Stephen's Web

OLDaily

by Stephen Downes
May 26, 2008

Educational Mashups 2
Useful distinction 'mashups by integration' and 'mashups by aggregation', followed by a summary of a presentation by Eileen McMahon (senior instructional designer at UMass Boston), who "offered an overview of developments in the world of educational mashups." Kevin Wiliarty, Academic Commons, May 26, 2008 [Link] [Tags: none] [Comment]

RezEd
Just saw this today (thus proving that the internet is not only vaster than you imagine, the internet is vaster than you can imagine), RezEd, a "community for everything related to learning and virtual worlds! Each month we will feature inter-related podcasts, digital resources in the library, and featured blog posts." There's 335 members, more than I can add to my aggregator, but I'm following the 'featured blog posts'. Various Authors, RezEd, May 26, 2008 [Link] [Tags: Podcasting, Web Logs] [Comment]

Inside Craigslist's Increasingly Complicated Battle Against Spammers
Running this story will set off filters everywhere, but I don't care (if you haven't whitelisted downes.ca yet then I assume you don't want to hear me talk about naughty subjects like spam). Anyhow, this story is about the losing battle Craigslist is fighting with spammers. I would like to see Craigslist win, of course. But the problem is bigger than that. Spam is an ongoing problem. The law doesn't stope it at all. Any push system (that is, any system that allows someone else to put content on your site) is vulnerable. The best response is top distribute, so each person is responsible for his or her own site, and pulls content from trusted sources and service. But this distributes the internet in a way that is uncomfortable for site-based online services. And so the battle continues. Mike Masnick, TechDirt, May 26, 2008 [Link] [Tags: Spam, Push versus Pull] [Comment]

The Next Big Thing: Personalised Data-Mining
I'm not sure this is 'the next big thing' but it is reflective of current trends. "Personalized Data-Miningis not semantic web... it's the iterim (and necessary) stage that needs to happen before the semantic web can happen... 1. Not everyone will semanticize their information. 2. Those that do semanticize will do it badly (trust me) meaning you still can't use it the way you want to anyway." Tom Smith, theOTHERblog, May 26, 2008 [Link] [Tags: Semantic Web] [Comment]

Jeffrey C. King, The Nature and Structure of Content
It was precisely on this sort of issue that I locked horns with my PhD supervisor so many years ago, a disagreement on the nature of the mental that would never be resolved to anyone's satisfaction. My sympathies lie with the critical reviewer of this book, who argues that problems underlying the 'structured Russellian propositions' view render the account, ultimately, incomprehensible. Reviewed by Harry Deutsch, Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews, May 26, 2008 [Link] [Tags: none] [Comment]

Proposed Secret Copyright Deal Takes Aim at iPods, Providers
If true, this story, based on documents leaked Friday, would be a huge disaster for the Canadian internet. According to the report, "The Canadian government is secretly negotiating an agreement to revamp international copyright laws which could make information on iPods, laptops and other personal electronic devices illegal and greatly increase the difficulty of travelling with such devices." Via Michael Geist, who comments, "The Canadian government's participation demonstrates again that Industry Minister Jim Prentice is not a leader on IP - he takes orders rather than gives them." Vito Pilieci, Ottawa Citizen, May 26, 2008 [Link] [Tags: Apple Inc., Canada, Portable Computers, Copyrights, Patents] [Comment]

Muto
OK, it's not strictly my taste in animation, but it's compelling evidence that the concept of art in our society has been completely redefined. Kieran Healy, Crooked Timber, May 26, 2008 [Link] [Tags: none] [Comment]

Living Archives - Reflections On an Educational Project
Congratulations to Dave Cormier, who with his colleagues launches the Living Archives project today. The project involved having students research and prepare learning materials. In addition, they "invited some Seniors, heritage professionals and in French, musicians and storytellers from the community to come into the classrooms in order to try to bring some context to the research they were doing." Dave Cormier, Dave's Educational Blog, May 26, 2008 [Link] [Tags: Online Learning, Research, Project Based Learning] [Comment]

This newsletter is sent only at the request of subscribers. If you would like to unsubscribe, Click here.

Know a friend who might enjoy this newsletter? Feel free to forward OLDaily to your colleagues. If you received this issue from a friend and would like a free subscription of your own, you can join our mailing list. Click here to subscribe.