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OLDaily

OLDaily is currently being produced by Barry Dahl (BD), Harold Jarche (HJ), and Gary Woodill (GW).

by Stephen Downes
July 18, 2008

Corporate Social Networks Are A Waste of Money, Study Finds
Social networks are relatively easy to set up, but hard to maintain unless there is a project or purpose that unites members, and makes them want to interact with each other. This post describes a recent study by Deloitte on the corporate use of social networks, and finds that most are small and inactive. At Brandon Hall Research, we decided to move our online community to Facebook, in order not to have the expense of maintaining the network. Marshall Kirkpatrick is especially hard on social networks for specific products, such as Purina's Breeze for Cats, a "community" focused on cat litter. -GW Marshall Kirkpatrick, ReadWriteWeb, July 18, 2008 [Link] [Tags: Networks, Online Learning Communities, Project Based Learning] [Comment]

A Musical Score for Disease
"When set to music, colon cancer sounds kind of eerie." That's the opening sentence of this article, that describes a computer program that "translates protein and gene expression into music." Disease sounds disharmonious while healthy samples sound more harmonious. Applications outside of medicine include any monitoring of large data sets, such as those from the stream of information that is always present in air-traffic control. I like startling ideas - new possibilities are just around the corner. -GW Jennifer Chu, Technology Review, July 18, 2008 [Link] [Tags: none] [Comment]

The Cost of Instruction: A Different Conversation?
A guest post by Jim Farmer at Michael Feldstein's blog provides information about Professor Vance Fried's pro forma business plan for a residential undergraduate college. "The results yield an annual full cost of instruction of $7,376-60% less than current baccalaureate and 50% less than masters institutions." Farmer identifies many of the things that Fried does not include in his fantasy college, and says "the discussion may quantify the extent of cross-subsidization of subjects such as the arts and classics, the research results of the teaching faculty, and service to the community-all omitted in Fried's model." -BD Jim Farmer, e-Literate, July 18, 2008 [Link] [Tags: Research, Web Logs] [Comment]

They Indeed Have Gone Crazy
Just to confirm that Canadian politicians have indeed gone crazy, Michael Geist links to a music mashup featuring Larry Lessig, CBC reporter Sandra Abma and Canadian Heritage Minister Josee Verner who doesn't know an upload from a download. A little humour for a Friday afternoon. -HJ Michael Geist, Michael Geist, July 18, 2008 [Link] [Tags: Canada] [Comment]

Shock Resistance
Doug Noon discusses what he sees as parallels between Naomi Klein's Shock Doctrine and the US government's No Child Left Behind (NCLB) education policy. "NCLB's mandate for all students to achieve academic proficiency has always seemed like a ploy to blame and shame schools, teachers, and teacher unions, to justify privatizing the public system." Noon now views the inequalities in the public education system as part of a systemic effort, "The basic disaster strategy: Ignore infrastructure until it fails (claiming there isn't money to maintain it). When a crisis hits, and while everyone is disoriented (in shock), funnel public funds to contractors who'll presumably make it all better." -HJ Doug Noon, Borderland, July 18, 2008 [Link] [Tags: Schools, Online Learning, Academia, No Child Left Behind] [Comment]

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