Greetings. As the founder of CC-4 licensed MIT OCW-centric wiki World University and School, planned in the Scottish Gaelic language, I just found my way to the Gaelic College at about 4:20 pm today, and found that you close at 4:30. Asking Jenni MacLean as she was leaving the Administration office, when you open tomorrow, I found you open at 8:30 am. Traveling in Cape Breton and Nova Scotia before returning to the western Pennsylvania, and then potentially the SF Bay Area on September 1, 2023, I'm writing to explore a possible collaboration brainstorming-wise. CC-4 licensed MIT OCW-centric wiki World University and School seeks to be in the Scottish Gaelic language - and potentially for free-to-students' online degrees, AA, Bachelor, PhD, Law, MD, IB high school, and Master's degrees, from here -  https://wiki.worlduniversityandschool.org/wiki/Scottish_Gaelic_language (planned in Scottish Gaelic ... Canadian Gaelic too) - and accessible from here too - 

https://wiki.worlduniversityandschool.org/wiki/Languages - and with Large Language Models conversational generative Artificial Intelligence in Scottish Gaelic especially. This could be an opportunity for the Gaelic College in St. Ann's to offer online (and on the ground MIT OCW-centric and GoogleWUaS-centric) degrees, as well as potentially for the Gaelic College and World Univ & Sch to create thousands of jobs in the Scottish Gaelic Language, - and for Scottish Gaelic speakers and your graduates, and thus to grow. How might we explore, brainstorming-wise, collaboration? 

I hope to come visit the Gaelic College campus again in the morning, and if at all possible - and in a conversational and exploratory vein - get to know each other a bit, and possibly regarding some of the above questions. 

(Having lived 2 full years in Edinburgh, Scotland, and studied at the University of Edinburgh in the School of Celtic and Scottish Studies in 2003-2004, writing my MSc thesis on nascent emerging virtual St. Kilda / Hirta, this exploratory collaboration could unfold in many ways, but possibly involve for example translating with AI and machine learning too this "CS First with Google at WUaS" programming course - https://csfirst.withgoogle.com/s/en/home - learning the Scratch programming language - into Scots' Gaelic ... as well as at Fettes College during a year in high school, in 1977-1978. And, a small world, I know Shamus MacDonald from my time there, and it appears that he's on the Gaelic College faculty too - https://gaeliccollege.edu/faculty/shamus-y-macdonald/ . Greetings, Shamus!

And here's my 

"Physical and Online St. Kilda: A Comparison of 'Senses of Place'" paper if you might be interested - 

http://scottmacleod.com/MacLeod%20Physical%20and%20Online%20St%20Kilda%20A%20%20Comparison%20of%20Senses%20of%20Place%20MSc%20Dissertation%20University%20of%20Edinburgh.pdf

http://scottmacleod.com/papers.htm

https://scott-macleod.blogspot.com/2008/08/island-virtual-harbin-ethnography.html?m=0

https://scott-macleod.blogspot.com/2017/10/greyhound-how-best-to-co-create.html

And you can visit virtual St Kilda here in Google Street View with time slider -

https://www.google.com/maps/place/St.+Kilda/@57.8134608,-8.5837917,12z/data=!4m14!1m7!3m6!1s0x48f2bc4b6e94e701:0x3df7815014b4c409!2sSt.+Kilda!8m2!3d57.8348133!4d-8.5635441!16zL20vMDEzcnR3!3m5!1s0x48f2bc4b6e94e701:0x3df7815014b4c409!8m2!3d57.8348133!4d-8.5635441!16zL20vMDEzcnR3?entry=ttu

- in an iterating way; see too - 

https://worlduniversityandschool.academia.edu/ScottMacLeod ). 

Such a collaboration could be a remarkable marketing opportunity as well for the Gaelic College, and as WUaS accredits in the USA (for which WUaS has the green light from the Middle States Commission on Higher Education with offices in the greater Philadelphia area, and authorization for licensure with the state of Pennsylvania's department of education). 

As an aside, I've just created 2 Scottish Small Piping albums in 2020, "Honey in the Bag," of Ceol Beag, and in 2022, "Honey Piobaireachd" of Ceol Mor, which are free and you can find them here - http://scottmacleod.com/piping.htm

Also, World Univ & Sch has a number of developing wiki bagpiping schools, for open teaching and learning, including - 

 

Scottish_smallpipes_and_borderpipes - 

Pibroch,_Piobaireachd_or_Ceòl_Mór - 

Great_Highland_Bagpipe

Bagpipe_Tutorials - 

World_University_Music_School  - 

https://wiki.worlduniversityandschool.org/wiki/World_University_Music_School 

https://wiki.worlduniversityandschool.org/wiki/Subjects 

And people can wiki-create other wiki schools at WUaS. World Univ & Sch is a little like MIT OCW in 6 languages, with Wikipedia in 300 languages, and WUaS has been in Wikidata / Wikibase, Wikipedia's backend structured knowledge database (as data sources for artificial intelligence and machine learning) since around 2015. 

In exploring this Gaelic College - WUaS collaboration, brainstorming-wise, this could emerge in Canada World Univ & Sch - https://wiki.worlduniversityandschool.org/wiki/Canada - and for free-to-students' online MIT OCW-centric and Google-WUaS degrees, not only in Scottish Gaelic, but also in Canada's other main languages, English and French, as well as in all Canada's First Nations' languages. 

Hoping to meet some of you in the morning, and although I'm an ovo-lacto vegetarian I may seek to come to lunch as well if it happens tomorrow. Am thinking the Gaelic College may be a bit like a village, so I am just floating these ideas exploratorily and loosely - and World Univ & Sch could conceivably seek to build out the Scottish Gaelic language schools, and possible degree programs, in conversation also with Wilson McLeod, a professor at the Univ of Edinburgh when I was in the School of Celtic and Scottish studies there, and who is helping to grow the Scottish Gaelic language in Scotland.  

Thank you, and looking forward to potentially meeting some of you tomorrow, and learning about the Gaelic College's offerings. 

Best wishes, 

Scott

Scott GK MacLeod 

M 08/07/23 World Univ & Sch WUaS News and Q&A Recording #CanadaWUaS #KoreaWUaS #WUaSFacultyHomes 

https://youtu.be/D8TyQRdJoA0 

PS

https://gaeliccollege.edu/about/ceo-staff/