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by Stephen Downes
May 29, 2009

Cooperating or collaborating?
I'll share the opposing case first: both Tom Haskins and Harold Jarche defend an interpretation of the complexity-practices chart that associates cooperation with complicated and collaboration with complexity. You can read their arguments. My overly brief response is in the comments to Jarche (I need to explain it is more detail): "Being in a network is exactly the opposite of being strategically aligned. You and I are in a network - but we do not collaborate (we do not align ourselves to the same goal, subscribe to the same vision statement, etc), we *cooperate*. Collaboration means 'working together'. That's why you see it in market economies. markets are based on quantity and mass. Cooperation means 'sharing'. That's why you see it in networks. In networks, the nature of the connection is important; it is not simply about quantity and mass." Tom Haskins, growing changing learning creating, May 29, 2009 [Link] [Tags: Networks] [Comment]

How to Build a Virtuous Circle to Help in Workforce Development
There isn't much I would disagree with in this presentation, and a lot that I enthusiatically endorse. I listened to it this afternoon. "This speech," he writes, "was the first time I pitched our virtuous circle we're building in Cleveland." Marc Canter, Marc's Voice, May 29, 2009 [Link] [Tags: none] [Comment]

The 2009 Canadian Copyright Lobby Scoreboard
Michael Geist keeps up the heat. "It is worth remembering why the copyright lobby funded the Conference Board to produce the report in the first place. I believe the answer is fairly clear - the plan was to use it for media coverage, to support its conference and to provide in the regular meetings between the lobbyists and Canada's politicians and policy makers." And by 'regular meetings' we mean regular meetings. Geist provides a list. Michael Geist, Weblog, May 29, 2009 [Link] [Tags: Canada, Copyrights, Patents] [Comment]

Anti-trust: Curiouser and Curiouser
Nothing of significance follows from this, so it's odd to see Blackboard being coy about the full details of the request from the Department of Justice following the announcement of its acquisition of Angel. Michael Feldstein, e-Literate, May 29, 2009 [Link] [Tags: Blackboard Inc.] [Comment]

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