Stephen's Web

OLDaily

by Stephen Downes
November 19, 2008

Drupal.Org Redesign - Cardsorting Module Categories
Drupal is doing a design and doing some open user testing - an interesting concept in itself. I really liked the Cardsort application they used. Leisa Reichelt, disambiguity, November 19, 2008 [Link] [Tags: Tests and Testing, Content Management Systems, Drupal] [Comment]

Higher Ed: Next Bloated Industry to Go?
This is a generally good white paper looking at the impact of social networking on business organization. It's important to keep in mind that by 'social networking' we must mean more than just your Facebook connections - todays social networks include the full range of contacts you make world wide using any technology. Good diagrams illustrating the new organizational structure on page 5. David Miller, heyjude, November 19, 2008 [Link] [Tags: Books, Networks, Video] [Comment]

A Social Layer for DSpace?
Brian Lamb asks, "can DSpace be extended so that the acts of searching and interaction around these resources can themselves be learning experiences." Of course it can, but equally obviously, it doesn't. So what would it take? This is the question he explores in this post. Great whiteboard photo (should be a 'must' for every learning PowerPoint slide presentation here on in). Anyhow, to approach an answer to Brian's question: what we need for such a system to work is a social layer that exists outside walled-garden websites like Facebook and LinkedIn - a social network without the social network website. Enabled by something simple, like OpenDD. Brian Lamb, abject learning, November 19, 2008 [Link] [Tags: Online Learning, Books, Networks, Experience, Interaction] [Comment]

The March of Access Control
Some big changes are coming not only to how the web functions but also to how it will feel for users. Basic web 2.0 operations - such as HTTPRequest - are set to be enabled with cross-domain access controls. This addresses some of the major issues of website interoperability, but also means that fun easy-going cross-site content-mashing is going to be replaced with one where you the external site must specifically grant permission. So simply linking to external resources to embed them - like this, say, or this - may become impossible. John Resig, Weblog, November 19, 2008 [Link] [Tags: Interoperability] [Comment]

RIAA Gets Tennessee Law To Force Universities To Filter Networks For Copyrighted Content
Mike Masnick writes, "Basically, the entertainment industry first flat-out lied (yes, lied) about how big a problem file sharing on campus was, and that got some Congressional Reps (with plenty of campaign contributions from the entertainment industry) to introduce legislation punishing universities if they didn't filter their networks." Mike Masnick, TechDirt, November 19, 2008 [Link] [Tags: File Sharing, Networks] [Comment]

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