By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. What Happens Next Will Amaze You
Maciej Cegłowski, Idle Words, 2015/09/25

Excellent talk on the dysfunction of internet advertising networks and the skewed foundations (and general incompetence) of the Silicon-Valley-based new world order. More...

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. Who’s Benefiting from MOOCs, and Why
Chen ZhenghaoBrandon AlcornGayle ChristensenNicholas ErikssonDaphne KollerEzekiel J. Emanuel, Harvard Business Review, 2015/09/25

Interesting study that makes us focus on the people for whom MOOCs were actually designed (hint: it's not rich kids or teachers already in educational institutions). More...

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. Evernote vs. Google Keep: Which Does More?
Christina Warren, Mashable, 2015/09/25

Interesting comparison. Both are applications that allow you to clip, tag and save things from the web. More...

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. Why Apple Music Missed a Beat
Mark Bonchek, William Patrick, Harvard Business Review, 2015/09/25

Educators also could learn from Apple's failures. More...

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. LinkedIn to a New Degree
Nina Fink, Morgane Taquet, EducPros.fr, 2015/09/25

People here at the MOOC conference are saying traditional institutions are in no danger of disruption. How wrong they are. More...

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. The Open Access Interviews: F1000 Founder Vitek Tracz
Richard Poynder, Open, Shut?, 2015/09/23

Fifteen years ago Vitek Tracz launched Biomed Central and in so doing gave open access the boost it needed into the mainstream. More...

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. How adtech, not ad blocking, breaks the social contract
Doc Searls, 2015/09/23

The Applesphere has been roiling over the ad-blocking controversy recently (the Firfoxsphere has been happily blocking ads for years). The argument is that people blocking ads are somehow taking advantage of publishers, since they rely on advertisements. More...

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. Is Twitter Where Connections Go to Die? – The Unfollowing Experiment
Luis Suarez, E L U S A, 2015/09/23

Regular readers know that I don't follow people on Twitter - I can't follow everybody (it would be just noise) and I don't want to create a special subset of privileged connections. More...

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. The Plot Twist: E-Book Sales Slip, and Print Is Far From Dead
Alexandra Alter, New York Times, 2015/09/23

According to the article, "E-books’ declining popularity may signal that publishing, while not immune to technological upheaval, will weather the tidal wave of digital technology better than other forms of media." I disagree. More...

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. Musicians hear songs when they read music, non-musicians seek visual patterns
Roheeni Saxena, Ars Technica, 2015/09/23

You learn to perceive. Or, to put it another way, to learn is to learn how to perceive. There's no better illustration of this than the example cited in this article. More...