By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. Kaltura Launches Lecture Capture Solution
Rhea Kelly, Campus Technology, 2017/02/22
This is just something I want to keep handy for when I talk to people who already have a Kaltura system running. More...

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. The Copyright Lobby’s IIPA Report: Fake News About the State of Canadian Copyright
Michael Geist, 2017/02/22
Michael Geist writes about this year's annual misrepresentation of the state of copy protection and media in Canada by the the International Intellectual Property Alliance (IIPA), a lobby group that represents the major lobbying associations for music, movie, software, and book publishing in the United States. More...

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. 4chan: The Skeleton Key to the Rise of Trump
Dale Beran, Medium, 2017/02/21

Celebrating the fail is the new win. This is the core value being embraced by 4chan members, alt-right supporters and Trump voters. More...

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. Have Spare Time? Try To Discover A Planet
Joe Palca, NPR, 2017/02/21

I spent an hour last night searching for a planet. I did not discover one. I did, however, look at  lot of bad photographs of stars. More...

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. Four Reasons Why a Library Makerspace Makes Perfect Sense
Robert Schuetz, Nocking The Arrow, 2017/02/21
If a library isn't really useful for storing books any more (because who needs books when entire libraries can be stored on a single flash drive?) then what can we do with the space. More...

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. Bots: What you need to know
Jon Bruner, O'Reilly, 2017/02/21
This is a pretty good overview of the current bot ecosystem (which contains far more than bots) along with a good graphic drawing out the major contenders and relations between them. More...

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. Philosophy and the Illusion of Explanatory Depth
Justin W., Daily Nous, 2017/02/21

After reading this I was motivated to look up how a toilet works on YouTube. I'm fairly confident I understand the mechanics, but I don't really have an explanation. More...

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. These are the science concepts you need to know to understand political life in 2017
Akshat Rathi, et.al., Quartz, 2017/02/20

These concepts don't all relate to education, and their importance most certainly isn't limited to political life, but it's a good list and educators should be aware of all of them. Here's the one-minute version:

• Scepticism - "a willingness to evenly assess the scientific evidence available."
• Iatrogenesis - illness “brought forth by the healer," like the opioid epidemic
• Social cost of carbon - the damage each ton of CO2 emission costs society
• Clean coal - expensive, but "captures the carbon dioxide and buries it"
• Gene drives - increase a gene's chance of being inherited
• CRISPR - being widely used to manipulate DNA with extraordinary precision
• NgAgo - new tech which might manipulate DNA with even greater precision
• Confrmation bias - the tendency to select information that supports our existing beliefs
• IPFS - makes copies of everything instead of relying on links
• PFOA - unregulated cancer agent turning up in drinking water
• Neonicotinoids - the pesticide that caused widespread bee colony collapse
• SETI - search for extra-terrestrial intelligence using powerful new tools

Now you's caught up. More...

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. Geek Career Paths
Tim Bray, Ongoing, 2017/02/20

The is a cogent and clear article (laced with some off-colour language because it's tech) on what tech people (programmers, developers, designers) should think about doing later in their careers. More...

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. Global Sentiment in L&D
Donald Taylor, 2017/02/20
Donald Taylor has released the results of his 'global sentiments' survey of around 800 people in learning and development from around the world. More...