By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. Derek Morrison: Collective Intelligence in a Corporate Higher Education Setting?, Auricle November 30, 2005

Commentary largely focused on my E-Learning 2.0 paper, but raising the question of the nature of changes to be expected by academic institutions. If other writers are any guide, then these institutions can expect to be governed by an increasingly corporate ethos. But while some corporations have embraced the potential of collective wisdom, most remain entrenched in a command and control model of governance. More...

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. Brian Lamb: Ready for Prime-time Players? On the Reliability of Tagging..., Abject learning November 30, 2005

Brian Lamb asks, "is the emergent approach really ready for prime time? Because it's easy to talk trash about BlackWeb and other corporate behemoths, but at the end of the day reliability matters." Well sure (though it's not like Blackweb offers access to distributed content through syndication either). More...

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. Various authors: Yiibu November 30, 2005

Yiibu has been mentioned in the last few days by a number of commentators (for example, here), and it's interesting enough to pass on. Essentially, the idea behind Yiibu is that small content applications (called 'widgets') can be created and shared through RSS under a Creative Commons license. These widgets may be played not only on your computer, but also on your iPod, PSP or smart phone - they are, after all, nothing more than collections of JPGs with a viewer. More...

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. Paul Baker: News from the Wisconsin Center for Education Research November 30, 2005

Paul Baker writes in, "I produce a podcast at the wisconsin center for education research. Topics deal with teaching and learning, professional development, math and science education, school psychology, early child care, assessment and intervention in special education, education policy, and higher education. More...

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. Brian Lamb: Ready for Prime-time Players? On the Reliability of Tagging..., Abject learning November 30, 2005

Brian Lamb asks, "is the emergent approach really ready for prime time? Because it's easy to talk trash about BlackWeb and other corporate behemoths, but at the end of the day reliability matters." Well sure (though it's not like Blackweb offers access to distributed content through syndication either). More...

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. Darren Kuropatwa: The Conversation is Evolving, A Difference November 29, 2005

The discussion around the blocking of blogs in schools, leading toward what may emerge as a statement or organization. In the mean time, some interesting links, including to this big list of proxy bypasses, this response to Flickr blockage, a link to Guy Bensusan on censorship, a wiki page with more links, a moot court case on web blockages, and this great summary of a research report questioning the need for internet censorship at all. More...

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. Johannes Ernst: Dave Winer Proposes to use URLs for Digital Identity, Johannes Ernst's Blog November 29, 2005

Not just Dave Winer, of course, but a growing number of writers. The advantage of using a URL is that they're freely and widely available, they can be unique, and they can be relatively permanent. The URL, in turn, points to other services used by the person, including identity services, and may provide information about the person, either directly, as a microformat, or indirectly, as in a FOAF. More...

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. Craig Blaha: Online Identity - Keep it All in One Place?, EDUCAUSE Blogs November 29, 2005

A combination identity server and social software application, Jambo has attracted the interest of publications such as Wired and Women's Wear Daily (you have to wonder about the publicity mill sometimes) but hasn't, to my observation, gained any great traction. Even so, Craig Blaha comments, "The convenience of having all of your bookmarks and accounts in one place is seductive". More...

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. Various authors: The YADIS Project November 29, 2005

Marc Canter links to this wiki page - YADIS stands for "Yet Another Decentralized Identity Interoperability System" and is an attempt to bring the various distributed identity projects, including mIDm, into alignment. More...

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. Vincent Kiernan: Show Your Hand, Not Your ID, Chronicle of Higher Education November 29, 2005

I got an email from the Chronicle this morning, remarkable in itself, advising of an article and forum "the readers of Stephen's Web might be interested in participating in." It's a good item in and of itself, exploring the use of biometrics at schools to manage access or even to get meals at the cafeteria. As you can expect, the usual issues about privacy arise, which is the basis of the online discussion to follow. More...