OLDaily

Welcome to Online Learning Daily, your best source for news and commentary about learning technology, new media, and related topics. We publish six to eight or so short posts every weekday linking to the best, most interesting and most important pieces of content in the field. Read more about what we cover. We also list papers and articles by Stephen Downes and his presentations from around the world.

There are many ways to read OLDaily; pick whatever works best for you:

• Read in your web browser on this web page, updated weekdays
• Receive a daily or weekly email newsletter by subscribing here
• Subscribe to the RSS feed using your favourite feed reader
• Follow @OLDaily@mastodon.social on Mastodon or elsewhere in the fediverse
• Follow @OLDaily on Twitter
• Integrate the open API using the JSON feed

MSG defends using facial recognition to kick lawyer out of Rockettes show | Ars Technica
Ashley Belanger, Ars Technica, 2022/12/23

---

At first glance it seems outrageous. "Madison Square Garden Entertainment has begun using facial recognition technology to identify any visitor to any of its venues - including Radio City Music Hall - who is involved with any law firm that is actively involved in litigation against MSG Entertainment." But at the same time, who can blame them? It's "a straightforward policy that precludes attorneys pursuing active litigation against the Company from attending events at our venues," says the company, noting that "litigation creates an inherently adverse environment." I can easily imagine universities barring lawyers from their classrooms in similar circumstances.

Web: [Direct Link] [This Post]

Why Would Anyone Use Another Centralized Social Media Service After This? | Techdirt
Mike Masnick, TechDirt, 2022/12/23

---

Mike Masnick writes, "I cannot fathom how anyone can possibly get all that excited about joining yet another centralized social media site. Perhaps I'™m biased (note: I am biased) because it was my frustration with the problems of these big, centralized social media services that made me write my Protocols, Not Platforms paper a few years ago." The same considerations apply to educational services. The LMS and LXP are at least a bit distributed in that each institution gets its own installation, but from the perspective of the student they're no better, and no less capricious, than Facebook or Twitter. We should be planning a Fediverse of Learning (FoL). Why aren't we?

Web: [Direct Link] [This Post]

Welcome to Hotel Elsevier: you can check-out any time you like - not
Eiko Fried, Robin Kok, 2022/12/23

---

It's a long article, but this "journey by Robin Kok and Eiko Fried trying to understand what private data Elsevier collects" makes an important point: "Elsevier has created a system where it seems impossible to avoid giving them your data... This pseudo-monopoly made Elsevier non-substitutable, which now allows their transition into a company selling your data." For researchers who maybe don't want to share what they're working on (maybe because they work for the government or industry or something) this can be problematic. Via Erinn Acland.

Web: [Direct Link] [This Post]

Do Artifacts Have Ethics?
L.M. Sacasas, 2022/12/23

---

"Years ago," writes L.M. Sacasas, "Langdon Winner famously asked, 'Do artifacts have politics?' In the article that bears that title, Winner went on to argue that they most certainly do. We might also ask, 'Do artifacts have ethics?' I would argue that they do indeed." This is why can't say things like "it's not about the technology". As Winner writes, "Taking the most obvious example, the atom bomb is an inherently political artifact." I don't personally think that artifacts are the sort of things that can have ethics, but I would certainly agree that an artifact can have ethical implications, as instanced in the example, "What sort of person will the use of this technology make of me?" or "What possibilities for action does this technology foreclose? Is it good that these actions are no longer possible?"

Web: [Direct Link] [This Post]