Music Label Cashes in by Sharing
This is a very nice story about a music publisher, Magnatune, which has adopted the open publishing approach to selling its tunes. More...

Parents Sue School Over Wireless Network
The complete lack of any medical evidence not being a barrier to their campaign, a group of parents has filed suit against a pioneering school districtdemanding that it remove wireless internet systems from its buildings. More...

Beta Release of OAI Static Repository Specification
From the press release: "A Static Repository is an XML file that is made accessible at a persistent HTTP URL. The XML file contains metadata records and repository information [a lot like an RSS file, in other words - SD]. A Static Repository provides a simple approach for exposing relatively static and small collections of metadata records through the OAI-PMH. More...

RCDEO To Enter IEEE Standardization Process
The IMS Reusable Definitions for Competencies and Educational Objectives (RDCEO) will be put into IEEE format by the Learning Technology SubCommittee (LTSC) and submitted as an IEEE formal standard. More...

Learning Objects and Learning Object Repositories
Slide presentations from the recent seminar on learning objects and their repositories hosted by the Commonwealth of Learning. More...

ECC: Learning Objects Competition
I do not typically cover contests and awards, but this one constitutes an exception because, if nothing else, it allows the reader to view 65 learning objects in one place. Or, I should say, attempt to view. More...

The "info" URI Scheme
This Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) draft outlines an interesting froposal for an 'info' namespace that will greatly ease the use of identifiers in public. What 'info' would do is give authors of XML files a standardized way to use, for example, Dewey Decimal or Library of Congress classifications in their documents. More...

Distributing Learning Objects
Survey of three major approaches to distributing learning objects: harvesting, federated search, and peer-to-peer. To nobody's surprise, I recommend the harvesting approach. By Stephen Downes, Australian Flexible Learning Community, October 1, 2003 [Refer][Research][Reflect]. More...

Canadian Hailed as Father of PC
From the 'setting the record straight' department: although most people credit the American company Apple with having invented the PC, the MCM-70 Microcomputer, developed by Canadian Mers Kutt 30 years ago, four years before the Apple, has been recognized as the first PC by the IEEE Annals of the History of Computing. More...

Skype Hype Is Tripe
Greg Ritter offers some comments about my recent comparison between Skype, the free VoIP software being distributed by Kazaa, and the VoIP system being installed at Dartmouth. More...