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26 août 2019

Where I'm Coming From

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. Jay Cross[Edit][Delete]: Where I'm Coming From, Internet Time [Edit][Delete] August 29, 2006
My comment was simply swallowed up by Jay Cros's website; maybe it was accepted, maybe it was filtered, maybe it just disappeared (please, people, if you are modertaing comments, add a notice to your website, and if your system filters spam, at least let commentators know - I spent way too much time today trying to post comments on people's websites). Anyhow, what I said to this post, in essence, is this: We are all coming from somewhere. And when I write, if you see an anger in my writing, it is because I am coming from somewhere too. More...

Posté par pcassuto à 14:58 - Commentaires […] - Permalien [#]

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26 août 2019

Free Electronic Textbooks Include Advertisements

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. cel4145[Edit][Delete]: Free Electronic Textbooks Include Advertisements, Kairosnews [Edit][Delete]KairosNews [Edit][Delete] August 29, 2006
Once again, people will be out and about, saying "what's the harm?" Here is my acid test: can I buy advertisements in the textbooks for things like Buy-nothing Day, or condemning the use of child-labour in the production of shoes in sweatshops? No? I certainly can't advertise these things (and many others) on television. And if I can't buy these advertisements, then it's not just about the free market at work, it's about the propaganda. Think about it. More...

Posté par pcassuto à 14:57 - Commentaires […] - Permalien [#]

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26 août 2019

Ethics and Codes

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. Stephen Downes[Edit][Delete]: Ethics and Codes, Half an Hour [Edit][Delete] August 29, 2006
There's is something I can't quite put my finger on with regard to recent proposals that students be taught an internet 'code of ethics' but I think I'm getting close. In response to a post from Dave Warlick today, I wrote, in essence, that "the problem is that ethical codes presuppose that ethical questions are settled, but thy are far from settled." Consider downloading, for example - people (including Warlick) still treat file sharing as unethical, and yet it's as though they had never seen the opposing view. So what's going on? Do we just say some things are unethical, by fiat? Do we remove all option, all choice, all thought in the matter? And who benefits when certain behaviours - such as file sharing - are deemed unethical, and other behaviours - such as corporate influence over media - are not? Tom Hoffman is also puzzled, and, I suspect, for similar reasons (I owe both Tom Hoffman and Norm Friesen more discussion on points they've raised, and I hope they'll be patient with me). [Tags: File Sharing] [Comment]. More...

Posté par pcassuto à 14:56 - Commentaires […] - Permalien [#]

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26 août 2019

How Many Calories Are in Coke Zero?

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. William Draves[Edit][Delete]: How Many Calories Are in Coke Zero?, Nine Shift [Edit][Delete] August 29, 2006

I've been posting away today, a bit irritably. It's a sick day for me today, as I have a nasty sore throught, I'm a bit feverish, and I'm taking medication that won't let me sleep. I'm trying to get my work done before I leave on a month-long trip to South Africa, Australia and New Zealand this Friday, some work that I want to do, like my video, and other work I don't want to do, like participate in research projects that have utterly nothing to do with my interests or expertise. My computer is acting up - the internet is very slow today, and the keyboard (yes, the one that had mixed nuts in it, though I cleaned them out) is skipping letters at random. So I'm irritable today. Nobody's fault, really - except maybe the provincial government's, since they made me wade my bicycle through this huge pond in the middle of the road in the middle of nowhere on Sunday evening. More...

Posté par pcassuto à 14:55 - Commentaires […] - Permalien [#]

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26 août 2019

Patent Fight Over Online Schooling

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. Justin Pope[Edit][Delete]: Patent Fight Over Online Schooling, Business Week [Edit][Delete] August 28, 2006

Business Week has discovered the Blackboard patent fight and in a typically one-sided article attempts to depict the fight as being between Blackboard and "the academic computing community, which is fighting back in techie fashion -- through online petitions and in a sprawling Wikipedia entry that helps make its case." Blackboard is given credit for an invention (though it is characterized as "obvious" and "incremental") although it should not be (even Blackboard's "obvious" and "incremental" developments were discovered prior to its claim). The 'market' is described as entirely occupied by commercial products, which is simply false ("Blackboard has about 60 percent of the market for those systems, followed by eCollege and Desire2Learn with about 20 percent each, according to Eduventures"). More...

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26 août 2019

The Children's Machine

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. Weslet Fryer[Edit][Delete]: The Children's Machine, Moving at the Speed of Creativity [Edit][Delete] August 28, 2006

In what is an astonishing bit of rebranding, the $100 computer is now being called "The Children's Machine". I do like what I'm seeing of the development - wireless mesh, possible VOIP support, digital images and video support, and more. More...

Posté par pcassuto à 14:54 - Commentaires […] - Permalien [#]

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26 août 2019

No Suit Required

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. Jeff Howe[Edit][Delete]: No Suit Required, Wired News [Edit][Delete]Wired news [Edit][Delete] August 28, 2006

One of the reasons I have supported open source and open content is that it favours small producers. When content, copyrights and intellectual property in general are owned, this favour large producers. Nowhere is this clearer than in the music industry, where (somehow!) people king William Hung and Paris Hilton are made 'stars' via marketing hype. If you're not part of the program, you can forget it. Now I happen to be a fan of artists like the Barenaked Ladies and Sarah McLaughlin. And I have seen these quality acts get little, if any, promotion through traditional means. So I am not surprised to see them working with Nettwerk Music Group - a company that doesn't want to 'own' them, it just wants to sell CDs with their music. More...

Posté par pcassuto à 14:53 - Commentaires […] - Permalien [#]

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26 août 2019

Code of Ethics

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. Charles Nelson[Edit][Delete]: Code of Ethics, Explorations in Learning [Edit][Delete] August 28, 2006

More discussion on the question of whether there should be codes of ethics for internet use. This longish post from Charles Nelson continues the defense of codes of ethics, in opposition to my own position. I think a lot of the disagreement is based on (what I would call) a misunderstanding as to what constitutes a 'code' - a code isn't merely a set of suggestions, guidelines or instructions. It is a definition of what is right and what is wrong. Nelson writes, "Without laws, there would be no need for judges to interpret their application." This is false. More...

Posté par pcassuto à 14:52 - Commentaires […] - Permalien [#]

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26 août 2019

Google Offerings

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. Google Offerings, heyjude [Edit][Delete] August 28, 2006

This has been covered all over the place. "Google this week will launch Google Apps for Your Domain, a software bundle aimed at small and midsize companies." In the process it has completely messed up my login for Blogger. More...

Posté par pcassuto à 14:51 - Commentaires […] - Permalien [#]

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26 août 2019

Primer on Public Involvement

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. François-Pierre Gauvin and Julia Abelson[Edit][Delete]: Primer on Public Involvement, Canadian Policy Research Networks [Edit][Delete] August 25, 2006

I always worry when someone promotes a new way to consult the public on health care, because the recent history of our system is that 85 percent of Canadians support the public system while business and government officials are forever trying to privatize it. This results in a cynicism about government, a cynicism that is frankly admitted at the beginning of this report. What follows is a good discussion of citizen participation in governance generally, and if you look for it you'll find what is for me a key factor: "participants must have a real impact on the policy and decision-making process. More...

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