MIght There Finally Be Karma for Comment Spammers and SEO Game Players?
Alan Levine, CogDogBlog, January 10, 2014

Some of the images in this post are over the top, but I share Alan Levine's experiences with spammers (every day I delete comments designed only to pollute my pages with SEO) and I share his sentiments. I'm also pleased he reads the Awl (a lot of content, but just off the mainstream enough to be interetsing) which reports that the golden age of SEO may be over. "In early 2011, Google issued an update to its search algorithm—they called it “Panda”—that elevated social media and news sites. Sites both big and small, usually spammy and sometimes not, saw major decline in their Google traffic." My ahref results are similar to Levine's,

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The architecture of our open textbook site
Clint Lalonde, ClintLalonde.net, January 10, 2014

There's some good thinking behind this architecture connectiong several different systems - WordPress, LimeSurvey, Equella - to support an open textbook project. "Our hope is that we will take the complexity of navigating out of the hands of students and faculty and make it as simple and easy for them to find the resources they need y centralizing all the information in one spot – open.bccampus.ca." Good stuff - now stop saying "I'm not an architect" and "silly diagram" - just put the stuff out there and have some confidence in your assertions and your work.

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It's “Nerve-racking”! Getting our Storytellers Offline (and Back On Again)
Laura Morris, Rising Voices, January 10, 2014

This is an interesting course run in association with Global Voices. "Transom is an online resource for storytellers, mostly audio-based but delving into the world of visual digital media as well. They recent put on a six-week online workshop – based entirely on Facebook – with several Rising Voices writers participating." Not everybody was happy participating via Facebook. "It is curious," said one partiocipant, "how some people really want to share their stories… [but] I wish my subjects would be more aware of all the privacy issues and other issues surrounding image rights and social networks." (Note: while 'nerve-racking' seems to be a commonly accepted form, in my view is is an eggcorn, based on a misunderstanding of the meaning of the words 'rack' and 'wrack', and should probably be expressed as 'nerve-wracking').

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Is Massive Open Online Research the Next Frontier for Education?
Doug Ramsey, Jacobs School of Engineering, January 10, 2014

'MOOR' stands for 'Massive Open Online Research' and is the latest in the list of MOOC-inspired algorithms. In this case, a MOOR is a natural (especially for a cMOOC), as the idea of research is to develop new knowledge, and a network environment is just the environment to do that. This article is focused on the University of San Diego’s Jacob’s School of Engineering, which "announced it was launching what it believed was the first major online course that featured a great deal of massive open online research, or MOOR, in addition to the usual coursework" (that's a standard way to be 'first' - you call your thing the first major thing of its kind). What I like about this project is the way it is stretching the idea of a MOOC into some innovative forms, and that makes it worth a look.

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KaaS – a New Way of Sharing Knowledge and Experiences
Kenneth OE Sundin, WIFL, January 10, 2014

I think there is merit to this suggestion, but the details could use a lot more description. For example, when we say 'knowledge as a service', what do we mean by 'knowledge'? Does a Wikipedia article count? A Google search? Wolfram Aplha? Kenneth OE Sundin writes, "you are leaving 'knowing how' and 'knowing who' behind and moving towards knowing where. 'Where can I instantly find the knowledge when I need it'." But I think he needs to go a bit beyond that. KaaS needs to be more narrowly focused, from generic 'knowledge', to knowledge that is new, to knowledge that is generated or derived, to knowledge that is contextual. Let's call this the shift from 'easy knowledge' (which is static, long-term, factual knowledge) to 'hard knowledge' (which is dynamic, short-term, inferred or derived knowledge).

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On Listing Education Innovators and Intellectuals
Audrey Watters, Hack Education, January 10, 2014

Audrey Watters takes down (quite rightly, I feel) the lists of 'influential' people in education that have appeared recently. "Frankly," she writes, "I think all 3 of these lists – Byers’ list, Forbes’ list, Hess’s list – are connected to this machinery. The machinery of privilege and exploitation. Insults to our intelligence. The right of false naming. Gestures of obliviousnesses. Genuflections to financial and political power. Disdain towards marginalized voices. The erasure of progressive activism. A wishful denial of progressive change."

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