By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. Things I Don'T Like About the Mac
I am in 's-Hertogenbosch, Holland, and quite jet-lagged. Just before I left I wrote this summary of things that bother me about my new MacBook Pro. The responses are not surprising - and thanks to everybody who took the time to helpfully comment on my list. Stephen Downes, Half an Hour May 28, 2007 [Link] [Tags: none] [Comment]. More...

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. 834 Tips for Successful Online Instruction
Now available without subscriptions or registrations or anything creating a barrier between you and the 71 page PDF (which is how it should be) the -learning Guild's tips are short and oddly numbered but certainly good conversation-starters and doubtless contain nuggets of information for most readers. Interesting ad-supported model of distribution which, in this format, is no more annoying than a magazine. More...

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. Dangerous Assumptions
The point of Wayne Hodgins's post (which as a happy side-effect introduces Erik Duval's blog (Erik, who is based at Katholieke Universiteit Leuven in Belgium, is president of the ARIADNE Foundation, technical editor for the (IEEE) standard on Learning Object Metadata, and coordinator of the work on learning objects, metadata and interoperability within the ProLearn Network of Excellence)) is this: "for the foreseeable future, I hope that we remain very aware of just how limited online searching is and that we continue to check our assumptions that 'everyone and everything is available online, otherwise they don't exist.'" I don't think anyone actually makes that assumption - the assertion that "if you're not online, you don't exist" is metaphorical. But also, there's a credibility issue. If you aren't online, how credible are you? If, especially, your domain is, say, online learning, and you're not online, how credible are you. Yes, as Hodgins says, a great deal of the world's information is not online. But that information - that is not instantly and freely available online - is increasingly and increasingly irrelevant. More...

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. Blogs As PLEs
I was asked in a recent comment what I thought the best PLE software was (this following my comments about Ecto). I was going going to say it hasn't been built yet, and to a certain degree this is true. But if I had to point someone to something that actually does exist, I'd probably say WordPress, with any number of the plug-ins. Why? Well as this post notes, in most VLEs information is "caged in". But a system like WordPress really allows you to get content in and out fairly efficiently. That's most of what we want from a PLE. But see also Tony Hirst on PLE as platform touting the Benefits of Facebook and Zoho Notes (which I also discussed recently). If I could have my own private versions of those (on that, see Steve O'Hear on Facebook as platform) - and not be forced to rely on their benevolent hosting - they would also be strong candidates. More...

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. Quebec Budget Released On USB Keys
When I first started at Assiniboine Community College in 1995 with a mandate to promote the use of the internet, I proved my point by emailing a full-text copy of the budget to everyone in the college who wanted it - while the budget was being read in the House of Commons. This is a tactic of the same ilk - the release of the Quebec budget on USB drives instead of paper. Not only does it cost a third what the paper version would cost, you can cut and paste information - and when you're done, you have some handy Flash memory that you can use, say, to put your resume on at that new job interview. More...

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. Defining and Understanding Virtual Worlds
Useful article defining and explaining some terms related to online vistual worlds, including MMOPGG, avatar and metaverse. The author's introduction of the term "massively multilearner online learning environment" (MMOLE) is to my knowledge new and is used to introduce a virtual learning world (VLW - that's my term) called ProtoSphere. This product, so new it's not even located on the web, is apparently offered by a company called Proton media. See other reviews here and here. Meanwhile, for open source virtual worlds, you may want to look at Croquet. More...

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. An Open Mouse
Two really useful ideas in one post. First, the author debunks the typical cause-effect picture of genetics portrayed in the media. You know, "You sometimes hear people talking about the 'gay gene,' the 'depression gene,'" and so on. But this view," writes the author, "is almost entirely divorced from reality." The illustration that shows this just perfectly - the network of genes surrounding obesity in mice - is taken from a scientific journal. Which leads to the second idea. "And what do I now hear from PLOS? Do I hear the grinding of lawyerly knives? No. I hear the blissful silence of Open Access... No muss, no fuss. If I want to blog about this paper right now, I can grab a relevant image right now from it. In fact, I just did". More...

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. Microsoft: No Plans to Sue Over Linux Patents
If Microsoft knew that Linux was violating one of its patents, it would sue so quickly you wouldn't know what happened. But despite some recent statements, it turns out that Microsoft has no plans to launch any lawsuits over Linux. More...

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. DOG (Distrust/Disdain of Google) Moves In
I commented last night that I thought Google's "Don't be evil" directive ended the day Google launched its IPO. I also noted that the people who used to work for DoubleClick now work for google, which doesn't auger well for Google. I have advised people against using Feedburner in the past, and not this user-tracking and banner advertising company is part of Google. I'd like to like Google, but I see Google's primary customers - advertisers - are beginning to run the show. More...

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. 1.000.000+ Smart Card Based OpenID-S
Estonia has become the first country to adopt OpenID nationally, and they're doing with Smart Cards. Note: "Your online identity can never be stolen because your OpenID is attached to your real identity. You can always replace your stolen eID card and reclaim your online identity". More...