Edu_Rss

New Roles for Journalists
Like most people, I've read a large number of articles about the Tsunami catastrophe in Asia. And some of the usual long-term trends do become more visible than before. First of all, it's an obvious breakthrough for "people's journalism." Fairly quickly I realized that the stories that made an impression were rarely written by journalists. They were written or video taped by eyewitnesses. Their firsthand stories conveyed the fear people encountered when some died and others survived. Their amateur video pieces gave me an understanding of how people were helples From Poynter E-Media Tidbits on December 30, 2004 at 7:54 p.m..

Tsunami Disaster Resources
It is easy to become quickly overwhelmed by the quantity and depth of information on what Wikipedia is calling the 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake and subsequent tsunamis. Earlier today, my colleague Madan Rao mentioned several excellent sites. I've been impressed with Poynter E-Media Tidbits on December 30, 2004 at 6:55 p.m..

Guidelines for Establishing Interactivity in Online Courses
Students are most successful in online courses that provide ample opportunities for them to interact with the instructor, other students, and the course content. An interactive online course must engage students as active learners rather than as passive participants. How can instructors design virtual classrooms that offer students with a variety of learning styles and preferences the greatest chance of success? This article suggests ways of increasing interactivity in online educational environments. From eLearnopedia on December 30, 2004 at 6:53 p.m..

Political capital from desasters
The death toll desaster in asian sea begins to exceed any catastrophe the world has ever seen. It is a shame to read this headline: Secretary of State Colin Powell conferred by video hookup with U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan Thursday on assistance to the victims of the Asian and African tsunamis and then added the United Nations to the core group planning relief efforts. Pardon - if somebody is added to anything, then it is the US added to the international body of helping states From owrede_log on December 30, 2004 at 6:47 p.m..

Pupils to Get Anti-piracy Lessons
One wonders what sort of lessons will be taught to British students in the context of this program to teach them "on music piracy and copyright issues." Will they be shown Courtney Love's article showing how an artist who releases a gold record ends up in debt? Will it be explained to them why music they purchase cannot be played on their computer? Will the lesson include a primer on open source software and open content? Will explain to them why their traditional rights of fair use have been eliminated? No, probably not. But if not, then it's not learning - it's propaganda. Via From OLDaily on December 30, 2004 at 6:45 p.m..

E-Learning and Economic Development
The authors argue "it is possible to develop and organize e-Learning courses with modest technology and in environment with different levels of economic development" and base this conclusion in their experiences using the technology to deliver learning in Ljubljana, Slovenia, and Sarajevo, Bosnia, during the aftermath of the Bosnian war. By Kelly Carey and Stanko Blatnik, Turkish Online Journal of Distance Education, December 30, 2004 [Refer][OLDaily on December 30, 2004 at 6:45 p.m..

The Adoption of Open Sources within Higher Education In Europe and A Dissemination Case Study
The new Turkish Online Journal of Distance Education is available. I list two articles. The authors outline "the development and proliferation of open-source software within the sphere of teaching and learning [and discuss] the reasons for the acceptance and spread of open-source software in HEIs across Europe, and outlines the role of OSS within the four key domains of higher education." Note that the advantages are not merely financial: "The philosophy behind using OSS for education means is to develop a collaborative model that also serves to encou From OLDaily on December 30, 2004 at 6:45 p.m..

Using Weblogs in ESL/EFL Classes
Discussion group set up on Yahoo! to support an online class in weblogging in in English language teaching. My guess is that the group will outlive the class. By Aaron Campbell, Barbara Dieu and Graham Stanley, December, 2004 [Refer][Research][Reflect] From OLDaily on December 30, 2004 at 6:45 p.m..

e-learning Content
"Traditional copyright licences are far too restrictive to develop an ecology of e-learning content." Thus writes Graham Atwell in a position paper to the eLearning Consultation Workshops, one of many that can be found on the Workshop website. A summary of the workshop is also available, and while the discussion includes Creative Commons, it also asserts that "appro From OLDaily on December 30, 2004 at 6:45 p.m..

eBay Retires MS Passport Sign-In
We may be seeing the end of Microsoft's Passport, as a commentator on Slashdot notices that Amazon has ended its relation with the program and that the Passport partners list has been taken down. Which raises the question: what comes next? Do you think Microsoft would propose a distributed, user-controlled multiplatform approach to personal identity? Nah - it'll never happen (though I'd just love to be wrong on this one). p.s. be sure to read the comments about Passport in the thread below this short item. Brutal. By samzenpus, Slashdot, December 29, 2004 [OLDaily on December 30, 2004 at 6:45 p.m..

