By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. I tried creating a web browser, and Google blocked me
Samuel Maddock, Samuel Maddock’s Blog, 2019/04/03
As the world continues to converge on the One True OSS Browser that is Google's Chromium, this article serves as an important warning about a poison pill that is being added to the mix. To play protected content such as Netflix videos or PlayStation games, you need a DRM solution such as Google's Wildvine - in fact, Wildvine is the only solution for Chromium. But if you're actually building an open source browser based on Chromium, you can't use Wildvine. "Google, the creators of the open source browser Chrome, won’t allow DRM in an open source project." Buyer beware. More...

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. Microsoft Education & Open Up Resources partner on English Language Arts (ELA) curriculum pilot
Mike Tholfsen, Microsoft Education, 2019/04/02
According to this article, Microsoft is announcing "the pilot availability of the Open Up Resources ELA curriculum and Microsoft Education free offering." They were created by Open Up Resources, "an education nonprofit that creates high-quality, standards-aligned curriculum, and provides it for free to improve education equity." Ah, but it comes with conditions. The first is that the content is designed for Microsoft's OneNote, so you can't simply use (say) a web browser. More...

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. Yahoo! Shortcuts
This is the way I always thought RSS would embed content into learning management systems and learning resources. It turns out to be the embedding of photos and stock quotes in blog posts. Oh well. Still, happy to see it. More...

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. Are You Going To Be More Sharing And Caring?
Google Reader has added a feature that allows people to share content with a network of friends, where these friends are those found in Google Talk. This is an interesting development, as it creates a de facto social network based on content selections rather than picking friends. This creates a semantical dimension lacking from other social networks (which need to depend on apps to give their members something to do). But do people want to network the Google way? Will they succumb, and sign up for a Google Profile (it's like Microsoft's Passport revisited). More...

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. Copyright Delay Demonstrates the Power of Facebook
This is important writes Darren Kuropatwa. I concur. The Canadian government has delayed - but not canceled - the assault on reason a DMCA-style copyright law would represent. Michael Geist documents the rising tide of opposition to this bill (this website included) as demonstrated by an increasingly vocal facebook community. Other media have been taking note as well. See more on the copyright debate in Canada. More...

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. An Exception to the Google Rule?
I've seen this in a bunch of places today: "Trying stuff is cheaper than deciding whether to try it." That is to say, it's cheaper to hack together some Perl or Python script to see if something works and is popular than it is to do needs assessments, feasibility studies, and all the rest of the usual planning before product development. I think this is true - and as a corollary, I would add that "trying stuff is the only way for small companies or individuals to see if something works." Which is why I spend so much time (not enough, alas) messing around in Perl. More...

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. Is Facebook in the Enterprise an Oxymoron?
Short answer: yes. The longer answer is something like this: social software and similar applications work because they create loose, network-like structures. But the requirements of the enterprise - security, provacy, control, etc. - break those structures. Sure, you can have the same sort of applications in the enterprise. But they'll never seem to work so well, and people will always say that it's the application, never doubting that it's the nature of the enterprise itself that is the problem. More...

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. Two Dangerous Lessons From Second Life
The main thing to keep in mind is that the two lessons are not unique to Second Life. Here they are:
- We judge people, and assess their 'lovability', by their appearance;
- We are attracted to those who offer mystery, passion, attention and appreciation, even when that is unhealthy, insincere, needy or manipulative.
Why is this significant? Well, at least part of the appeal of Second Life is that it is not reality - we can all be beautiful and fashionable. That's OK - but we need to be clear that this, in turn, changes our perception of 'real life'. That, too, is OK, so long as we are not misled by this, so long we do not pursue in real life fantasy that exists only in Second Life. More...