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OLDaily

by Stephen Downes
March 26, 2008

Post-Trial Motion Filed
Desire2Learn has filed a postverdict motion for judgment as a matter of law and a motion for a new trial. Most of the documents are available on this page. To me they seem pretty straightforward (U.S. patent laws, for example, would not apply to business conducted in Canada) but we've already seen some less-than-obvious decisions from the court. Various Authors, Desire2Learn, March 26, 2008 [Link] [Tags: Desire2Learn, Patents, Canada, Copyrights, Patents] [Comment]

Semantic Web Patterns: A Guide to Semantic Technologies
This looks like YASWRRP at first (Yet Another Semantic Web Rah Rah Piece) but give the author time; as he develops his account through several levels of analysis what emerges is a crisp and insightful look at the state of semantic (if not necessarily Semantic Web) technology today. His point of departure is the (unfortunately named) 'top-down' approach to semantic encoding: instead of requiring peopel to create metadata, the 'top-down' approach uses information as-is, and interprets it according to pre-defined classifications (that's what my topic system does as well). Obviously a mixture of these approaches is idea, which leads through a discussion of annotation technologies. Also discussed are XML-based databases, semantic APIs, search and context. Via Sheila MacNeill. Alex Iskold, ReadWriteWeb, March 26, 2008 [Link] [Tags: Semantic Web, Research, XML, Metadata] [Comment]

Attempt to: Complete List of Sweded Movies....
The best thing on radio these days is Jian Ghomeshi, whose entertainment and culture show Q plays weekday afternoons on CBC. From him I picked up a couple of things today: First, to 'Swede' a movie is to create your own version of it (or of a part of it) using yourself and your friends as the actors. This site has a long list of Sweded movies. Some more on Sweded movies here and . The term comes from the movie Be Kind Rewind (which apparently nobody saw but everybody remembers). Sweded movies are, of course, one more entry in a litany of types of user-generated content. Video versions of lolcats.

Second, Ghomeshi interviewed Amy Sutherland, a writer who watched trainers at a zoo, discovered operant conditioning for herself, tried it on her husband, and discovered it works. Mostly. What I liked was the way it was characterized: "I should reward behavior I like and ignore behavior I don't," rather than (as most of us do) the other way around. Her book is based on a New York Times column. Brigitta Judd, Snacked, March 26, 2008 [Link] [Tags: Books, Video, Google] [Comment]

Women of Web 2.0 Show # 68
Women of Web 2.0 audio interview with social network analyst danah boyd. Some interesting bits, including the problems she had with the ethics committees and her observations on how her writing in her well-known blog itself changed the subject she was trying to study. Of course, ethical concerns went out the window after Murdoch bought MySpace. "I couldn't do any more damage," she remarks. Cheryl Oakes, Jen Wagner, Sharon Peters and Vicki Davis, Ed Tech Talk, March 26, 2008 [Link] [Tags: Audio, Networks, Web 2.0, Web Logs] [Comment]

The Purpose of a System Is What It Does
David Truss - who has moved to a new website - channels Stafford Beer in this look at thye purpose of education. "In a hundred years or so, everyone now alive in the whole earth will be dead - is this not so? ... It would therefore be possible for the human race to run its affairs quite differently, in a wise and benevolent fashion, in a relatively short time... The purpose of education," said Wizard Prang, "is to make sure this doesn't happen." David Truss, Pair-a-dimes for Your Thoughts, March 26, 2008 [Link] [Tags: none] [Comment]

Microsoft Succeeds in Making Vista Even Worse
Microsoft releases Service Pack 1, the long awaited fix to many of Vista's problems, and by all accounts, makes Vista's problems worse. This post links to some news articles on the story. Kevin Maney, Seeking Alpha, March 26, 2008 [Link] [Tags: Microsoft] [Comment]

HippoCampus
This is a very elegant site collecting multimedia Open Educational Resources (OERs) and presenting them by subject. HippoCampus is a project of the Monterey Institute for Technology and Education (MITE). Via Google for educators. Various Authors, Website, March 26, 2008 [Link] [Tags: Open Educational Resources, Google, Project Based Learning] [Comment]

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