By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. The Open Journal Format
I know that there has been no shortage of people trying their hand at online journal publication, and I don't expect I'm proposing a lot that's new here. Nonetheless, I sketch a model of a journal that I am considering, one that attempts to balance openness and academic integrity. Stephen Downes, Half an Hour September 7, 2007 [Link] [Tags: Academic Publications, Academic Journals, Academia]. More...

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. Corrupt Countries Were More Likely to Support the OOXML Document Format
Just a cautionary note, I guess. "During the voting process the reputation of ISO as a dependable technical standardization organization was questioned. For example, in Sweden a Microsoft representative was caught offering to recompense partners for voting yes to OOXML. Also a sudden interest from countries like Ivory Coast to the OOXML issue has been found suspicious." I like John Gruber's comment. More...

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. 10 Future Web Trends
I am inclined to agree with George Siemens when he says that these are not 'future' trends but technologies that are well under way and to some degree here today. Semantic web, artificial intelligence, virtual worlds... these, and related technologies, fill the pages of this newsletter every day. More...

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. It's Not About Web 2.0 It's About Learning!
More reaction to the whole Gary Stager thing. Jeff Utecht - one of Stager's targets - writes, "nothing has ever been accomplished by looking backwards. We need to focus on teaching teachers these new literacy skills so they can in turn teach students." Tom Hoffman, meanwhile, notices that most of the criticisms are coming from outside the United States. Dave Warlick implies that James farmer (and maybe some others) cross a line in his criticism. Dean Shareski has a nice take: "So when Stager asks, 'Why wouldn't we at least try to make schools better?' The answer - it's not a priority." Stager, meanwhile, replies on my website, "It is physically impossible to respond to every one of your concerns, but I'd be happy to try if I knew what they were." Well, I wrote them all out a couple of days ago and posted the link on his website. More...

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. ISO Rejects Microsoft's Office Doc Format
Not that this is the end of it. After all, they tacked software patents into agricultural bills in Europe. So we can expect to see continued attempts to have Microsoft's Office formal as an ISO standard. The standards process, after all, is biased toward adoption. You can't just kill a proposal - you have to 'vote no with comments', which means that, once the comments are 'addressed', there is a very strong impelling force to vote 'yes'. More...

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. Rogers
As I write today I am in the unusual situation of having access to my website to work but not from home - my server, which is actually based Houston, can be accessed via CA*Net, through which I access the net here, but not through Rogers Internet. So the site is up and working but I can't get to it when I'm at home. Weird. So I'm compiling traceroutes and staying late at the office. More...

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. How Much Is That Standard in the Window, the One with the Lovely Tale?
More on the disputes surrounding efforts to make Microsoft's OOXML an ISO standard - "Groklaw says there has been more pressure by Microsoft in Denmark and there are rumours about irregularities in Norway and Hungary." I've seen similar stuff on other standard bodies. More...

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. In Their Own Words
In Their Own Words is not a bad publication, especially, but I really wish the authors and editors had managed to resist the cliches. Like the photographs of one person using a computer while three others look on (and compare the ones on pages 7 and 8 - they're just wrong). The "students' words" themselves, of course, are carefully edited and polished, and in the videos presented with them have theme music and narration, to make sure you get the point. And it was jarring to be confronted with a 20 megabyte .mov - I realized that the large and fast Flash videos have become standard for me. Some of the comments are right - for example, "Content is no longer 'fixed' and 'valued'. It is a starting point, something to interact with, to cut and paste, to adapt and remix." But the entire production looks and feels and reads like a lot of work went into making it non-threatening to educational officials. And those words, I would imagine, are not the students' at all. More...

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. Lifelong Learning and Human
Nothing in this document is false. And yet, this is a document I feel should be thoroughly repudiated. It is a description of 'human capital', defined as, "a combination of individuals' own innate talents and abilities and the skills and learning they acquire through education and training." Human capital does, we are told, provide a 'return'; "the returns to human capital can be understood in terms of the prosperity, both the individual's and that of the national economy." And "The years of formal education are crucial to human capital formation, and to ensuring that young people develop the skills and knowledge that will enable them to earn a living in later life." Yes, we could talk about human beings through the metaphor of assets and valuation. More...

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. The Other Is a Cheaper Thing, but the Moths Get Into It.
What types of comments do people leave on blog posts, and what kind count as 'good' comments? The list in the post is incomplete, but the comments that follow (including a snippet of my own) offer a pretty good discussion. More...