By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. Kathleen Gilroy and Bill Ives[Edit][Delete]: Preparing for Intranet 2.0, the otter group [Edit][Delete] May 16, 2006
Good paper showing how web 2.0 technologies (and especially blogging) can be used in a corporate context. Contains one of the best one-paragraph descriptions of a learning network I've seen: "A learning network uses the intranet as a platform to tie together a set of services that support collaboration and communication, and it uses the web 2.0 tools we ve described so far". More...

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. Tom Morris[Edit][Delete]: iBeebSpacr 2.0, May 16, 2006
Tom Morris comments on the BBC's widely publicized plan to embrace Web 2.0 technologies: "What the BBC don't seem to understand is that user-generated content is happening all around them, and that we don't need 'BBC Blogs' or 'BBC Flickr' or 'BBC YouTube' for that to happen." Quite right, and as Catherine Howell observes in her follow-up to her Facebook.edu" post, "we don't need institutional versions of them, squirrelled away in a CMS, either." She goes on to observe that "For the older academics, identity is protected through restricting access to it; by using the language of privacy and confidentiality to talk about it; by preferring password-protected environments". More...

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. Catherine Howell[Edit][Delete]: Facebook.edu Is Not The Answer, EDUCAUSE Blogs [Edit][Delete] May 15, 2006
Let's capture the really important point first: we should not create 'educational versions' of students' favorite applications. Not simply because, as Catherine Howell suggests, they will not challenge students. But also because, as Cole comments, students wouldn't use them (at least, not in the same way). Because "they said things the U runs feel 'controlled.'" There is, as Ulises Mejias suggests, a connection between the software we choose and the social structures we set up. That's why I suggest we should be looking for specific properties in the software we select. What does this mean for educational software then. More...

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. Various authors[Edit][Delete]: Learning Innovation for the Adapted Lisbon Agenda, The European OLD Liaison Community [Edit][Delete] May 15, 2006
I guess this is pretty much a trend worldwide: "...it is necessary to devote higher attention to this field [educational research] in terms of policy attention, implementation effectiveness and resources. This should be done at complementary levels, by improving coordination, evaluation and utilization.... the need for research leaders to be accountable to society on how and where they direct research resources when a compelling need to produce an impact exists in education and training systems, and in society at large." In other words, there will be an increased coordination of research efforts from, if you will, the top down. And it seems there are good reasons for this - to counter the 'not invented here' syndrome, to overcome the limitations of small and unknown projects, to counter duplication of efforts, and to have research actually meet important social objectives. It's hard to argue with those needs. More...

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. Nancy White[Edit][Delete]: It is KEWL and KINKY: Collaboration Software, Full Circle Online Interaction Blog [Edit][Delete] May 15, 2006
Well this headline will set off the email filters. That's why you should whitelist domains you know are safe. Anyhow, this item describes a new software release from the African Virtual Open Initiative and Resources project (AVOIR), "a sophisticated group-based collaboration system, supporting an unlimited number of groups... where you have complete control over what functionality is installed, as well as what functionality is available on a per group basis. You can use kGroups to replace wikis, blogs, content management, mailing lists, document management, instant messaging, discussion forums, and dozens of other applications. More...