Selling Music for a Song
Hit-and-run article that makes some good points, including this: "It seems clear that for musicians to make more money, the large music labels, which still control 85 percent of all music sales worldwide, have to be bypassed, one way or another." After all, "those who have signed with a major record label end up with only 3 to 5 cents of the 65 cents that the iTunes Music Store and others pass on." And the publishers have the audacity to call file-sharers 'pirates'. By Steven Cherry, IEEE Spectrum, December 30, 2004 [OLDaily on December 30, 2004 at 6:45 p.m..

Procrastination Prevention
Procrastination seems to be a chronic condition of many college students. Why is it so prevalent and what can be done to prevent or manage it? People who procrastinate often are accused of being lazy, but it is usually not... From Teaching and Developing Online. on December 30, 2004 at 5:55 p.m..

Procrastination is the thief of time.
Procrastination is a complex psychological behavior that affects everyone to some degree or another. With some it can be a minor problem; with others it is a source of considerable stress and anxiety. Procrastination is only remotely related to time... From Teaching and Developing Online. on December 30, 2004 at 5:55 p.m..

Procrastination
The avoidance of doing a task which needs to be done - postponing until tomorrow what can be done today. Procrastination not only affects a person's work, but also commonly involves feelings such as guilt, inadequacy, self-disgust, stress and depression.... From Teaching and Developing Online. on December 30, 2004 at 5:55 p.m..

The Problem of Procrastination
There is a poster that depicts a huge polar bear lying prone on a flue of ice. The caption under it reads, "When I get the feeling to do something, I lie down until the feeling goes away". Such is... From Teaching and Developing Online. on December 30, 2004 at 5:55 p.m..

Facing the Demons of Inaction
When I was 22 years old I moved into a freshly painted one bedroom apartment in Alexandria, Virginia. It was my first "solo" experience -- no roommates, no dog, no parents, no siblings. I could leave my dirty socks on... From Teaching and Developing Online. on December 30, 2004 at 5:55 p.m..

When Plans and Reality Collide
Several years ago, on a chilly winter day, Victoria and a friend got together over steaming bowls of soup and hot buttered homemade bread and began designing her garden. Each weekend for weeks thereafter, they worked out the details of... From Teaching and Developing Online. on December 30, 2004 at 5:55 p.m..

The Responsibility
Nearly 15 years ago I sat on a cushion facing a blank wall in a retreat center surrounded by rice paddies in Japan. I was taking two weeks to do nothing but reflect on how I had lived since I... From Teaching and Developing Online. on December 30, 2004 at 5:55 p.m..

Procrastination and You
This is a semi-exhaustive list of institutions and mental health care professionals who are speaking to the issue of procrastination. Procrastination Links... From Teaching and Developing Online. on December 30, 2004 at 5:55 p.m..

Structured Procrastination
I have been intending to write this essay for months. Why am I finally doing it? Because I finally found some uncommitted time? Wrong. I have papers to grade, textbook orders to fill out, an NSF proposal to referee, dissertation... From Teaching and Developing Online. on December 30, 2004 at 5:55 p.m..

Procrastination Quotes
A year from now you may wish you had started today. ~Karen Lamb Anyone can do any amount of work provided it isn't the work he's supposed to be doing at the moment. ~Robert Benchley Delay always breeds danger; and... From Teaching and Developing Online. on December 30, 2004 at 5:55 p.m..

Motivational Quotes - Procrastination
"If and When were planted, and Nothing grew." Author Unknown "Procrastination is the grave in which opportunity is buried." Author Unknown "You may delay, but time will not." Benjamin Franklin "Procrastination is the fear of success. People procrastinate because they... From Teaching and Developing Online. on December 30, 2004 at 5:55 p.m..

Procrastinator's Creed
1. I believe that if anything is worth doing, it would have been done already. 2. I shall never move quickly, except to avoid more work or find excuses. 3. I will never rush into a job without a lifetime... From Teaching and Developing Online. on December 30, 2004 at 5:55 p.m..

The Procrastinator's Watch
You might think that this a really silly idea. You are right! The least you can say about this idea that it is silly, but wait until you read the whole thing, then you will think that it is beyond... From Teaching and Developing Online. on December 30, 2004 at 5:55 p.m..

