Edu_RSS
Secrecy Run Rampant
DefenseTech: Satellite Pics Going Dark. You might be able to see the hurricanes heading for Florida. Maybe. But just about all other commercial satellite imagery could be put off-limits, if a new Senate bill goes through as planned. The measure, "Nondisclosure of Certain Products of Commercial Satellite Operations," would exempt from the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) unclassified, commercial satellite pictures bought up by the government, as well as "any... other product that is derived from such data." From Dan Gillmor's eJournal on September 8, 2004 at 10:47 p.m..
CoCreate Software Releases OneSpace.net 2005 for Team Collaboration
From the press release on PRWire, CoCreate Software Releases OneSpace.net 2005 for Team Collaboration, CoCreate has announced a new product to enable easy collaboration between 'multi-site, contract, and outsourced project teams' without compromising security. Leveraging XML web services a... From
Kolabora.com on September 8, 2004 at 7:56 p.m..
A Critical Look at the Corporation's Dominant Role in Society
Corporations are omnipresent in modern society, a point that consumers, conditioned by the sheer scale of corporate advertising, can easily miss. The film-making team of Mark Achbar, Jennifer Abbot and Joel Bakan, however, is not about to let ignorance equal bliss. The three have made a new documentary, titled "The Corporation," that assesses the behavior of corporations and proposes practical solutions that will allow businesses to balance the needs of society with their duty to maximize profit. Bakan authored the companion book, entitled The Corporation: The Pathological Pursuit of Profit an From
Knowledge@Wharton on September 8, 2004 at 7:04 p.m..
A Real Estate Boomlet in Latin America
Latin America's largest economic power-houses, Mexico and Brazil, are enjoying a real estate revival that neither country has seen in years. Big-picture economic fundamentals, politics and recent laws welcoming foreign investment are helping to trigger building sprees in residential and commercial properties, observers say. As Rogerio Basso, a Miami-based Latin America specialist for Ernst & Young's hospitality and real estate advisory service, puts it: "There are good expectations for growth in both countries." From
Knowledge@Wharton on September 8, 2004 at 7:04 p.m..
Global Players See Great Opportunity for Retail Banking in Emerging Economies
As emerging economies in Eastern Europe, Latin America and Asia continue to mature, financial firms - including Citigroup, General Electric and major European banks - are stepping up efforts to bring retail banking services to developing nations. These firms, watching the erosion of U.S. and European banking profit margins, are increasingly willing to face the risks of setting up retail operations, such as checking and savings accounts and credit cards, in new markets. If successful, these initiatives can provide a foot in the door for future growth, according to Wharton faculty and banking ex From
Knowledge@Wharton on September 8, 2004 at 7:04 p.m..
A Management Professor in Bahrain: Helping to Reform One Country's Economy?
Last year the Middle Eastern country of Bahrain, a small island off the coast of Saudi Arabia, asked Wharton management professor Peter Cappelli for advice on how to reform its labor markets. "They are in the process of creating institutions from scratch," says Cappelli, director of Wharton's Center for Human Resources, who met the Bahrainis through the U.S. State Department. "They are asking questions like, 'Should we have unemployment insurance and government-sponsored worker training? Should we have a welfare system?'" In short, not your typical consulting job. From
Knowledge@Wharton on September 8, 2004 at 7:04 p.m..
Corporate Governance by the Numbers: It Doesn't Work
Formulas used by consultants and ratings services that assign single numbers or grades to a company's corporate governance practices don't work, suggest three Wharton professors in a new paper entitled, "Does Corporate Governance Really Matter?" Yes, it matters, the authors say, but what also matters is how performance is measured. Companies and their situations are too diverse to be shoehorned into simple scorecards. As one researcher notes, "The recipe book is big, and there's a different recipe for each company." From
Knowledge@Wharton on September 8, 2004 at 7:04 p.m..
Teaching Kids about Money: Why It's Not Just Fun and Games
Schools, companies and nonprofit organizations around the country, including educators at Wharton, say helping children and teenagers learn the rudiments of free markets, entrepreneurship, credit, spending, saving and investing is one of the most important - and neglected - components of a young person's education. Yet for kids from both affluent and poor neighborhoods, it's difficult to find financial literacy courses, not just in their schools, but outside the classroom as well. Several organizations are hoping to change that. From
Knowledge@Wharton on September 8, 2004 at 7:04 p.m..
Musical Militants: Microsoft Takes on Apple
Last week Microsoft unveiled the new version of its Windows Media Player, firing the opening shots in a long-anticipated battle against Apple Computer for supremacy in the online music business. Both companies are targeting the fast-growing market, whose sales are expected to be $270 million this year but could grow to $1.7 billion by 2009. Experts at Wharton and elsewhere say that for now, Apple, whose iTunes music service commands a 70% market share, has an impressive lead. Over time, however, two strategic issues make Apple vulnerable to being dislodged by Microsoft or other rivals. From
Open Access News on September 8, 2004 at 6:53 p.m..
September issue of SOAN
I just mailed the
September issue of the SPARC Open Access Newsletter. In addition to the usual round-up of news from the past month, it takes a close look at a cluster of related problems: stretching or diluting the term "open access" to cover all flavors of widening access, hesitating to praise steps that widen access if they stop short of full OA, and letting a fuzzy OA meme outpace the spread of the major public definitions from Budapest, Bethesda, and Berlin. The issue also includes a reflection on September 11 th From
Open Access News on September 8, 2004 at 6:53 p.m..
JCI editorial supporting the US and UK proposals
Ushma Savla and John Hawley,
Want the world to know? Publish here, The Journal of Clinical Investigation, 114 (2004) p. 602. An editorial. Excerpt: "Recent recommendations by the governments of the United Kingdom and the United States support the notion that government-funded research should be published in free-access journals. The JCI supports these recommendations, and we remind our readers that all JCI articles are deposited in PubMed Central for completely free access from the day they are published....More journals may soon b From
Open Access News on September 8, 2004 at 6:53 p.m..
Society journal rejects OA
Robert Stanley,
Open Access: Has Its Time Come? American Journal of Roentgenology, September 2004 (accessible only to subscribers, at least
so far). An editorial. Excerpt: "Although the concept of freely sharing scientific and medical knowledge with everyone globally has merit, it does not appear to work well for all providers of scholarly publications. Educational, not-for-profit societies, such as the
ARRS [American Roentgen Ray So From
Open Access News on September 8, 2004 at 6:53 p.m..
More on the NIH OA plan
Jocelyn Kaiser,
Zerhouni Plans a Nudge Toward Open Access, Science, September 3, 2004 (accessible only to subscribers). Excerpt: "Hoping to resolve an escalating debate about public access to biomedical research reports, National Institutes of Health (NIH) Director Elias Zerhouni consulted with scientists this week and said that he is leaning toward a delay of 6 months after publication before posting grantees' papers on NIH's free Web archive. This plan won't satisfy everyone, he acknowledged, but it is & From
Open Access News on September 8, 2004 at 6:53 p.m..
A look at ciber
I just learned about
ciber (the Centre for Information Behavior and the Evaluation Research) at the City University of London. Ciber was behind the report,
Scholarly Communication in the Digital Environment: What Do Authors Want? (dated March 2004 but apparently released in May). From the ciber site: "ciber's expertise lies in the mapping, monitoring and evaluating of digital information systems, platforms, services and environments, using robust and innovative research met From
Open Access News on September 8, 2004 at 6:53 p.m..
NIH releases its OA plan for public comment
The
NIH has released its open-access plan,
Enhanced Public Access to NIH Research Information (September 3, 2004) for public comment. Excerpts: This notice is to announce and to seek public comments regarding NIH's plans to facilitate enhanced public access to NIH health related research information. NIH intends to request that its grantees and supported Principal Investigators provide the NIH with electronic copies of all final version manuscripts upon accept From
Open Access News on September 8, 2004 at 6:53 p.m..
More on the NIH OA plan
Danielle Belopotosky,
Online federal library on health research sparks outcry, GovExec.com, September 3, 2004. Excerpt: "A battle over a proposal to make taxpayer-funded medical research reports available to the public is brewing on Capitol Hill, pitting some publishers and members of the scientific and medical communities against each other. 'The issue here is research that has been created with taxpayer money,' said Rick Johnson, director of the Scholarly Publishing and Academic Resources Coalition. The coalition i From
Open Access News on September 8, 2004 at 6:53 p.m..
