By Stephen Downes
August 12, 2004
Transparency Begets Trust in the
Ever-Expanding Blogosphere
Examines reasons why
bloggers are more trusted than journalists. "Bloggers are
more trusted, I think, because they are human and too often
news organizations are not. Bloggers tell you who they are
(usually) and what their backgrounds and biases are and
their readers can judge them and engage with them on a
personal level. News organizations are big and often
monolithic and are reluctant to admit let alone share
perspective or agendas." By J..D. Lasica, Online Journalism
Review, August 12, 2004
[Refer][Research][Reflect]
Re: Acacia Media Technologies
Corporation
Russell Poulin sent this enormously
useful post to the DEOS-L mailing list regarding the Acacia
patent claim. As another reader notes, "Acacia has targeted
distance education for courses that use streaming or
downloadable audio and/or video." Poulin responds that "WCET has been
collecting information related to the Acacia patent issue
and sharing it." What follows is a detailed set of links
and resources. Note well: "It may behoove colleges NOT to
sign license agreements at this time. Though Acacia's
patents may be ruled invalid (and the results of the recent
Markman hearings defining the terms of the patents seem to
indicate a trend in that direction), those who have signed
contracts with Acacia will still be legally obligated to
pay licensing fees." By Russell Poulin, DEOS-L, August 10,
2004
[Refer][Research][Reflect]
'Stealing Songs is Wrong' Lessons Head for UK
Schools
As this article sardonically observes,
"The [British] government seems to be falling hook, line
and sinker for the curious notion that you need to
understand that downloading music is stealing before you
can possibly learn about, to make and to enjoy music."
Being less obscure, I would observe that this is the plain
placement of propaganda in the classroom. Why not simply
distribute political pamphlets and conduct exercises in
groupthink and be done with it? By John Lettice, The
Register, August 5, 2004
[Refer][Research][Reflect]
Copyright Issues in Digital
Media
For people familiar with the copyright
debate this essay won't introduce a lot that is new, but is
worth a read nonetheless in order to view the issues from
the point of view of economic efficiency, the only
consideration countenanced by the authors. Overall, and in
this light, what follows is a balanced and subtle
consideration of the issues. People new to the issue will
find this an excellent starting point, though they should
be aware that other considerations, such as privacy, due
process under law, and freedom of expression, also have
their place within the debate. By Various Authors,
Congressional Budget Office, August, 2004
[Refer][Research][Reflect]
Issues arising from DCMI Abstract
Model
This paper is obscure but will be found
worthwhile by the metadata community. It is essentially a
list of issues raised in the Dublin Core metadata
architecture. Worth a more general readership (but unlikely
to get one) is the last section. The author writes, "It is
important to remember that there are two kinds of schemas -
syntactic and semantic. A syntax schema will be associated
with a record and will define how the syntax is being
used.... A semantic schema defines what classes of resource
are being described, which terms are being used and what
their semantics are." By Andy Powell, UKOLN, University of
Bath, March, 2004
[Refer][Research][Reflect]
Style: a Pleasure for the Reader, or the
Writer?
Because I write for an audience every
day (a discipline that wonderfully focuses the mind) I find
myself attending to questions of style on a regular basis.
According to the author, the vast majority of students
cannot write (or, at least, cannot write clearly). Writing
to make the meaning transparent to the reader is a noble
goal. But it is not the only goal. Via ArtsJournal. By Ben
Yagoda, Chronicle of Higher Education, August 13, 2004
[Refer][Research][Reflect]
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