By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. Grounding the Innovation of Future Technologies
I'm not sure this is true: "innovation, development, and evaluation of design ideas cannot be based only on the designer's intuitions but must be grounded in users' actual needs and behaviors. We need to apply social and psychological sciences to understand how technology could qualify a positive change for the users." The reason why I express doubt is that the 'need' for an innovation often becomes knowable only after the innovation has been introduced. More...

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. Trackback is Dead. Are Comments Dead Too?
Without saying "I told you so" let me ponder for a moment where we go from here. Trackback and comments are suffering for the same reason: they provide a means to allow spammers to put their content on your site (the same is true of spam email, expect their content goes into your inbox). So how do we address this? First of all, it seems to me, is that we need to change the location of the comment. More...

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. A Collected Group of Educators
Mark Berthelemy notes that Will Richardson makes his subscription list available on Bloglines. You can also view my subscriptions as well. This list is my filtering list for EduRSS 0.2 - in other words, the sites listed here are the sites that will be harvested by the next generation EduRSS. More...

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. Online Music Lovers 'Frustrated'
There ought to be some lessons learned from the chorus of complaints being raised by Britons being subjected to DRM problems in their downloaded music. More...

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. Open Media Network
This site, the misleadingly titled Open Media Network, is one part of a wider strategy to see Microsoft DRM technologies become the de facto standard for online multimedia (and in particular, video). More. While it appears that the dawn of free video content has finally arrived, the Microsoft DRM world is a very restricted universe - you have to have Windows, of course, and be using the proper DRM. More...

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. Where Have You Gone, Stanley Fish?
Stanley Fish retires and thus concludes his run of columns for the Chronicle of Higher Education. I spent the morning reading a series of remarkable items (a column like this is, after all, the way people used to blog). Among the highlights (in no particular order): The case for academic autonomy, Clueless in academe, Promises, promises, One university under God, and Minimalism. More...

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. We Can Help Bridge the Digital Divide
I agree with the Friends of Development coalition that "that global intellectual property rules must do a better job of meeting the interests of both the developed and developing world." My position is informed by the recognition, as Michael Geist summarizes in this column, that "Canada’s own intellectual property position is closer to the developing world that most might think." It's not simply that we are net importers of intellectual property. More...

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. Microsoft launches 64-bit Windows
Every few months I pass along the warning that 64-bit computing is coming soon and that administrators need to be preparing budgets to support the substantial hardware and software transition that will follow. More...

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. For-profit Colleges Attracting More Students, Growing Revenue
Given the increasing demand for higher education and, more importantly, the growth and profits of existing private instutions in a market with limited access and stagnant competitors, how long can it be before the regulatory hold on accreditation is loosened and the floodgates are opened. More...

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. Corporate University Exchange
The Corporate University Exchange (CUX) got a nice email from me Friday after sending notice that it has reversed its long-standing policy of requiring user registrations and is now making content freely available on the web. More...