By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. Just Because You Can...?
OK, a kid records 20 seconds of the Transformers movie to show to her brother, who couldn't go. Should she go to jail for this? The very fact that we can ask this question tells me how backwards our values have become. And it gets worse before it gets better, doesn't it. What if the kid records 20 seconds of a live event? 20 seconds of street scenery which includes company logos and text? 20 seconds of a political rally? At some point, someone has to say, sharing is not a crime. Unauthorized commercial reproduction, that's a crime. More...

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. Blogs: All the Noise That Fits
Another one of those reports carried by the traditional media to the effect that bloggers are lazy and derivative jorunalists who do no original work of their own. This would be unremarkable (if inaccurate) were it not for the follow-up work done by a few of the readers. Josh Marshall, one of the bloggers cited in the piece, writes, "Skube's piece reads with a vagueness that suggests he has less than a passing familiarity with the topic at issue." So he should - because his Talking Points Memo is well known as a serious and well-researched blog. And when he wrote Skube to enquire, Skube replied, "I didn't put your name into the piece and haven't spent any time on your site. So to that extent I'm happy to give you benefit of the doubt ...". More...

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. Emergence
Doug Noon looks at the role of rules in the emergence of learning. "Friere said that freedom can only exist in conditions that are subject to authority. The student, he said, experiences freedom in relation to the teacher's authority.'" My reply. More...

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. I CAN HAS LOLCODE PARSER?
So what makes me happy on a rainy Friday afternoon? An article on Brad Fitzpatrick and the opening of social networks? And Facebook Feeds? Good, but that's Wednesday stuff. More discussion of books vs computers? Nice when people agree with me, also nice when they don't. More...

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. What's All the Buzz About Wikibooks? I Found at Least 10 Examples.
Curt Bonk offers us a look at a promising alternative to the textbook, the wiki book. Essentially, the wiki book is an online book written collectively by its readers. Bonk's post is a valuable contribution because it lists and describes in some detail ten separate wiki books projects. This gives readers some concrete examples they can consider following. Bonk is working on a book applying Thomas Friedman's The World is Flat ideas to learning. Richard Hoeg takes the same tack with this post and presentation (which is worth the six minutes to view). More...