By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. Markdown
Sweet. A free and open source Perl script that translates ordinary text into correct HTML or XHTML. Works a lot like a wiki script, except that it can function as a plug-in for Moveable Type, Blosxom, or BBEdit (along with, presumably, your home grown Perl programs). More...

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. Music Industry Doesn't Need More Government Protection
When the recording industry calls opponents of copyright extension 'communist' or, in this case, 'comrade', it is to hide their own dependence on the big hand of government to defend their interests. More...

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. An Analytical World View: Tsunami Crisis
A lot of people, when they compare blogs (and personal publishing in general), tend to compare on a one-to-one basis: how a given blog compares to a given newspaper, how a given blog compares to a course or program. This article shows nicely the effect of the blogosphere taken as a whole, not as one of its parts. More...

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. Getting to Grips with Learning Design
Summary of the IMS Learning Design workshop in Valkenburg, essentially a fest where people tried out some new learning design authoring tools. Some 'person on the spot' reviews reflecting a reasonable level of comfort with the tools. More...

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. Blogging and Benefiting
Overview of blogging in education written for ASCD's Education Update which looks sound at first but suffers from questionable research. More...

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. Balancing Personalization
This argument is as old as the hills: "customized personalization-- smart, self-adjusting, filtered system--limits discovery." The idea is that if you get only the content you want, you will never get anything new. More...

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. The Cost of Ethics: Influence Peddling in the Blogosphere
J.D. Lasica takes an extended look at what is going to become a real problem - the use of blogs by corporations, politicians and others with a message to sell. The problem isn't that it's advertising, it's that the advertising content is hidden, unknowable. More...

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. Community Blogging
So anyhow I have been stranded by the weather for the second time in as many weeks, this time thanks to a snowstorm in Toronto. I'm on my way home from Northern Voice where I delivered this talk, an analysis of community as it emerges in blogging: how it is formed, how it should reshape the blogosphere, and how it can be implemented (quite easily) technologically. More...

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. The New Chief Inquisitor on Campus
Article warning of increasing threats to academic freedom, and in particular, the regulation of speech that may offend students and of conduct that does not conform to the institution's mission. More...

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. Is the Nightmare Finished?
Overview of the stock market performance of the major e-learning companies, including Saba, SumTotal (the merged Docent and Click2Learn), Blackboard, Centra and Skillsoft. More...