Stephen's Web

OLDaily

by Stephen Downes
December 20, 2009

Better Late Than...
Well - there's a first. Though I wrote some posts on Friday, I actually forgot to publish the newsletter and send the emails. First time ever. So, here it is, a couple days late, but intact. Enjoy.

Developing MLR Part 5 Educational

The ISO MLR framework draft has been released along with a very useful diagram of the domain model. Here is a link to the meeting recording. Also, related documents. Tore Hoel, Website, December 18, 2009 [Link] [Tags: none] [Comment] [Tweet]

RefSeek
Interesting: "RefSeek is a web search engine for students and researchers." I found it via a Diigo link for '25 best sites for educational video'. This, in turn, appeals to me because I want to ramp up my presentations somewhat over what they have been - aftre watching Joel Greenberg in Barcelona I realized that I need to get to the point now where I should be backing my talk with video, not slides. Anyhow, the RefSeek Directory looks like just the sort of place I might return to for resource materials. Maybe. Various Authors, Website, December 18, 2009 [Link] [Tags: Video, Research] [Comment] [Tweet]

Learning SEO From Lady GaGa
I confess: I've been watching Lady Gaga videos online. Not merely because she has eschewed pants, but because the music is catchy visually interesting. Gaga (as she is familiarly known, according to an interview) is doing more than just SEO. It's not just a matter of being visually different and standing out from the crowd - that's boring SEO and we see it all the time. Rather, she is different each time she performs - each live version, each live video, even of the same song, is different. Not just visually, but musically as well. Her live performances are unquestionably live - no possibility of a lip-sync. In a cut-and-paste world, people who create something new every time are more interesting and more valuable than people who don't. Michael Fienen, .eduGuru, December 18, 2009 [Link] [Tags: Video] [Comment] [Tweet]

Dec. 18, 1878: Let There Be Light - Electric Light
Nice article documenting the invention of the light bulb by British scientist Joseph Swan. "After the initial demonstration to the members of the Newcastle Electric Society, Swan did another presentation in February 1879 with more than 700 people in the audience. His lamp then burned for about 40 hours... Swan still had a trump card. He had first filed a patent for his idea in 1861 and revised it in the next decade when he improved the design. The patent was strong enough for Edison Electric to go for a merger with the Swan Electric Light Company." The lesson, of course, is that while credit often goes to the loudest self-promoters, invention is most often the result of a collection of related work in a community of practitioners. Priya Ganapati, Wired, December 18, 2009 [Link] [Tags: Great Britain, Patents, Edison Schools, Mergers and Takeovers, Copyrights, Patents] [Comment] [Tweet]

The Tyranny of the Explicit
Based on the presumption that people are not to be trusted, the 'tyranny of the explicit' wraps us up in rules and procedures, as though some nameless set of overseers could through management solve all society's ills. "The practical effect is to engulf people in explicit, complicated systems and reduce their freedom - based on an unconscious assumption that everyone is not to be trusted. We give ascendancy to people who are really great at theory and effectively degrade practice." Via David Gurteen. Johnnie Moore, Weblog, December 18, 2009 [Link] [Tags: none] [Comment] [Tweet]

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