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by Stephen Downes
February 20, 2009

Long Beach

I have a lot of material worth sharing but which didn't fit into the newsletter this week, so I'm going to add another issue tomorrow (Saturday) to cover some of this ground. Weekly readers, who were treated to an unprecedented Monday issue last week, three days late, will receive a special Saturday issue tomorrow (which they will find out about, um, tomorrow). Anyhow, this photo links to the last of my collections from California - as I took a break from the IMS conference I wandered to a wetland preserve nearby and watched this osprey dive into the water and catch a fish. Fabulous. Here's the slideshow containing more photos of the Osprey and of Long Beach generally. Stephen Downes, Flickr, February 20, 2009 [Link] [Tags: Newsletters, IMS Project, Flickr] [Comment]

CCK08 Final Wrap Up Conversation
George Siemens and I will be discussing the lessons learned (or not learned, or non-lessons, as the case may be) from our connectivism and Connective Knowledge course offered last fall. Since we're offering it again in 2009, we'd like to get the best advice possible. The session will be held at 1:00 pm CST (see world clock times for your time zone) on Monday, February 23, 2009. The session will be held here in Elluminate, with Dave Cormier serving as moderator.
George Siemens, CCK08, February 20, 2009 [Link] [Tags: Connectivism] [Comment]

MONEY: Think You Know Your Stim Numbers? You Have No Idea.
The stimulus fund has passed and the people who brought you the recession are more than eager to tell you how to profit from the new spending. I have in my inbox this link to a description of the stiumulus funds and a link to MDR, which wants to help you "make sure your marketing messages are top of mind!" Meanwhile, Erika Fitzpatrick, writing for Alexander Russo's This Week in Education (in what for all appearances blatant advertising disguised as a blog post - tell me I'm wrong!), offers speculation about where the dollars will land. Thompson's School Grants (they know where their market is) offers a PDF download - if you subscribe for $399. There are also audio conferences at similar scales. Erika Fitzpatrick, This Week In Education, February 20, 2009 [Link] [Tags: Schools, Audio, Marketing, Web Logs] [Comment]

The Training Department of the Future
Harold Jarche and Jay Cross release a manifesto-like document. I'm beginning to see quite a bit more collaboration and common-sourcing among some of the leading people in the corporate e-learning sector. This is a good thing and should result in some very strong marketing for the group of them. Harold Jarche and Jay Cross, togetherlearn, February 20, 2009 [Link] [Tags: Online Learning, Marketing] [Comment]

IBM Lotusphere 2009 Highlights - The Business Value of Collaboration Software
A nice contrast with the article that follows: six principles from IBM staffers on the business value of social software (they also become, on translation, six principles on how to best use collaboration software): "1. Find: people, places, information... 2. Validate: people especially... 3. Direct dialogue: with customers (and suppliers), internal and external.... 4. Capture information... 5. Connections: spread internal innovation widely and rapidly... 6. Communities: increase staff morale and retention through a sense of belonging and recognition."

Luis Suarez, E L S U A, February 20, 2009 [Link] [Tags: none] [Comment]

Six Ways to Make Web 2.0 Work
A dozen or so weblogs have cited this article from The McKinsey Quarterly, a consulting company's business journal. Though the six principles merit attention, I don't agree with all of them as stated. For example, instead of saying "The transformation to a bottom-up culture needs help from the top" I would say "the top should engage, rather than obstruct, the bottom-up culture." Or instead of saying "The best uses come from users-but they require help to scale" I would say "The best uses come from users, but these must be allowed to propagate." The point is the same but the emphasis is different. See also Derek Wenmoth for a pretty good summary. Michael Chui, Andy Miller, and Roger P. Roberts , The McKinsey Quarterly, February 20, 2009 [Link] [Tags: Web 2.0, Web Logs] [Comment]

Exclusive: Some Education Authorities Are Truly Incompetent
Worth contrasting with Larry Sanger's article, below. "One teenager in a Scottish Local Authority [tries] to access what is, arguably, one of the best web safety and media literacy sites in the UK, Government and European Union supported and funded. An Education Authority (District) has the site blacklisted as being part of a cult." Ewan McIntosh, Weblog, February 20, 2009 [Link] [Tags: Great Britain, Scotland, European Union] [Comment]

The Fate of Expertise After Wikipedia
Oh, that's a very nice turn Larry Sanger provides in his essay The Fate of Expertise after Wikipedia. Here's the punch-line: "The quality of a given Wikipedia article will do a random walk around the highest level of quality permitted by the most persistent and aggressive people who follow an article." We can understand the words, but what does it mean? Track back into the essay and find this account of Wikipedia's success: the idea, that Wikipedia is matching expert knowledge and hence rendering experts unnecessary is actually explained by the observation that Wikipedia achieves its success by tracking expert opinion. We see this in Wikipedia's 'verifiability policy,' which holds that "material challenged or likely to be challenged should be attributed to a reliable, published source using an inline citation." But this expertise, he argues, must also apply to the editing and selection of articles, otherwise, "the know-nothings can drive off the know-somethings in the inevitably many content disputes..." But let's suppose that this is true (and I am quite willing to agree that it is, for a variety of reasons). Is expert supervision the right response? Or is it that Wikipedia had the right idea, wrongly implemented? Via The Wired Campus. Lawrence M. Sanger, Episteme, February 20, 2009 [Link] [Tags: Books, Wikipedia, Quality] [Comment]

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