By Stephen Downes
February 16, 2004
The Semantic Social Network
Two
types of technologies are about to merge. The technologies
are content syndication, used by blogging websites around
the world, and social networking, employed by sites such as
Friendster and Orkut. They will merge to create a new type
of internet, a network within a network, and in so doing
reshape the internet as we know it.
By Stephen Downes, Stephen's Web, February 14, 2004
[Refer][Research][Reflect]
VeriSign Works to ID Kid
Surfers
The idea is that kids will receive an ID
token that they plug into their computer's USB prot that
gives them access to kid-safe areas. Of course, given that
adults control kids, it seems that they wouldn't be hard to
come by. Nancy Willard, on WWWEDU, spots the larger problem. "Color me
totally paranoid, but our kids are a major target for
profilers and
marketers on the Internet. They are the demographic that is
most comfortable with technology and has lots of spending
(and nagging for spending) power. This system smells like
SPYWARE-FOR-KIDS-R-US. Elsewhere in the article it notes
the ability for kids to use these digital signatures to
purchase
products." Nancy nails it. This system has nothing to do
with protecting kids, because it won't. It has everything
to do with marketing to kids, and using fear to push people
into a closed marketplace. By Dawn Kawamoto, CNet news.Com,
February 10, 2004
[Refer][Research][Reflect]
Blogging and RSS — The "What's It?" and "How
To" of Powerful New Web Tools for Educators
This item is a few weeks old, but it's a good
article, though very introductory, which is why I didn't
run it before now. But if you're new to OLDaily and
wondering what's up with blogs and RSS, check out this
link. By Will Richardson, Information Today, January, 2004
[Refer][Research][Reflect]
We Are Morons: A Quick Look at the Win2k
Source
The good news? The Windows source code
is better than people thought it would be and not likely to
be pirated. The bad news? It was written by... well, better
to let the Microsoft authors desribe themselves. Worth
quoting: "In short, there is nothing really surprising in
this leak. Microsoft does not steal open-source code. Their
older code is flaky, their modern code excellent. Their
programmers are skilled and enthusiastic. Problems are
generally due to a trade-off of current quality against
vast hardware, software and backward compatibility." By
Selznak, Kuri5hin, February 16, 2004
[Refer][Research][Reflect]
Oats-Based Initiative
As I've said
before, "Apple uses music to sell iPods..." and today,
Quaker uses learning to sell oats... Yes, of course it is,
as Joho points out, an abdication of our responsibility to
teach children. But this program is the symptom, not the
cause. In related news, only 48 percent of Americans
understand that the earth orbits the Sun yearly, according
to this report. By Dave Weinberger, February
16, 2004
[Refer][Research][Reflect]
Two Boyds on YASNSes
I've had one
of those days where attention to agreements and
intellectual property and licensing prevented any real work
from getting done. So I'll leave it to Seb Paquet to refer
this quote from Marc Canter: "The business sector is
floundering around - trying to 'wrap their arms' around
something - that is un-wrappable. Since social software is
not a single market or even single trend - the VCs wanna
know "where's the beef?" "What's the business model?" "Who
do we invest in?" But the thing about it is - social
software is more than a trend or fad. It's a raising of the
bar - bringing humans into the equation of software.
Directly. From now on - all software MUST recognize the
fact that humans use it. That those humans have
relationships with other humans and that those
relationships are probably more important than that human
giving money to the software vendor." By Marc Canter,
Marc's Voice, February 13, 2004
[Refer][Research][Reflect]
TechKnowledge
Jay Cross offers
coverage of the TechKnowledge conference almost as good as
being there. Day One, Day Two and Day Three. Best bit: "People today want
to be doing things. They want control. They want tools.
Along with the book review, add a button for buying the
book. The browser's fading away in favor of Internet-aware
apps. Ease of use should mean 'Easy to Use.' Steve Jobs
announced the Mac in 1984, saying that Apple was making the
computer as easy to use as the telephone. Now our
telephones are getting as hard to use as our computers!"
Having just received an IP phone which I apprently need
training to use, I can only concur. At least I've stoped
deleting as viruses the voice mail it sends me by email.
Heartwarming quote: "I found this event very worthwhile. I
was happy to get the feeling that America is finally coming
out of the economic dark ages of the last couple of years."
By Jay Cross, Internet Time, February 11, 2004
[Refer][Research][Reflect]
Real Player
This item was sent to
me through the grapevine: "In case anyone was interested;
There is a version of Real Player, available through the
BBC, that is add free and ready for download. The BBC has
strict guidelines on advertising (being a gov't run
non-profit news agency) and therefore they provide this
special version of real player. There are windows/linux/mac
versions available." Urban legend or the real deal? By
Unknown, Real Media, February, 2004
[Refer][Research][Reflect]
Proposals for DC Rights-related
Terms
Some new proposals for Dublin Core element
descriptions, including isAvailableAt and Provenance, along with the rights related
terms mentioned in the title. I could not find a place to
offer feedback on the rights terms, but it's OK, as the
method Dubmlin Core proposes, to link to an external rights
metadata file (such as a Creative Commons file) works for
us here; we do exactly the same thing, linking to an
external ODRL file from the rights description fiel;d in
elarning object metadata. But Dublin Core should be aware
that the external file may contain not merely a license but
also an offer, that is, a document stating the conditions
under which use of a resource would be licensed. By Various
Authors, Dublin Core Metadata Initiative, February 11, 2004
[Refer][Research][Reflect]
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