By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. Leigh Blackall: Digital Literacy: How it Affects Teaching Practices and Networked Learning Futures - A Proposal for Action Research, The Knowledge Tree November 1, 2005

Looking a little like the revolutionaries have taken over the castle, the 2005 edition of The Knowledge Tree launches Thursday with some great content, including this article in which Leigh Blackall discusses "digital literacy, the impact of open source software and the place of content within the worldwide rapid publishing and networked learning revolution (Web 2.0)". More...

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. Norm Friesen: Metadata for Learning Resources (MLR): As a simplified Kernel and a Complex Schema, Ipseity October 28, 2005

Norm Friesen rethinks learning object metadata and comes up with a 'core' schema with optional extended elements. "The model presents 6 core elements. All are top-level, mandatory or required: Identification, Description, Creation, Contextualization, Access, and Record". More...

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. Martin LaMonica: Small Company Makes Big Claims on XML Patents, ZD Net October 28, 2005

In a claim that strikes me as pretty ridiculous, a small company is claiming to have patented XML and is now seeking royalties on the widely used encoding language. The patents date from 1997. More...

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. Jeffrey M. Perkel: The Future of Citation Analysis, The Scientist October 28, 2005

An article like this, which compares between the usefulness of Google Scholar and Thomson Scientific's Web of Science, can only be considered a snapshot, partially because Google Scholar remains in development, and partially because there is an ongoing, though gradual, migration of scientific work from the closed to the open web. More...

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. Matthew Cockerill: Open Letter to the UK's Science Minister, BioMed Central October 28, 2005

Authored by the publisher of BioMed Central, this letter takes the Minister to task regarding remarks made about open access, and specifically his comments that open access is in decline and that there needs to be a "level playing field" between open access and commercial publishing. Matthew Cockerill remarks, "BioMed Central strongly agrees that this is desirable". More...

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. SA Mathieson: Open the Door to a Free Way of Working, The Guardian October 28, 2005

This is something Canada needs (and I would willingly work in such an institute, where I would likely be more comfortable): "A new Open Source Academy, supported with £1.3m from the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister, is aiming to tackle both fud (fear, uncertainty and doubt) and misplaced enthusiasm". More...

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. Terrance Heath: Blogging on the Clock, Morph October 27, 2005

This is pretty funny. "U.S. workers in 2005 will waste the equivalent of 551,000 years reading blogs. Currently, the time employees spend reading non-work blogs is the quivalent of 2.3 million jobs". More...

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. Wayne Parry: Catholic School Tells Students to Remove Internet Blogs, Newsday October 27, 2005

From this article, "Students at Pope John XXIII Regional High School in Sparta appear to be heeding a directive from the principal, the Rev. Kieran McHugh, to remove personal postings about the school or themselves from Web sites like myspace.com or xanga.com, even if they were posted from the students' home computers." The argument cited is that the directive is intended to protect students from online predators. More...

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. George Siemens: The Joys of Shallow Thinking..., Connectivism Blog October 27, 2005

This is an item that fits pretty well with the talk I'm giving this evening, a look at how to maintain professional development in an age of chaos. In this item, george Siemes defends 'shallow thinking', that is, a generation of onloy a surface level awareness of some things as a means of recognizing and ordering an information flow. More...

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web.Dave Pollard: Three Necessary Capabilities for Becoming Aware, How to Save the World October 27, 2005

Dave Pollard writes relentlessly about new ways of seeing the world, and his work, with its basis in people like Francisco Varela, is approaching more and more every day the view fostered by people like George Siemens and myself. This new way of learning (and it is indeed a new way) is the topic of my talk this evening, so it's on my mind (and hence, I'm more attuned by commentary like Pollard's today). More...