OLDaily

I'm not sure about reputation systems per se, but it seems clear to me that with the recent splog crisis shaking the blogosphere we need some way to harvest content not only by topic but also by author. What's a 'splog crisis', you ask? 'Splog' is short for 'spam weblog' and is the result of automated processes filling sites like Blogger with fake blogs intended to link to sites they are trying to promote. In order to show up in search engines, these splogs are taking content from other blogs and pasting it, almost at random, in their own. [Read More] [Tags: Spam, Web Logs] [Comment]

Interesting paper responding to the idea, popularized by Borgmann and Dreyfus, that online communities are deficient, because they do not enable real interactions. Dreyfus writes, for example, "Like a simulator, the Net manages to capture everything but the risk... " Maybe. But I like Ulises Mejias's rejoinder (also cited by James Farmer: "Online experiences are indeed no substitute for the 'real' thing: allowing computer code to assume a large degree of social agency does sever ontological ties to the offline world. But code can also assume social agency that affords ontological nearness in different (and potentially enhancing) ways. Clearly, as numerous seemingly contradictory studies demonstrate, virtuality can be a site for both alienation and engagement, anomie and identity formation, commodification and commitment. The social agency of code can augment the social agency of humans in powerful new ways, and the challenge is to design systems which integrate the two in ways that encompass online and offline spheres of action." [Tags: Ontologies, Interaction, Semantic Web, Networks, Experience, Online Learning Communities, Web Logs] [Comment]

This is a very good presentation outlining very clearly not only how portfolios support learning but also shedding light on aspects of different types of portfolios. The centerpiece of this presentation is a diagram, taken from barrett, Wilkerson and Lang, delineating between the 'positivist' approach to portfolios, which stresses 'portfolio as test', and the 'constructivist' approach, which stresses 'portfolio as story'. Also worth noting are the slides near the end of the presentation describing 'ways institutional support matters'. Via elearnspace. [Tags: Constructivism, E-Portfolios] [Comment]

This might be a sign of more to come, as computing service people are expressing concerns about the free online audio program. Skype, while free, is not open source, and it also sneaks through firewalls using ports normally reserved for web servers. This makes it, in the eyes of system administrators, a security risk. [Tags: Open Source, Security Issues] [Comment]

Interesting. "The Learning Management Operating System (LMOS) will be designed from the ground up focusing on tool interoperability in order to provide campuses, faculty and students with unprecedented flexibility and control in customizing their virtual campus/class environments. In contrast to traditional LMS projects, the LMOS is conceived as a framework for integration and interoperability rather than a monolithic system." The project now has a home on EduForge and we should be expecting to hear more soon. [Tags: Interoperability, Customization, Project Based Learning] [Comment]

The EDUCAUSE annual conference is now on, attracting everybody who's anybody in online learning. As D'Arcy Norman, who links us to the iTunes version, comments, the casts are just trickling in now, as the conference gets started. But we'll see a lot more here over the next few days as the coverage ramps up. [Tags: Podcasting, EDUCAUSE, Online Learning] [Comment]

A little off-topic, but too interesting to not pass along, this round-table features many of Canada's most well-known journalists talking about the state of the media in our country. There's a lot of criticism - note especially the longish account of newspapers in New Brunswick. But the criticism is, from my perspective, muted. It has been a long time since I considered a newspaper (much less television or radio) to be a credible source of information in this country, and while on the one hand I thank fortune for the web, on the other I express concern about the longer term impact of media concentration, online or off. PDF. Via Canadian Journalist. [Tags: Canada] [Comment]

On the one hand, this article makes a good case for treating a network of blogs as a community of practice, observing that while bloggers do not communicate intentionally, while moderaters are not employed, and while they use different platforms, they nonetheless form a community, as evidenced by this diagram. And on the other hand, this article offers a glimpse into the Dutch edublogging community, a community we don't hear a lot about in the English-speaking world, but well worth exploring. [Tags: Flickr, Networks, Web Logs] [Comment]