11 septembre 2018

Mail Menopause
This article - which wins the award for Worst Title of the Year - looks at the underlying cause of our current email crisis - Microsoft. More...

For-Profit Education Faces Tough Course
I learned more about Charlie Brown that I did about distance learning from this article, but it evokes memories of the day my father received his 'small engine repair' course through the mail (complete with small engine). More...

Various Ideas About Scientific Publishing
This article contains an interesting proposal, but I don't think it would work for me. The good bit: "The event of electronic publishing, by removing the printing and shipping costs which previously justified the charging of hefty subscriptions, means that publication of scientific data should clearly rapidly evolve towards a completely open access mode." But following from this assumption, the authors cling to a mode of publication where articles are screened and refereed. More...

Learning Design and Reuseability
Another reasonable and well written CETIS article, this one discussing the commentary surrounding my Design, Standards and Reusability paper. The general response seems to be to admit that reuse, as I define it, isn't possible using learning design, but that this doesn't matter. More...

Microsoft Seeks Cash From IM Client Makers
A week or so ago described Microsoft's plan to boock third party access to its instant messaging system because of, um, "security issues". More...

Tipping Hollywood The Black Spot
Discussion from the Economist around the movie industry's failure to plan effectively for the inevitable sharing of movies, television programs and other video content. Holloywood's sole saving grave so far has been the size of movie files, which makes them impractical to share. But as bandwidth and computer power increase, the fate of the music industry (which has seen sales decline 25 percent) looms closer and closer. Hollywood's response, what the article calls "an Orwellian project to 're-educate' the young", will not convince anyone. More...

Networking From the Rooftop
Interesting article about the development of a wireless "mesh" network at MIT. The idea of such a network is to provide internet access over a wider area without wires. More...

BBC News Site Facing Extinction?
The BBC website is once again a target as a British politician has once more questioned its value. But whatever its fate, the site is a useful benchmark for the value of online content. More...

Interactive Visual Explainers — A Simple Classification
Nice article looking at the trend toward interactive journalism and the increasing role of the press as "news explainers" rather than (mere) reporters. The classic example is the baggage screener simulation, which gives the reader a much more concrete idea of the role of the screener. More...

User Experience and Human Learning
This article has almost nothing to do with user experience; it is instead a progression from the idea that learning occurs through interaction through to the constructionism of Seymour Papert of the Future of Learning Group at MIT Media Lab. More...