Fastfacts: Procrastination
Procrastination is probably the single most common time management problem. Everyone procrastinates to some extent; however, there are several reasons why university students rank highly among those most vulnerable to procrastination: There is always a tremendous amount of work to... From Teaching and Developing Online. on December 30, 2004 at 5:55 p.m..

Procrastination: Self-Help
My New Years Resolution is to not procrastinate so much...I compiled this list of sites instead of doing what needs to be done.. Well, it is not January 1st yet...I have a few more days...so leave me alone...check out the... From Teaching and Developing Online. on December 30, 2004 at 5:55 p.m..

WorldChanging: Another World Is Here: WorldChanging.com works from a simple premise: that the tools, models and ideas for building a better future lie all around us. That plenty of people are working on tools for change, but the fields in which they work remain unconnected. That the motive, means and opportunity for profound positive change are already present. That another world is not just possible, it's here. We only need to put the pieces together.... From Education/Technology - Tim Lauer on December 30, 2004 at 5:50 p.m..

So many standards, so little time (David Weinberger)
Mark Ranford and Stowe open a delicious can of worms. Sure, we all like standards-based, open apps. But which standards do we want, and how urgently, when it comes to artificial social networks? ID. This one scares me the most,... From Corante: Social Software on December 30, 2004 at 5:49 p.m..

Cell Phone Viruses: Coming Soon
Cell phones have become a lot more sophisticated in recent years. They aren't just for telephone conversations any more - they are contact managers, web browsers, text message clients, email clients, and lots more. Unfortunately, these versatile devices now can... From Indiana IT on December 30, 2004 at 4:55 p.m..

Drinking the best bubbly
The New York Times steps up to the plate and reviews 23 vintage Champagnes for which they paid between $70 - $195 a bottle in the article, The Price Is to Gulp, but the Champagne's to Sip. The verdict? Not surprisingly, expensive Champagne is delicious! Well, they use better adjectives than that... [T]here was no arguing with these wines. They were graceful yet intense, fresh, complex and lively but with the thrilling tactile delicacy you might find running your hand over the finest fabrics or inhaling the scent of great leather. The bubbles sparkle on the tongue, gently stimulating the From megnut on December 30, 2004 at 4:45 p.m..

Xanga, The Ghetto Botnet
Did you notice when Slashdot's search was down for the past few days? (It's back up now.) Turns out that in a stunning case of irony, it had been hammered into submission by thousands of people attempting to use it. However, unlike CmdrTaco's regimented DDoS attacks, this one is carried out with malicious intent as opposed to mere sociopathic inconsiderateness. It also highlights a potential threat from one of the biggest weblogging services out there. From kuro5hin.org on December 30, 2004 at 4:45 p.m..

Zack's advice on open source journalism
Zack Rosen of Civic Space sits in at his uncle Jay's PressThink and offers some advice for news organizations in the age of citizens journalism. From unmediated on December 30, 2004 at 3:57 p.m..

Connected libraries extend the Tail
Marylaine Block, a very wired librarian, writes with a great example of the Long Tail at work. I'd asked her for some perspective on the ways in which libraries differ from bookstores. After all, on the face of it both suffer from similar scarcity problems: limited shelf space and budgets and the geographic limitations of depending largely on local demand.  Are libraries equally hit-driven as a result? The From unmediated on December 30, 2004 at 3:57 p.m..

Internet Use Said to Cut Into TV Viewing and Socializing
Stanford Institute's Quantitative Study of Society: "The survey found that use of the Internet has displaced television watching and a range of other activities." From unmediated on December 30, 2004 at 3:57 p.m..

Authorating
The most constructive work we do in blogland isn't "delivering" the commodity we call "information," but rather exercizing the verbs from which the noun information is derived. We inform each other. As human beings, we are what we know, and we know more because we listen to and read and watch sources that enlarge our knowledge. We are therefore literally formed by those processes. (All of which, Steve Gillmor will hasten to point out, follow our attention.) As either unmediated on December 30, 2004 at 3:57 p.m..

SURVEY: vloggercon sessions
Hello Everybody! Please go over to this web survey page to help us decide which sessions to have at vloggercon: http://multivote.sparklit.com/web_poll.spark/3732 I've filled up the survey with recent popular topics from the videoblogging list, and suggested sessions that Jay received in email. I'm going to be meeting with Jay and Ryan this weekend to help plan for vloggercon, and we'll be deciding on sessions. I'f you've got an idea for a session, pl From unmediated on December 30, 2004 at 3:57 p.m..