Another way to search online journals
OJOSE (Online JOurnals Search Engine) is a new academic search engine. It covers a large number of free and priced journals and databases, and even some books. When a search brings up priced content, you will usually see a citation and abstract; clicking for full-text can bring up a pay-per-view offer, the full-text (if you detected to be affiliated with a subscriber) or an error. It links automatically to machine translation and saves your search history for an hour. (Thanks to the
Interne From Open Access News on September 8, 2004 at 6:53 p.m..
Right-to-know video censored
Ted Bridis,
Pentagon Censors 'Right to Know' Video, Associated Press, September 1, 2004. Excerpt: "The Defense Department spent $70,500 to produce a Humphrey Bogart-themed video called The People's Right to Know to teach employees to respond to citizen requests for information. But when it came to showing the tape to the public, the Pentagon censored some of the footage. Officials said they blacked out parts of the training video with the message, 'copyrighted mate From
Open Access News on September 8, 2004 at 6:53 p.m..
Copyright blocks OA to British Library archive
Dominic Dudley,
Public denied online access to British Library's archive, New Media Age, September 2, 2004. Excerpt: "The British Library won't be able to make the Web content that it's collecting for the nation available to the public over the Internet. The Library says copyright laws will stop it providing widespread access and the same fate awaits its archive of printed material, which it's slowly digitising. This problem comes despite the passage of the Legal Deposit Libraries Act last year which gave t From
Open Access News on September 8, 2004 at 6:53 p.m..
Creative Commons comes to Taiwan
Jason Pan,
Taiwan launches knowledge-sharing network, Taiwan News, September 5, 2004. Excerpt: "With the aim of promoting the free flow of ideas and supporting knowledge sharing in the public domain, Taiwan launched a '
Creative Commons' network yesterday, to join 23 other countries already leading the drive in this international movement. Spearheaded by the Institute of Information Science (IIS) at Academia Sinica, supporters of the 'Creative Commons' Taiwa From
Open Access News on September 8, 2004 at 6:53 p.m..
The public interest in open communications networks
Mark Cooper,
The Public Interest in Open Communications Networks, Consumer Federation of America, July 2004. Excerpt: "Unlike most consumer issues, where price is the advocates' central concern, in the matter of communications and the Internet, their primary focus has been on another aspect of market performance: innovation. They view open communications networks as an environment friendly to innovation driven by consumer choice and decentralized decision-making....This Issue Brief summarizes From
Open Access News on September 8, 2004 at 6:52 p.m..
New version of OJS
The University of British Columbia
Public Knowledge Project has released
Open Journal Systems version 1.1.8. OJS is open-source journal management software. The new version supports
LOCKSS, delayed OA (an embargo period that can be set by the article or by the issue), and publishing in French and Spanish (in addition to English and Portuguese). From
Open Access News on September 8, 2004 at 6:52 p.m..
It's the status quo, not OA, that's anomalous and hard to justify
Andy Gass,
Open Access As Public Policy, Public Library of Science, released September 3 in advance of publication September 21 in the October issue of PLoS Biology. Excerpt: "After months of often dizzying rhetoric from virtually all camps, one concrete development has indisputably emerged from the fray: governments around the world have begun to take an interest in the question of who can and can't read the results of the scientific research they fund. 'We are convinced,' concluded a recent report from the Science and Tech From
Open Access News on September 8, 2004 at 6:52 p.m..
More on the NIH OA plan
Susan Morrissey,
NIH Weights Open Access, Chemical and Engineering News, September 6, 2004. Excerpt: "As NIH moves ahead with the formulation of its draft policy to make agency-funded research freely accessible to the public, it held the final two of three meetings designed to give its stakeholders an opportunity to weigh in on the issue. The two meetings, convened last week by NIH Director Elias A. Zerhouni, involved intramural and extramural scientists and public interest groups. A group of publishers and editors participated i From
Open Access News on September 8, 2004 at 6:52 p.m..
More on the NIH OA plan
Rick Weiss,
NIH Proposes Free Access For Public to Research Data, Washington Post, September 6, 2004. Excerpt: "The proposal, posted on the [NIH] Web site late Friday and subject to a 60-day public comment period, would mark a significant departure from current practice, in which the scientific journals that publish those results retain control over that information. Subscriptions to those journals can run into the thousands of dollars. Nonsubscribers wishing to get individual articles must typically pay about $ From
Open Access News on September 8, 2004 at 6:52 p.m..
Open content licenses in for-profit businesses
Roger Clarke,
Open Source Software and Open Content as Models for eBusiness, a refereed paper presented it at the 17th International eCommerce Conference in Bled, Slovenia in June 2004. Excerpt: "The search for viable eBusiness models continues. But important information is being overlooked. Discussions of open source software all too often focus on the limited context of Microsoft appearing to feel threatened by what it portrays as unbusinesslike competition from Linux and OpenOffice.org; whereas that debate is merely on From
Open Access News on September 8, 2004 at 6:52 p.m..
More on OA to government information
The Ohio State Auditor's office is conducting a seminar for public officials from around the state to learn about their obligation to keep meetings and records open to the public. From an
editorial in today's Tribune-Chronicle: "This should be especially useful for elected officials and other government employees who handle public records or conduct public meetings. The gamut of responsibilities are rarely explained adequately to those holding these positions and therefore, through no fault of t From
Open Access News on September 8, 2004 at 6:52 p.m..
P2P sharing of bibliographic data
Jeen Broekstra and seven co-authors,
Bibster - A Semantics-Based Bibliographic Peer-to-Peer System, apparently a preprint. Abstract: "This paper describes the design and implementation of Bibster, a Peer-to-Peer system for exchanging bibliographic data among Computer Science researchers. Bibster exploits ontologies in datastorage, query formulation, query-routing and answer presentation: When bibliographic entries are made available for use in Bibster, they are structured and classified according to two different ontologies. Thi From
Open Access News on September 8, 2004 at 6:52 p.m..
More on the NIH OA plan
Dee Ann Divis,
NIH proposes free research access, United Press International, September 6, 2004. Excerpt: "With two ill children facing blindness and early death from a rare genetic disorder, Sharon Terry needed information -- information her doctor could not provide her. Information on the disease was available, much of it paid for by federal research dollars, but it was out of reach in expensive, specialized medical journals. The journals had become so costly, closely held or difficult to access that the Terrys -- lik From
Open Access News on September 8, 2004 at 6:52 p.m..
Good advice for scientists
Michael Seringhaus,
Scientists, consider where you publish, Yale Daily News, September 8, 2004. Excerpt: "For scientists, publishing a paper in a respected peer-reviewed journal marks the culmination of successful research. But some of the most prestigious and sought-after journals are so costly to access that a growing number of academic libraries can't afford to subscribe. Before submitting your next manuscript, consider a journal's access policy alongside its prestige -- and weigh the implications of publishing in From
Open Access News on September 8, 2004 at 6:52 p.m..
Repository of online courses
Dan Carnevale,
Nonprofit Group Will Build a Repository of Online Course Content, Chronicle of Higher Education, September 8, 2004 (accessible only to subscribers). Excerpt: "A nonprofit education group plans to use a $1.5-million grant to create an online repository to help colleges looking for ready-to-deliver online course content find institutions willing to provide them. The new resource, called the National Repository of Online Courses, will be developed by the Monterey Institute for Technology and Education, in Califo From
Open Access News on September 8, 2004 at 6:52 p.m..
More on the NIH OA plan
Jocelyn Kaiser,
NIH Proposes Public Access to Papers, Science Magazine, September 7, 2004 (accessible only to subscribers). Excerpt: "The National Institutes of Health (NIH) is seeking to calm the fray over whether scientific results should be freely available. On Friday, it released a draft policy aimed at improving public access to the results of NIH-funded research....In July, a congressional spending panel recommended that NIH post NIH-funded manuscripts within 6 months of publication, or immediately if NIH grant From
Open Access News on September 8, 2004 at 6:52 p.m..
New OA journal from NPG and EMBO
The
Nature Publishing Group (NPG) and the
European Molecular Biology Organization (EMBO) are launching an open-access journal, Molecular Systems Biology (no web site yet). From today's press release: "Researchers worldwide will be able to access original research in Molecular Systems Biology without charge. Costs of publication will be met in part by an author charge for each article published. The 'author-pays' model is intended to allow papers to be made available free of charge online, immediately upon From
Open Access News on September 8, 2004 at 6:51 p.m..
More on the NIH OA plan
Geoff Brumfiel,
Biomedical agency floats open-access plan, News@Nature, September 8, 2004 (free registration required). Excerpt: "Comments are invited within 60 days on the [NIH] plan, which broadly complies with some advisory language that was added to the NIH's budget bill by a congressional committee in July. The NIH is expected to decide on the version to be implemented shortly after that....'We are aware of many of the implications of possible changes,' NIH director Elias Zerhouni told a meeting of rep From
Open Access News on September 8, 2004 at 6:51 p.m..
