Knowledge Is Power

Ever wanted to know how the universe works? Confused about diet and fitness? Wished you understood more about how technology and activism intersect? Knowledge Exchange is a collective offering a series of lectures on these and other topics.

Held on Sunday afternoons at The Exchange, a general all-purpose cultural space in Temple Bar, all the lectures are free and open to everyone. Hot Press spoke to three members of the group — Billy Doran, Tom Stewart and Hugh Nowlan — to find out more about it.
“Open knowledge groups are nothing new,” says Billy. “The idea was to give lectures to people that they wouldn’t normally ever get to. If you have access to Wikipedia or any online resource it’s easy to follow your own curriculum, but it’s much harder to navigate a subject without a guide.”
“I remember seeing a large protest on the street,” picks up Tom, “and they had banners saying ‘Free College’. I thought: ‘What a good idea. We should have a free college’. So you do it yourself. If you put a sticker price on it, you’re actually going to know less at the end of the day, because you’ve put a barrier to participation.”
The Knowledge Exchange ethos is that everyone is welcome to get involved, whether by attending or offering to give a talk.
“We held an open meeting so that anyone who wanted to come along and have an input could,” says Billy. “There was a diverse group of people interested in different subjects and the Provisional University and the Free International University, who are also interested in free education, came along. We’re hoping to have another open meeting in the next few weeks – it’ll be on our website.”
If anyone can get involved, how can they ensure that the standard of the classes remains high?
“That’s a good question,” agrees Billy. “In a lot of ways it’s controlled by the crowd – if somebody gives a bad lecture, it’s not well reviewed. The thing is, we want people to have background in an area, to be passionate and knowledgeable about their subject.”
Another key idea is audience participation.
“Everyone attending is strongly encouraged to question everything,” Billy adds. “The lecturers will also be required to publish their slides and sources so that the audience can follow up and dissect the information further. All the materials for the courses will be online. The onus rests with those learning to take control and form their own views and opinions. If a lecturer can’t support a point, then publishing sources and reading lists should give the audience a chance to discern the holes.”
Because participation is important to the success of the project, Knowledge Exchange hopes to eventually take the talks out of Temple Bar and present them across Dublin.
“Different parts of the city can be experienced as separate,” Billy offers. “If the lectures are closer to you, you might be more inclined to go.”
As anyone who has given a lecture or a talk will tell you, the greater the participation, the better the learning experience for both the audience and the speakers.
“If you are interested in a subject it’s really useful to have different people question you and have people bounce ideas around,” Billy concludes.

The series continues Sundays at 12.30pm at The Exchange, Exchange Street Upper, Temple Bar, Dublin. See knowledge.exchangedublin.ie.