By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. Messy Learning OK. Messy Training Not OK.
Interesting summary of some thoughts resulting from my talk in San Jose (if you had trouble with the audio, it's now accessible, sorry about that). Cammy Bean writes, "As Janet wrote in the comments to her own post, attendees were saying of the un-conference format that 'structure' and 'objectives' were needed. Is a messy training program just one in which the presenter is clearly not organized? The agenda not fully thought out?" My feeling is that some trainers attended the conference expecting, well, training. If they had approached it differently (or been bopped on the head, which I took as my function at the conference) they could have broken out of that frame, and maybe learned something. More...
Messy Learning OK. Messy Training Not OK
Are We Digitising Into Silos?
By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. Are We Digitising Into Silos?
So here's the question: when open content activists sneak into the British Library and start photographing these old (and now public domain) texts, in contravention of the Library's deal with Microsoft to create a private archive, is it piracy? Does David Wiley have any comment on how we are going to ensure open access to these public domain resources now that they have been commercialized. More...
How to Avoid Sounding Like an Monkey
By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. How to Avoid Sounding Like an Monkey
So is it a 'socal graph' or a 'social network'? Some of the recent work in the field has started to talk about the 'social graph'. But as Dave Winer - correctly - points out, the term means (basically) exactly the same thing as 'social network'. With the advantage that people have heard of it. More discussion of this at Nick Carr's website. More...
Opinion : Il faut adapter le numérique aux défis du siècle
A l'heure où la planète se réchauffe, où la biodiversité est menacée, où l'état de notre planète réclame des solutions fortes, il est impératif de soutenir une mutation vers un numérique plus sobre et plus responsable dans nos entreprises, nos universités, nos administrations et nos territoires. Plus...Organiser le pessimisme
“Ainsi commence le fascisme. Il ne dit jamais son nom, il rampe, il flotte, quand il montre le bout de son nez, on dit : C'est lui ? Vous croyez ? Il ne faut rien exagérer ! Et puis un jour on le prend dans la gueule et il est trop tard pour l'expulser.”
Françoise Giroud
“By denouncing Socialism and Capitalism alike as the common offspring of Individualism, it enables Fascism to pose before the masses as the sworn enemy of both. The popular resentment against Liberal Capitalism is thus turned most effectively against Socialism without any reflection on Capitalism in its non-Liberal, i.e. corporative, forms. Though unconsciously performed, the trick is highly ingenious. First Liberalism is identified with Capitalism ; then Liberalism is made to walk the plank; but Capitalism is no worse for the clip, and continues its existence unscathed under a new alias.”
Karl Polanyi, 1934 [1]
L’annonce de la suspension de nos activités nous a valu de nombreux courriers, très chaleureux, nous en demandant les raisons. La raison la plus profonde tient au moment politique que nous traversons, annonciateur de gros temps pour une décennie au moins, et sans doute plus. Plus...
Exploitive Corporate Scum Love Creative Commons
By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. Exploitive Corporate Scum Love Creative Commons
The discussion is a lot more reasonable than the headline sounds. The point is that it seems clear thant commercial entities are using Creative Commons tagged photos and content in advertising. Sounds fine - but what about the unpaid models appearing in the photo, photographed as they were just walking down the street minding their own business? Now I read today that this is OK in the U.S., but Canadian privacy laws prohibit the commercial use of a person's image without their permission. More...
Crainte du déclassement : la fin de l’ascenseur social ?
Le débat sur la "panne" de l'ascenseur social apparaît dans les années 1990. Après la période des Trente Glorieuses, un sentiment d'inégalités croissantes et de ralentissement de la mobilité ascendante se diffuse, notamment au sein de la classe moyenne qui craint un déclassement social. Plus...Un hashtag peut-il faire justice ?
Le mouvement #MeToo a changé durablement la vie des femmes. #BalanceTonPorc également. Ces hashtags, devenus viraux à la suite d’enquêtes journalistiques, ont contribué à favoriser l’essor de la libération de l’écoute. Car la parole existait déjà. Les femmes parlaient. Elles portaient plainte. Mais elles n’étaient pas écoutées. Et lorsqu’elles l’étaient, elles étaient systématiquement remises en cause. Plus...La CPU condamne fermement des exactions contraires aux valeurs que porte l’université
Plusieurs universités ont été le lieu de violences inacceptables dans la journée du mardi 12 novembre. Aucune émotion ne saurait légitimer les menaces à l’encontre des personnels des CROUS, ni justifier les dégradations observées dans les universités ou au ministère de l’Enseignement supérieur, de la Recherche et de l’Innovation. Plus...
