By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. DC-Education Application Profile
Dublin Core (DC) wiki page linked to the most recent draft of the DC-Ed Application Profile. "This draft gives an overview of the background and purpose of, and requirements for, the AP. It lists the metadata elements for inclusion in the AP, along with IEEE LOM correlations, and notes aiming to make a start on guidance for use of the elements involved." The authors are asking for feedback, but users can't edit the page, not even if they create a profile; development discussion is presented and discussed on the DC-Education discussion list on JISC Mail. More...

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. Money Trouble in Second Life
"Well, there goes the Second Life economy." That was my reaction after gambling was banned in Second Life a couple of weeks ago. "Claiming it means the end of the economy is a bit premature," said a commentator. Hardly. According to today's report, following a run on Second Life banks, "the entire Second Life economy--which could affect more than 8.5 million players--is in trouble." Via Liberal; Education Today. Meanwhile, Second Life is still reeling from the drubbing it took as Chris Anderson explains the feeling of emptiness and why he gave up on Second Life. More...

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. Danah Boyd On MySpace and Facebook
"Our children are hyper-controlled... they're not allowed out of the house." There's a lot of truth to that, and I recall seeing a diagram showing how sharply reduced the permitted range of movement for a child or youth in today's society has become. I remember, when I was a kid, I bicycled as far away as Casselman and I hitch-hiked into Ottawa. I can't imagine being constrained the way many of today's kids are. Today, children and teens have to use online tools - such as Facebook - to interact. Jo McLeay comments on Mike Seyfang's mash-up video, in which "(he) need(s) to re-think (his) hatred of walled gardens (especially facebook lack of RSS)". More...

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. Am I Being Unfair to Blackboard?
Alfred Essa questions his stance in the light of developments in the latest Blackboard patent kerfuffle. Because it appears that iParadigms was in the process of asserting rights it did not have (and Essa looks at the contract and says to iParadigms, "What did you think you were signing exactly?" And Michael Feldstein comments, "one central, salient fact is clear: iParadigms was seeking to assert a patent for educational software."). OK, so iParadigms are just as guilty as Blackboard for contributing to the edupatents mess. Meanwhile, I think Essa quite rightly asks, "But if these APIs are truly 'open', why as a developer do I have to give up ANY rights to Blackboard?" Why indeed. More...

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. Sorry Teachers, but the Read/Write Web Is Not Shutting Down
According to a BBC article, delegates at a meeting of the Professional Association of Teachers (PAT) in Britain have called on sites like YouTube to be closed down because of cyberbullying. I am inclined to agree with commentator Emma-Jane Cross: "Calls for social networking sites like YouTube to be closed because of cyberbullying are as intelligent as calls for schools to be closed because of bullying". More...

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. Disney Buys Popular Kids' Networking Site
Disney has decided it was worth $350 million to buy the Club Penguin, which has 700,000 subscribers paying $5 a month. I find it interesting that Disney was as interested in the values expressed by the site as the technology. "Club Penguin embodies principles that are of the utmost importance to Disney - providing high-quality family entertainment and fostering parental trust," said Bob Iger, Disney's president and chief executive. More...

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. First 35 Claims of Blackboard'S Patent Ruled Invalid
This is a huge win for Desire2Learn, as the court has ruled that Blackboard's first substantive claim, that of assigning access according to a role in a course, to be invalid. "Because that phrase is indefinite, all of Claim 1 is rendered invalid because of indefiniteness." Also, the court found for D2L's interpretation of terms in the remainder of the patent. More...