By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. Informal Knowledge Transfer
Good account of the spread of informal learning in the corporate environment, with an emphasis on communities of practice. "To effectively leverage workplace trends, a new breed of technology is evolving from the principles of collective intelligence, which emerges from the collaboration and competition of many individuals. Time and time again, it has been proven that a large group of peers is more adept at solving complex problems than a small group of experts". More...

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. Toward a New Knowledge Society
My presentation to the VENUS seminar on Wednesday. In this talk I describe connective knowledge, and in particular I compare it with traditonal knowledge, both on the level of generalizations (which correspond to pattern recognition) and concrete particulars (which correspond to complex linkages between entities). The online seminar was seen in six European locations as well as streamed online. (Click the title of this post to see my new-style presentation page. Enclosure should also be working, for those who like to listen to podcasts.) Presentation by Stephen Downes, Virtual and E-mobility for Networking Universities in Society (VENUS), online, [Link]. More...

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. 'Knowledge' and 'Learning'
This has been in development for a long time, and is still being developed, but it's now online and I'm enthused to be able to link to it. It is essentially a concept map developed by Rod Savoie, my colleague here at NRC in Moncton, on the topics of knowledge and learning. Don't be misled by the term 'concept map' - in this case that's kind of like calling the Pacific Ocean 'some water'. You won't want to miss this. More...

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. The Quest to Know Knowledge
Another review of George Siemens's Connectivism, a book published online that, we learn, has been downloaded 40,000 times now (and hopefully read nearly as often). I have thought of the dashboard analogy, mentioned by Clive Shepherd, but have my doubts about it, as a dashboard is about consuming information, not producing it. I'm not sure we have good analogies for what George is describing. Because the analogies are simple, but network phenomena are complex. More...