By Stephen Downes
April 27, 2004
No OLDaily Tomorrow
Wednesday is a
travel day, and I will be spending seven hours flying from
Vienna to Toronto, and seven hours flying from Toronto to
Moncton, thanks to the mysteries of Air Canada. See you
Thursday. By Stephen Downes, Stephen's Web, April 27, 2004
[Refer][Research][Reflect]
Implementation of WSIS recommendations at
National Levels
It would appear that publishers
are now alerted to the danger that WSIS might promote open
access, if this commentary on the WSIS process in Britain
is any guide. This item contains a scathing comment from
Francis Muguet, who chairs the WSIS Working Group on Scient
ific Information. She writes, "One can clearly see that the
oral testimony schedule is completely unbalanced in favor
of publishers. There are fours panels for publishers vs one
panel for Libraries and only one for Academics... The irony
is that Committee' secretary replied to us that 'Your
written evidence was very thorough and, because of this,
the Committee decided that it did not need any further
information from you.' Is this a joke?" The page also
contains numerous links to WSIS-related submissions. By
Francis Muguet, WSIS, April, 2004
[Refer][Research][Reflect]
As Wealthy Fill Top Colleges, New Efforts to
Level the Field
A university degree from a
prestigious institution, they say, is synonomous with
academic excellence. Of course, this may be a relic of the
past, as a university degree from these institutions is
becoming increasingly a sign of how wealthy your parents
are. This is a trend I have been observing for the last 20
years, since I entered university as an unmatriculated
adult. Sooner or later, the other show will drop, and
universities will pay the price for favoring financial
means over academic qualifications. By David Leonhardt, New
York Times, April 22, 2004
[Refer][Research][Reflect]
World Finance Officials Focus on
Poverty
Bonnie Bracey summarizes this item
nicely in WWWEDU: "A number of countries, led by the
Netherlands, Norway, Britain, France and Canada, announced
new commitments for a World Bank fast-track program to get
more support to 40 poor nations judged to have the best
plans for achieving
universal education. But education advocates said the
effort was being held back by the reluctance of other
wealthy countries including the United States to commit
enough money to the program." Though Bonnie linked to an
AOL source in her email, which requires a registration, I
have loctaed this open access alternative. It would be nice
if the rich countries would pitch in, but I will say this,
if they don't, then we will just have to do the work
ourselves. By Martin Crutsinger, All Headline News, April
25, 2004
[Refer][Research][Reflect]
Will Publishers Perish?
"Many
authors," offers this article, "have become frustrated with
conventional publishers, entrenched by market projections,
annual styles and the unmentionable word 'returns.'" Count
me among them, not because I don't think I could get a
'real book' published, but because I don't care to sign my
life away to do it. As Marilyn Ross says, "Authors today
like to be in control of their own destinies. The thought
of a big publishing house changing their title, dressing
the book or rearranging text is unacceptable." Only one
thing: why would I bother with a Print on Demand (POD)
service? Post the text online, and you're done.
By Edward Wilkinson-Latham, Globe and Mail, April 27, 2004
[Refer][Research][Reflect]
CNET Launches Music Download
Service
This is important news, and could alter
the music landscape beyond recognition if it succeeds.
"Online technology company CNET Networks on Monday launched
a free digital music service, allowing
people to search and download what it said were thousands
of songs contributed by independent and unsigned artists."
As CNet exec Scott Arpajian told the Wall Street Journal
(subscription - no link) "Our goal is to be the primary
destination for free, legal downloadable content. We're
very confident that the ad model will support the
business." Now, apropos to the current discussion on
DEOS-L, the question is not whether a similar free download
service will be offered for educational resources, but who
will do it, and when it will launch. By Reuters, CNet
News.com, April 26
[Refer][Research][Reflect]
Google IPO Could Re-energize
Valley
Everyone is going ga-ga over the
possibility of a Google IPO. Let me go on the record as
being (possibly the only person in the world to be) opposed
to the idea. Sure, an IPO would generate a whack of cash.
But Google makes money now, good money. And IPOs are not
free: when you sell shares, you lose your independence, and
time and again Google has demonstrated that the rules it
plays by - starting with its core principle, "Don't do
evil" - are different from the mainstream of the corporate
community. Add to that the foolish and unjustified spin-off
effect a Google IPO would cause and you have what seems to
me a compelling case for staying out of the stock market
game. By Matt Marshall and Michael Bazeley, San Jose
Mercury News, April 27, 2004
[Refer][Research][Reflect]
Towards a Philosophy of
M-Learning
Terry found this paper and forwarded
it to Rory, who forwarded it to me. It is well worth
noting. The author writes, "The medium in which children
play, communicate, and learn - the world of networked
computing and mobile communications - is increasingly
identical with the world in which adults communicate, work,
do business, and seek entertainment." This causes us to
rethink the role of the school and the idea that learning
is something that people, and especially children, do in
isolation from society as a whole. Moreover, the author
notes, not only is our locus of communication changing, so
is our mode, and this has an impact on the content of
learning. "'Words make division, pictures make connection',
wrote Otto Neurath. In the world of learning, it was the
printed word - the abundance of books - that was mainly
responsible for creating divisions between fields of
knowledge." The result is something I have advocated as
long as I have been in this field: "Verbal and pictorial
information circulates; a knowledge community is thereby
formed." By Kristóf Nyíri, IEEE International Workshop on
Wireless and Mobile Technologies in Education, August 29,
2002
[Refer][Research][Reflect]
Institutional Archives
Registry
Listing of known Open Archives
Initiative (OAI) repositories with numbers of records and
growth charts. So far, something like 180 repositories are
listed (view them by type and by country of origin by
clicking 'browse') though as Stevan Harnad indicates in his
email, there are more out there. If you have one and it's
not listed, consider adding it to the site. By Tim Brody,
EPrints.Org, April, 2004
[Refer][Research][Reflect]
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