By Stephen Downes
June 4, 2003
Microsoft Patents Video on Demand? Gimme a
Break
According to this report, Microsoft has
obtained a patent on video-on-demand."If your company is
thinking about delivering interactive video-on-demand
cable-television programming or movies via satellite to
consumers, maybe it'd better start thinking about paying
royalties to Microsoft first. That's because Microsoft has
just been granted exclusive United States patent rights to
a 'networked interactive entertainment system' which
'allows viewers to create their own customized lists of
preferred video content programs, such as movies, games,
[and] TV shows.'" I agree with Dan Gillmor's assessment:
"The U.S. Patent & Trademark Office is out of control. This
is definitive proof." By Dan Gillmor, SiliconValley.Com,
June 3, 2003
[Refer][Research][Reflect]
So, What Is A Content Management
System?
High-level overview of the use of
content management systems (CMSs) in the creation of
websites. Describes business benefits, escription, and
content lifecycle. By James Robertson, Step Two Designs,
June, 2003
[Refer][Research][Reflect]
Macromedia Updates E-learning
Tools
According to the article, "The new version
(or Authorware), 7, includes a number of enhancements
intended to streamline the process of putting together such
presentations, most notably the ability to import files
created in Microsoft's PowerPoint software." As Maish
comments in eLearningPost, "Here we go again..." By David
Becker, Business Week, June 3, 2003
[Refer][Research][Reflect]
If You Really Want to Know, Ask a
Blogger
This nice article hammers home some
points that traditional news media ought to keep in mind:
Because bloggers are often experts in a field, and
journalists are often not, the information found in a blog
may frequently be more accurate than the information found
in a corresponding news article. And because bloggers are
not constrained by the commercial or political interests of
a publisher, bloggers are able to report news that will not
be covered (or that will be covered only from a certain
point of view). Finally, because bloggers link freely, and
because traditional news coverage is hidden behind
subscription walls or registration screens, bloggers'
coverage is more likely to show up on search results than
that of traditional journalists. It seems to me that unless
traditional media (a) begins to attract the writing of
experts, (b) manages somehow to escape the biases inherent
in its corporate structure, and (c) opens up its coverage
to the web at large, then traditional media is in
significant danger of being eclipsed by blog news coverage.
By John Naughton, The Observer, June 1, 2003
[Refer][Research][Reflect]
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