By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. ODRL/DCMI Profile Working Group
The Open Digital Rights Initiative (ODRL) and the Dublin Core Metadata Initiative (DCMI) have formed a working group to develop an ODRL/DCMI profile. More...

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. Human Nature and Social Networks
I liked this paper a lot (thanks, Tom, for the link) though I admit to rolling my eyes at the Hobbes-Rousseau opening. Still, this is fundamentally right: humans have developed the ability to reduce what might be called the transaction costs of communication through effective internalization of social conventions, such as the use and recognition of language, behaviours and other forms of interaction. More...

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. As Spam Approaches 95 Percent of All Email, What Do We Do?
Cut this out and paste it to your wall: it's easier to filter for what you do want than what you don't. That's why I agree with this: "Eventually, we'll need to move to use social networks to our advantage to include FOAF in an email solution that filters spam". More...

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. Mind/Brain Learning Principles
elearningpost ran this item today - it's from several years ago - and while I would disagree with details in just about every one of the twelve points I am in general agreement with the overall thrust of the article. More...

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. Getting Microsoft to Support Blogware ...and LiveJournal ...and Flickr ...and...
Citing this article, Roland Tanglao says, "just like VoIP will be part of every app so will Post To Blog." In other words, content authoring tools - such as MS Word, Excel, Powerpoint, and opthers, which now simply save to file or print, will (and should) be able to post content to any online service, such as Blogger or Flickr. More...

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. Trackback is Dead, Use PubSub
From Roland Tanglao (just to prove I'm not the only person saying this): trackback is dead. "Trackback is broken, and I concur. It was broken right from the start, but we didn't know it because it seemed to work, or at least, work the way most people thought it should work." I don't know whether PubSub will be the long-term answer. More...

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. Eide Neurolearning Blog
Several sites (including the e-Learning Centre) pointed today to this blog, which launched December 30. It discusses physical processes and problems such as dyslexia and tinnitus. More...

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. Publishers Irritated by Google's Digital Library
In a press release formatted to look like a news article, Nature Publishing Group is expressing displeasure with Google over its plans to index and excerpt academic articles. "Google has not yet struck any legal agreements with publishers, either individually or collectively... Few publishers would want to opt out of the library scheme, Morris says — but they need to be asked to provide the appropriate permission." This is probably not true; copyright law is not intended to prohibit such use. More...

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. AskJeeves buys Bloglines
The big news in the blogosphere today is that Ask Jeeves, an internet search service, has purchased Bloglines, an online RSS Reader (one I use quite a bit). More...

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. Probing Podcasting From the Professionals
Good overview article on podcasting with a number of links to definitions and references. The author describes his own use of podcasting, and in particular lists a number of sources for podcasts of scientific talks and shows. More...