Google+ Stories
Alex Chitu, Google Operating System, May 30, 2014

Google+ is offering a new service: "Google+ Photos added a new feature called Stories. Google automatically groups some of your best photos and videos, based on the date and the place where they were taken, and creates animated stories you can edit and share with other people." This is relatively easy to do if all your photos are in the Google database (which of course is what Google wants). More...

Beyond the stack
Mike Loukides, O'Reilly Radar, May 30, 2014

One of the interesting 'behind the scenes' things about the new MOOC platforms is the way they're built: distributed computing. Coursera, for example, relies on Amazon Web Services (AWS). EdX's default distribution also uses AWS. More...

Achievement Standards Network
Achievement Standards Network, May 15, 2014

From the website: "The Achievement Standards Network ASN) provides open access to machine-readable representations of learning objectives published by education agencies and organizations including the Common Core State Standards." It was acquired by Desire2Learn last March. More...

Previewing a new Classroom
Zach Yeskel, Official Google Canada Blog, May 7, 2014

Dozens of LMS companies are reexamining their business plans this week after the launch of Google's preview of Classroom, part of the Google Apps for Education suite. According to their official blog, Classroom helps teachers:

• help teachers create and collect assignments paperlessly
• make announcements, ask questions and comment with students in real time
• creates Drive folders for each assignment and for each student. Students can easily see what’s due on their Assignments page.

Google says it wants the applications to "play well" with others. More...

Yahoo Ditches “Do Not Track”: Lack Of Standards Said Too Confusing
Marketing Land, Ginny Marvin, May 2, 2014

So what we have here is a group of companies (Google, Facebook, Yahoo) creating standards confusion, and then using standards confusion as a reason not to implement a customer-friendly feature. More...

Blackboard's Screeching IPO
More analysis of the Blackboard IPO. What struck me was this remark: "Another great characteristic of the business is that there are significant costs to switching from one software package to another." OK, Earth to Fool: this is not an advantage. More...

Microsoft Research DRM Talk
True story: while I was in Saskatoon, knowing that Air Canada shows movies only on flights longer than 3 and a half hours, and facing a three hour and 22 minute flight, I bought a copy of Gangs of New York and set it up to play on my computer. I test-played it for a couple of minutes, packed my computer, and caught my flight. More...

How Microsoft Lost the API War
Two good think pieces on Microsoft. This first item is a little technical but a good read even if you don't follow it completely. Essentially, the author argues that, since Microsoft has changed its (mostly secret) application program interface (API) so frequently in various versions of Windows, developers have abandoned Windows as a software platform and are now programming for the world wide web. More...

Notes from Microsoft
David Weinberger is the latest in a series of speakers to travel to Redmond and tell Microsoft what it doesn't want to hear - that current approaches to DRM are a path to failure. More...

Microsoft's Patent Plans Worry Open-Source Supporters
Microsoft's plans to leverage a badly flawed U.S. patent system to begin crushing open source by licensing and litigation has advocates worried. More...