By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. Options
As you know my server move hasn't been without its challenges. One of the benefits, though, is that I have been working through the code and eliminating many of the bugs that have been plaguing readers. Key among those is the system that lets you change your email address or your newsletter subscription, or to unsubscribe. To do any of this, click on the Options link. It will ask you to sign in; if you have forgotten your password, it will be emailed to you. The Options pages are (I hope) simple and intuitive. They should be rock solid by now, but if you have any problems with them, please let me know. Also - many of you have been getting the wrong newsletter. This is the result of me mixing up the numbers '2' and '3'. Yeah, that's what I said. This also should be resolved as of today. Thank you for your patience; today is a bit better than yesterday, and that was a bit better than the day before. And so it goes. (p.s. fixing the text edition links is my next priority.) Stephen Downes, Stephen's Web January 26, 2007 [Link] [Comment]. More...

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. Re: Never Discussed
Hmmm... the list of things that currently are never discussed because they don't fit the current orthodoxy is very long, and I doubt that Schank and Downes would be keen to see them *all* discussed (Does no really mean no? etc.). So how do we distinguish between those non-discussed things which should be discussed, and those non-discussed things which should remain undiscussed? To make matters worse, there simply isn't time to discuss all the currently-undiscussed things. *Of course* those things currently chosen for discussion are chosen because they fit well within some orthodoxy which picks out certain things as appropriate topics for discussing in schools. Isn't the Schank/Downes perspective here just wishing that their alternative viewpoint become orthodoxy? Maybe it should, but that transition would have to be argued for in detail, not merely asserted as if obviously true from some supposedly neutral moral higher ground. More...

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. A Cost Analysis of Windows Vista Content Protection
The official launch of Microsoft Vista, just around the corner, signals the start of a major PR war (there was a puff piece on the CTV news yesterday that was as offensive as it was long). But it's hard to imagine that Microsoft will be able to quell the most hostile voice of them all: Vista itself. The scale of the misery about to be launched into the computer-using community is documented in this article in cracking-sharp technical detail and a voice of bewildered wonderment. Why, wonders the author, would Microsoft enter into what is essentially a suicide pact with the major 'premium content' producers. More...

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. Norway Declares Apple'S iTunes Illegal
Creating a monopoly through the use of legally protected proprietary DRM technology may be legal on this side of the ocean, but there's at least one country that takes into account user rights as Norway declares Apples Fairplay system - which prevents songs from being played on non-Apple devices - to be illegal. What is it about the capitalist system that makes it a virtue to eliminate competition by hook or by crook and then charge larcenous prices. More...

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. 'Knowledge' and 'Learning'
This has been in development for a long time, and is still being developed, but it's now online and I'm enthused to be able to link to it. It is essentially a concept map developed by Rod Savoie, my colleague here at NRC in Moncton, on the topics of knowledge and learning. Don't be misled by the term 'concept map' - in this case that's kind of like calling the Pacific Ocean 'some water'. You won't want to miss this. More...

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. Situating Connectivism
George Siemens has post a presentation (voice and slides in Flash) to prepare for the upcoming online connectivism conference (I am presenting at the conference, one of five events I presenting at online in February). This is part 1, which generally sketches the history. Well, some of the history (my own background is very different, and George's history reads to me like somebody describing a completely different family tree). More...