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Hi all, some of you know me because of OER projects I've been involved in through the Economics Network. In my spare time I do a lot with Wikimedia UK. You may be interested in the conference that Wikimedia UK is doing in the first week of September, in conjunction with the Beyond Distance Research Alliance at the University of Leicester. The spirit of openness pervades Wikipedia and its sister projects: not only the articles but the policies, processes and even the software platform are free and open, developed by a public process to which many people contribute. On the other hand, Wikimedia doesn't provide formal education or accreditation. I think the Wikimedia community and universities have a lot to learn from each other, and in the long term the Wikimedia organisations have a role to play in supporting innovative educational projects in universities. Note that where we're talking about using Wikipedia in education, we mean getting students to *improve* Wikipedia for course credit, which is already done in dozens of university courses in the US and other countries. It's about using Wikipedia's processes of collaboration and review rather than treating it as a static resource. This conference is the chance to bring together educators and Wikimedia contributors to have the conversation about how we'll implement these sort of assignments in UK HE. We'll have speakers from the Wikimedia Foundation in San Fransisco, from Wikimedia Deutschland, and of course from the UK HE sector. Jon Beasley-Murray of the University of British Columbia, who has run some very successful Wikipedia education projects in his courses, will be giving a keynote. Jon wrote "Was introducing Wikipedia to the classroom an act of madness leading only to mayhem if not murder?" <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Jbmurray/Madness> The conference is also a chance to hear from other projects that combine wiki technology, open content and education. Please sign up and tell colleagues: I'm organising this as a volunteer to advance Wikimedia's charitable goals, so any help with publicity is very welcome. <http://uk.wikimedia.org/wiki/EduWiki_Conference_2012> It's still possible to offer a presentation, panel session or other session if you'd like to report on a project, or advance a perspective on the intersections of open content and education. Just email me if you have a suggestion, and if it's accepted, you don't have to pay the (small) conference fee. Finally, it's a 4000 word read, but if you're interested in my thoughts on the role of Wikipedia and Wikimedia in education, take a look at <http://uk.wikimedia.org/wiki/Education_strategy> Thanks, -- Dr Martin L Poulter, The Economics Network