June 28, 2012
How Tablets Will Change Higher Ed
Mykel Nahorniak,
.eduGuru, June 28, 2012.
Oh, hey, tablets are going to change higher ed. In case you didn't know. "Tablets are being adopted at an impressive rate, and tablet purchases are expected to outpace smartphone purchases over the next two years. Tablet ownership among college students has correspondingly skyrocketed and a Pearson Foundation survey found that it has tripled from a year ago. One-quarter of college students currently own a tablet."
Red Hat’s Data Grid 6 Challenges Hadoop on Big Data
Brian Proffitt,
ReadWriteCloud, June 28, 2012.
This is pretty interesting, though casual readers may find the jargon tough sledding. The article describes a Red Hat product, called Data Grid 6, that manages large bodies of data more efficiently than traditional databases. It does this first by adopting a no-SQL approach, which creates data dynamically, rtaher than in predefined tables, and by creating a peer-to-peer grid, so data management is distributed, with no mater control. Each transaction basically looks after itself. A series of interfaces, such as a REST-API, allows the database to communicate with web-based applications. There's a lot of overlap between this and OpenSplice DDS, which I was looking at this morning. It supports "content-based subscriptions (also known as continuous queries in the CEP domain), distributed data persistence, and transparent fault-management." This kind of cold steel in the background will provide the basis for real-time and almost magical web applications.
Help us build a School of Open
Jane Park,
Creative Commons, June 28, 2012.
Creative Commons is engaged in an exercise to build a 'School of Open' with P2P University. "Its aim is to provide easily digestible educational exercises, resources, and professional development courses that help individuals and institutions learn about and employ open tools, such as the CC licenses." The main point for Creative Commons, I think, is its stated desire "to provide better education around CC tools, and we would love community appropriation and adaptation/translation of these resources." All very well, but resources and PD courses do not constitute a "school" and it's not clear to me anyways that Creative Commons, even working with P2PU, is in the best position to be offering educational opportunities. Organizations like CC should be providing resources that are then incorporated into actual educational opportunities, and not propaganda eercises (no matter how well-meaning). Because a proper education about open content involves hearing about Creative Commons - and other things - and not merely hearing from Creative Commons.
[Link] [Comment][Tags: Schools, Open Content, Marketing, Online Learning]
Brian Brett Speaks Out: An Open Letter on Access Copyright and the Canadian Copyright Emergency
Michael Geist,
Weblog, June 28, 2012.
Michael Geist links to an explosive letter from an award winning author and former Chair of the Writers' Union of Canada accusing Access Copyright of failing to distribute revenues to authors it collects in their name. The letter lists several examples: an overhead of $10 million to collect $23.5 million, refusal to distribute 'Payback' money to authors, payments to publishers for works that have reverted back to the authors, and payments of unassigned revenues to a small select set of authors.
Maritime band battles to keep music on YouTube
Unattributed,
CBC News, June 28, 2012.
A Maritime band is struggling to keep its music up on YouTube. The videos were removed following a takedown notice by Universal Music Group (UMG). The problem is, the band owns its own music and is not connected to UMG in any way. As the law stands, however, there's no requirement for UMG to prove it own the music; it just has to say it does, and Google will take the videos down.
Google+: A Year of Missed Opportunities
Todd Wasserman,
Mashable, June 28, 2012.
When Google+ launched a year ago there was a virtual war between publishers like Mashable, TechDirt, TechCrunch and others to grab the lion's share of followers. So it's not surprising they lament the missed marketing opportunities in Google+: the delay in allowing aliases, news publishers and corporate accounts. But they problems run deeper. Compare with Twitter. Where is the equivalent of TwitPic or TweeetDeck or any of the other extensions? Or compare with Facebook. Where is the FarmVille of Google+? Or even Apple: where is the Angry Birds of Google+. None of these exist, because beyond some very limited exceptions, Google doesn't allow content out and it doesn't allow content in. Forget updating others' accounts: I can't even update my own account unless I'm sitting inside the clunky web interface.
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