By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. Gardner Campbell: There’s Something in the Air: Podcasting in Education, EDUCAUSE Review October 20, 2005

It's a good article, though I found the scenarios used to introduce the topic at the beginning of the article to be over the top; better would have been some real-world examples. Otherwise, the author offers a relatively light and education-focused account of podcasting. Also noteworthy is the podcast version of the article. More...

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. Michael K. Bergman: Comprehensive Guide to a Professional Blog Site: A Wordpress Example October 20, 2005

This is a longish and comprehensive guide to creating your own blog using WordPress, a blogging software package. The guide is intended for people who have decided to host their own blogs rather than use a hosted service such as Blogger. There is, to say the least, rather more involved in hosting your own (though I will point out that ISPs will offer WordPress and other software as part of a standard package). More...

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. Brock Read: At Educause, Little Optimism About Curbing Piracy, The Chronicle: Wired Campus Blog October 20, 2005

Short item summarizing the state of the affairs, as summarized in the title. I found this interesting: "When colleges sign up with those services, record companies tend to stop sending them complaints about individual copyright infractions, according to one administrator. 'Their notifications are stopping even though their peer-to-peer activity remains the same,' he said. More...

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. Press Release: Debate About Open Source Versus Proprietary Software Is Over, Education.au October 20, 2005

I sincerely doubt that by 'over' he means over, but Education.au's Gerry White makes the case that software choices should not be made on the basis of whether software is or is not open source. "We have found that the magic mix is to choose the most appropriate solution according to business need, not on an open source versus proprietary basis". More...

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. Various authors: RAMLET, IEEE-LTSC October 20, 2005

The concepts in this document won't be new to OLDaily readers, but this IEEE-LTSC working group is new, as is the acronym - 'Resource Aggregation Model for Learning, Education and Training', or RAMLET. Thus far all we have is the project document, with some use cases, and while the model is pretty heavily LMS based (and why do they call all the feeds a 'store' rather than a feed?) it is nonetheless moving in the right direction. More...

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. Tom P. Abeles: E-Learning in the New University, e-mentor October 20, 2005

Noting that today's e-learning is merely a virtual clone of the more traditional campus-based version, author Tome Abeles reminds readers that new technology is breaking down walls, that 'science rests outside the academy', and that as academics came down from the ivory tower 'to assume the bully pulpit' they also laid themselves open to a leveling of intellectual privilege. More...

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. Derek Morrison: The Really Really Rough Guide to e-Learning Benchmarking in Higher Education, Auricle October 20, 2005

The point of this article is eventually stated as this: "Because benchmarking can mean different things to different people, there will be different expectations of it. I also suspect benchmarking could easily become ideologically driven, with advocates and acolytes of one model or another becoming entrenched in their belief that there is only one 'true path' to enlightenment and those who stray from it are to be considered near heretics". More...

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. Teemu Leinonen: Wikiversity - Time to Vote, FLOSSE Posse October 20, 2005

It's decision time at Wikipedia as the architects of Wikiversity put their concept to the test - and to the vote. The site has evolved into a fairly comprehensive framework, though there remains the more difficult matter of filling it with courses or whatever. And as Teemu Leinonen comments, "it may end-up to be just another platform for delivering learning materials - only. Period'. More...

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. Jay Rosen: Andrew Heyward: The Era of Omniscience is Over, PressThink October 19, 2005

A fascinating admission from the president of NBC on the nature of truth. "We have to abandon any claim to omniscience. Walter Cronkite used to end his broadcast with 'That’s the way it is.' Dan Rather pulled that back, appropriately, to 'That’s part of our world tonight.' The digital journalist, if he or she were being honest, would say something like 'That’s some of what we did our best to find out today. More...

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. Christopher D. Sessums: Open Source as Liberation October 19, 2005

Just an update on one of the most interesting stories of the web, the way in which the government of Brazil has embraced open source. "President Luiz Inacio da Silva, or 'Lula', has announced that all ministries will stop using Microsoft Windows on their office computers. Instead of paying through the nose for Microsoft operating licences, while millions of Brazilians live in poverty." This same story, with varying outcomes, is playing itself out arount the world, as a heated discussion on the Bytes For All mailing list attests. More...