ShareTV bites the dust
ShareTV is going down. All good things have to come to an end, and unfortunately, here is ours, says the site. Legal issues get more and more problematic, we are not 16 anymore and with the latest developments we found the situation too unstable/unsafe to continue, so we decided it would be better to leave in dignity. The mainpage will be up until the end of the year, the forum will remain open for now. Yet, we will keep it clean, so no ed2k links, only regular chat. After we closed the mainpage, we will offer the From unmediated on December 30, 2004 at 3:57 p.m..

Podcasting And The Great Sub-Divide
Podcasting brings democracy and a personal touch to tradtional notio ns of broadcasting but with a price -- the continued fragmentation of what was once a national collective audience. If you like to think hyperlocal or niche, that's probably a good thing. But if you think sharing events, entertainment, news connects us in much-needed ways, it may be just another cause for concern. Media critic Dan Kennedy isn't quite sure what to make of podcasting or whether it's goi From unmediated on December 30, 2004 at 3:57 p.m..

Audio interview with Suprnova creator
In case you’re interested here’s an audio interview with Sloncek—the 18-year-old creator of Suprnova.org—happened after the site was taken down. I confess I was underwhelmed with what he had to say, as well as with the questions asked. It was conducted by a streaming radio station called Novastream. Torrent MP3 unmediated on December 30, 2004 at 3:57 p.m..

Fulton: Journalists Make People Feel Unimportant
At our Fusion Power conference, Mary Lou Fulton talked about the Northwest Voice, a participatory journalism newspaper project, and said if someone wants to submit a story about a little girl selling lemonade to fight MS, why not find a place for it to run. Here's her logic: I think one of the things that unfortunately journalism has become really good at is making people feel unimportant, making people feel that what matters to them and the things that are meaningf From unmediated on December 30, 2004 at 3:57 p.m..

Digital Archiving - Preserving Tomorrow's Media for Today
AMC Technology Sub-committee Chair, Tim Halle, sent in this interesting article by Bob Lamm.&ampnbsp. Dave McCarn, WGBH's Chief Technologist, has a mission: He wants to come up with a permanent, universal digital file format for archived media. One that not only carries the original sound and image, but also transcriptions, production notes, authorship/copyright/royalty info, hypermedia links to other media files, etc. Once in this form, it would be free of the underlying tape technology it was originated on, permanently linked to the inform From unmediated on December 30, 2004 at 3:57 p.m..

High Speed Video Using a Dense Camera Array
A system for capturing multi-thousand frame-per-second (fps) video using a dense array of cheap 30fps CMOS image sensors. A benefit of using a camera array to capture high speed video is that we can scale to higher speeds by simply adding more cameras. Even at extremely high frame rates, our array architecture supports continuous streaming to disk from all of the cameras. This allows us to record unpredictable events, in which nothing occurs before the event of interest that could be used to trigger the beginning From unmediated on December 30, 2004 at 3:56 p.m..

Save a life
Help earthquake and tsunami survivors who need medical attention, shelter, food, and safe drinking water. From Jeffrey Zeldman Presents: The Daily Report on December 30, 2004 at 3:49 p.m..

Biggest Cognitive-Emotional Distance Award
And the winner is: The Boston Globe for today headlining the plight of tsunami victims and, three inches away, running this teaser at the top of the page: Delete with care For cellphone users, decision is agonizing The article, on the front page of Living/Arts, relates the heart-breaking story of Blake Conney who drunk-dialed her old boyfriend and gave him a chicken recipe. Should she have deleted his name from her cellphone? The decision is, as the teaser promises, agonizing. [Thanks to our daughter Leah for pointing this out.]... From Joho the Blog on December 30, 2004 at 3:49 p.m..

Grey Album is Album of the Year
In case you missed it on my del.icio.us or Restoring the Balance or Waxy's Linkblog (which is where I got it, and run by the guy whose blog who put the Grey Album into the world's ears) the Grey Album is Entertainment W From unmediated on December 30, 2004 at 2:55 p.m..

