By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. Unattributed[Edit][Delete]: Reaching your Market: Web Strategies for VET Providers, Australian Flexible Learning Framework [Edit][Delete]Australian Flexible Learning Framework [Edit][Delete]Australian flexible Learning Framework [Edit][Delete] January 12, 2006

According to the prefix, "The report provides a mix of best practice examples, screen captures of websites to illustrate how other organisations have implemented and action points to help you understand what should be prioritised for further developing your website." It then launches immediately into email marketing and registration (and charging a subscription) for premium content. More...

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. George Siemens[Edit][Delete]: Meaning Making, Learning, Subjectivity, Connectivism Blog [Edit][Delete] January 12, 2006

I keep postponing this link because I want to write a response to this. But maybe I should just post the link and let it speak for itself, saying for now only that George Siemens questions my assertions about the subjectivity of knowledge. "I'm comfortable stating that everything we see/do is personally interpreted. In many cases, however, an objective concept exists as a tempering point for assigning value to my subjectivity." I'll get my chance to discuss this with him online shortly. More...

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. Press Release[Edit][Delete]: Liberty Alliance Releases People Service in Latest Version of Liberty Web Services, Liberty Alliance [Edit][Delete] January 12, 2006

I can't get into the technical details of this because it's going to take time (that I don't have) to grok the details. But the announcement is significant enough: "The Liberty Alliance Project... today announced the public release of the latest version of ID-WSF 2.0... People Service allows consumers and enterprise users to manage social applications such as bookmarks, blogging, calendars, photo sharing and instant messaging from a common layer." All good, but what Liberty offers a federated identity service, which can limit membership to selected partners and trusted services, and the reliance on SOAP, SAML and a number of other top-heavy specifications will keep it out of the reach of many. More...

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. Ellyssa Kroski[Edit][Delete]: The Hive Mind: Folksonomies and User-Based Tagging, InfoTangle [Edit][Delete] January 12, 2006

Good introduction to the concepts of folksonomy and tagging, though if you are familiar with the topic you won't learn a lot that's new. Especially useful is the list of advantages and disadvantages of folksonomies. The author concludes, correctly, "The advantages to top-down hierarchical taxonomies for library collections are without question. For cataloging the Web, however, they just aren't feasible." A lot of people working on traditional (structured and formal) semantic web applications will learn this the hard way. More...

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. Jeremy Hiebert[Edit][Delete]: Personal Learning Environments, HeadsPaceJ [Edit][Delete] January 12, 2006

Jeremy Hiebert responds nicely to the concern that personal learning environments cannot replicate the functionality of learning management systems: "Isn't this a bit like criticizing the design of a screwdriver because it doesn't work well for hammering nails? As far as I know PLE's were not created to facilitate the process of institutions educating students -- they're designed to help learners manage their own learning. More...