Nature cautions NIH on OA plan
Experiments in publishing, Nature 431, 111 (09 September 2004). (Access restricted to subscribers.) A Nature editorial comments on the magazine's learning experience with its debate on access to the literature as applied to the recent NIH OA plan. They opine: The impact of the NIH plan on the viability of journals and on non-profit learned societies is potentially serious, and questions as to how it might affect the various sorts of journals have been insufficiently From
Open Access News on September 8, 2004 at 6:51 p.m..
Sakai update and introduction
University Business is running a new article on Sakai, which is an update on the project, as well as a good introduction for those new to this open source CMS.... From
MANE IT Network on September 8, 2004 at 6:01 p.m..
Groove, Basecamp, and Intranets.com
Collaboration for the Masses By Cade Metz (PC Magazine, August 10, 2004) takes a look at three collaboration tools suitable for use by small and mid-sized businesses, or smaller groups within larger enterprises. Groove Virtual Office, version 3.0 of Groove Networks' groundbreaking collaboration... From
Kolabora.com on September 8, 2004 at 5:57 p.m..
Talking heads are catching on as Web meetings take off
According to the article, Talking heads are catching on as Web meetings take off By Barbara De Lollis, (USA TODAY, Sept 7, 2004), voice, video, and data conferencing are replacing travel to some extent, but perhaps not as much as anticipated shortly after the events of Sept. 11th. ' "What 9/11 rea... From
Kolabora.com on September 8, 2004 at 5:57 p.m..
Steve Jobs back at Apple
After cancer surgery, the chief executive hits meetings, with plans to return to full-time work later this month. From
CNET News.com on September 8, 2004 at 5:45 p.m..
Exploring the Use of Blogs as Learning Spaces in the Higher Education Sector
The authors write that "the chief purpose of this paper is to comment, critically, on the potential for blogs as 'learning spaces' for students within the higher education sector," which it does with an examination of how blogs have been used at Harvard Law School and Queensland University of Technology. Some interesting bits, including some reflection on the dearth of refereed literature about blogging (the edu-bloggers tending to put the work in their blogs instead, where it is subject to a rather more vigorous screening). "The fact of the matter is that blogging, for all intents a From
OLDaily on September 8, 2004 at 5:45 p.m..
Mr. Minister, Please Protect The Public Interest
Like many
European nations, Canada is under pressure to ratify the new and sterner provisions of the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) regulations. As Michael Geist writes, "U.S. broadcasters and the MPAA have actively lobbied for the creation of the World Intellectual Property Organization's Treaty for the Protection of Broadcasting Organizations. This treaty would grant broadcasters increased powers over who may control, transmit, or record broadcast signals. The U.S. would even like to extend this power From
OLDaily on September 8, 2004 at 5:45 p.m..
A GMail-based Blog With 1000 MB of Entries
Some of the most entertaining work on the internet these days is being done around Google's new GMail service. Give people a gigabyte of storage and an application interface and who knows what you can do! One person has turned his email account into a
file server. Another person has turned his email account into
blog authoring software. This discussion on Slashdot raises the question: does Google mind? Hard to say. But it's also hard t From
OLDaily on September 8, 2004 at 5:45 p.m..
Modified Preorder Tree Traversal
Luc Belliveau, who works with us as a resident computer wizard, showed me this today. It's the neatest thing - a simple way to generate a list of the parent branches in a tree from XML data stored in a normal database. Very useful when messing around with self-built XML parsers. By Gijs Van Tulder, SitePoint, April 30, 2003 [
Refer][
Research][
OLDaily on September 8, 2004 at 5:45 p.m..
Reusable Media... Redux
I've had some email from readers expressing concern - quite naturally - about the size of the MP3 version of my talk in Utah. After all, it's 64.5 mb, about 30 minutes to download (if you're lucky). What I would like are some suggestions. I have a Linux based web server, but no streaming media server and no money to buy one (not that I would want to anyway). I thought the MP3 would stream anyway, but apparently not (it did in my Real Media client, but the Real client expired - expired! - during my flight Tuesday, so I'm not going to recommend it to anyone). Especiall From
OLDaily on September 8, 2004 at 5:45 p.m..
Australia Bound
It has taken a lot of planning by many people, but next Monday I will jump on to an airplane and fly around the world. On the way, I will stop for a month in Australia, visiting (in order) Canberra, Brisbane, Cairns, Darwin, Alice Springs, Adelaide, Hobart, Sydney and Perth. I will be giving public talks in most of those locations. This link describes the talks I will be giving and some additional details about my trip. If you are living in Australia (and a great many OLDaily readers are) then I hope to be able to see you en route. By Stephen Downes, Stephen's Web, September 8, 20 From
OLDaily on September 8, 2004 at 5:45 p.m..
High-tech feng shui
After stumbling in its efforts to diversify, Lenovo is returning to its core PC business, its chairman tells Wharton. From
CNET News.com on September 8, 2004 at 4:45 p.m..
ICT and e-learning in Further Education: embedded technology, evolving practice
"This is the full report of the 2004 ILT Survey. This study was carried out in January and February 2004 on behalf of the Learning and Skills Council. The survey seeks to assess progress in the provision of information and learning technology within the sector along with the extent to which this provision is integrated into the teaching and learning process." FERL, 25 August 2004 ICT and e-learning in Further Education: embedded technology, evolving practice Available as a Word document to view or download Listed on e-Learning in Further and Higher Education... From
What's New at the e-Learning Centre on September 8, 2004 at 4:06 p.m..
Synapse SE
[1] Synapse SE ASP/Hosted Learning Management System "Synapse SE delivers a "Top 5" LMS that can be easily deployed under a ASP/hosted model over one of the most scalable infrastructures in the world." Flexible hosting arrangements offered Listed on Corporate training/learning management systems [2] Synapse SE Custom Courseware Development "Through our industry partnerships, Synapse SE has access to a full staff of instructional designers giving us the capability of developing custom course content for organizations on a wide range of topics, from Healthcare to Software, from Cross Selling to From
What's New at the e-Learning Centre on September 8, 2004 at 4:05 p.m..
Executive Coaching Studio
"Executive Coaching Mentoring & In-House Training Across The UK, USA, CANADA & THE MIDDLE EAST" Executive Coaching Studio "The Executive Coaching Studio was founded by leading International Coach Sean McPheat" Listed on Coaching and mentoring services... From
What's New at the e-Learning Centre on September 8, 2004 at 4:05 p.m..
The Literary Machine
"The Literary Machine is a revolutionary relational database and composition tool that manages any kind of information, even the random thoughts and bits of information you get, and forget, throughout the day. LM's unique system unharnesses you (and your thinking) from the rigid framework of conventional databases" The Literary Machine "Creativity is not "connecting the dots" with a graphic program that weaves a web among them all over your computer screen. Creativity is seeing which dots are connected. In groundbreaking, ingenious ways, LM helps you do that." Listed on Other useful e-lea From
What's New at the e-Learning Centre on September 8, 2004 at 4:05 p.m..
Everything you wanted to know about blogging but were afraid to ask
"There are plenty of good guides to blogging and I was going to add my $0.02 to the pile. It's the thing to do once your blog reaches a certain age, and I figure turning one is about the right time. However I'm going to break with blogosphere tradition of jumping on the bandwagon and instead present a collection of various appropriate links at the end of this post. What I am going to share with you is all the things they don't tell you about in blogging school. " Simon World, 27 August 2004 Everything you wanted to know... From
What's New at the e-Learning Centre on September 8, 2004 at 4:05 p.m..
2 simulator tools
2 simulator tools from Upstart Raising GMAT Simulator "This GMAT Preparation Simulator includes quantitative, verbal, and AWA sections with realistic sample questions and the new question types. Remote instructors and distance learners can review completed sessions simultaneously from different locations." A free demo is available. Listed on e-learning content of an academic nature Patent Bar Simulator "This online reproduction of the USPTO's computer-delivered registration exam includes actual test questions and answers from nine previous exams. Remote instrutors & distance learners can From
What's New at the e-Learning Centre on September 8, 2004 at 4:05 p.m..
2 tools for schools
Student Parliament "An innovative citizenship tool to give your students a voice by linking them to a polling system where opinions contend for support." "A small school registration fee applies. This fee entitles all students in your school voting access for 12 months from the date you register." School Poll Manager "A school or college based polling system that allows a school to sample opinion, conduct online elections and develop curriculum responses to enrich the curriculum and promote active citizenship." An annual access fee applies. Listed on Tools for schools... From
What's New at the e-Learning Centre on September 8, 2004 at 4:05 p.m..
