OLDaily
By Stephen Downes
July 8, 2004

Q & A with Stephen Downes
Short interview talking about the impact of diploma mills, disintermediation, and how to learn how to use the web for learning. By GA.Buchholz, Contentology, July 7, 2004 [Refer][Research][Reflect]

Mapping BlogTalk 2.0
This is very cool - what you see is an interactive map of Vienna with various hot spots on it. Click on the hot spot and you are displayed a blog post with a comment, usually describing what may be found at the hot spot. Even better, if you click 'i' on the map you can also add your own information (at least in theory - I tried to add the location of the cybercafe in the city but it didn't take). What I'm thinking, though, is that the information added to the map needs to be cumulative - that is, more than one person should be able to add to the same location. Maybe a Wiki would be a better back end for this than a blogging engine. No matter. Community mapping like this is the way of the future. By Various Authors, July, 2004 [Refer][Research][Reflect]

WordPress Plugin: FOAF Output
The Semantic Social Network marches forward. This link is to a Friend of a Friend (FOAF) plugin for the open source blogging tool, WordPress. This allows users to distribute their personal information in an XML format. By Morten Frederiksen, Binary Relations, July 5, 2004 [Refer][Research][Reflect]

Pressure Mounts on Reed to Open Access to Science Work
This story follows the announcement by the number two company in the field, Springer, that it is moving to the open access model of journal distribution online. "Springer's move to the 'open access' model will ratchet up the pressure on Reed Elsevier, the London-listed market leader, which is desperately clinging to the traditional style of science publishing," Via Open Access News. Now I should note that a tour of the Springer web site doesn't yield any obvious links to open access content or even a pres release on this, so we're not there yet. By Saeed Shah, The Independent , July 7, 2004 [Refer][Research][Reflect]

Australian Government to Offer Guide to Open-Source
Not only cool, but useful. And reflective of an encouraging trend. "A new guide designed to help federal government agencies evaluate open-source products alongside their proprietary rivals is due to be completed and distributed by September". By Iain Ferguson, CNET News.com, July 7, 2004 [Refer][Research][Reflect]

France Telecom Develops an Integrated Flexible Screen to Display Animated Graphics on the Wearer
I'm not sure how this relates to online learning, but I'm sure it adds an entirely new dimension to the debates about inappropriate clothing that rage from time to time in schools. By Press Release, France Telecom, July 1, 2004 [Refer][Research][Reflect]

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Copyright © 2003 Stephen Downes
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