By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. JRon Yanosky: Identity Management: The State of the Practice in Higher Education, ECAR / EDUCAUSE December 13, 2005

Useful presentation surveying the use of and plans for identity management at (mostly) U.S. universities. Some items of interest: the major reason universities are looking at identity management is for reasons of security and privacy (80 percent); enhanced services comes second (60 percent). More...

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. Cory Doctorow: Sony Anti-customer Technology Roundup and Time-line, Boing Boing November 25, 2005

Good wrap-up of the events and fallout surrounding the Sony rootkit (don't forget to check out part 2 and part 3). It is worth noting, again, that the Sony debacle is just the tip of the iceberg. Other companies are working on similar technology, and a Sony rootkit-style computing environment is what publishers and some DRM-advocates are seeking to achieve. More...

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. Michael Feldstein: LMOS Services and Service Brokers, Part II, E-Literate November 21, 2005

Some discussion of what a service-oriented learning management operating system would look like. Nice example, showing clearly the role of RSS in the system and illustrating how a student's stand-along blog, along with simple identity management, could integrate with the learning management system's record-keeping and discussion systems. More...

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. Sam S. Adkins: Wake-Up Call: Open Source LMS, Learning Circuits October 21, 2005

Great article, filled with depth and insight, on the balance between open source and proprietary learning management systems (LMS). Arguing that open source systems can compete when the market reaches commodity stage and when open source becomes more innovative, author Sam Adkins suggests that we may be at that crossover point. More...

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. Create vs. Build -- Publishers and Their LMS Dilemma
If I had to define 'useless' it would probably include a description of learning platforms created by publishers exclusively for their own products. As Rob Reynolds observes, "Publishers argue that the LMS platforms available out there don't necessarily provide the best functionality for that content. Well, looking under the surface a bit renders that argument ridiculous." The real reason for such platforms is, of course, lock-in. More...

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. Education Week General Manager: How We Came to Charge for Premium Content
Michele Givens, a general manager at Education Week magazine, explains the organization's decision to begin charging subscription fees. Some bits don't ring true - like this: "We definitely took a hit on page views when we introduced registration on edweek.org, although they mostly recovered". More...