Un nou sondaj la Timsoft
Pe site-ul Timsoft, ale carui structura si design au fost modificate, a fost publicat un nou sondaj, la care va invitam sa raspundeti. Sugestii pentru imbunatatirea continutului site-ului ... From
WeBlog.ro feeds on September 8, 2004 at 4:05 p.m..
Visual Paradigm for UML
"Vis... Paradigm for UML (VP-UML) is a powerful, cross-platform and yet the most easy-to-use visual UML modeling and CASE tool. VP-UML provides software developers the cutting edge development ... From
WeBlog.ro feeds on September 8, 2004 at 4:05 p.m..
Doua weblog-uri noi la Blogroll/romanian
Am adaugat astazi doua weblog-uri la sectiunea Blogroll/romanian - sunt acum 350 de weblog-uri pe care le citesc. ... este RealK: autorul, Dragos Bucurenci, si-a publicat insemnarile ... From
WeBlog.ro feeds on September 8, 2004 at 4:05 p.m..
E-Learning Framework
E-Learning Framework este un proiect comun JISC, DEST, Carnegie Mellon Learning Services Architecture Lab, care propune un set de componente/servi... pentru sisteme de eLearning, cu ajutorul ... From
WeBlog.ro feeds on September 8, 2004 at 4:04 p.m..
O noua serie de cursuri online la Timsoft
La Timsoft va incepe saptamana viitoare o noua serie de Cursuri online, la care se mai pot face inscrieri. Pretul normal al unui curs este echivalentul in lei a 75 USD - in mod special, ... From
WeBlog.ro feeds on September 8, 2004 at 4:04 p.m..
DEX online
Un proiect magnific: DEX online S-a terminat de introdus dicţionarul explicativ al limbii romne (DEX 98). De asemenea, mai sunt disponibile urmatoarele dictionare: Dicţionarul ... From
WeBlog.ro feeds on September 8, 2004 at 4:04 p.m..
Underground movies
I'm disappointed that I missed
catching a flick in a secret cinema/restaurant below the streets of Paris. Police discovered the theater--complete with electricity, CCTV security, and phone lines--within an uncharted cavern in the city's 170 miles of tunnels and caves. According to The Guardian, a full-size screen and projector had been installed and police found "a wide variety of films, including 1950s film noir classics and more recent thrillers." A stocked bar and "pressure-cooker for making couscous From
unmediated on September 8, 2004 at 4:01 p.m..
Nokia, Six Apart make Lifeblog a genuine blog
Finnish mobile handset manufacturer Nokia and US-based blogging software firm Six Apart have announced that they are collaborating to create a new blogging experience for people who want to share their lives online as they happen. Blogging host TypePad's new set of media features have been designed by Six Apart and Nokia to enable blogging both with mobile phone and PC. "[With] the collaboration with Six Apart, users will be able to upload multimedia like photos, videos, text messages, and multimedia messages to their TypePad account," said Christian Lindholm, dir From
unmediated on September 8, 2004 at 4:01 p.m..
qtvr to dv
QTVR recorder is a shareware application for OS X that takes a QTVR panorama and then lets you export it to DV for editing in your video program. What would be really nifty would be to go the other way, though I guess if you took a 360° pan you could slice that up pretty easily to make a pano.... From
unmediated on September 8, 2004 at 4:00 p.m..
Special Grab Bag: Webfeeds, Webfeeds…
I was just looking over the contentious-to-do topic in my Furl archive, and noticed that several of the items there are about webfeeds in one way or another. So I decided to throw them together into a special grab bag. TOP OF THE LIST: RSS: Real advantage for marketing and PR, by Neville Hobson, Aug. 16. It seems I'm not the only person who's talking about how businesses are really missing the boat with regard to webfeeds. This article addresses how businesses could be leveraging both weblogs and webfeeds to their advantage right now. On webfeeds, Hobson writes, "The new reality is From
Contentious Weblog on September 8, 2004 at 4:00 p.m..
Click, Click, Click, Go the Web Users
You may have noticed that Poynter has released the
Eyetrack III study of Web-user behavior. (I was one of the project managers.) You can read the study yourself, and I hope you will, but here's a "tidbit" worth pulling out. I found it fascinating to realize how often people when viewing news websites click as they move around a page. A tiny minority of people click randomly around a page -- not just on active links, but all over the place. That's just curious. Of more importance, a larger minority of people routinely click on ph From
Poynter E-Media Tidbits on September 8, 2004 at 3:59 p.m..
The Serious News Blogger
As long as blogs have been around (yeah, that's not that long), we've heard complaints that they're mostly feeding off the "real reporters," just commenting on their work. Of course, that's still the case for many thousands of blogs, but now "real reporters" are writing blogs and providing original reporting. A great example is
Campaign Extra, by Philadelphia Daily News senior writer
Will Bunch. Rather than saving the good stuff for the print edition, Bunch From
Poynter E-Media Tidbits on September 8, 2004 at 3:59 p.m..
Study: Traffic costs billions of hours a year
Study: Traffic costs billions of hours a year Small, mid-size cities not immune to problem (USA Today, September 7, 2004). 'WASHINGTON (AP) -- Los Angeles for years has had the nation's worst traffic jams, but these days even the streets and highways in small and medium cities from Brownsville... From
Kolabora.com on September 8, 2004 at 3:59 p.m..
Brief der Nobelpreisträger für Open Access
http://www.welt.de/data/2004/09/03/327429.html Die Ergebnisse wissenschaftlicher Forschung, die mit staatlichen Geldern gefördert wurden, müssen der Öffentlichkeit frei zugänglich gemacht werden. Mit dieser Forderung haben sich jetzt 25 Nobelpreisträger in einem < a href="https://mx2.arl.org/Lists/SPARC-OAForum/Message/991.html">offenen Brief an den US-Kongress gewandt. "Wissenschaft ist das Maß für den Fortschritt der Menschheit", heißt es in dem Brief. Nach Ansicht der From
Archivalia on September 8, 2004 at 3:57 p.m..
US: Presidential Papers
Cornell Law Review, March 2003 v88 i3 p651(82) Presidential papers and popular government: the convergence of constitutional and property theory in claims of ownership and control of presidential records. Jonathan Turley. INTRODUCTION I. A QUESTION OF OWNERSHIP: HISTORICAL EVOLUTION OF PRESIDENTIAL PAPERS FROM PERSONAL TO PUBLIC PROPERTY A. The Historical Assertion and Consequences of Personal Ownership of Presidential Papers B. The Presidential Records Act and the Assertion of Pu From
Archivalia on September 8, 2004 at 3:56 p.m..
Spenden für Weimar
http://www.anna-amalia-bibliothek.de/spende.html Dürfte ein Archiv auf seiner Homepage den Spendenaufruf für die Anna-Amalia-Bibliothek in Weimar, die bei einem Brand schwer beschädigt wurde, einstellen? Ein Archiv darf auch im Internet immer nur im Rahmen seiner Aufgabenwahrnehmung tätig werden. Zur Aufgabenwahrnehmung gehört die Öffentlichkeitsarbeit insbesondere im Bereich Bestandserhaltung. Es ist anerkannt, dass Archive und Bibliotheken auf dem Feld der Bestandserhaltung From
Archivalia on September 8, 2004 at 3:56 p.m..
Technischer Fehler
Ich habe keine Ahnung, warum manchmal Einträge nur in der Kategorie und im RSS-Feed (rechte Seite!) angezeigt werden, obwohl beim Anlegen angeklickt wurde, dass sie auch auf der Startseite zu sehen sein sollen. Ich bitte jedenfalls um Entschuldigung und gebe regelmässigen Lesern den Tipp, immer auch rechts unter "RECENTLY MODIFIED" zu schauen. From
Archivalia on September 8, 2004 at 3:56 p.m..
Spenden für Weimar
http://www.anna-amalia-bibliothek.de/spende.html Dürfte ein Archiv auf seiner Homepage den Spendenaufruf für die Anna-Amalia-Bibliothek in Weimar, die bei einem Brand schwer beschädigt wurde, einstellen? Ein Archiv darf auch im Internet immer nur im Rahmen seiner Aufgabenwahrnehmung tätig werden. Zur Aufgabenwahrnehmung gehört die Öffentlichkeitsarbeit insbesondere im Bereich Bestandserhaltung. Es ist anerkannt, dass Archive und Bibliotheken auf dem Feld der Bestandserhaltung From
Archivalia on September 8, 2004 at 3:56 p.m..
