As my contract at University of Alberta has expired, it's time to move on. Accordingly, starting Monday morning I report to work as a researcher with the Institute of Information Technology at Canada's National Research Council based in Moncton, New Brunswick. Please allow me to take this time to thank the people at the University of Alberta for giving me the opportunity to write, to travel, to try new things and to make new mistakes.

Education Search Alta Vista launches a new search services that specializes in eductaional institutions. Basically, it works by limiting searches to the .edu domain, which is pretty narrow, in my opinion. By , , .[Refer]

Scholarly Electronic Publishing Bibliography Another update (version 39) to this long-standing bibliography of resources related to online scholarly publishing. Note especially the use of a weblog, started last June - http://info.lib.uh.edu/sepb/sepw.htm - to keep people up to date. By Charles W. Bailey, Jr., , October 24, 2001.[Refer]

Beyond Telecom: From Telecom to Connectivity Good essay outlining the issues surrounding telecom deregulation (or lack of same). It essentially points out that there is a disincentive for telcos and cable companies to allow for a free markeplace of content providers since they already have an essential monopoly on content provision. It's a god point: so long as connectivity and content are in the same hands, the opportunities for, say, independent educational content providers (this includes most universities and colleges) are minimal. By Bob Frankston, , October 1, 2001.[Refer]

Groundbreaking E-Learning And E-Training Report Is The First To Approach Subject Holistically, Benefiting Vendors, Users If you have $US 4500 to plunk down, you may want to purchase this report, which covers trends to 2005, market opportunities, and more. Of course, you could just read OLDaily and get the same info for free. ;) By Press Release, Collaborative Strategies LLC, November 1, 2001.[Refer]

Court Rules DeCSS Posting On Web Is Protected Speech A California court has ruled that the hacker magazine, 2600, was exercising its right to free speech when it posted the code for DeCSS, a script that decodes DVDs, on its website. If the ruling stands up, it could have an impact on the DMCA, which holds that distributing such code is illegal. By Michael Bartlett, NewsBytes, November 1, 2001.[Refer]

Authors sue Internet Operator over Copyright Is it a violation of copyright to summarize and link to someone else's work (the very foundation of this newsletter)? Most people would say that it is not, but a Japanese court is being asked to hear arguments after a newspaper demands compensation. By Unknown, Mainichi Daily News, October 18, 2001.[Refer]

A Smarter Web If you are still struggling with the concept of the semantic web (and who isn't) then this article may be of some help. "To compare the Semantic Web with today's Web, imagine registering for a conference online. There's no way you can just say, 'I want to go to that event,'" explains Berners-Lee, "because the semantics of which bit is the date and which bit is the time has been lost. But on the Semantic Web those bits will be labeled; the software on your computer will recognize those labels and automatically book your flight to the conference and reserve a hotel room with the click of a button." By Mark Frauenfelder, Technology Review, November, 2001.[Refer]

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