By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. The RSS Version 3 Homepage
Does the world need another version of RSS? Probably not, but this development has been inevitable ever since RSS 2 was frozen. The new specification makes some logical changes to RSS 2 - most notable is the addition of ratings and category elements. Read more about it in the blog. Also, there's an eWeek article available, a Register article, Slashdot discussion, and many more links in the blogosphere. More...

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. Government Textbook Gets High-Tech Boost
Just an example of what a government can do once it gets past the idea that texbooks are something that you have to buy. "At UT (University of Texas), readings for mandatory political science course will be online — and free to students, public." The savings - mostly to students - on this one book amount to $300,000. More...

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. From Multimedia to Multisensory Education
It was nice to hear from Douglas Levin, who informs me that the people at Cable in the Classroom's Threshold magazine "have plans underway to address many of your criticisms." He also highlighted this article, which I did not mention in my post yesterday. More...

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. Blogs & RSS as a School Communication Environment
Dave Warlick has caught aggregator fever. In this post (and yes, it's a continuation of the 'blogs as conversation' conversation) he offers several ways aggregators could be used in a school environment: lesson plans, lesson reflections, lesson blogs, dynamic categorization, announcements and policy, subscription analysis. "The aggregator is the linchpin of this arrangement. Teachers must be able to refine their settings and how their subscriptions are organized." Yes. More...

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. Elgg's Podcast Launch!
ELGG laiunches its podcast service and begins on target with an interview with George Siemens. I haven't listened to this (who has time?) but at least Dave Tosh posts the questions he asked. More...

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. Software Patents Don't Compute
Could you patent a pri nciple of mathematics - 2+2=4, say? No, it wouldn't make sense. Then what to make of this argument, which says, in a sentence, "No clear boundary between math and software exists". More...

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. RSS Magic
The blog conversation on the use of blogs as conversation continues (you almost think they're doing this deliberately to make a point). Will Richardson makes an important point: "Without a fundamental understanding of RSS glue, distributed conversations are fundamentally illogical. How can we call Alan and David's separate posts on this topic a conversation?" But the results generated by RSS readers are not yet sufficiently robust to make this connection clear; we need RSS Referencing to do that. More...

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. Storm Clouds Gather Over Podcasting
A Seattle public radio station, KEXP, wanted to produce a podcast, which it knew it would be a popular service. The record companies, however, were not willing to provide podcast licenses for the music, arguing fears of piracy. So the station invited 14 unsigned or small-label bands from the Seattle area to contribute songs, signing a simple podcast license with them. More...