OLDaily

Here Comes the Online News Act: Why the Government’s Media Shakedown is Bad News For Press Independence and Competition
Michael Geist, 2022/04/13

What happens when my employment no longer pays for OLDaily? This will happen in less than two years. I could shut it down, but I'd rather add it to the list of digital-first independent media organizations referenced by Michael Geist in this article. These organizations are funded by user contributions and in some cases are open access, and in other cases not so much. It depends on their business model (one guess as to which I'd prefer). Why does this matter? Geist is arguing - correctly, I feel - that legislation requiring social media to pay for content it links to exclusively benefits the large media corporations that have been lobbying for it. "A policy that favours the legacy companies that have struggled to adapt to the online environment is an approach that will harm competition and make the transition to digital, independent media even more difficult," he writes.

Web: [Direct Link] [This Post]

The Illusion of Values
Julian Stodd, Julian Stodd's Learning Blog, 2022/04/13

I enjoyed this reflection on the concept of 'values' even if I did not agree with all of it. "You could weigh yourself in pounds and ounces, or even in rabbits and buses," writes Julian Stodd, but "Values, like 'truth' and 'trust', 'pride' and 'fear' do not work like this. They are subjective and relative measures. There is no central validation: instead, the validation happens within our own heads." Quite so. But he writes "values may not be a 'thing'... rather they are a story that we believe in", which is where we part ways. I see stories as limited, linear and misleading. But still. I appreciate this remark on systems: "Systems describe 'values' as part of their overall narrative of culture, but tend to do so in rather deterministic ways: to say 'these are our values', when in fact they are simply words, or aspiration, and often without the ability to explore or position 'self' in 'system'." I've gone back and forth through this article a few times, time well spent.

Web: [Direct Link] [This Post]

OER Guest Post: Tips for following conference hashtags on Twitter
Christina Vines, ALTC Blog, 2022/04/13

By 'guest post' what we mean here is 'marketing', and in this case the marketing is for the OER Conference 2022 coming up later this month. Not surprisingly, the tips all involve promoting the conference: use the conference hashtags, follow the featured speakers, obey conference netiquette, and add substantive conference content. These aren't bad suggestions, per se - after all, if you don't use the right hashtag it's likely your tweet won't be seen by anyone. But it's also all a part of the fiction being promoted by this (and most other) conferences: that they are a community, indeed, the community. But there are many communities, including many OER and open education communities. The best tip is to be open to them, to post to more generic hashtags (like, say, #oer or #edtech, and follow the 'latest', not the 'top' tweets), and follow people you like, not people selected to be the key speakers.

Web: [Direct Link] [This Post]

My best friend is a robot - virtual companions
Alastair Creelman, The corridor of uncertainty, 2022/04/13

Alastair Creelman summarizes an article on virtual companions in a newsletter (in Swedish) from Futurewise. The strength of this post is in the two examples: "a chatbot called Replika that you can create and train"; and Leta, who you can speak with "instead of text chatting as in the case of Replika". I wonder how much my own life would have changed had I had an intelligent and sympathetic digital companion to advise me over the years. Creelman seems to see only the potential problems; "The next step scares me," he writes. My own focus, however, if how much good these companions could ultimately do.

Web: [Direct Link] [This Post]

Gilbert Harman: Major Contributions to Philosophy
Princeton University, 2022/04/13

I wouldn't say I was influenced a lot by Gilbert Harman, though I certainly knew of him and read some of his work. This tribute to his life reflects some of the major contemporary strands of discussion in philosophy: his work on moral relativism, his scepticism about moral character, the role of belief, inference to the best explanation, and the intrinsic quality of experience. Most of what I read here makes pretty good sense to me, and where I disagree is only around the edges, and not with his main points. This article offers straightforward accessible summaries of his thinking and as such is well worth your time.

Web: [Direct Link] [This Post]

Learning Delivery Run learning like a… startup?
Andrea Elkin, Chief Learning Officer, 2022/04/13

There's this trope in the business and investment community that suggests that they have a unique insight on risk. So we have Andrea Elkin writing of being "a financial analyst on Wall Street where the stakes were high and risk was a fundamental part of doing business." Well boo for you! Everybody deals with risk, a lot of it much more existential that trading with other people's lives and other people's money. When I got on a train for Calgary with $100 in my pocket and hope in my heart, that was risk. As I watch women in Ukraine make decisions about whether to stay and fight or flee to the border, that is risk. If 'breaking what isn't broke' means jeopardizing your life or your livelihood, that is risk. If you ask me, what characterizes business decisions is the lack of risk. People can bounce back from a business failure; just ask any serial entrepreneur. Most of us face much more fundamental decisions.

Web: [Direct Link] [This Post]

SCC leading the way to develop a National Standards Strategy
Standards Council of Canada, 2022/04/13

I've been involved with standards in general, and SCC in particular, off and on over the years. And it is 100% consistent with my experience with them that this call for comments on a new National Standards Strategy would offer no way to actually view the proposed National Standards Strategy. So I wrote and requested a copy, which I am attaching to this post so people can at least try to respond before the deadline of, um, next week.

To the proposal itself (keep in mind what we have here is a draft): I notice that there is waffling on whether 'equity' is a value (it's included as a value on p.14 but left out of the list on p. 16). I also notice that while we read "fee-based standards inhibit the use of standards, even as they are essential to the financial sustainability of organizations in the system," we don't see the need for open access reflected anywhere in the vision, mission or values proposed. So, for example, we still need to pay to see the Metadata for Learning Resources standard.

Web: [Direct Link] [This Post]