OLDaily By Stephen Downes January 5, 2004 File sharing application usage You may be reading about how file sharing has dropped dramatically since the advent of the RIAA lawsuits. But don't be fooled by the press reports. Reports such as this one base their assessment only on numbers from KaZaa, WinMX, BearShare and Grokster. These tools are closely monitored by the industry. But downloaders have a host of other options, including BitTorrent, eDonkey, eMule and Carracho, that preserve anonymity - essential in today's environment - while providing access to music and video files. It is unlikely that downloaders are stopping. It is more likely that they are moving. By Unknown, Pew, January, 2004 [Refer][Research][Reflect] Five Giants in Technology Unite to Deter File Sharing A consortium known as Project Hudson, made up of Intel, Nokia, Samsung, Toshiba and Matshushita, is planning to introduce a digital rights management system for audio and video that it hopes will reduce Microsoft's lock on the field. The system, to be unveiled in early February, will permit limited sharing and previewing. By John Markoff, New York Times, January 5, 2004 [Refer][Research][Reflect] DEOS-News There's not much to look at yet, but bookmark this site and check back in ten days as DEOS-News is resuming publication after a hiatus of about a year or so. Let's hope the content is in HTML, the feeds are RSS (or Atom), and the content is provocative. By Melody Thompson, January 15, 2004 [Refer][Research][Reflect] Suite of QTI development Tools Completed QTI - Question and Test Integration - is an IMS specification to standardize online tests. These tools, developed by CETIS, consist of "a full set of documents about interoperability issues around the current version of QTI, a set of working examples of all the sample quizes and tests that come with the spec, and an online QTI renderer that allows developers to test their QTI XML." Good stuff. By Wilbert Kraan, CETIS, January 5, 2003 [Refer][Research][Reflect] Organizational Stupidity: The Total is Less Than the Sum of Its Parts A little more fun from After 5's anonymous Instructional Designer, this time bemoaning the poor design decisions that emanate even from teams of skilled individuals. Especially worthwhile is the list of causes for such dumb decision making at the end of the article. By I.D., After 5, January 5, 2003 [Refer][Research][Reflect] Media Literacy Goes to School I haven't talked about this as much as I should. Multi media, especially in education, requires media literacy. Media literacy isn't only about learning how to evaluate and criticize persuasive multimedia presentations, though it is partially that. It is, in my mind, mainly about being able to understand the message contained in such a presentation, and to asses it on its own merits. Media literacy, therefore, isn't merely about protecting readers and viewers, it is also about increasing their comprehension. This article is a good start to such a discussion, and on the second page are some useful links. By Henry Jenkins, Technology Review, January 2, 2004 [Refer][Research][Reflect] Do We Fit in the Virtual Education Plan? Is e-learning possible in Bangladesh? This summary of remarks by Badrul Khan late December suggests it can. The bulk of the article is a synopsis of Khan's framework for e-learning, about which you can learn more on his home page. By Faizul A Tanim, The Daily Star, December 24, 2003 [Refer][Research][Reflect] Download Audio Texts Put Byte on Bookstores, News The latest in audio downloads: books. This article describes audible.com, an online store that has had success selling audio versions of books in MP3 format. Should we be watching for a bookster? By Michael Booth, Denver Post, January 4, 2003 [Refer][Research][Reflect] Know a friend who might enjoy this newsletter? Feel free to forward OLDaily to your colleagues. If you received this issue from a friend and would like a free subscription of your own, you can join our mailing list at http://www.downes.ca/cgi-bin/website/subscribe.cgi [ About This NewsLetter] [ OLDaily Archives] [ Send me your comments]