Stephen's Web

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by Stephen Downes
August 2, 2007

Hopewell Rocks

Delegates at the conference here in Moncton took a break and went on a field trip to the Hopewell Rocks, about half an hour south of the city. The rocks are a scenic part of the shore of the Bay of Fundy, home of the highest tides in the world. It's neat to walk on the seabed knowing that it was just covered with 40 feet of water. Stephen Downes, Flickr August 2, 2007 [Link] [Tags: Flickr] [Comment]

Privacy, Security and Trust: Challenges for the Intangible Economy
Jim Robbins, from EWA Canada, presented at the IFIPTMA Conference in Moncton and gave us quite a good fast-paced talk on how security issues effect the economy and on the role of identity in security and privacy. This is my summary of his talk. Stephen Downes, Half an Hour August 2, 2007 [Link] [Tags: Canada, Security Issues, Privacy Issues] [Comment]

There Are 12 Kinds of Ads in the World
Pretty good list. Also applies to software journalism. The slide version is easier to use. Seth Stevenson, Slate August 2, 2007 [Link] [Tags: none] [Comment]

Let'S Not and Say We Did
Mark Pilgrim writes, "Praising companies for providing APIs to get your own data out is like praising auto companies for not filling your airbags with gravel. I'm not saying data export isn't important, it's just aiming kinda low. You mean when I give you data, you'll… give it back to me? People who think this is the pinnacle of freedom aren't really worth listening to. Please, we need a Free Data movement." I quite agree. Via Tom Hoffman. Mark Pilgrim, Dive Into Mark August 2, 2007 [Link] [Tags: none] [Comment]

I Am a Googleholic and I Don't Care!
So what if you tried to live without Google for a day. My advice: make it a summer day, when you don't have any serious deadlines. And try some Alt search engines. Frances McLean, My Technology Addictions August 2, 2007 [Link] [Tags: Google] [Comment]

Bloggers Keep Teachers, Students Informed On Education Topics
Article introducing people who are bcoming known as experts via their blogs, for example, Joanne Jacobs, "Considered in cyberspace as the 'education blogmother.'" Jacobs is a good read; see this post on teaching to the test: "Students have little time to write anything but BCRs: They may write about plays but they don't act them out, much less try to write their own. They don't read chapter books and rarely go beyond the literal interpretation of what they've read." Also listed are Sean of EFL Geek and Matthew K. Tabor. I am long past being surprised to find clusters of bloggers like this; it is the internet distributing conversations the way it should. Unattributed, MiddleSchoolWorld August 2, 2007 [Link] [Tags: Web Logs, Google, Blogger] [Comment]

Africa: 'Internet in a Box' Brings Information to Developing World
This is an interesting item. "The eGranary Digital Library is often called "The Internet in a Box" because it offers offline approximately 10 million educational resources from more than 1,000 Web sites, including OpenCourseWare from course offerings by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Project Gutenberg's complete collection of classic literature and the entire Wikipedia Web site." No word on how much of the blogosphere is included. Jeffrey Thomas, AllAfrica.com August 2, 2007 [Link] [Tags: Information, Africa, Wikipedia, Web Logs] [Comment]

Disney Buys Popular Kids' Networking Site
Disney has decided it was worth $350 million to buy the Club Penguin, which has 700,000 subscribers paying $5 a month. I find it interesting that Disney was as interested in the values expressed by the site as the technology. "Club Penguin embodies principles that are of the utmost importance to Disney - providing high-quality family entertainment and fostering parental trust," said Bob Iger, Disney's president and chief executive. "The founders have woven together new technologies and creativity to build an incredibly compelling, immersive entertainment experience for kids and families." Anick Jesdanun, MSNBC August 2, 2007 [Link] [Tags: Experience, Quality] [Comment]

Web 2.0: Big App On Campus
E-learning 2.0 in a nutshell: "The theory is that lecturing is not an effective way for everyone to learn, but if you make a student create, they learn an incredible amount. That's the whole idea with changing this paradigm," said Knauff. Candace Lombardi, CNet News.com August 2, 2007 [Link] [Tags: Web 2.0, E-Learning 2.0, Paradigm Shift] [Comment]

Sorry Teachers, but the Read/Write Web Is Not Shutting Down
According to a BBC article, delegates at a meeting of the Professional Association of Teachers (PAT) in Britain have called on sites like YouTube to be closed down because of cyberbullying. I am inclined to agree with commentator Emma-Jane Cross: "Calls for social networking sites like YouTube to be closed because of cyberbullying are as intelligent as calls for schools to be closed because of bullying." Wesley Fryer, Moving at the Speed of Creativity August 2, 2007 [Link] [Tags: Schools, Great Britain, Networks, Video, Bullying, YouTube] [Comment]

Community Development
OSS Watch has started a Community Development mailing list. Stuart Yeates reports that "the discussions have mainly focused, so far, on RSS and on the use of Google Analytics in education." Various Authors, JISC August 2, 2007 [Link] [Tags: Google, RSS, EDUCAUSE] [Comment]

 

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