Stephen's Web

OLDaily

by Stephen Downes
January 1, 2009

2009

It's a blizzard day today in Halifax as I begin 2009 where I left off 2008 - taking daily photographs. Stephen Downes, Flickr, January 1, 2009 [Link] [Tags: Flickr] [Comment]

An Insider's View On the Reason Why Most Research for Business Is Useless
One of the things I would like to spend some time on this year is the whole area of academic research. Because I think the word 'Business' could be replaced with the word 'Education' in the title of this post. Here's Aldrich on business research: "The big problem is that most business research relies on the same faulty intellectual constructs as other forms of linear content- it relies on linear analysis, case studies, and inspirational examples." This, though, means articulating what you want educational research to do, what you want education to do. It's hard thinking, and can't be resolved with slogans, but needs to be done. Clark Aldrich, Style Guide for Serious Games and Simulations, January 1, 2009 [Link] [Tags: Patents, Research, Academia] [Comment]

How To Do Almost Anything With Social Media
Part of he reason I don't do many "how-to" posts (see more on this below): there is no shortage of "how-to" posts in the world. This post links to dozens of them. Pete Cashmore, Mashable, January 1, 2009 [Link] [Tags: none] [Comment]

Review of Don Tapscott's, New Book Grown Up Digital
Curt Bonk reviews - and loves - Tapscott's Grown Up Digital. Yet as I read this, I can't help thinking o the Digg story (below). " This book is packed with content and, yet, as Don notes in the introduction, he had to delete a ton of stuff. Nevertheless, I see many familiar names who also appear in my upcoming "The World is Open" book-Chris Dede, J. S. Brown, Michael Wesch, Marc Prensky, Barry Joseph, Nicholas Carr, Henry Jenkins, Seymour Papert, and Julie Lindsay and Vicki Davis (both of whom also appear in Thomas Friedman's World is Flat book)." Curt Bonk, TravelinEdMan, January 1, 2009 [Link] [Tags: Books, Gaming] [Comment]

Where's That Line Between True Democracy And Mob Rule?
A furor has erupted on Digg his week. On Monday, a reader posted visual evidence of a power user submitting an exact copy of an earlier post - and getting 3000 diggs while the original user received almost none. The resulting comment thread has more than a thousand reactions. Typical is this: "This is why many Digg users have stopped submitting, they know it is highly unlikely their submissions will make the front page no matter how good their content is, but a power Digg user can submit something dumb like a photoshopped picture of pac-man at a graveyard and it will rise to the top." The complaints prompted Kevin Rose to offer a (highly unsatisfactory) personal response. More from WebProNews. Michael Masnick, TechDirt, January 1, 2009 [Link] [Tags: none] [Comment]

A New Year'S Copyright Puzzler
David Wiley hasn't responded to my response to his questions yet, but he has posted a couple more items in his own ongoing look at the Creative Commons Non-Commercial clause (CC-NC). On Wednesday, he created a game on CC-NC. And today, we see this suggestion that there is a loophole in CC-NC. David Wiley, iterating toward openness, January 1, 2009 [Link] [Tags: Open Content] [Comment]

E-Learning Tips
This is cool - a video version of my 'Ten Web 2.0 Things You Can Do' that I posted last year. Via Helge Scherlund. jago2009, YouTube, January 1, 2009 [Link] [Tags: Web 2.0, Video, Cool] [Comment]

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