August 15, 2001

The evolt.org Community Nicely written article about building an online community - in this case, evolt.org , a breakaway from the old HotWired WebMonkey Threads. The advice is sound and honest and there's a plug for my own online community, NewsTrolls, a breakaway from the old HotWired Media Watch Threads. My experience is the author's experience, which is why I recommend this article for community builders. By Daniel Cody, DigitalWeb, August, 2001. [Refer]

24 Hours in the Life of a New Synchronous Learner Amusing article describing the pitfalls of being an online student. What's interesting is the way artifacts from traditional learning - prework exercises with a strict deadline, scheduled class meeting times - do not work for people trying to learn from home or work. Remove the urgency of time constraints from this story and you get a very different picture (but if you must attend a synchronous class, don't wait for the last minute to get your headset). By Jennifer Hofmann, Learning Circuits, August, 2001. [Refer]

Scientists to Detail Controversial Research Under threat of action under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DCMA), Edward Felten will present his paper on how to crack digital music encryption at the Usenix Security Conference in Washington on Wednesday. The paper was withdrawn from an earlier conference after threats (later recanted) from the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA). By Scarlet Pruitt, InfoWorld, August 14, 2001. [Refer]

Digital Copyrights and Wrongs A sycophantic look at copyright and online learning with a few links to information on copyright and fair use. There's nothing new here and a lot that is just wrong. For example, Tip 1, "Remember, new tools, same rules," is false. The Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DCMA) changes the rules substantially. And ignore the recommendations in Tip 4 - encryption and watermarking are currently no defense against copying and therefore a waste of time. So why this link? The article is from Learning Circuits, which means it will get wide circulation (it's already covered, uncritically, in elearningpost). ASTD could do so much better, and so can you. By Donna J. Abernathy, Learning Circuits, August, 2001. [Refer]

Copyright Endurance and Change Discussion of the state of copyright law and the inpact of new technologies and new legislation (specifically the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA). Takes a generally pro-copyright stance but expresses concerns that anti-decryption provisions in the DMCA may be exceeding the original objectives of copyright. By Georgia K. Harper, The Journal of Electronic Publishing, Volume 7, Issue 1, August, 2001. Reprinted from EDUCAUSE Review, Volume 35, Number 6, 2000. [Refer]

Returning Scientific Publishing to Scientists Polemic describing the reasons behind the Scholarly Publishing and Academic Resources Coalition (SPARC) project. SPARC is a coalition of scientists and researchers reacting against the high price of scholarly journals. If you publish in high priced journals, you may want to read this article before submiting or refereeing a manuscript. By Alison Buckholtz, The Journal of Electronic Publishing, Volume 7, Issue 1, August, 2001. [Refer]

Web Accessibility Presentation notes from a web accessibility session at the Conference on Distance Teaching and Learning at University of Wisconsin-Madison. Good overview, many links: an excellent starting point for people looking at accessibility issues. By Alice Anderson and Christopher Blair Bundy, August 9, 2001. [Refer]

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