A huge part of the challenge of creating a new Mendicant University, is that we need to figure out how to collectively define our culture. This is much harder to do in an open environment than it is in a closed one, and was something we struggled with even when we ran our program in private.
As new folks join our community, they will inevitably want to know what sets us apart from the thousands of other places online where they can learn and work together with others. It is going to take us a lot of time and effort to come up with a satisfying answer to that question, but we need to start working on it right away.
While we are very much rebuilding our community from scratch, some ideas from our past can provide a nice starting point for defining the future of Mendicant University. In particular, if you have not read the following articles, they may help you understand our motivations for building this school in the first place:
While all of these posts are somewhat dated, they should provide a good starting place for conversations about what the culture of the new Mendicant University community ought to be. We are trying to do something much deeper than simply teaching technical skills, and no matter how much we change, we will always be looking for ways to make a deeper impact on the world.
NOTE: We will set up a town hall meeting to discuss this topic soon, and hope to get some community guidelines written up as soon as we can.