Amateur video footage of tsunami on blogs, torrents
Waxy.org has been collecting amateur video footage, here's a roundup post: Link. Punditguy has more: Link Chris Holland says, I've used prodigem to create torrents for the South Asia tsunami videos. The more people use this torrent, the faster everyone else will be able to download the videos. See also unmediated on December 30, 2004 at 2:55 p.m..

CableCards
Both the NY Times and the Washington Post (use Bugmenot if you face registration) explore the FCC's somewhat quiet plan to replace cable boxes with Cablecards. They slide into the back of television sets, cost less to rent, and unlike boxes can be taken with you when you move. However there's a good chance you'll never see one. From unmediated on December 30, 2004 at 2:55 p.m..

Semantic Blogging and Decentralized Knowledge Management
Work ongoing at HP Labs in Bristol UK, at their Semantic Web Research Group. where they have done some interesting work that uses the simplicity of blog posting to construct intelligent repositories of what they call 'knowledge snippets' ... information nuggets we would like to store, annnotate and share ... Steve Cayzer of the Labs, in a provocative recent article (link below) discusses the interaction of this simplicty with the ability to store and retrieve knowledge based on embedded intelligence. Any kind of knowledge management method presupposes you have some critical mass of k From unmediated on December 30, 2004 at 2:55 p.m..

Shadow Networks Spawn Bootlegs
They start with a single stolen file and pump out pirated games and movies by the millions. Jeff Howe from Wired magazine looks at the 'topsites' that are terrorizing the entertainment business. The whole shebang - the topsites, the pyramid, and the P2P networks girding it all together - is not about trading or sharing at all. It s a broadcast system. It takes a signal, the new U2 single, say, and broadcasts it around the world. The pirate pyramid is a perfect amplifier. The signal beco From unmediated on December 30, 2004 at 2:55 p.m..

A Look At Online Distribution Economics
From IEEE Spectrum Online - Selling Music for a Song: Online music stores make at most a dime per track — where does the money go? From unmediated on December 30, 2004 at 2:55 p.m..

Bloggers without borders launched
Bloggers without borders has just launch. Here's the first post from Jonas.Tsunami Outreach Submitted by Jonas M Luster on Thu, 2004-12-30 05:23. We have found our compassion in this one. Yet, one thing remains and is badly needed, says a friend of mine who just arrived in Sri Lanka and will be contributing what he learned in eight years in Uniform. People. Not the odd-job bystander, not the “activist”, and certainly not the journalist. What is needed most, today, are q From unmediated on December 30, 2004 at 2:55 p.m..

How I Learned French in One Year
Riding on the coat-tails of an earlier article about emigrating to other countries, I present to you a small summary of my experience rapidly learning French to pass a standardized test for Canadian immigration. Since I live in the middle of the US, far removed from anything resembling a Francophone environment, I had to resort to various online and offline resources to accomplish my goal, managing to learn enough to score as "advanced" in several categories in just 10 months. Even if you don't wish to emigrate, this article may be useful, as I go into full detail describing the technique From kuro5hin.org on December 30, 2004 at 2:45 p.m..

Feed2JS Has Its Own Feed (published via MT)
Alan Levine has a post on his blog that describes how he is publishing updates on Feed2JS using MovableType. If you haven't heard about Feed2JS, I suggest you go check it out - it is one of the coolest little tools around. Basically, it is a set of PHP scripts ... From Just Another Ant on December 30, 2004 at 1:58 p.m..

Bad SEO: Marqui Has The Reference
Today, as part of the Marqui paid-blogger program, I have received a pointer to a SEO white-paper. The 14-page report, that Marqui has apparently commissioned to Anvil (a SEO company itself), is available for access by anyone, albeit behind a short but still annoying registration form. Entitled "The Marketer's Guide to Optimizing Your Web Content for Search Enginesis accessible here for immediate download. (Nov. 22 2004) While the introduction reads: "This white paper addresses the fundamentals, and a number of the secrets, to effective search engine optimization, including search engines From Robin Good' Sharewood Tidings on December 30, 2004 at 1:51 p.m..

Pathways to Bliss (2): The Experience of Myth
Joseph Campbell's introduction to The Pathways to Bliss is abundant with connections that link myth to the experiences of everyday life. The editor, David Kudler, has done has created a fundamental and critically important perspective on Campbell and his ideas.... From Experience Designer Network on December 30, 2004 at 12:58 p.m..

The Context of Being Human
Since the devastating earthquake and tsunami struck southeast Asia, I From Contentious Weblog on December 30, 2004 at 12:54 p.m..

