Metadata Development in China: Research and Practice
Absolutely fascinating overview of metadata development in China, including a recent history showing an explosion of interest beginning in 2002 and a number of metadata initiatives. More...

Online UK Library Network Goes Live With First Key Phase
From the article: "The first phase of the new People’s Network Service was launched to library professionals yesterday. The People’s Network Online Enquiry Service will deliver a real-time information service to the public by providing ‘live’ access to library and information professionals across the internet." Cool. Interesting. More...

The Role of RSS in Science Publishing: Syndication and Annotation on the Web
The authors, who work for Nature Publishing Group, have been working on RSS content aggregation for a while now. The same group released Urchine, an RSS aggregator, on SourceForge recently. This article accompanies the soft launch of Connotea, "a social bookmarking tool like a kind of scientific 'del.icio.us' or 'CiteULike'," according to their email. The authors put the case bluntly in their second paragraph. More...

Extreme Blogging
Having spent several hours on a bus, I am not in Halifax, Nova Scotia, where I'll give a talk on educational blogging at Mount Saint Vincent University tomorrow. Then it's off to Wolfville, where I'll talk on the same topic at Acadia University. So today's issue is a bit later than usual - but the quality of the items I'm linking to today can't be matched. More...

Connectivism: A Learning Theory for the Digital Age
George Siemens hits the mark nicely with this essay describing connectivism, the Information Age's answer to consructivism, behaviorism and cognitism. Most of what he outlines in this essay is what I have been advocating in the area of learning networks, but what Siemens has done is to express the principles, not as an organization of learning, as I have, but as a learning theory proper. More...

WebCT Campus > Vista > Future?
Commentary and discussion of the recent IRRODL on WebCT's future - or lack of same. Note Scott Leslie's commentary. I might add that in the last week I have received replies from people both at Blackboard and WebCT on items I've linked to in this newsletter. But of course they don't want them posted or quoted or anything like that. While I appreciate the clarifications (and they have been in some detail) it really bothers me that they are sent in such a private back-channel fashion. More...

ACS Takes Legal Action Against Google
For crying out loud... The American Chemical Society (ACS) has filed a complaint against Google in a U.S. District Court over Google’s use of the 'Scholar' in Google Scholar. The what over what. More...

On Folly
Edd Dumbill responds to criticisms of the Semantic Web. the argument, in a sentence: "Both Shirky and Udell seem to be pretty much convinced the Semantic Web requires, from the outset, globally agreed ontologies. It seems more that they've set up a straw man. I had always envisaged that in the same way user interface and other conventions have emerged from the messy web, so would ontological conventions. Messy, but good enough." I will say, if you are building ontologies now, prior to use, you are probably making an error. More...

Podcasting for Beer
It seems like a natural match - RSS, music and beer (sounds like my weekends). "Beer company Heineken -- active as a sponsor of many music events -- has launched a podcasting show on www.heinekenmusic.com. The Heineken music events provide a constant stream of interviews, music, and life events." Commercial radio: bye. Educational podcasts are already springing up... yeah, yeah, I know, they'll never replace a professor with a blackboard. More...

New Media Research Networks Fund
Canadian Heritage has announced funding for research in new media. "Under this Fund, a group of public and private sector partners organize themselves into a network so that researchers can share knowledge, resources and facilities. This Network will develop a research program centered on a particular theme, which has relevance for the cultural sector and promotes innovation in new media or digital content interactive." A link to the application guidelines is on the site; click on the PDF version, as the HTML link simply takes you on a long aimless tour. More...