By Stephen Downes
January 16, 2004
Participation in On-line Courses – How
Essential Is It?
The author touches lightly on
several issues related to online discussions in courses:
the role of lurkers, measuring online participation, and
whther participation shpuld be graded, for example.
Discussion of this paper in the IFETS forum starts Monday.
By Bill Williams, IFETS, January 19, 2003
[Refer][Research][Reflect]
HP Sets Record With $2.5B in Linux-Based
Revenue
For those of you who think there is no
business model supporting open source software (or
content). Of course, HP is now facing a certain backlash
from its customers after announcing a war on "piracy". By Peter Galli, eWeek,
January 15, 2003
[Refer][Research][Reflect]
Rights Issue Dogs CD
Protection
Why aren't music downloaders
considered in the same light: as people using a new format,
without yet obtaining licensing, which will be resolved at
a later date? That's how the music publishers have
approached new "double session" CDs - "In the case of the
new two-part discs, labels are for the most part going
ahead and releasing the new formats without obtaining new
licences or striking new deals with the scattered
publishers." It's not "piracy", I guess, if you have
lawyers. By John Borland, Globe and Mail, January 14, 2004
[Refer][Research][Reflect]
Howard Dean's Plan for the Internet:
Collectivism In, Property Rights Out
If you
can't establish your argument with reason and perhaps a
little data, offer a hefty dose of Red baiting, complete
with images of work camps and forced collectivism. This, at
least, is the approach taken by the Cato Institute's Adam
Thierer, who probably ought to know better. Thierer is
strong on property rights, but such rights apparently don't
extend to those who wish to donate property to the common
good. Oh no, such people, by virtue of their sharing, are
trying to undermine freedom and democracy and apple pie.
By Adam Thierer, Cato Institute, January 15, 2004
[Refer][Research][Reflect]
A Survey of Digital Library Aggregation
Services
The aggregation of online library
resources has grown tremendously in the last year, as this
comprehensive report demonstrates. Still not a complete
summary (I didn't see EdNA or CAREO listed, among others) the compilation
nonetheless raises in my mind visions of the potential
before us: imagine all of these services in a single
network offering open access to all these resources. By
Martha L. Brogan, The Digital Library Federation, January,
2004
[Refer][Research][Reflect]
OneWorld Radio South
Asia
Promoting itself as a Napster for
development content, OneWorld Radio South Asia is
distributing audio programs in south Asian languages that
may be downloaded and rebroadcast by local radio stations.
"The aim is to develop the pilot project into a South Asia
edition of OneWorld Radio, which will service local
broadcasters by offering them a wealth of audio in local
languages that they can take on for re-broadcast." This is
a part of a larger project providing radio content
around the world. By Basheerhamad Shadrach, January, 2004
[Refer][Research][Reflect]
Product Reviews
This is a neat
idea, though the incompleteness of it is frustrating. From
a database of 760 educational products, readers can search
by keyword or product name. the idea is that this takes
them to a product review. Or does it? I found no reviews in
my searching, just a short description and a link to a
website. What would have been nice would have been links to
reviews, studies, anything, in fact, that would help inform
readers about the product. In addition I didn't see open
source products listed; the free stuff should be listed
side by side with the pay. And the system should generate
an RSS feed of the results, so people can stay up to date.
By Various Authors, TechLearning, January, 2004
[Refer][Research][Reflect]
Illegal Music Downloading
Climbs
When the Pew study was released a couple
of weeks ago saying that music dowloading had declined, I
suggested that the study might be flawed. A new survey
offers evidence for this, showing that music downloads
actually surged in the month after the lawsuits were
launched. By Associated Press, New York Times, January 15,
2004
[Refer][Research][Reflect]
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