By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. Here’s the difference between research and innovation
Richard Mackenzie, University Affairs, 2015/05/22

As Canada's Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada announces the recipients of "$28 million in job-related training for graduate students and post-doctoral fellows" a Quebec physicist takes to the pages of University Affairs to criticize the agency's new focus on 'innovation' as opposed to 'discovery. More...

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. Widening Wealth Gap
Kellie Woodhouse, Inside Higher Ed, 2015/05/22

I come back to this story from time to time because people insist that we (promoters of free and open learning) should be supporting the existing system of higher education. More...

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. Americans’ Attitudes About Privacy, Security and Surveillance
Mary Madden, Lee Rainie, Pew Research Internet Project, 2015/05/21

Privacy is really important to Americans, according to this Pew report based on two new surveys (which study only Americans), but they don't trust either governments or corporations to protect their privacy. More...

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. 'Hack or be hacked': Why kids need to know how technology works
Jesse Hirsh, CBC, 2015/05/21

Whose responsibility is it to prevent hacking and to promote security? I have two stories in my inbox today - this one and this one - that suggest it's the user's responsibility. In one, " Jesse Hirsh makes the case for a deeper understanding of technology as a civic duty. More...

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. Speaking out on Elsevier’s Article “Sharing” Policy
Heather Joseph, SPARC, 2015/05/21

About three weeks ago, Elsevier released a new policy governing open access publication. The response from the academic community was immediate and unfavourable, including this statement, signed by a couple dozen groups, criticizing the policy. More...

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. The K12 Education Market
Rachel Norris, PILOTed, 2015/05/21

Short article making the impoirtant point that the K-12 education market is a complex array of interplaying forces, including several levels of government, corporations, lobbyists, school boards, and finally, teachers and children. More...

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. The Human Capital Report 2015
Various authors, World Economic Forum, 2015/05/21
Just for the record, if there's any term I like less than the term 'human resources' (or as it's abbreviated around here, 'resources'), it's the term 'human capital'. The term implies the commodification not only of the talents and skills people possess and can apply in the workplace, but of the people themselves. But that's what we get from the World Economic Forum. So now I haven't read the full 319 page PDF (I spent the day writing a quarterly report - yay!) but it's not the sort of report you read cover-to-cover anyways, as it's mostly a set of league tables comparing countries. More...