26 août 2019

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. Justin Pope[Edit][Delete]: Patent Fight Over Online Schooling, Business Week [Edit][Delete] August 28, 2006

Business Week has discovered the Blackboard patent fight and in a typically one-sided article attempts to depict the fight as being between Blackboard and "the academic computing community, which is fighting back in techie fashion -- through online petitions and in a sprawling Wikipedia entry that helps make its case." Blackboard is given credit for an invention (though it is characterized as "obvious" and "incremental") although it should not be (even Blackboard's "obvious" and "incremental" developments were discovered prior to its claim). The 'market' is described as entirely occupied by commercial products, which is simply false ("Blackboard has about 60 percent of the market for those systems, followed by eCollege and Desire2Learn with about 20 percent each, according to Eduventures"). More...

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. Weslet Fryer[Edit][Delete]: The Children's Machine, Moving at the Speed of Creativity [Edit][Delete] August 28, 2006

In what is an astonishing bit of rebranding, the $100 computer is now being called "The Children's Machine". I do like what I'm seeing of the development - wireless mesh, possible VOIP support, digital images and video support, and more. More...

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. Jeff Howe[Edit][Delete]: No Suit Required, Wired News [Edit][Delete]Wired news [Edit][Delete] August 28, 2006

One of the reasons I have supported open source and open content is that it favours small producers. When content, copyrights and intellectual property in general are owned, this favour large producers. Nowhere is this clearer than in the music industry, where (somehow!) people king William Hung and Paris Hilton are made 'stars' via marketing hype. If you're not part of the program, you can forget it. Now I happen to be a fan of artists like the Barenaked Ladies and Sarah McLaughlin. And I have seen these quality acts get little, if any, promotion through traditional means. So I am not surprised to see them working with Nettwerk Music Group - a company that doesn't want to 'own' them, it just wants to sell CDs with their music. More...

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. Charles Nelson[Edit][Delete]: Code of Ethics, Explorations in Learning [Edit][Delete] August 28, 2006

More discussion on the question of whether there should be codes of ethics for internet use. This longish post from Charles Nelson continues the defense of codes of ethics, in opposition to my own position. I think a lot of the disagreement is based on (what I would call) a misunderstanding as to what constitutes a 'code' - a code isn't merely a set of suggestions, guidelines or instructions. It is a definition of what is right and what is wrong. Nelson writes, "Without laws, there would be no need for judges to interpret their application." This is false. More...

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. Google Offerings, heyjude [Edit][Delete] August 28, 2006

This has been covered all over the place. "Google this week will launch Google Apps for Your Domain, a software bundle aimed at small and midsize companies." In the process it has completely messed up my login for Blogger. More...

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. François-Pierre Gauvin and Julia Abelson[Edit][Delete]: Primer on Public Involvement, Canadian Policy Research Networks [Edit][Delete] August 25, 2006

I always worry when someone promotes a new way to consult the public on health care, because the recent history of our system is that 85 percent of Canadians support the public system while business and government officials are forever trying to privatize it. This results in a cynicism about government, a cynicism that is frankly admitted at the beginning of this report. What follows is a good discussion of citizen participation in governance generally, and if you look for it you'll find what is for me a key factor: "participants must have a real impact on the policy and decision-making process. More...

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. Terry Freedman[Edit][Delete]: A Code of Ethics, Information and Communication Technology in Education [Edit][Delete] August 25, 2006
Not everybody agreed with my response to proposals for blogging codes of ethics. Terry Freedman writes, "Downes may be correct in a logical sense, but I don't see how his position actually helps anyone working in schools." I won't infer from this that schools are illogical (though I could!) but will read this more charitably: Freedman is appealing to the utilitarian value of codes of ethics. They can be "both meaningful and useful."
Yes they can, but what is it that distinguishes a code of ethics from, say, instruction from a teacher or parent? It is one thing to tell people what they ought or ought not do - even I do that. And quite another to codify that. More...

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. StevenB[Edit][Delete]: Did You Say 3,000 a Day!, ACRLog [Edit][Delete] August 25, 2006

The neat thing in this article is the direct link to the contract between Google and the University of California Library System to have Google digitize books. I have to think that if they have this agreement with the University of California Library System there won't be too many books that need digitizing after they're done. More...

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. Alfred Essa[Edit][Delete]: Blackboard: A Good Investment?, NOSE [Edit][Delete] August 25, 2006

I would say not, though the stocks for the first few weeks after the patent story broke were flat (though it has dipped recedntly). More...

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. Stephen Downes[Edit][Delete]: Petitcodiac and Halifax, August 25, 2006

I am back home in Moncton, having taken the train back from Halifax this afternoon. If I owe you email, or a commentary, or a review, or anything else, it will be along soon. Meanwhile, why not enjoy these two sets of photos. The first set, from the small town of Petitcodiac, is from two bicycle trips there this month - and is therefore the record of my first time cycling 100 km in a single day. The second set, from Halifax, captures the short trip Andrea and I took there this week. Enjoy. More...