Help with an article on the fate of trees...
I have agreed to write the February issue of Esther Dyson's Release 1.0, and I sure could use your help. The topic is something like: What's up with taxonomic trees? We used to think that they represented the actual shape of knowledge. Now we generally recognize that they're "just" tools. So, how are they doing as tools? Are they as important as ever? What new ways are they being used? What's being used in their place? How are they being modified to make them more useful? Is it true that they're being used less frequently for browsing? Are ontologies subsuming/replacin From Joho the Blog on December 30, 2004 at 12:48 p.m..

Trusted merchants
I got an email from a stranger asking where he should donate money for tsunami victims. I sent him the urls to the donation pages up at Amazon and Google. I didn't send him to Wikipedia. Apparently, for this type of information I trust a top-down source more than a bottom-up one. Wikipedia does its best to discourage trust on this topic, and appropriately so: Due to its open and collaborative nature, Wikipedia cannot guarantee the veracity of outside links or the absence of possible scams involving charities, thus the potential danger of fraud exists. In particular, please beware of... From Joho the Blog on December 30, 2004 at 12:48 p.m..

It's That Time Again
As every year, media put together the most relevant facts of 12 months in special multimedia works. But newspapers could not imagine that a big catastrophe such as the recent Asia tsunami would become one of the news of the year. It seems that now they have to include it in their multimedia works. El Pais.es has done a very elegant job. News can be navigated through 11 main topics and it includes a great number of well-known people that have been at the center of the news during this year. Ever From Poynter E-Media Tidbits on December 30, 2004 at 11:55 a.m..

Internet Use Bites Into Our Time
Sometimes, the more answers we get, the more questions they suggest. That would seem to be the case with a new survey about how we spend our time on the Internet -- and the time we don't spend doing other things -- according to the Stanford Institute for the Quantitative Study of Society, a research group of political scientists that studies the social consequences of the Internet. In a story by From Poynter E-Media Tidbits on December 30, 2004 at 11:55 a.m..

Argentina Defies Monetary Fund: 3-0
Three years after the collapse of Argentina's economy under IMF and World Bank recipes for development, the South American country's budding recovery is stunning international observers. John Perkins Defying the IMF's prescriptions, president Kirchner and his economic advisers have told creditors to get in line and wait, while building the economy from the bottom up. An excellent article in the New York Times relates the story.(Use Bugmenot to get beyond the registration barrage). The looting of Argentina by international finance and the subsequent disintegration of its economy From Robin Good' Sharewood Tidings on December 30, 2004 at 11:51 a.m..

Blumenthal's insider baseball: It's all neocons, all the time
Sidney Blumenthal in Salon marshalls the hirings and firings as evidence that Bush is thoroughly purging the administration of anyone who counseled caution in Iraq. Here are the opening lines: The transition to President Bush's second term, filled with backstage betrayals, plots and pathologies, would make for an excellent chapter of "I, Claudius." To begin with, I have learned from numerous sources, including several people close to Brent Scowcroft, that Bush has unceremoniously and without public acknowledgment dumped Scowcroft, his father's closest associate and friend, as chairma From Joho the Blog on December 30, 2004 at 11:48 a.m..

Masa grabs four stars
Masa, the very expensive Japanese restaurant at the Time Warner Center gets four stars from New York Times restaurant critic Frank Bruni: Sushi at Masa Is a Zen Thing. Simply put, Masa engineers discrete moments of pure elation that few if any other restaurants can match. It also becomes the first Japanese restaurant in New York to garner four stars from the Times since Hatsuhana in 1983. Bruni's experiences sound incredible, and yet as much as I love sushi, I can't fathom spending $350 per person (not including tip, tax, or drinks) to experience it. Not even if I saved up a dollar From megnut on December 30, 2004 at 11:45 a.m..

Washington Post Gets It Right
I just finished watching Out of the Rubble, A Public Housing Drama Rises, a Washington Post special online video feature by Ben de la Cruz. It's extraordinary and exemplary. It weaves an engaging, complex, personal story of urban redevelopment through interviews, a filmed theatrical performance, and thoughtful interstitial shots. And (a credit to the camera operator and video editor) the visual composition works well in a very small viewing window - something I've noticed is often a fl From Poynter E-Media Tidbits on December 30, 2004 at 10:54 a.m..