Christian Lindholm:Lifeblog will blog to TypePad using Atom API!?! - Lifeblog should support MetaWeblog API
I love Atom and what they are doing but I don't think the Atom API is ready for prime time and mass deployment. How many tools support it? And how often will it change? As far as I know, for example, Google just changed their Atom API implementation for Blogger. Atom, the RSS replacement, is much more mature than Atom, the API. IMHO, Lifeblog should support the MetaWeblogAPI (with MovableType extensions) as well as the Atom API. I have no problem having cool new features being only in Atom moving forward, but there should be baseline support for all critical feature From
Roland Tanglao's Weblog on September 8, 2004 at 3:55 p.m..
(re) Descubriendo blogs
16-bits - Un weblog sobre tecnología y diseño Allò que val és la consciència... Amoxcalli Blog - de los códices al blog, una biblioteca es mi boleto para viajar... pienso dar una vuelta al mundo y ¿quién sabe? tal vez... From
eCuaderno v.2.0 on September 8, 2004 at 3:54 p.m..
Lehrer als Berater
Wikis, Informelles Lernen, e-Learning, Weblogs - es ist sicher manchmal etwas mühselig, meinen Lektüre- und Gedankensprüngen zu folgen: Und jetzt auch noch SOL, Selbstorganisiertes Lernen! Aber, zu meiner Verteidigung, der Artikel beschreibt sehr anschaulich die Erfahrungen einer Modell-Schule für SOL... From
www.weiterbildungsblog.de on September 8, 2004 at 3:53 p.m..
Medienkompetenzportal NRW
Zentrale Anlaufstelle für Informationen rund um das Thema "Medienkompetenz in NRW". Der Medienpädagogische Atlas ist eine Online-Datenbank mit Einrichtungen, Initiativen, Schulen, Gruppen und Vereinen, die in Nordrhein-Westfalen medienpädagogisch arbeiten, die anderen Datenbanken informieren über über Institutionen, Medienkompetenz-Projekte, Netzwerke und öffentliche Internetzugänge in NRW.
http://www.medienkompetenz-portal-nrw.de [via
--> From BildungsBlog on September 8, 2004 at 3:53 p.m..
Hamburg spart...
...an den Geisteswissenschaften, und das außerordentlich, meldet die
Süddeutsche. Die Dekane der vier betroffenen Fachbereiche sprechen in einer internen Stellungnahme von einer ??Zerschlagung der Geisteswissenschaften". Hamburg würde zu einer unbedeutenden Provinzuniversität herabgestuft - "eine bildungs- und gesellschaftliche Bankrotterklärung". Land der Dichter und Denker. via
--> From BildungsBlog on September 8, 2004 at 3:53 p.m..
Informelles Lernen
Jochen Robes schreibt
bei Wissenskapital.de: Unser gewohntes Bild von Bildung und Lernen ist in Bewegung. Fast täglich wird die Notwendigkeit des lebenslanges Lernens unterstrichen. Klar ist aber auch, dass wir nicht zu Dauerbesuchern von Seminaren und Konferenzen werden können. Neue Lernformen sind gefragt, die wir selbst steuern können und die schnell, flexibel und problemorientiert Antworten liefern. Dabei geraten informell From
BildungsBlog on September 8, 2004 at 3:52 p.m..
Pleasure Boat Captains for Truth
The name says it all...which is good because I'm at a conference and haven't actually browsed through the site. (Thanks to Judy Clark for the link.)... From
Joho the Blog on September 8, 2004 at 3:49 p.m..
Board hears online education
There is, for the Eden Prairie School District, a tollbooth on the information superhighway. But net losses of state aid for students who opt for online learning can be made up, if Eden Prairie offers more courses through the new Northern Star Online From
Educational Technology on September 8, 2004 at 2:51 p.m..
eLearning Clearinghouse - White House
President Bush proposed creating a clearinghouse of online learning opportunities available to students and adults. Today there is no single place where students, parents, and adults can search and compare available online courses. Under the President' From
Online Learning Update on September 8, 2004 at 2:51 p.m..
Whozzat?
Please don't tell me that we got the identity wrong of a person named Izzat Ibrahim al-Douri. Do you know what this means? Puns have supplanted irony as the chief law of the universe. At least it can't get much worse.... From
Joho the Blog on September 8, 2004 at 2:49 p.m..
Email address encoder
From Dan Gillmor comes a link to Enkoder, a site that creates JavaScript you can put on your Web page that will display a link to your email address in a way that spam harvesters can't find it. If it works, you should see the phrase "My email address" expressed as a link here: ...We interrupt this blog entry and remove the script that was here because, although the script worked, it also made my RSS un-parsable. Ack. (Thanks, geodog, for letting me know.)... From
Joho the Blog on September 8, 2004 at 2:49 p.m..
The space of innovation
Interesting discussion at slashdot about a blog system written on top of Google Gmail. Is it permitted? Is it frivolous? Is it in Google's interest? These are all fair questions, but the main point I think is: Open up a capability and people will do the unexpected with it.... From
Joho the Blog on September 8, 2004 at 2:49 p.m..
Dewayne on the Gigabit Initiative
Today at the Berkman Center, Dewayne Hendricks of the Dandin Group led a 1.5 hr presentation/discussion of California's Gigabit or Bust Initiative and the general state of massive wifi connectedness. Dewayne has been setting up large (really large) wireless networks in Tonga and Mongolia where the regulatory environment is - let's say - looser than here in the US. Thus, he can put technologies to the test that are caught in political bear traps in this country. Fascinating. The gigabit initiative intends to deliver 1 gigabit access to all Californians by 2010. Dewayne is convinced th From
Joho the Blog on September 8, 2004 at 2:49 p.m..
Dan Bricklin on accidents
Dan has written a thoughtful essay that tries to help us learn from accidents and extreme, intentional accidents (= terrorism). He looks at Charles Perrow's Normal Accidents and the 9/11 Commission Report (which he has excerpted helpfully here). Dan draws too many insights to summarize, but the need for providing flexible, two-way communication systems so that non-officials can act effectively leaps out at me. (By coincidence, Dewayne Hendricks today talked about how a couple of strategically positioned repeaters were able to provide a forest fire command center with wifi communications a From
cogdogblog on September 8, 2004 at 2:49 p.m..
Speech Synthesis Markup Language Is a W3C Recommendation
2004-09-08: The World Wide Web Consortium today released the Speech Synthesis Markup Language (SSML) Version 1.0 as a W3C Recommendation. With the XML-based SSML language, content authors can generate synthetic speech on the Web, controlling pronunciation, volume, pitch and rate. "SSML builds on the work of the pioneers in speech synthesis to provide application developers with a powerful and flexible means to deliver a high quality mix of synthetic and pre-recorded speech as part of interactive voice response services," said Dave Raggett (W3C/Canon). Read the press release, testimonials and i From
World Wide Web Consortium on September 8, 2004 at 2:47 p.m..
The Real Estate Game
Some of you have purchased homes before, so you know a bit about how the process works: Mortgage Approval, Appraisals, Surveys, Title Searches, Purchase Agreements, Stipulation Sheets, Closing, Whining, Bickering, Signing 1,000,000 pages, Moving, blah blah blah... Even though it's a scary thought when you first start, and you've probably heard enough horror stories to not want to go through the process, it's really not that bad. It's actually pretty easy if you take a little time and learn about it. It makes more sense than most college curricula, and it doesn't take From
kuro5hin.org on September 8, 2004 at 2:46 p.m..
Liberated Games
Liberated Games is a new project that offers
downloadable versions (some with source code) of commercial video games that are several years old. The creators of the games have given their permission for the free downloads and offer them under
a variety of licenses. Technology moves quickly these days, making software, books, and information outdated within just a few years after release. It's great to see th From
Creative Commons: weblog on September 8, 2004 at 2:45 p.m..
Our updated Search
We've had our own
beta search engine for the past
six months, but it was mostly a proof of concept, to see if we could build a search engine that recorded the semantics of web page metadata. Like any proof of concept launched to the public, it was slow, frequently returned zero results, and was difficult to keep up to date. A few months back, the guys behind the open source search engine project
Nutch contacted us and they helped us develop a n From
Creative Commons: weblog on September 8, 2004 at 2:45 p.m..
