Models of Collaboration
Overview of five major models of collaboration: library, solicitation, process support, community and team. What I like about this outline is that it extends beyond the idea of collaboration as merely involving person to person communication and looks also at the important intermediating role of content resource. More...

Proposal: LOM Technical Location Implementation
This is a good idea that has legs: allow multiple instances of the 'technical' element in learning object metadata so that multiple formats of the same resource can be listed. More...

IE Patent Endgame Detailed
If you use plug-ins on your website, prepare for some changes as Microsoft continues to lose appeals to a verdict declaring that a small holding company actually "invented" plug-ins, and that Microsoft and presumably other browsers, are in violation. More...

SOSE Subject Terms Project
As described in the EdNA schools newsletter, the "Curriculum Corporation is seeking your response to this Request for Tender for the supply of subject terms relating to the Key Learning Area of Studies of Society and Environment (SOSE) to be used in the Schools Online Thesaurus. The Schools Online Thesaurus (ScOT) Project is a collaborative venture between Curriculum Corporation, The Le@rning Federation and education.au limited to develop a thesaurus to describe subjects of online curriculum resources in the Australian and New Zealand P-12 education sector. ScOT is used by The Le@rning Federation to provide subject terms for online learning content and education.au limited to provide a controlled vocabulary for use in EdNA Online. ScOT is also available for use in the education and commercial sectors." I don't typically cover tenders, and I especially don't cover resources you have to register to view, but I made an exception in this case because this project is of wider interest. More...

U of Saskatchewan Chooses Not To Use Internet Plagiarism Service
How things have changed in the short time since I was a university student. many universities today require that students submit their papers via a service called Turnitin, which scans the web for similar words and phrases and presents the paper to the professor along with an originality report. More...

OASIS Advances Web Services Portal Standard
From the never empty bowl of alphabet soup, a new entry: WSRP (Web Services for Remote Portlets), released Thursday by OASIS. "WSRP defines how Web services plug into portals," said Thomas Koulopoulos, president of Boston-based Delphi Group, a consulting firm which specializes in commerce, portals, content and knowledge management, enterprise wireless, and e-Learning. More...

The Changing Landscape and the New Academy
Like it or now (and to judge by some of the stuff out there, a lot of people don't like it), we are moving toward learner centered learning. This artice documents some of the major facets of that trend. More...

A Revolution in Knowledge Sharing
This may be the most important article you read this year. The authors document the fundamental shift in the learning landscape taking place right now: the sharing of knowledge. And they nail it: what makes knowledge sharing inevitable and important is the nature of knowledge: "There is no simple, linear hierarchy and progression from data to information to knowledge. In reality there is a complex intermeshing, such as a continuous churning of insight, the meaning of which changes in different contexts and through conversations with different participants." Because of this, to work with knowledge, what you need are not some sort of linear "delivery systems" but rather "knowledge networks". The authors outline four major types: description, discovery and exchange of content; interaction with and tracking of content; applications systems interoperability; and infrastructure interoperability. More...

Lawmakers to Weigh Database Protection Bill
Though it has long been held that data - such as lists of addresses, court proceedings, or professional directories - cannot be copyrighted, proposed new legislation will keep this information off-limits to those who wish to publish it. More...

The Academic Industrial Complex
Good article documenting the conversion of academia into a profit center, a theme familiar to readers of these pages. "Market. Consumers. Branding. That we take for granted that higher education is a business is a huge step toward the marketization of higher education." One nice thing about this article is that it draws a clear dark line between the growing commercialism of academia and its continuing retreat from the principles of public education. More...