Internet, Blogs, SMS Offer Tsunami Information, Coordination
Almost exactly one year ago, a disastrous earthquake struck Iran, and the Web was used by a number of international news media and relief organizations to disseminate news, share information about missing citizens, and coordinate relief efforts. This week, across southern Asia, news media websites, independent blogs, and SMS services on mobile phones are being used for news updates and coordination of what the UN regards as the largest relief effort ever. Sri Lankan carriers broadcast help numbers via SMS to all their subscribers, as well as international users roaming domestically. In From Poynter E-Media Tidbits on December 30, 2004 at 10:54 a.m..

Podcasting Blues
So I did manage to get the last 40 GB iPod in New Jersey right after Christmas and I've been starting to play with it in between family gatherings and big meals. Let me first say that I am very psyched about the Belkin microphone adapter I got which allows me to use the iPod as a recording device. I've been interviewing my kids, and I can see all sorts of ways to use just that piece of it in the classroom...recording classw From weblogged News on December 30, 2004 at 10:47 a.m..

Free RSS Webinar by Derek Franklin
Derek Franklin will be giving a free RSS Webinar (slides, audio, video, whiteboard) today at 2:00 P.M. EST. (12/30/2004) The title of the presentation is: 10 Questions You Need Answered About RSS. The questions are: What Is RSS? How Do I Use It (As A User)? What Can I Do With RSS (As A User)? Why Should I Be Interested In RSS (As A Publisher)? How Do I Create An RSS Feed? What Kind Of Content Can I Deliver Using RSS? How Can I Promote My RSS Content? Can I Track My Results When Delivering RSS Content? How Can I Profit From RSS? W From RSS Blog on December 30, 2004 at 9:57 a.m..

Skype Top Twenty Most Wanted Features
What do users want the most from Skype? The Public Mind customer response and feature request system has been collecting thousands of votes for what it looks like an hit parade of Skype most wanted features. I indeed share many... From Kolabora.com on December 30, 2004 at 8:50 a.m..

Digital music: flat fee futures - Andrew Orlowski, the Register
2004 was the year that discussions of alternative licensing models for digital music finally reached the mainstream. At the start of the year we interviewed two of the leading proponents, Professor William "Terry" Fisher of Harvard's Berkman Center th From Techno-News Blog on December 30, 2004 at 8:46 a.m..

On the Internet, a web of dark alleys - Tom Zeller Jr., CNET News
The indictment early this month of Mark Robert Walker by a federal grand jury in Texas might have seemed a coup for the government in its efforts to police terrorist communications online. Walker, a 19-year-old student, is accused, among other things From Techno-News Blog on December 30, 2004 at 8:46 a.m..

Blogs Provide Raw Details From Scene of the Disaster -JOHN SCHWARTZ, the New York Times
For vivid reporting from the enormous zone of tsunami disaster, it was hard to beat the blogs. The so-called blogosphere, with its personal journals published on the Web, has become best known as a forum for bruising political discussion and media cr From Techno-News Blog on December 30, 2004 at 8:46 a.m..

Automotive training on the Web growing - Marty Sauerzopf, The Arizona Republic
Hot-rod owner Kenneth Parker has always had a bit of motor oil running through his veins. But with a wife and two children, the 38-year-old Surprise resident couldn't find time for an automotive education. That changed in September, when the Universal From Online Learning Update on December 30, 2004 at 8:46 a.m..

The Growth and Development of Humanities Computing - Martyn Jessop, Ubiquity
The application of computing to research problems in the humanities is not new. One of the acknowledged pioneers in this area, Father Robert Busa, began his work on the Index Thomisticus (an index to the works of the medieval theologian Thomas Aquinas From Online Learning Update on December 30, 2004 at 8:46 a.m..

GENDER AND ONLINE DISCOURSE IN THE PRINCIPLES OF ECONOMICS - Duane B. Graddy, JALN
Collaboration is the heart of online learning. Interaction among course participants brings excitement to the online environment and creates knowledge as a group activity. Impediments to active collaboration reduce group, as well as individual, potent From Online Learning Update on December 30, 2004 at 8:46 a.m..

Predicciones 2005: Buscadores
Vía google.dirson llego a las sugerentes predicciones que, en materia de buscadores, formula John Battelle en su Searchblog: A look ahead: anticipa un año fructífero para la blogosfera y sospecha que Google will do something major with Blogger. Otras Predicciones... From eCuaderno v.2.0 on December 30, 2004 at 6:51 a.m..

