OLDaily

By Stephen Downes
February 24, 2005

Community Blogging
Text of the talk delivered to the Northern Voice conference. There is no centralized place that constitutes community, there are only people, and resources, that are distributed. By Stephen Downes, Stephen's Web, February 19, 2005 [Refer][Research][Reflect]

Multi User Weblogging
A number of people have asked me about multi-user weblogging (that is, setting up a single installation to support multiple writers, as a teacher might do for a class). I guess they have been asking other people, and it's James Farmer who comes through with the goods, a really nice overview of options for people who want to support multiuser weblogging. Manila, Drupal, Movable Type, WordPress - I;ve tried all these tools too, and have confidence they will do the job. Have a look at Farmer's outlines - it's like a smorgasbord. By James Farmer, incorporated subversion, February 22, 2005 [Refer][Research][Reflect]

Guru of the Obvious
Preparing to rule us all with an iron fist in a velvet glove, the king of the long tail, Leon Ipglips is coming to get us. Like the rest of the bloggers on his hitlist, I welcome our new Oblivious Overlord. Funny. By Leon Ipglips, Guru of the Obvious, February, 2005 [Refer][Research][Reflect]

Real Software Slams Microsoft's Patent Effort
Presumably unaware of Aristotle, Microsoft is attempting to patent the 'ISNOT' construction in basic. "The only reason a company would want to lay claim to such a patent would be to sue anybody who tries to implement that idea." It's the sort of tactic one would expect from a company that appears to deliberately sabotage other software. By Darryl K. Taft, EWeek, February 21, 2005 [Refer][Research][Reflect]

Future of FLOSS in education: Interview with Alan Levine
I'm listening to this interview witn Alan Levine recorded by Teemu Arina (you may recall he interviewed me a couple of weeks ago). What we get from Alan is a wonderful romp through the future, from which Arina extracts this zinger: "In contrary to large and rigid content management systems, educators and students have noticed easy personal publishing on a wide scale. One weblog related to education is created every second according to statistics provided by Technorati. Google has launched a specially branded service called EduBlogger™ based on their popular Blogger™ service." Whee! By Teemu Arina and Alan Levine, FLOSSE Posse, February 23, 2005 [Refer][Research][Reflect]

In Defense of Citizen Journalism
Steve Outing writes, "In the journalism of tomorrow (and to an extent, it's already here), everyone will get to have his or her say. While acceptance of that among traditional news editors is gaining to a degree, there's plenty of skepticism and defensiveness still." In the column attached to this quote he looks at several objections raised by newspaper editors to the idea of citizen journalism and responds with a firm insistence that down this path lies the only real future for traditional media. This item follows a flurry of similar stories, including two from the Washington Post (ridiculous registration required) here and here, and an item in Forbes here. By Steve Outing, Editor and Publisher, February 22, 2005 [Refer][Research][Reflect]

No Books, No Problem
According to this author, a high school chemistry teacher, "The students in my general chemistry class almost never open their textbook. My reason: The less I use the book, the more they learn." Over the last few years, he writes, he has banished textbooks from his classroom - for the better. "Most bore my students and frustrate me... Many promulgate scientific misconceptions or even outright errors... They present ideas didactically as discrete facts to be accepted, rather than as clues of principles to be discovered and explored." By Geoff Ruth, Edutopia, February, 2005 [Refer][Research][Reflect]

Would an Infinitely Rational Pirate Play Soccer?
Subtitled "A Geek's Guide to Gaming the College Admissions Process" this article is a lighthearted look at the use of sports by geeks to ease their way into college admissions. A well written bit of fun. By pHatidic, Kuro5hin, February 23, 2005 [Refer][Research][Reflect]

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