JavaScript Triggers
This is a bit technical, though all designers should heed the opening paragraph: "The front end of a website consists of three layers. XHTML forms the structural layer, which contains structural, semantic markup and the content of the site. To this layer you can add a presentation layer (CSS) and a behavior layer (JavaScript) to make your website more beautiful and user-friendly." The rest of the article describes how to trigger executions of Javascript based solely on elements in the presentation layer. More...

RSS_LOM on Downes Wiki
A lot has happened since I posted my first version of RSS_LOM almost two years ago. Since then, both RSS and LOM have changed a lot. There has also been more interest in RSS_LOM recently, leading me to work toward a redraft. Not everyone agrees with what I've put out thus far, which is fine. That's why it's on a wiki, which you too can edit (the nice document or PDF will come after the discussion). This link takes you to my new RSS_LOM proposal and to an application (source code provided; bugs waiting to be discovered)) that converts LOM files to RSS_LOM - well, the current version of RSS_LOM. I'd really appreciate any comments you may have, wither on the wiki or by email. Much more is planned; I'll make announcements both here and on the wiki. By Stephen Downes, Stephen's Web, February 2, 2005 [Refer][Research][Reflect]. More...

Edu_RSS 2.0
This link is to a barely functional version of Edu_RSS 0.2 - what I've been working on for the last few weeks. Edu_RSS isn't a commercial product, it's me using Perl instead of English to try to explain a concept. What concept? Well, part of it involves distributed metadata - and I today created this graphic to explain what I mean (and if you want context - put the graphic Scott Wilson distributed the other day right over the word 'Use' and you see how the two concepts mesh). It is into this sort of framework Edu_RSS is intended to fit. The wiki pages are intended supplement this description; in particular, please see the section on third party metadata and my discussion with Brian Sutherland on the relation between RSS and LOM. By Stephen Downes, Stephen's Web, February 3, 2005 [Refer][Research][Reflect]. More...

Tag Team
Overview of the phenomenon known as 'tagging' - that is, the use of user-created keywords (or 'tags') to classify digital content. The resulting (and some say 'emergent') organization of categories is sometimes known as a 'folksonomy'. Tagging is used by sites such as Flick, del.icio.us and Technorati. More...

Sound Recording Tips and Techniques
Some rounding up to do in the world of podcasting. In this item Doug Kaye links to some sites offering tips and advice on sound recording (the whole Blogarithms site is well worth the time - and I really like the site design). Matt Pasiewicz also offers some links to Audacity tutorials (Audacity is free sound recording software). More...