By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. Michael J. Bugeja[Edit][Delete]: Facing the Facebook, Chronicle of Higher Education [Edit][Delete] January 24, 2006

Another anti-technology screed from the Chronicle (do they ever get tired of running these?) this time contra the Facebook, a social network with membership restricted to U.S. college students. To follow this article, everything bad happening on campus - from disengaged students to rising costs to homophobia to media manipulation - is caused by Facebook. The argument is as ridiculous as it is invalid (but shedding the principles of reason seems to be no obstacle to the professoriate these days, a phenomenon that puzzles me by its pervasiveness). Why do I think the author's "ethical concerns" (his words) are misplaced here? Perhaps it's because I obtained my degrees mostly by skipping class and learning how to think and to write at a student newspaper. More...

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. Lorcan Dempsey[Edit][Delete]: Flickr and the Library Pictures, January 11, 2006

Interesting item on a collaboration between Flickr and Library Australia which allows people to upload images to the Picture Australia service through Flickr. The tag-line is what's intriguing: "Putting the library in the user environment, rather than expecting the user to be in the library environment. Creating structures for user contribution. Presenting a library service through emerging web and social tools." Yeah. More...

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. Michael Feldstein[Edit][Delete]: Blackboard by the Numbers, E-Literate [Edit][Delete] January 13, 2006

Michael Feldstein analyzes Jim Farmer's study. "OK. So. Blackboard pays a quarter of a million for a new customer. That's adds up to be more than 30% of the total amount of money that they bring in. How, exactly, do they stay in business? How do they grow?... Blackboard needs to acquire 185 new customers every year to hold steady, 371 to get 5% growth, and so on, up to 742 new customers needed to grow at 15%. How many new customers a year has Blackboard been getting? 152. More...