  Commons based peer-production (CBPP) is the de-centralized, net-based
approach to the creation and dissemination of information resources. Underlying
every CBPP system is a virtual community brought together by an internet tool
(such as a web site) and structured by a specific collaboration protocol. In
this talk we will argue that the value of such platforms can be leveraged by
adapting them for pedagogical purposes.
  We report on one such recent adaptation. The Noosphere system is a web-based
collaboration environment that underlies the popular Planetmath website, a
collaboratively written encyclopedia of mathematics licensed under the GNU Free
Documentation License (FDL). Recently, the system was used to host a
graduate-level mathematics course at Dalhousie University, in Halifax, Canada.
The course consisted of regular lectures and assignment problems. The students
in the course collaborated on a set of course notes, encapsulating the lecture
content and giving solutions of assigned problems. The successful outcome of
this experiment demonstrated that a dedicated Noosphere system is well suited
for classroom applications. We argue that this ``proof of concept'' experience
also strongly suggests that every successful CBPP platform possesses latent
pedagogical value.
