OLDaily By Stephen Downes April 25, 2004 Update... This is a catch-up issue, as I am still in Vienna. One thing I have discovered here is that it is not nearly as much fun deleting 80 pages of spam as I had previously thought, especially when the city of Vienna offers an attractive alternative. I am mostly caught up with email, though less so with news items - though below are the most important for the last few days. By Stephen Downes, Stephen#s Web, April 25, 2004 [Refer][Research][Reflect] Common Locale Data Repository This is interesting: "The Common Locale Data Repository (CLDR) provides a general XML format for the exchange of locale information for use in application and system software development, combined with a public repository for a common set of locale data generated in that format. 'The consortium's goal is to enable people around the globe to use computers in their own languages,' said Mark Davis, president of the Unicode Consortium." By Press Release, Unicode, April 21, 2004 [Refer][Research][Reflect] LOM XML Schema Binding There's no nice article on this, but Chris Hubick (who knows about these things) writes, "The IEEE LTSC has issued an updated LOM XML Schema binding: here. Important: They have changed the LOM's XML Namespace slightly! The new namespace is here (note: this link produced an error when I tried it - Stephen). All instance documents, style sheets, and server processes dealing with LOM XML will need to be updated. Other than the namespace change, everything else appears to be mostly the same. I have again consolidated their multiple schema files into a single one: here. I updated the namespace constant in my Java LOM binding as well. By Chris Hubick, Athabasca University, April 23, 2004 [Refer][Research][Reflect] Dutch Student Residences Raided by Anti-piracy Squad More of the same, though this time beyond U.S. borders. I wonder what sort of regime we are creating when these quasi-legal forces have the right to raid property and seize assets, all in the name of protecting content monopolies. Meanwhile, more raids on school districts are being reported in the U.S., though there is some question of the accuracy of these reports - you need to follow the Slashdot discussion. In the U.S., copyright holders are also adopting a form of automated penalties which, in my mind at least, reaises questions about due process. More on this. China, meanwhile, has also agreed to enforce copyright, and I assume raids there will not be a major problem to arrange. It may be the same old song, but it's an old, broken record. By Joe Figueiredo, DMeurope.com, April 22, 2004 [Refer][Research][Reflect] The GMail Saga This well reasoned article captures the essence of the concern about Google´s new email service. "If you were offered a service that saved you money by having your paper mail opened by robots for scanning, which then inserted new junk mail in your box based on what it found, you might get a bit creeped out." The article contains a lot of good background about other initiatives and the Electronic Communications Privacy Act, which governs email policy, at least in the U.S. People working on student tracking and monitoring systems should note well the expectations of privacy people have online. By Brad Templeton, April 22, 2004 [Refer][Research][Reflect] Specification for an OAI Static Repository A Static Repository is an XML file containing metadata records that is made accessible at an HTTP URL, a lot like an RSS file. This new specification describes how to create static OAI repositories. Great stuff. Additionally, the Los Alamos National Laboratory Research Library has made their Static Repository Gateway software available at SourceForge. By Various Authors, Open Archives Initiative, April 23, 2004 [Refer][Research][Reflect] Know a friend who might enjoy this newsletter? Feel free to forward OLDaily to your colleagues. If you received this issue from a friend and would like a free subscription of your own, you can join our mailing list at http://www.downes.ca/cgi-bin/website/subscribe.cgi [ About This NewsLetter] [ OLDaily Archives] [ Send me your comments]