By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. Licenses, Features and the Open Source Community in Higher Education
Good presentation emphasizing not only the size of the e-learning market (about 30 billion USD (+/- 30%)) and the importance of open source in serving that market. The author emphasizes several times that open standards, rather than open source, will be key to accessing that market. More...

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. Open Source for Digital Curation
Comprehensive guide outlining why curators should consider open source and outlining a number of products and applications. If you are in the museum community this is an essential read. More...

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. Reuters: Did Sony 'Rootkit' Pluck From Open Source?, ZD Net November 18, 2005

As you recall, Sony placed virus-like software on some of its CDs that secretly installs malicious software on users' computers. Now evidence has surfaced that the company raided open source software to code the rootkit. There's a lesson here about piracy and large corporations, I think. More...

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. Steve Outing: Seething Anger Over TimesSelect Op-ed Choice, Poynter September 28, 2005
As most people know, the New York Times locked its op-ed columnists behind a subscription wall last week. Reaction is now coming in and most of it is negative. One person wrote to me from Iran pointing out that this makes it impossible to read the articles in that country, a theme touched on by Steve Outing in this item. More...

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. Sarah Schweitzer: When Students Open Up -- A Little Too Much, Boston Globe September 28, 2005
Discussion of what could happen if students post indiscreetly on online discussion boards such as Facebook (a closed social network for university students). Most of the examples centre around drug references, for some reason, though presumably students could be indiscreet about other topics as well. More...

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. John Willinsky: The Unacknowledged Convergence of Open Source, Open Access, and Open Science, First Monday September 27, 2005
The author discusses open source, open content and open access under the heading of three principles ("the price of admission matters","penness has been traditionally supported by various forms of patronage," and "open alternatives to intellectual property regimes still operate") with the intent of identifying, and encouraging people to address, the common ground unifying these three movements: "a common commitment to a larger public sphere. More...

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. Sanjay Jasola and Ramesh Sharma: Open and Distance Education through Wireless Mobile Internet: A Learning Model, International Journal of Instructional Technology and Distance Learning September 24, 2005

I like this article because instead of simply referring to 'mobile computing' it digs into the nature and functionality of wireless technologies and digital cellular service; you will learn, for example, what the difference is between a third-generation cellular radio transmission technology (3G) and a wireless application protocol (WAP) and how they work together. More...