By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. Is There a Future for Bibliographic Databases?
Professional databases, such as Books in Print (BiP), WorldCat (WC), Ulrich's or the Serials Directory (SD), have been a valuable tool for researchers. But as this author argues, they are facing increasing pressure from companies like Google and Amazon, enough that they will have to change or die. In order to prevent being replaced by free services, the author argues, these databases will have to be a lot better than the competition - not just a little better, but pervasively better. More...

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. Vast amounts of data about our children are being harvested via apps used by schools. This is what is being collected and stored
Jamie Manolev, Anna Sullivan, Roger Slee, EduResearch Matters, 2019/02/21
This article references a recent report published by the UK Children’s Commission on data collection in schools, but the bulk of the article is dedicated to the data-collection activities of ClassDojo. The authors write, " New research examining ClassDojo is raising concerns about how student data about behaviour may be collected, accumulated and then used." The range of data collected is a bit astonishing, and includes such things as "working hard, on-task, and displaying grit". More...

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. The Travesty of Canadian Mobile Data Rates
If you've ever wondered why I've been lukewarm about the mobile internet, this is why. "I redid the graph to look at 1GB usage and look at just the 4 Canadian carriers. Fido and Rogers come in at a whopping $4100 per month, and Telus, who I've long dismissed, is actually really competitive." Now 1 gig usage is not a lot - it's an amount I would easily hit in a month. But you know - I even consider the 'base monthly charge' of $100 to be ridiculous. More...