Stephen's Web

OLDaily

by Stephen Downes
September 11, 2008

Open Source; a Better Model for All of Us
These are not happy days for the supporters of Wikipedia. They should never have listened to the critics; that simply resulted in the unleashing of a battery of self-appointed monitors and censors.

Should we be calling Jimmy Wales the Robespierre of the internet revolution? More here. Harold Jarche, Weblog, September 11, 2008 [Link] [Tags: Great Britain, Wikipedia, Paradigm Shift] [Comment]

Connectivism and LaaN
Mohamed Amine Chatti sketches a proposal of 'Learning as a Network' (LaaN). But I disagree with three of these outright and agree with one only provisionally:
"The LaaN view is built upon four premises: - Knowledge and learning are two sides of the same coin. - Knowledge and learning are fundamentally social in nature. - Knowledge is in the network, or even more knowledge is the network. - Learning is a matter of knowledge networking within knowledge ecologies." I think knowledge and learning are different: learning si the reshaping of our network, while knowledge is what it 'feels' like to be shaped a certain way (you can't not recognize...). Neither knowledge nor learning are fundamentally social; they require networks, not societies. Learning isn't 'networking' - it is subjecting oneself to a series of experiences (sometimes within a network) in order to grow new connections. Mohamed Amine Chatti, Weblog, September 11, 2008 [Link] [Tags: Connectivism, Networks, Experience] [Comment]

Are Institutional Portals and VLEs Really "Creepy Treehouses"?
Yes they are, says Brian Kelly, but he doesn't see anything wrong with this (though he does object to the use of the word 'lured'). Especially since "those pre-existing open or naturally formed environments would appear to be those social network and social sharing services owned by those bastions of open and democratic educational values - Google, Yahoo, Facebook, Microsoft, ..." Brian Kelly, UK Web Focus, September 11, 2008 [Link] [Tags: Networks, Google, Yahoo!, Microsoft] [Comment]

Bringing Pluto Back to the Solar System

One ball at a time people, that's how we win. Jason Kottke, Weblog, September 11, 2008 [Link] [Tags: Flickr] [Comment]

Table of Contents, Dictionary and Thesaurus in Google Docs
This is just the first salvo in what could be a decisive campaign against desktop-based software. Because after the thesaurus and dictionary, we should expect to see a wide range of online services available inside Google Docs, effectively merging our authoring experience with our search/browsing experience. I would be very surprised if Google doesn't go in that direction. Unattributed, Google Authoring System, September 11, 2008 [Link] [Tags: Google, Experience] [Comment]

What If Learning Technologists Ruled the World?
An interesting suggestion, coming from Gilly Salmon's talk at Alt-C. Because that would make me one of the rulers of the world. Or did she mean learning technologists other than me? Clive Shepherd, Clive on Learning, September 11, 2008 [Link] [Tags: none] [Comment]

El OLDaily
OLDaily is now being translated into Spanish. Thanks are due to El Blog Boyacense. Albert Gras Marti, El Blog Boyacense, September 11, 2008 [Link] [Tags: none] [Comment]

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