Agencies Clash on Fingerprint DB
Most U.S. visitors are not fully screened for terrorist or criminal ties, according to a Justice Department watchdog. The reason: Bush administration agency infighting over such things as how many fingers to print. From Wired News on December 30, 2004 at 6:45 a.m..

Cheap Cell Calls Have a Price
A new service promises cheaper mobile calls by exploiting VOIP, but it's not going to be easy. The big carriers must be considered, plus customers will have to punch lots of extra numbers. By Rachel Metz. From Wired News on December 30, 2004 at 6:45 a.m..

Predictions for 2005
If idle hands are the devil's tools, then boredom at work must be his machine gun. In that spirit, here is this years (embarrassingly early) entry to a continuing K5 tradition, Predictions 2005, plus a look back at least years predictions. From kuro5hin.org on December 30, 2004 at 5:45 a.m..

Flickr: The Land of 10,000 Memes
Pontification on the meteoric popularity of Flickr is a common past time-- and it makes all the sense in the world of network hubs, preferential attachment, link fitness, etc (see Thinking About Links...). Flickr was hardly the first photoblog site (I danced a bit with fotolog and buzznet before flickr even hit the seen) but flickr's design and myriad of uses have made it the Google From cogdogblog on December 30, 2004 at 4:48 a.m..

Some Parents Say a $5 Gift Is Not Enough for Teachers
A $5-per-student spending limit for holiday gifts to teachers, a regulation imposed early in 2004, was largely ignored by parents and students. From New York Times: Education on December 30, 2004 at 4:45 a.m..

College? What College?
In Montclair, town and gown tend to go their own ways. From New York Times: Education on December 30, 2004 at 4:45 a.m..

Bringing Some Order to Games City Students Play
Leaders of New York City's Department of Education intend to create a new framework for competitive athletics in middle and elementary schools. From New York Times: Education on December 30, 2004 at 4:45 a.m..

One Boy's Journey Out of Autism's Grasp
An 8-year-old boy's continuing journey to break free of the grip of autism reflects a struggle that more than 150,000 American children have faced in the past decade. From New York Times: Education on December 30, 2004 at 4:45 a.m..

College Prep Help That Goes With You
If you are looking for a way to encourage a teenager to prepare for the SAT or the ACT, Kaplan has one answer: software that runs on hand-held computers, cellphones and smart phones. From New York Times: Education on December 30, 2004 at 4:45 a.m..

College Recruiters Lure Students With New Online Tools
Frustrated by the failure of e-mail solicitations, admission directors are looking for new ways to incorporate the Internet into their marketing plans. From New York Times: Education on December 30, 2004 at 4:45 a.m..

The Happiness Broker
Before: Hey, we need to talk! Don't you remember me? From school? Well I sure remember you! Look, let me buy you a coffee. Surely you have a few minutes to chat. A lot has happened since those days. From kuro5hin.org on December 30, 2004 at 4:45 a.m..

Feed2JS Updates: Has Its Own Feed (published via MT)
Thanks to some good feedback from suers, I've been able to make some needed corrections to our Feed2JS (RSS Feeds rendered via JavaScript). Like a Homer Simpson Doh! slap across the forehead, I realized that while I was faithfully adding to the main page's history, it certainly could use an RSS Feed to publish news of its updates. Now it is there: http://jade.mcli.dist.maricopa.edu/feed/content/feed2js.xml But a story behind the story. < From cogdogblog on December 30, 2004 at 3:48 a.m..

A new environment for learning?
If you find yourself with some extra time over the next few days and are feeling adventurous, you should set aside a moment or two and try out the beta version of Croquet.  Croquet is a 3-D rendered 'operating system' and provides an environment for navigating through, and representing, information.  Users are represented by the avatar of their choice (I ended up as a rabbit) and can wander through different spaces. When I saw a demonstration earlier this year, Croquet allowed users to naviga From EDUCAUSE Blogs - on December 30, 2004 at 2:58 a.m..

More Free, Open Text
In addition to interesting initiatives such as WikiBooks to publish free content, comes this interesting announcement from the giant Internet Archive: International Libraries and the Internet Archive collaborate to build Open-Access Text Archives Today, a number of International libraries have committed to putting their digitized books in open-access archives, starting with one at the Internet Archive. This approach will ensure permanent and public access to ou From cogdogblog on December 30, 2004 at 2:46 a.m..