with that in mind i thought it might be worth initiating a bit of a discussion about how we might use the great word press (i.e. blog) feature of being able to classify posts. i say its a great feature because for me an OSAS is as much about presenting and organizing information into highly usable form as it is about generating the information. I’ve taken the liberty of creating a category for this type of post, (i.e. posts that discuss the structure of the OSAS site) but it would be good if other interested parties could suggest what some of the other categories might be.

With regards to this its also worth raising the question of wiki or blog. if the OSAS is successful then you would assume that the bulk of the information will be accumulated in the wiki, in this case the blog might function in parallel to the wiki with discussions about its development as well as the more traditional web log function of connecting to resources located on other parts of the internet. Having said that there is also the capacity to make pages in word press. this system allows you to assign the page a parent page opening up the possibility of having four or five page links on the main page of the blog which might then contain a number of sub-pages. of coarse we could choose to ignor this feature for the moment and concentrate on the blog and wiki (posting on the wiki has the advantage that you start to encourage the OSAS to become a more dynamic and egalitarian space).
ok so this is kind of boring organizational stuff, but i think its worth being clear about the structural possibilities and having some sort of plan as to how the different structures might be used. its this sort of organizational stuff that will help the OSAS become a useable and user-friendly resource. i see the initial posting and categorizing as creating patterns of use so any input on structural elements would be most timely at this early stage.
moving beyond structural concerns one of my interests in a OSAS is to link its content to the processes of library/book based research that forms part of academic study. this interest doesn’t necessarily involve OSAS “students” producing essays or replicating the modes of study used by universities. i think there is an opportunity to consider how this sort of material might function in other contexts, and in turn how those contexts might inform the development of that academic material, (a kind of open circuit between a university based education and the OSAS).

one of the difficulties with the wiki is that as a clean space with no pages it requires a bit of creativity and thought in terms of the best way to realize you vision. i am in the process of embracing these difficulties because i think they are indicative of genuine creative opportunities.