This is the problem isn’t it? The ‘resource’ is considered in terms of ‘the institution’s’ sustainability. As .edu institutions, including their networks, are fully subsidized through the public purse (usually), they are entirely unsustainable.

Perhaps you might find this useful. It compares between two concepts of knowledge. The first being the old ‘objective’ kind. The second being the ‘constructionist’ approach. http://kn.open.ac.uk/public/document.cfm?docid=10605

Biggest difference? With the second you don’t just aim to “provide people with resources”. You work to improve the ’specific environment’ which might be (must be) shared by institutions. So far as physical networks are concerned we can simply compare between the duplication of a client/server (like your, and Sunni’s, institution’s) model and a less resource intensive P2P model (like Wikipedia). So far as content is concerned we can compare between broadcasted (pushed) media, and interactive (demanded) media. models. One works at delivering content, like logs to a factory, the other works at communicating what the logs might be used for, before they’re cut down.

That’s the trouble with the sustainability of knowledge. If you define it in terms of physical objects, we’ve lost any chance of making it so.

Or to put it differently, and this follows on from what you (and Jimmy) said on the Wiki Uni elist about the WikiFoundation “hosting learning communities”, we need to improve the meta.comms networking tools (including audio), which support the ‘production’ of (inter-institutional) media.

Maybe Sunnie, you and a few other institutionalists (yu know i don’t mean it) could start a sustainable communication’s project (between institutions).
http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Communication_Projects_Group_-_Projects

brent.

My name is Sunnie and I work with Chris Geith at Michigan State University. It’s funny that you bring up a Sustainability 101 resource because that’s exactly what we’re working on with the director of our Office of Campus Sustainability! The project is still in its formative stages but its goal is to provide people with the resources to become informed about the issues of sustainability and hopefully make changes that are relevant to their specific environment. We would love to dialogue with you about your thoughts and ideas on this project.

Thanks!
Sunnie