Jesus Rocks
Three Taiwan Golden Melody Award winners, including a famous singer and composer, Yue-hsin Chu, and a group of enthusiastic young Christian musicians have come up with what they call their first native gospel album -- JESUS ROCKS. JESUS ROCKS is the first Asian album using a Creative Commons license (
Attribution-Noncommercial-ShareAlike Taiwan). The cover text reads: "JESUS ROCKS represents the sprit of reciprocal sharing. It also conveys the charity of Jesus Christ in English, Mandarin and dialects of Mandar From
Creative Commons: weblog on September 8, 2004 at 2:45 p.m..
Internetportaal Mediaevum.de
http://www.mediaevum.de/haupt2.htm Een fraai vormgegeven collectie met verwijzingen voor mediëvisten: http://www.mediaevum.de/haupt2.htm. Adressen, instituten, onderzoeksdatabase, vacatures, woordenboeken, tijdschriften met online archieven, encyclopedieën, handschriften, ... Te veel om op te noemen. From
CHI weblog elektronisch publiceren on September 8, 2004 at 8:38 a.m..
Interfaces for Staying in the Flow
http://www.acm.org/ubiquity/views/v5i27_bederson.html Een aardig artikel in het ACM tijdschrift en forum Ubiquity: Interfaces for Staying in the Flow. Bederson onderzoekt in zijn artikel hoe de interfaces van computerprogramma's het gevoel van 'flow' kunnen bevorderen. 'Flow' is een geestestoestand die kan ontstaan bij activiteiten met de volgende kenmerken: * ze zijn uitdagend en doen een beroep op je vaardigheden, * ze worden geconcentreerd en zonder onderbreking uitgevoerd, * de uitvoerder beheerst het proces, * er is sprake van directe feedback op fouten. Psychol From
CHI weblog elektronisch publiceren on September 8, 2004 at 8:38 a.m..
Did I Do That?
Update: Gideon’s post has been changed somewhat. It now reads, “Shorewalker, backed up by Michael Feldstein’s support in e-literate, dismisses Knowledge Management with a “Bah!” and the wave of a hand.” That’s somewhat more accurate, but it wasn’t Shorewalker’s dismissal of KM that I was “backing up”; rather, it was… From
e-Literate on September 8, 2004 at 8:37 a.m..
Early film, audio at LOC
The Library of Congress offers a rich trove of early film, sound, and photographic images at their Inventing Entertainment site. The collections in the Library of Congress's Motion Picture, Broadcasting and Recorded Sound Division contain an extraordinary range of the... From
MANE IT Network on September 8, 2004 at 8:36 a.m..
Spyware and SP2
Spyware is one of the targets of the security enhancements in Windows XP Service Pack 2 (SP2), and the spyware may be inadvertently fighting back. Microsoft's long-discussed SP2 is now slowly rolling out to users. Due to the massive 80MB... From
Indiana IT on September 8, 2004 at 8:34 a.m..
Wearable TV, The First Generation
I've seen the future and it is now! Well, not exactly. Behold the first generation wrist watch television. The
VTV-101 with battery pack from NHJ about $200US. Of course, it's not what it looks like. The headphones (included) act as the antenna. It has no WiFi, so it is only useful for watching over-the-air broadcast television. But, you kn From
unmediated on September 8, 2004 at 8:34 a.m..
Wikipedia heals in 5 minutes
IBM History Flow visualization of the "Islam" article on Wikipedia. I think the gaps are where the page has been erased and restored. See the
IBM History Flow page for more details and examples. I think this has been mentioned in the press already, but I confirmed with Jimmy Wales that a study don From
unmediated on September 8, 2004 at 8:34 a.m..
Doctors Blog to Correct Media "Distortions"
The Nashua Telegraph
reports doctors and other health care professionals are blogging to vent their frustrations, summarize key points in new studies, or correct distortions that find their way into the popular media. From
unmediated on September 8, 2004 at 8:33 a.m..
TV's Audience of One
(reg. req.): A long story in LAT
about the changing landscape of TV, post DVRs and Tivo... "Mass media doesn't exist anymore," says Paul Saffo, a director at the Institute for the Future. "Instead we have personal media. Increasingly, people fill their information space with only what they want to see -- things that reinforce their worldview. Take away channel surfing, and you never have to see anything that you don't choose to see." From
unmediated on September 8, 2004 at 8:33 a.m..
U.S. Government Manual
This website offers tons of information on the Executive, Legislative and Judicial branches, as well as government agencies and organizations. Browsing and keyword access is offered, from 1997 to current. From
Minneapolis Public Library - the LIST on September 8, 2004 at 8:33 a.m..
Grants.gov
The Grants.gov website provides a centralized, online process for organizations to locate and apply for over 900 grant programs from Federal agencies. From
Minneapolis Public Library - the LIST on September 8, 2004 at 8:33 a.m..
What’s a “Meme,” Really?
Lately I've been reading a lot, and writing some, about memes. It's an interesting concept, but I'm a bit discomforted by the way that many writers seem to accept memes as a fact, rather than as a useful analogy. This worries me. When analogies get taken too literally they tend to get pushed too far – at which point they fall apart. This can appear to discredit or devalue the usefulness of the entire analogy. I don't want that to happen with the "meme" analogy – I think it's too potentially useful to people who care about communication. Therefore, I want t From
Contentious Weblog on September 8, 2004 at 8:33 a.m..
Wait... they are not dead yet...
Could this be so....get the paddles....clear...bam...there is a heart rate. Floppy has not flatlined, an era has not ended...Praise those Matsushita engineers. PCWorld.com - Will the Floppy Disk Find New Life?... From
Teaching and Developing Online. on September 8, 2004 at 8:33 a.m..
Take Your Cell Phone to Church
Churchgoers don't carry loose change in their pockets anymore, and therefore the church collection plate is not the "business" it used to be, Denmark's MetroXpress reports. Churches have considered ATM-like machines, but find this too aggressive. The solution? Well, a number of Danish church groups are now trying to set up a joint
SMS-system that will work for 20 different organizations. From
Poynter E-Media Tidbits on September 8, 2004 at 8:33 a.m..
Press 8 to E-mail Your Interviews
The Discount mobile-phone company
CBB Mobil now offers customers the opportunity to record all of their conversations. Customers dial a specific number and simply press 8 to start recording. Afterward, their conversation is sent as an attachment to an e-mail,
according to Comon (which quotes tabloid
B.T.). A mobile phone may, of course, be used to conduct normal interviews with the people you call, but also works well as a simple microphone, when interviewing p From
Poynter E-Media Tidbits on September 8, 2004 at 8:33 a.m..
Frances: The Views From Under, and From Afar
How did news websites fare in covering Hurricane Frances' rip through Florida this weekend? Some of my colleagues at
Poynter in St. Petersburg, who experienced the storm first-hand, reported that online media did a great job in providing them with the information they needed to survive the storm. But
Rich Gordon, who writes for this weblog and lives near Chicago, says he spent time this weekend looking at all sorts of websites (Florida news sites as well as national weat From
Poynter E-Media Tidbits on September 8, 2004 at 8:33 a.m..
Why Physical Media Still Costs More
Visiting my local Blockbuster video store recently, I was hit up for a subscription offer: unlimited movies (up to three out at a time) for $24.99 a month, with the first month at $14.99. To get the movies, I'd have to drive to the store (polluting the air and costing me money and time). Alternatively, I can still do business with Blockbuster by buying into its
online/mail subscription service (a competitor to
Poynter E-Media Tidbits on September 8, 2004 at 8:33 a.m..
24 Hours, One Advertiser
Online advertising is steadily maturing, of course, and here's another indicator.
Reuters.com reports on receiving its first-ever 24-hour full site takeover by Honda, for a campaign to introduce the 2005 Honda Odyssey minivan on September 22. A Reuters spokesman says it is believed to be the first time a major advertiser has executed a 24-hour full site run -- blocking out all other sponsors -- on a large, mainstream website as part of an online media campaign. (I can't confirm that for sure, but I'm not aware of another.) The buy is also cro From
Poynter E-Media Tidbits on September 8, 2004 at 8:33 a.m..
Couch-Potato Nirvana
I'm no couch potato, but I do love -- yes, love -- my
TiVo; it ensures there's always something I want to watch available, and that I never have to watch a commercial. So I'm definitely excited that TiVo is hooking up with
Netflix, the DVD-by-mail subscription service, to offer downloads of movies to TiVo units, according to
this Newsweek report. First, Netflix (and now competitors like
Blockbust From Poynter E-Media Tidbits on September 8, 2004 at 8:33 a.m..
