By Stephen Downes
December 4, 2003
Collaboration & The Problem With
E-mail
George Siemens summarizes this nicely:
"I've used Groove, Drupal, Sharepoint, Convea, and other
collaborative spaces in an effort to create a place to
brainstorm ideas and share information. Most often, these
tools (while great in theory) don't get results like a
simple email will. For some reason, only a small percentage
of people will embrace these tools...and even then,
involvement in the collaborative space is usually sporadic.
The article presents the notion that the problem with these
collaborative tools is that a change in habits is required
in order for users to experience their potential. Email
we're used to...collaborative tools we're not." By Robert
Hamilton and Ben Bradley, Darwin, December 3, 2003
[Refer][Research][Reflect]
Blackboard Looks Likely To Go
Public
Citing a "teady stream of investment
bankers" going through Blackboard's 18th and L Street
offices, this article speculates that Blackboard is about
to launch an IPO. The time is right for the company,
especially after landing a contract with the Department of
Defense last week. Record revenues haven't hurt either. I
still think an acquisition is more likely than an IPO (I
see McGraw-Hill or Microsoft as prime candidates) but
either way it seems that changes are afoot. By Shannon
Henr, Washington Post, December 4, 2003
[Refer][Research][Reflect]
Not-so-Modest Proposals: What Do We Want Our
System of Scholarly Communication to Look Like in
2010?
The quality of the writing in this article
isn't everything it could be, but the substance is worth a
read as it outlines a desirable process of academic
communication in the next decade. Readers of OLDaily will
be familiar with the combination: digital content, open
access, metadata and syndicated content, where the costs
paid by universities and their supporters are for producing
and storing digital content, rather than for subscribing to
expensive journals. By John Unsworth, CIC Summit on
Scholarly Communication, December 2, 2003
[Refer][Research][Reflect]
Look What's New on
ADLNet.org!
Advanced Distributed Learning (ADL),
the organization behind SCORM, has created a pair of RSS
feeds to advertise their news and events. Good stuff. The
feed has been added, of course, to the list of Edu_RSS contributing feeds. By Unknown,
Advanced Distributed Learning, December 1, 2003
[Refer][Research][Reflect]
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