By Stephen Downes
July 7, 2004
Bloglines Bows Redesign, Ad Model as RSS
Heats Up
As the ClickZ article says, "RSS feed
aggregator Bloglines has redesigned its interface and
launched a blog creation tool, called Clip Blog." Bloglines
allows you to create an account on its website and read RSS
feeds; the blog tool is an obvious spin-off, as users of
Radio Userland know. It's also adding a commercial
capacity; "Fletcher said the company will use its
substantial knowledge about its users' interests to target
ads." But, as the story notes, web browsers are beginning
to support RSS. This could hurt sites like Bloglines - why
go to the website when the feature is already available in
your browser - and without advertising? By Zachary Rodgers,
ClickZ News, July 7, 2004
[Refer][Research][Reflect]
Benchmarking National Policies in Support of
E-learning For SMEs
European readers will want
to take note of this: "The Commission's Enterprise DG has
published a call for tenders relating to the benchmarking
of national policies in support of e-learning for small and
medium sized enterprises (SMEs) in Europe." By Press
Release, CORDIS RTD-NEWS, July 7, 2004
[Refer][Research][Reflect]
Enterprises Slow to Dump IE
In a
story that most institutional readers can relate to, the
use of Internet Explorer continues despite its critical
security flaws because many enterprise systems depend on
ActiveX and other Microsoft-specific features for
functionality. Be sure also to follow a link within this article describing a
new initiative by Microsoft rivals to allow non-IE browsers
to support ActiveX functionality (but without the hazards).
By Matt Hicks, eWeek, July 6, 2004
[Refer][Research][Reflect]
Private Sector Contributions to Achieving the
Millennium Development Goals
Mauritius is just a dot - a group of
dots, actually - in the Indian Ocean. More recently, it has
become one of the international conference destinations of
choice. It's warm, it's exotic, it's safe. And it is
becoming more wired daily. Andy Carvin, who writes today's
entry, is attending the the ICT Stakeholders Forum on the
island. And his coverage is outstanding and insightful, as
usual. But I can't help wondering what sort of definition
of "Stakeholder" filters for only those people who can fly
to Mauritius. And whether this sort of self-selection has
any bearing on the resolution of such meetings, as
expressed, say, in the current headline. By Andy Carvin,
Any Carvin's Waste of Bandwidth, July 7, 2004
[Refer][Research][Reflect]
Hand Scanners to Keep Tabs on Students at
Boca Middle School
The hand scanners will be
used by teachers to take attendance. Though I don't really
see how it really improves anything; my recollection of
attendance is that it was over in a couple of minutes (in
other words, more quickly than it will take a class of
students to line up to have their hands scanned). En
passant, notice this bit of wording in the article:
"Don Estridge is a choice school, designed to use the
latest technology to teach traditional subjects." The word
'choice' is the newest code-word for 'private' and the use
of that word by this newspaper clearly demonstrates its
political leanings. By Lois K. Solomon, Orlando
Sun-Sentinal, July 1, 2004
[Refer][Research][Reflect]
36 Percent of Software Worldwide Pirated,
Trade Group Says
I don't know how long
newspapers will continue to publish the fabrications of
organizations like the Business Software Alliance, but I
wish they'd stop soon. Once again, for the record: the
illegal use of a $100 software package does not represent a
$100 loss to the company that produced it. A person who
would use the illegal copy might not buy the legal copy -
particularly when the cost of the legal copy represents a
month's wages. On the other hand, the use of free versions
of software by people who could not otherwise afford it
actually represents a net gain for the company, since it
increases the overall demand for the software, creating a
network effect, pushing the software to ubquity. By
Associated Press, San Jose Mercury News, July 7, 2004
[Refer][Research][Reflect]
University of Phoenix plans campus in Des
Moines
... and coming soon, to a city near you.
Heh. By Kristen Schorsch, Iowa City Press-Citizen, July 6,
2004
[Refer][Research][Reflect]
UK Independent Private Schools
Sparticus links to this site with the
following comment: "Recent research suggests that the
average cost of a private education is £7,500 a year. This
is three times what is spent on the child receiving a state
education. If they gain power the Conservative Party have
claimed that they will encourage parents to take £5,500 out
of state coffers to pay for private education. The plan
forbids its use on any school with fees higher than this.
It is difficult to see how this will work. With private
schools costing up to £9,000 a year and new ones needed
capital to set up, few new schools would emerge to take up
the offer." What I wonder is, with costs ranging at three
times that of a public education, where do private schools
get a reputation for efficiency? And if one wants to pay
that much for a child's education, why not simply triple
the per-student allocation to public schools? From where I
sit, this looks to me like a plan to allocate a greater
than normal amount of money to those few students whose
parents can spend even more on top of that. This is not
progress. By Various Authors, June, 2004
[Refer][Research][Reflect]
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