Paul Graham on Essays
Via
Slashdot:
Paul Graham, computer programmer, author, and inventor of the
Yahoo! Store, has written
an essay on the current state of the essay. While I don't entirely agree with all of his points, there are some interesting comments at the end about the influence of technology on writing, and some of the comments in the Slashdot thread ar From
The Electric Lyceum on September 8, 2004 at 8:32 a.m..
Shared Spaces Briefing, Sep 8
Today's highlights: Macromedia Breeze Live Pricing; Interwoven TeamSite Linux Edition; BlackBerry for Series 80; CoCreate OneSpace.net 2005; Macromedia is introducing a pay-as-you-go pricing scheme for its Breeze Live web conferencing service. Its intention is to penetrate the small and medium... From
Kolabora.com on September 8, 2004 at 8:32 a.m..
The Next Revolution
"The next revolution is to truly integrate these disparate kinds of technology. I like to think of it as putting the file cabinet next to the water cooler. So you're communicating--emailing, chatting, maybe authoring documents as well, but all in... From
Kolabora.com on September 8, 2004 at 8:32 a.m..
Adware - Are Downloads Safe?
Years ago developers saw they could monetize freeware that was becoming expensive to host. Developers began working with Ad Networks such as the former Aureate and Conducent, who imbedded advertisements in the software. The software in many cases phoned home retrieving ads. In other cases adverts were imbedded directly into the download only being removed when the software was registered. Many well known software companies, including Netscape distributed ad supported versions, which allowed users to use the software for free. Developers were compensated either by install or the number of ads s From
Software Marketing Articles and Marketing Tips on September 8, 2004 at 8:31 a.m..
Orientation reminder
Just a reminder that we will have an orientation for new students (and any returning veterans) on Friday, September 10, in the College of Education at 7:00 pm. All members of our grad program are welcome, and we'd like you... From
Rick's Café Canadien on September 8, 2004 at 8:31 a.m..
7610/Series 60 Post to blog app baby steps
How about doing the following now (Lazy Web and
Andy and whoever wants to participate): Write a Python or Java app that does the following 1. Prompts for a title 2. For each image in the default camera image folder, it uploads them to
Flickr using their
photo upload API Pretty simple and pretty dumb but I've learned that if you can't do the simple stuff, you are "stuffed". So if anybody wants to code this for me :-) From
Roland Tanglao's Weblog on September 8, 2004 at 8:29 a.m..
Nueva cocina latina
Acabo de descubrir que el prestigioso chef venezolano Sumito Estévez, que conduce el programa Nueva cocina latina (una delicia) en el Canal Cocina, mantiene el Sumito Estévez's Weblog. A los gourmets de la blogosfera les recomiendo FoodBloggers - The intersection... From
eCuaderno v.2.0 on September 8, 2004 at 8:28 a.m..
Weblogs: Manager spüren das Tagebuchfieber
Nachdem das "Educational Blogging" (Stephen Downes) vor einigen Tagen hier Thema war, heute der Hinweis auf einen Artikel über das "Corporate Blogging": es geht um IT-Unternehmen (u.a. Dell, Macromedia, IBM, SAP), die Blogs als Kommunikationsmedium für sich entdeckt haben und... From
www.weiterbildungsblog.de on September 8, 2004 at 8:27 a.m..
VoIP's Point Man - David M. Ewalt, Forbes
Michael Powell may be the best friend an up-and-coming communications system ever had. The Federal Communications Commission chairman has been a staunch supporter of voice over IP--technology that sends phone calls over the Internet--and is pushing har From
Techno-News Blog on September 8, 2004 at 8:26 a.m..
Wikis Anonymous (Ross Mayfield)
Brian Lamb has a great article on wikis in academia in EDUCAUSE Review. I didn’t interview for the piece (would have shared how academic communities in Stanford [our very first customer], Berkeley, USC and others are using Socialtext with our... From
Corante: Social Software on September 8, 2004 at 8:26 a.m..
Personal Media Soon To Replace Mass Media
"Mass media doesn't exist anymore," says Paul Saffo, a director at the Institute for the Future in Menlo Park, Calif. "Instead we have personal media. Increasingly, people fill their information space with only what they want to see — things... From
Robin Good's Latest News on September 8, 2004 at 8:25 a.m..
To the Coast and Back
Ahh, and end to the lack of blog labor for
an extended Labor Day weekend in San Diego. Over there, the refer to us invaders from the east as "Zonies. Some highlights included:
Excellent Mexican food at a little place in Blythe, CA (we drove out the LA way to visit family south of Riverside) called La Plamosa Cafe- off the beaten track of the fast food exit stops, good home made tortillas and a carne asada taco that was heavenly. Not such a highlight was all the traffic non sto From cogdogblog on September 8, 2004 at 8:24 a.m..
The Next (and Last?) Great MLX Package Race
For the last two years we have tried a myriad of methods for soliciting people in our system to contribute their teaching ideas, class activities, course materials, heck even "learning objects" to our
Maricopa Learning eXchange (MLX) (see more about our
incentive methods) Even getting closer to the 1000 item mark, I know for sure we are just scraping the surface of what is "out there". I get anecdotes, faculty letting me know that their adjuncts are making r From
cogdogblog on September 8, 2004 at 8:24 a.m..
Reusable Ideas, not Objects: Pop Culture Bingo
More on the MLX front. An item that came in recently got me thinking more so about the value of reusable ideas- sure it is great to have some complex, engaging Flash animated do-hickey, but what great teachers have in great volume, and worth sharing, are smaller gems of great re-usable teaching ideas. So take a spin to the MLX and look up
Pop Culture Bingo created by Analicia Buentello (Estrella Mountain Community College). I like to start the first day of class with an icebreaker for students to From
cogdogblog on September 8, 2004 at 8:24 a.m..
Spammers Never Rest
Sigh. The wiki euphoria may be short lived. I've just wiped out a pile of link insertions from a pile of weird Chinese web sites from some of our Ocotillo wikis. Sure, I can remove them and ad some IPs to the banned list, but that approach surely will not scale. Over the weekend, there were a few blog spam roaches that scurried in under the radar for a new blog site still being tinkered. I am rather satisfied with my spam-free months on this blog, and need to extend my method to these other sites. And then there is a wretched POS web site I will not dignify with a link From
cogdogblog on September 8, 2004 at 8:24 a.m..
Sneak Peek
Oy...what a four days. But the end is in sight. For anyone interested,
here's a peek at the new Weblog/Website I've been building...still some work to go, but it's close. Hopefully, regular blogging will resume here shortly. From
weblogged News on September 8, 2004 at 8:23 a.m..
Intranets look vainly to knowledge management
David Walker presents a perspective on intranets and knowledge management. To quote: Sharing knowledge takes effort and skill, even between two people talking face-to-face. You don't create that by writing stuff down; you create it by creating robust relationships that... From
Column Two on September 8, 2004 at 8:23 a.m..
Information architecture research
Peter Morville has posted a blog entry on information architecture research, containing many extremely useful resources. To quote: What do we really know about information architecture? Do we know what works? Can we defend our designs? Are we improving? In... From
Column Two on September 8, 2004 at 8:23 a.m..
Book review: The E-Myth Revisited
The E-Myth RevisitedMichael E. Gerber This was one of the books on my reading list with the aim of continuing to improve the way Step Two Designs operates. As a small business, there is the ever-present challenge of managing our... From
Column Two on September 8, 2004 at 8:23 a.m..
Languages, people and processes
Only recently I mentioned technologyLog. A project that seeks to deliver a knowledge sharing framework and before that bring the community that will use it to happen. Today I drafted a small mindmap that I'll use to explain the project briefly to my interview partners (they received a one-page-information beforehand which - I suppose - was never read). I'll post it here or on the project blog. As a kind of reality check I read
'Knowledge sharing' should be avoided, by James Robertson. He argues From
thomas n. burg | randgänge on September 8, 2004 at 8:23 a.m..
Creative Commons Austria
The Austrian version of Creative Commons (
http://creativecommons.at/)has launched. Congratulations to all that were involved. I will implement it once I find a timeslot (every blogging tool, wiki, CMS, message board should provide easy setup wizards for that purpose). From what I've heard
France UK Spain Belgium Croatia are next. And they are hardly working to convince Google to use the CC-license for its search results. Thinking about my extranet project I wonder if there is something as an From
thomas n. burg | randgänge on September 8, 2004 at 8:23 a.m..
Why e-learning is so difficult to eat
Nice post by Patrick Lambe on the difficulties in
implementing an e-learning project. He focuses on the different perspectives of the two major stakeholders in such implementations: HR teams and the IT dept. "To do enterprise e-learning really well, beyond the technical competencies present already in HR and IT, you have to be able to marry deep understanding of the operational needs at the front line, strategic direction, consulting and change management sk From
elearningpost on September 8, 2004 at 8:22 a.m..
