By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. An Incomplete Manifesto for Growth, Bruce Mau Design [Edit][Delete] January 11, 2006
IDRC Launches Open Archive Initiative
By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. Michael Geist[Edit][Delete]: IDRC Launches Open Archive Initiative, January 11, 2006
You don't hear about the International Development Research Centre (IDRC) much, a Canadian aid agency, but it has been around for a long time (they were a fixture, and a lot of help, when I was involved in development education in the 1980s with the Arusha Centre). But as Michael Geist writes, "In 2004, it provided financial support to Creative Commons South Africa, playing an important role in making that initiative a reality. Now it has set its sights on a major new open archive that will provide full Internet access to the IDRC research archive". More...
Personal Learning Environments and Virtual Learning Environments
By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. Unknown[Edit][Delete]: Personal Learning Environments and Virtual Learning Environments, myWORLD Open Source ePortfolio [Edit][Delete] January 11, 2006
This is a very useful analogy and might be the best approach yet to the divide between personal learning and learning management systems: "To explore hostile environments we bring micro-climates with us in the form of clothing, space suits, boots, sea kayaks, ships, aeroplanes, etc. I may well choose to enter a VLE clad in my PLE or go off exploring on my own or with friends without feeling the need to let the teacher know. More...
Interactive Learning Fails Reading Test (Or Does It?)
By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. Christopher D. Sessums[Edit][Delete]: Interactive Learning Fails Reading Test (Or Does It?), Christopher D. Sessums : Weblog [Edit][Delete] January 11, 2006
What appears to be an irresponsible study showing that multimedia detracts from literacy education is gaining traction in Australian media (I say 'appears' because the study is behind a subscription wall, and therefore blocked from public scrutiny). In the study, children viewing and manipulating partially irrelevant graphics while listening to and reading a story performed less well than students not using the graphics. Of course, children trying to read while someone banging a drum in their ears would also perform less well, but nobody considers that to be an argument against music education. More...
Bpifrance Création - Indépendance juridique : risque de requalification du contrat de mission en contrat de travail
En tant que micro-entrepreneur, vous êtes supposé exercer votre activité en totale indépendance et être responsable de vos actes. Vous devez être libre d'organiser votre travail à votre convenance, de choisir vos clients, fournisseurs et sous-traitants sans contrainte, et de fixer vos prix, vous travailler sans lien de subordination juridique vis-à-vis de votre ou vos clients. Plus...
Flickr and the Library Pictures
By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. Lorcan Dempsey[Edit][Delete]: Flickr and the Library Pictures, January 11, 2006
Interesting item on a collaboration between Flickr and Library Australia which allows people to upload images to the Picture Australia service through Flickr. The tag-line is what's intriguing: "Putting the library in the user environment, rather than expecting the user to be in the library environment. Creating structures for user contribution. Presenting a library service through emerging web and social tools." Yeah. More...
Real Story of the Rogue Rootkit
By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. Bruce Schneier[Edit][Delete]: Real Story of the Rogue Rootkit, Wired News [Edit][Delete]Wired news [Edit][Delete] January 11, 2006
The office is shut down for our big move (which is no joy for me, but that's a different story). So this morning it was down to the dentist, where my results were unusually happy. So, in a slightly less gloomy mood, I walked across the street to the mall, went to the Sony store, and complained about the Sony rootkit to a sales clone. More...
Debate on DRM
By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. Shelley Powers[Edit][Delete]: Debate on DRM, Burningbird [Edit][Delete] January 11, 2006
Good discussion of digital rights management. Read past the initial post and into the comments, where the real action happens. I appreciated, though, the author's comments on debate: she's quite right - the A-listers of the world don't debate, they quip - and usually only to each other. But what happens in the comments is a known-down all-out debate, with some knowledgeable people (Seth Finklestein, Julian Bond, Michael Bernstein) who do debate - and on other peoples blogs. More...
Blackboard by the Numbers
By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. Michael Feldstein[Edit][Delete]: Blackboard by the Numbers, E-Literate [Edit][Delete] January 13, 2006
Michael Feldstein analyzes Jim Farmer's study. "OK. So. Blackboard pays a quarter of a million for a new customer. That's adds up to be more than 30% of the total amount of money that they bring in. How, exactly, do they stay in business? How do they grow?... Blackboard needs to acquire 185 new customers every year to hold steady, 371 to get 5% growth, and so on, up to 742 new customers needed to grow at 15%. How many new customers a year has Blackboard been getting? 152. More...
On the Cost of Selling an Enterprise Learning System
By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. Jim Farmer[Edit][Delete]: On the Cost of Selling an Enterprise Learning System, January 13, 2006
A must-read if you are interested in the learning management system (LMS) marketplace. "Using industry-average data, the cost of selling a Blackboard enterprise learning system is estimated to be $259,000 per sale. Analysis of the third-quarter 2005 data estimates this cost at $280,913. More...