I was at a conference today and was approached by a colleague who wanted two things from me: permission to post some materials that I had created in a learning repository, and advice on how to get other instructors to share their materials as well.
I had no problem with the first request; I've put a number of materials on web sites and have no problem sharing them with other instructors either at my own institution on secure sites or elsewhere on public sites. It was the second request that had me stumped.
A year or two ago I set up a password-protected SharePoint site specifically intended for instructors in my department to use to exchange teaching materials with each other. Technically, it works flawlessly. It is secure, easy to use, and fast. The counter on it indicates that instructors are taking materials from it. The problem is that the sharing only works one way. Other instructors simply will not post to it. These are not lazy people, nor are they ungenerous; they are happy to share paper copies of their work. I receive e-mailed teaching materials from people quite regularly. However, they draw the line at any forum where they don't have direct contact with the recipients of their work. When asked why, they sometimes mumble something about losing control over their work.
That brings me to my question. Assuming that learning repositories and other such tools fit the definition of learning communities, does anyone have any advice on dealing with this sort of intellectual constipation? I read Rogers' article http://ifets.massey.ac.nz/periodical/vol_3_2000/e01.html that Barb Berry posted on "Defining Communities" but it didn't answer my question. And since this topic/question is quite different from the rest of the thread so far, I thought it was time to start a new one. Any help would be appreciated.