Stephen's Web

OLDaily

by Stephen Downes
June 16, 2008

Contest
Well - I received exactly two entries for the contest. Not really what I was hoping for. Thanks to the entrants, and I'm going to think about what I want to do now. Stephen Downes, June 16, 2008 [Link] [Comment]

Community Source Software: The Beginning of the End, or the End of the Beginning? Notes From a Panel.
Interesting summary of a discussion on the future of 'community source' software - 'community source' is a lot like open source, in that it supports collaborative development, but is distinct in that development, and sometimes access to the software at all - is limited to a community. 'Community source' need not refer only to software; specifications created by IMS are also community source, in that they are created by the community, even though viewing of the specification si limited to members of the community (at least, in the case of Common Cartridge). It was interesting to learn that "the PeopleSoft student system wasn't developed by PeopleSoft. It was by 8 universities and "campus solutions" who worked at universities so they started down the path to build it." An audio podcast is available. Lida L. Larsen, EDUCAUSE Connect, June 16, 2008 [Link] [Tags: Audio, Podcasting, IMS Project, Open Source, EDUCAUSE] [Comment]

The Cost of Learning
Tony Hirst calculates what it would cost to produce Open University courses and how much advertising would be needed to fund them were there no subsidies, tuitions or other funding. The upshot is that each student would need to click through an ad image on each page of each course. Martin Weller concludes that advertising won't fund courses. I conclude (as I have on numerous previous cases, for example, here) that we'll abandon the course production model. Tony Hirst, OUseful Info, June 16, 2008 [Link] [Tags: Traditional and Online Courses, Marketing, Tuition and Student Fees] [Comment]

The Opportunistic Developer Is Allergic to Soap
The argument in a nutshell: "In the JISC Information Environment, the norm has been to develop SOAP interfaces to services [but] the consensus was that the use of SOAP for public service interfaces, rather than being an enabling mechanism, is actually a barrier to adoption." Paul Walk, Weblog, June 16, 2008 [Link] [Tags: Information, Joint Information Systems Committee (JISC)] [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.