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14 novembre 2019

Hopewell Rocks

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. Hopewell Rocks

Delegates at the conference here in Moncton took a break and went on a field trip to the Hopewell Rocks, about half an hour south of the city. The rocks are a scenic part of the shore of the Bay of Fundy, home of the highest tides in the world. It's neat to walk on the seabed knowing that it was just covered with 40 feet of water. Stephen Downes, Flickr August 2, 2007 [Link] [Tags: ]. More...

14 novembre 2019

Havelock

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. Havelock

We are now officially into the dog days of August. Yesterday I celebrated the season by cycling to Havelock (a town about 50 km west of Moncton) and back. Pictured above is the beautiful Canaan River, which flows about 10 km north of Havelock. Stephen Downes, Flickr August 6, 2007 [Link] [Tags: ]. More...

14 novembre 2019

How Madison Avenue Is Wasting Millions On a Deserted Second Life

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. How Madison Avenue Is Wasting Millions On a Deserted Second Life
"There was nobody else around." He teleported over to the Aloft Hotel, a virtual prototype for a real-world chain being developed by the owners of the W. It was deserted, almost creepy. "I felt like I was in The Shining." Related: Karl Kapp describes a session in ProtoSphere (click under 'solutions' to find the unlinkable Flash page describing ProtoSphere). More...

14 novembre 2019

Study: Food in McDonald's Wrapper Tastes Better to Kids

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. Study: Food in McDonald's Wrapper Tastes Better to Kids
On the CTV newscast this morning the anchors kept trying to deflect the impact of this by citing 'the bright colours' used on the McDonald's products. What they don't want people to see is that advertising to children is harmful, not simply because it gets them to buy products that are bad for them, but because it distorts the way they perceive the world. I make a special attempt to shun and disparage brands that advertise to children, because I think that their marketing tactics are particularly distasteful. More...

13 novembre 2019

Les institutions des États-Unis

Accueil - Vie PubliqueLes Pères fondateurs l’'avaient dit et écrit clairement : la priorité n’était pas de mettre en place un système efficace, mais d’empêcher la tyrannie. D’où les multiples mécanismes de séparation des pouvoirs, de contre-pouvoirs et de freins et contrepoids. Plus...

13 novembre 2019

Putting Canadian "Piracy" in Perspective - The Sources

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. Putting Canadian "Piracy" in Perspective - The Sources
The video isn't that great, and I hate the background music, but the story it tells is worth the ten minutes. In a nutshell, the numerous reports we have been reading in Canadian and other media about how Canada is a haven for copyright pirates is simply false. Not true. Not even remotely true. And while Michael Geist neatly makes the case against the lobbyists - notably the Canadian Recording Industry Association (CRIA), which represents mostly U.S. interests in Canada (the Canadian music publishers and artists have long since left) - what I would like to question is how these false reports end up in our newspapers and (hence) influencing public policy. Almost every day, it seems, people hold up the traditional media as the paragon of reliability the web, the blogosphere and things like Wikipedia ought to be aspiring to. But even more frequently, I see examples of blatant and deliberate falsehood in the traditional media. True, there is no point shouting at them - they have no intent to listen. More...

13 novembre 2019

Chatbot talks up a storm for Bolton College

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. Chatbot talks up a storm for Bolton College
JISC, 2019/03/26
Ada is a chatbot "which uses artificial intelligence to answer more than 1,000 queries each day from students and staff." It is credited with laudable achievements: "the chatbot has increased learner retention, reduced teacher workload and bureaucracy, increased mental wellbeing and enhanced support for visually impaired students". More...

13 novembre 2019

Rolling the Dice

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. Rolling the Dice
Backfence - an experiment in online local journalism that attracted $3 million in seed money and employed as many as 25 people - is closing down. It couldn't get the readership, and more importantly, it couldn't get the advertising dollars. What does this say about the future of grassroots local journalism - and more broadly, about user-driven initiatives in general. Well, first, if you're in them to make money, you're probably in them for the wrong reasons. There are, as we see in this article, various successful local journalism projects - but none of which would ever hope to recoup a $3 million investment. And second, in order to stay small, you need to get big - to create a chain (or a network?) of similar sites, to attract national news and national advertising. Because that's where the money is. More...

7 novembre 2019

Canada Day

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. Canada Day

Just another day on the farm. But it was Canada Day, and while out bicycling I snapped this just before getting caught in a downpour. Happy Canada Day, everyone. Stephen Downes, Flickr July 2, 2007 [Link] [Tags: , ]. More...

7 novembre 2019

Supreme Court Rules Against Student in Bong Hits 4 Jesus Case

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. Supreme Court Rules Against Student in Bong Hits 4 Jesus Case
The school principal prevails as the court rules that the event was like 'being in school' and that the banner - which read 'Bong Hits 4 Jesus' - advocated the use of illegal drugs. Andy carvin analyzes the verdict, observing that a 'school sanctioned' website might in the future be ruled to be like 'being in school' and thus subject to school rules. More...

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