By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. Unanswered Question
Andy Roberts asks this, following the Connectivism conference last week: "My biggest unanswered question is about the politics of connectivism... If we embrace the theory and refer to it in our own practice then we are helping to spread an idea, a perspective, which has implications and consequences." I think it is clear in these pages that the understanding of how people know and learn carries with it political implications, as it argues for a set of principles - diversity, say, or decentralization - on the basis of improved learning and more reliable knowledge. It also, by postulating a distributed theory of knowledge, very clearly assigns to each individual an inherent worth or value. This in my view creates a political theory that some people would call radical (I wouldn't). That said, there is no need to 'spread' the theory. More...

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. The Protestant Ethic Strikes Back: Open Source Developers and the Ethic of Capitalism
There seems to be some regression away from the original objectives of open source software, at least, if we are to judge by this month's First Monday. In one article, Tragedy of the FOSS commons? , the tragedy is an under-production or maintenance problem and that "institutional designs - norms, formal rules and governance structures - often help to overcome commons tragedies." Scott Leslie calls this article a "gem" but I am less enthused. In the other, the authors assert that "old and familiar modes of organization based on waged labor are increasingly a part of developer communities." Both papers highlight the role companies are playing in the development of open source software. The implication, it seems to me, is that the companies are using the developers, and therefore, changing the FLOSS culture. More...

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. Web 2.0 Can Benefit the World's Poor
Web 2.0 applications are free, notes the author, and they are mostly web-based, which means people can use them without making a major investment, especially since "progress has been made toward providing access via internet cafés, government installations, kiosks, and computing clubs." I am inclined to agree, and would observe as well that web 2.0 aplications are especially appropriate for mobile computing applications. More...

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. Upcoming
Bee recommended this site on the TALO list a few minutes ago and it certainly looks like it's worth more time. Upcoming is a social events calendar generated by the contributions of members. Sort of like social networking for calendars. It sent me to the Toronto page (it must have read my .ca address and, well, just assumed) and lists everything from mesh, BarCamp, PodCamp and Idea City. More...

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. The Dark Side of Web 2.0 and Kids
OK, I admit that I laughed out loud when I heard the description of fence plowing: "youths taking a running start and hurling themselves into a fence, sending slats flying." Other than that, I'm wondering what the fuss is. Do people lose their memories when they become teachers and principals? Do they think that fighting and bullying began with YouTube? I have a traumatic childhood that says otherwise. Sheesh. The bullies were never punished in my day; if they're now getting caught in the act because of video, great. More...

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. I Am the Canadian Poster Boy of High-Tech Attention Deficit
This would be pretty funny if it weren't such a sad commentary on out media, not merely for using a photo of Brian Lamb and his laptop out of context, but in pandering to a resurgent anti-computer and anti-networking sentiment. Lamb links to another story: "wireless network might be used by terrorists," the headline screams. Well, yeah. But "Terrorists might also use our bus service to move about the city undetected." What is with these scare stories? Are the authorities really losing control. More...

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. IMS Report On Learning Technology Satisfaction and Trends
I'd like to know why IMS is forcing people to register before allowing them to see this document? What are they doing with the data? Has IMS become the AdDoubleClick of the education world? Anyhow, Michael Feldstein provides us with an informed summary. Of note: "The amount of money spent on content and content authoring tools dwarfs everything else... it becomes crystal clear that making high-quality, free, re-usable content available (and findable) is absolutely imperative from an institutional cost perspective." David Wiley also summarizes the report. More...

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. All or Nothing
So anyhow, Jay Cross wrote this article a few days ago, offering a mixer analogy to highlight some of the ways informal learning differs from traditional learning. That prompted me to comment and, well, once I got going I didn't stop until I laid out a fairly comprehensive objection to the metaphor - and to the characterization of informal learning in general. Some people - like Mark Berthelemy - think that instead of the clarity and accuracy I am looking for, "Most managers, executives, whatever you want to call them, don't read academic arguments - they respond to marketing messages: simple, clear pictures that they can understand and relate to." If that's true then they deserve to have their business fail; I have no sympathy for someone who cannot be bothered to learn about the business they are supposedly managing. But in a post titled Politcally radical - perfectly natural Tom Haskins gets to the source of the disagreement. More...

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. Creative Commons Vs MIT OCW: Interpreting the Noncommercial Clause
Well this is interesting: "CC (Creative Commons) and MIT OCW (OpenCourseWare) have diametrically opposed interpretations of the meaning of the NC clause of CC's own licenses." Creative Commons defines it accoding to the nature of the user, while OCW defines it according to the nature of the use (I have always, in my own thinking, thought of it as the latter). It's not exactly p = ~p (both could be true at the same time). But it's certainly enough to cause confusion (= money for lawyers). More...