By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. The Gift Economy
Dave Pollard writes, "The Gift Economy offers us a means to learn, to understand, to take charge, and to change our world. It is a natural economy, steeped in millions of years of pre-civilization human culture and the culture of all life on Earth. If enough of us embraced it, the modern 'market' economy, built on the faulty and inhuman foundations of inequality, scarcity, false quantification of value, and acquisition, could not survive." In this thus far I agree, and in what follows he provides a pretty good overview. More...

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. Capella Education Company
Capella University, which " provides online accredited undergraduate and graduate degree programs to working adults and employers," has filed for its initial public offering (IPO). It intends to raise up to $86 million. More...

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. Faceted Classification in the Government of Canada
There are two major ways to organize resources. One way is to assign each resource a position within a classification system. Dewey Decimal and the Library of Congress classification systems work this way. But there are many such ways to classify resources. And some resources might not fit easily into a single category. Another way is to look at the properties of a resource. More...

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. The Learning Activity Management System
The Learning Activity Management System, better known as LAMS, has been (as promised last year) launched as open source software. Downloads are available for both Windows (143.9 megabytes) and Red Hat Linux. More...

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. European Schoolnet
European Schoolnet launched today a new portal as "a corporate site for its institutional and business partners and for anyone interested to know more about EUN activities and projects." The portal provides European Schoolnet news and updates, as well as quick access to online committee rooms for members. More...

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. PH.Dotcom
Article about academic blogging which, while it notes the paucity of academic bloggers, speaks positively about the potential benefit. What I liked was the description of why academics blog: to enjoy a freedom they cannot find in traditional academic writing. More...

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. Massive Multiplayer Online Gaming: A Research Framework for Military Training and Education
Having been introduced to the internet by means of participation in a MUD, I am drawn to the topic of this study. But I must report an unease about the use to which this research is being put and here stress that the higher purpose of education is to promote peace and prosperity, good health and a life worth living. More...

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. Social Bookmarking Tools (I)
Good article describing the rising trend of social bookmarking tools, explaining how they can be used to organize information (by contrast to an ontology, which as, as Clay Shirkey remarks, "a good way to organize objects, [...], but it is a terrible way to organize ideas." Readers conversant with social bookmarking will nonetheless appreciate the comprehensive listing and comparison of social bookmarking tools (there's more out there than you thought). More...

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. Disney Offers Web Education
Talk about your Mickey Mouse courses. The service is directed toward preschoolers and offers a range of interactive activities featuring Disney characters. More...

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. Hubble Public Talks
I can't think of a better use of an hour or so (and this includes class time) than to spend it watching Frank Summers display his incredible pictures from the Hubble Space Telescope. More...