The Big Fat Canadian Wedding Tax - Pay Three Pipers and Double for Dancing
Howard Knopf , Excess Copyright, June 4, 2012.

This one is making the rounds in circles where talk of copyright and royalties is a rarity. Under new regulations, DJs have to pay an additional tariff for songs played at wedding recentions. And most oddly, this tariff is doubled if there's dancing. Howard Knopf observes, "There are numerous media references to this as a “tax” and to the fact that it’s retroactive. Indeed, the media focus on this tariff is remarkable, compared to most other Board tariffs. The Board will presumably take note of all this media coverage, since it now has recently entered into a contract with a "newspaper clippings and reports services" provider." Or DJs could just use royalty-free Creative Commons licensed music. Meanwhile, "In an era of 'no new taxes', Canada’s copyright system is the gift that keeps giving to its more than three dozen copyright collective, their consultants and their counsel. And Canadian citizens from newlyweds to university presidents are beginning to take notice."

[Link] [Comment][Tags: Video, Google, Copyrights, Canada]

Amanda's Million
Yancey SAtrickler, Kickstarter, June 4, 2012.

I mentioned Amanda Palmer a few weeks ago. Now, as Yancey Strickler writes, "Last week Amanda Palmer became the first musician to raise more than a million dollars on Kickstarter. Her project's numbers: $1,192,793 pledged by 24,883 people in 30 days. A musician getting a million dollars from the internet is a very big deal." The economics of this were very simple: the bulk of the money came from presales of her album, with people pledging an average $16.25 to download. Kickstarter takes a cut, Amazon takes a cut, and Palmer takes home $100,000 on a project that would have left her in depbt in the pre-internet days. This isn't just the future of music. It's the future of a lot of things.

[Link] [Comment][Tags: Project Based Learning]

My #CCK11 Experience: What Learning in a MOOC is Like
Thomas Jerome Baker, Profesorbaker's Blog: A Bit of Everything, June 4, 2012.

I can't that I ever expected someone to create a book out of their MOOC experience, but that's what has happened as Thomas Jerome Baker has documented his CCK11 experience. I would talk more about the contents of the but, but it is priced at $9.99 on Amazon, which is $9.99 more than the course that inspired it.

[Link] [Comment][Tags: Traditional and Online Courses, Books, Experience]

The Elevator Pitch Against Higher Ed (or, Selling Your Startup)
Bill, Funny Monkey, June 3, 2012.

FunnyMonkey touts this as an effective elevator pitch: "The much vaunted American higher education system coasts on the reputation of the top three dozen schools which themselves gain much of their stature simply by excluding 85% of applicants. Most post secondary institutions just don’t add much value and can no longer justify outrageous tuition." There are some good points here, though I am left wondering what "value" it is exactly that is not added (and to what). "Education has been disrupted! Huzzah! Let the VC funds roll in!" But, "the online offering of organizations like K12, Pearson, Khan, etc, aren't particularly innovative from a pedagogical place." One of the things MOOC (the way we're doing it) isn't is a startup. Maybe if we became one we'd become media darlings too.

[Link] [Comment][Tags: Schools, United States, Tuition and Student Fees]

Open Learning Design Studio (OLDS) - Massive Open Online Course (MOOC)
Gerry McKiernan, Alt-Ed, June 3, 2012.

Another MOOC, this one scheduled for August. As documented by Alt-Ed: "Open to individual educators from across the UK HE, FE, and community and skills sectors, the MOOC will aim: to increase the uptake of OERs through embedding the use of curriculum design tools, practices and approaches in individual practice and design team culture; to empower practitioners to become change agents in their local contexts; and to produce a collection of CC-licensed OER resources for wider use after the MOOC ends."

[Link] [Comment][Tags: Open Educational Resources, Great Britain]