Quattrone's Sentencing
NY Times: Onetime Star Investment Banker Is Facing U.S. Sentencing. Mr. Quattrone, 48, who was found guilty in May on obstruction of justice after investigators began looking into his former employer, Credit Suisse First Boston, is the most prominent Wall Street figure to face prison since Michael R. Milken received a 10-year sentence in 1990. What they got him for was relatively minor -- obstructing investigators who From Dan Gillmor's eJournal on September 8, 2004 at 8:22 a.m..
Walling Off the Web
Loosely Coupled: Shallow Linking. I am starting to regret the several thousand visitors that Loosely Coupled has sent to InfoWorld articles in the past year. It turns out all those links were in breach of InfoWorld's terms and conditions. We shall think twice about linking to IDG titles in the future, even though some of the best writing about the topics we follow can be found on InfoWorld's pages. But if IDG decided to start barring links from us, we would end up having to rename ourselves Brokenly From Dan Gillmor's eJournal on September 8, 2004 at 8:22 a.m..
Nic Wolff's single-signon bookmarklet
As has been
widely noticed in recent days, Nic Wolff's
password generator is a brilliant hack. It hashes a passphrase with the domain name of the site you're on and fills in the password field on the page. Each site's password is unique; you need only remember a single passphrase; the passphrase is only handled locally. Sweet. ... From
Jon's Radio on September 8, 2004 at 8:22 a.m..
State to Slam Diebold With Suit
California Attorney General Bill Lockyer will move forward with a false-claims lawsuit against the electronic voting-machine maker. The Golden State accuses Diebold of installing electronic voting systems that were not tested or approved. From
Wired News on September 8, 2004 at 8:21 a.m..
Bright Lights, Burning City
This year's Burning Man festival was alive with light all day and all night, as luminescent art and wild displays of fire lit the desert skies. Daniel Terdiman reports from Black Rock City, Nevada. From
Wired News on September 8, 2004 at 8:21 a.m..
Surf Wirelessly at Dialup Speed
Hoping to extend wireless internet access to people without broadband, a Texas company is introducing a base station that works with any dialup connection. But don't expect it to make pages load any faster. By Elisa Batista. From
Wired News on September 8, 2004 at 8:21 a.m..
Slide Rule Still Rules
Decades have passed since the pocket calculator relegated the trusty slide rule to near obscurity. Now, an exhibit celebrates the lengthy history of the device, featuring the slide rules of celebrity geeks. By Michelle Delio. From
Wired News on September 8, 2004 at 8:21 a.m..
Ads That Annoy Also Succeed
One of internet users' most common misconceptions is that obnoxious advertising doesn't work. In reality, it works all too well, generating very nice returns for purveyors of spam and pop-ups at the expense of the rest of us. By Adam L. Penenberg. From
Wired News on September 8, 2004 at 8:21 a.m..
Voter Bounty Hits Hundred Grand
The brains behind Hot or Not have turned their attention -- and their wallets -- to getting people to join the electorate. Twin $100,000 prizes are up for grabs to those who register to vote. By Dan Brekke. From
Wired News on September 8, 2004 at 8:21 a.m..
Flight ID Rules Fuel Fresh Furor
A privacy advocate who is suing the government for allegedly forcing airlines to ID passengers is pressing to have his case aired publicly. Government attorneys, meanwhile, want the court to hear their arguments in secret. By Ryan Singel. From
Wired News on September 8, 2004 at 8:21 a.m..
Frances Fouls Up Phones, Power
Florida's power and telecommunications infrastructure suffered a serious blow when Hurricane Frances blew in over Labor Day weekend. Portable cellular phone service stations and generators offer only a temporary fix. By Jacob Ogles. From
Wired News on September 8, 2004 at 8:21 a.m..
The George Haligua Foundation Introduces Education Without Borders
There are presently a multitude of efforts and projects currently under way to bring information and communication technologies to the developing world because of the belief in their transformative potential. It is important to understand that this information and communication technology offers enormous opportunities for Africa to hurdle stages of development. The George Haligua Foundation has started a program called Education without Borders, whose primary goal is to educate the developing world by means of global communication technologies. [PRWEB Sep 7, 2004] From
PR Web on September 8, 2004 at 8:21 a.m..
Snubbing the RIAA, Part II
A long time ago (or so it seems), I wrote Snubbing the RIAA, Part I, in an attempt to provide some sources of non-RIAA backed music to the readers of K5. What follows is Part II, in which I present some more sources of great music, and some ways to tell if your favourite artist belongs to an RIAA-member label. From
kuro5hin.org on September 8, 2004 at 8:20 a.m..
Educational Researchers Australia Database
New from the Australian Council for Educational Research, the portal provides an interactive database of biographical information and research interests, publications and, projects about researchers engaged in educational research in Australia and overseas. It is intended that the database will provide a comprehensive guide to researchers. Searchers will be able to locate researchers working in specific areas of educational research and or by geographical locations. Searching the database allows the user to search by researcher name, institution, country and state, as well as research interest From
EdNA Online on September 8, 2004 at 8:20 a.m..
Go Fast. Go Cheap. And Let It Go Out of Control
Brian Lamb's presentation at the ITI conference in Utah in the form of a set of Wiki pages. There's a lot of content here surveying new technologies in learning, including blogs, wikis and RSS - hard to believe he got through most of it in his session. Many, many useful links. By Brian Lamb, September 3, 2004 [
Refer][
Research][
--> From OLDaily on September 8, 2004 at 8:20 a.m..
An Apple for the Computer
Interesting look at the use of computers to mark essays, including what might be called the 'chimpanzee test' (not what it sounds like. This seems right, so far: "What it seems to lack is the ability to see context and relevance. The software doesn't care whether you're a meticulous writer who uses only well-reasoned and well-known facts or a glib writer who pulls 'facts' from the air." Via University Business. By Faye Flam, Philadelphia Inquirer, August 30, 2004 [
--> From OLDaily on September 8, 2004 at 8:20 a.m..
DC-Ed Element Proposal: Instructional Method
A Dublin Core working group is proposing a new 'educational' element be added to the Dublin Core specification. "This element describes ways of presenting instructional materials or conducting instructional activities, patterns of learner-to-learner and learner-to-instructor interactions, and mechanisms by which group and individual levels of learning are measured." The proposal is among a set of recommendations being released for discussion, others including an
accessibility element and six proposals from the From
OLDaily on September 8, 2004 at 8:20 a.m..
Intranets Look Vainly to Knowledge Management
Fascinating, the vagueness you get when you attribute human qualities to non-human entities. By 'vainly' does the author mean 'with vanity' or 'in a futile fashion'? No matter. The author, responding to a recent Line56 column, advances the idea that knowledge cannot be captured. It's not an original criticism, but it's nicely put, if overstated. I love the irony of this statement: "But teaching and learning are not even inherently well-suited to digital media. At an individual level, this teaching and learning often happens best with the participants fac From
OLDaily on September 8, 2004 at 8:20 a.m..
Blackboard and MERLOT Broaden Learning Network
MERLOT is at it again, this time signing a deal with Blackboard. The good bit is this: "The first Blackboard Building Block to be released will be a portal module that uses RSS content syndication to aggregate news about and links to the learning resources most recently added to MERLOT." The less good (but not surprising) bit is this: "MERLOT will develop a Blackboard taxonomy within the MERLOT learning directory, making it easier for MERLOT users to identify Blackboard-specific training materials." Didn't we learn during the browser wars that vendor specific tags are a bad idea? S From
OLDaily on September 8, 2004 at 8:19 a.m..
Logan, Utah
Photos from Logan, Utah, and mostly from my walk in the mountains the Sunday following the conference (I'm still not very good at conference photography, though I did get one nice picture of
Grace Lin, who presented the
OOPS Project along with Luc Chu. By Stephen Downes, Stephen's Web, September 7, 2004 [
Refer][
--> From OLDaily on September 8, 2004 at 8:19 a.m..
Reusable Media, Social Software and Openness in Education
PowerPoint
slides and the full
MP3 audio version of my keynote at ITI in Utah. The abstract: "In the three themes described in the title of this paper there is a common thread, a tension between the producers of media, both online and traditional, and between the consumers of this media. Greater connectivity and greater capacity for content creation have given the consumers the capacity to produce their own media, and this poses what is deemed to be unacceptable competition to the producers, who From
OLDaily on September 8, 2004 at 8:19 a.m..