By Stephen Downes
September 5, 2003
Microsoft, City to Build
School
Its last partnership with private
enterprise, a much-maligned contract with Edison Schools,
having failed, the City of Philadelphia is turning now to a
partner with deeper pockets: Microsoft. "A $46 million high
school dazzling with the latest technology - from
interactive digital textbooks and computerized tablets to
electronic play diagrams for the basketball team - will be
built by the Philadelphia School District in partnership
with Microsoft Corp., officials announced yesterday." I'm
not sure of the wisdom of spending $46 million on 700
students, and I'm certainly not certain about the wisdom of
letting a single company - which will provide " full-time
on-site project manager, planning and design expertise,
staff training, and continuing technology support" - such
control over the educational agenda. On the bright side,
parents and students will be easily able to enter the
administrative system and change their grades. By Susan
Snyder, Philadelphia Inquirer, September 5, 2003
[Refer][Research][Reflect]
Stopping the Clock on College
Tuition
I could be wrong, but from where I sit
it's a pretty safe bet that this plan is going to crash and
burn, costing untold numbers of students their pre-paid
tuition. The idea is that you pay for tuition now at
today's rates, and receive your education later. The
colleges - about 300 private colleges are expected to join
the plan - will collect and invest the money, betting that
investment returns will cover the cost of rising tuitions.
I cannot count the number of ways this plan could go wrong,
and if you doubt me, then I have only one word in response.
Enron.
By Eileen Ambrose, Baltimore Sun, September 4, 2003
[Refer][Research][Reflect]
eBay Mutes iTunes Song
Auction
George Hotelling's song auction,
described here yesterday, has been pulled by eBay, which
claims that the sale violates its terms of services.
Hotelling responds, ""I do not believe that my
auction violates the downloadable media policy, I posted in
my auction that I would not be violating it." Personally,
I'm not sure I want companies like eBay to be playing the
role of the judiciary. By Evan Hansen, CNet News.com,
September 5, 2003
[Refer][Research][Reflect]
Music Biz to Give File Sharers
Amnesty
The Recording Industry Association
(RIAA) has announced an amnesty program for file sharers
who repent. "The RIAA will not pursue legal action if
infringers delete all unauthorized music files from their
computers, destroy all copies (including CD-Rs) and promise
not to upload such material in the future. Each infringing
household member will have to send a completed, notarized
amnesty form to the RIAA, with a copy of a photo ID. " This
reponse from the Mercury News is typical of the general
reaction: "Me lose brain? Uh, oh! Ha ha ha! Why I laugh?
Has the RIAA lost its mind?" Perhaps, but the music
industry as a whole seems to be suffering a lapse these days. By Bill
Holland, Yahoo! News, September 4, 2003
[Refer][Research][Reflect]
When Does "Own" Not Mean
"Own?"
Good rant about the meaning of the word
"own" and the problems faced by libraries with respect to
DRM. "After much debate, we came to the conclusion that if
a library purchases titles from ED, it does indeed own
them. However, if it stops subscribing to the service, if
ED folds the way Gemstar did, or if PDFs are replaced by
another format, the library will 'own' a file that is
completely and utterly useless." While you're on the site,
check out her defense of aggregators, which led me to
this criticism of aggregators, which led me to
the David Weinberger item listed immediately below. By
Jenny Levine, The Shifted Librarian, September 4, 2003
[Refer][Research][Reflect]
The Unspoken of Groups
Good talk
explaining what's wrong with systems like Friendster and
with makinking things explicit. It raisies issues I have
touched on frequently over the last year. This quote is
very important: "But here’s the problem: things aren’t
about what they’re about. 'Aboutness' is also contextual
and ambiguous. For example, if my blog entry on the JFK
assassination links to the 1962 Sears catalog from which
Oswald bought his rifle, the author of that catalog will
not have labeled it as being about the JFK shooting. And if
a scientist publishes a paper about a new polymer, she may
in passing reject some closely related compound because
it’s too sticky…but that may be exactly what you’re looking
for. So, for you the article is about what the author
tosses away in a footnote. Not to mention that in much of
the best writing, about-ness is an emergent property. So,
while the author’s intentions are an important clue,
aboutness is ambiguous. Systems that too easily categorize
and classify based upon a univocal idea of aboutness do
violence to their topic." By David Weinberger, O’Reilly
Emerging Technology Conference, April 26, 2003
[Refer][Research][Reflect]
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