By Stephen Downes
January 20, 2004
2004: The Turning Point
Ubiquity
has published my article projecting trends for the coming
year and beyond. It's funny. I spent weeks writing Resource Profiles and got almost no
reaction, virtually none, while I spent about an hour
writing this item to produce wide linkage and a
publication. Go figure. By Stephen Downes, Ubiquity,
January 20, 2003
[Refer][Research][Reflect]
e-Government Metadata Standard
For
those of you working on government metadata schemas,
especially government use of Dublin Core, the third draft
of the U.K. e-Government Metadata Standard is now available
in MS-Word .doc and Adobe PDF formats. By Various Authors,
January, 2003
[Refer][Research][Reflect]
Journal of Digital Content 2:1
A
new issue, its second (the first was last October), of this journal is out. I
don't have Acrobat Reader working at the moment, so I can't
recommend the articles, but the titles look interesting,
and if you have the Reader working you'll be the first on
your block to have seen them. Anyhow, enjoy. By Various
Authors, January, 2004
[Refer][Research][Reflect]
International Journal of Instructional
Technology and Distance Learning
Just launched,
a new free refereed journal is now available in HTML and
PDF format online. The International Journal of
Instructional Technology and Distance Learning picks up
where the old USDLA Journal left off, reuniting most of the
old editorial board, but publishing independently. The
Editors introduce the new journal with the
obligatory Volume One, Number One 'why we exist' editorial.
By Various Authors, January, 2003
[Refer][Research][Reflect]
Reed Elsevier Feels Resistance To Web
Pricing
Some serious questions are being raised
about the viability of publishing academic journals. "Media
analysts are increasingly troubled by the threat that free
online scientific research could pose to Reed's pricing
power as ScienceDirect contracts come up for renewal.
Reed's share price outperformed most media stocks in 2002
in large part on the strength of ScienceDirect; in 2003,
Reed's share price fell more than 12%." By Charles
Goldsmith, Wall Street Journal, reprinted in SPARC-OAForum,
January 19, 2004
[Refer][Research][Reflect]
How to Save the World
I have
linked to a few of author Dave Pollard's works before, but
this morning was the first time I looked at his blog in
detail. The result? A number of links to share with you
(see below) and renewed thoughts on writing. You see, I am
not writing enough. Perhaps it's my work, perhaps it's
other distractions, but I find myself trying to pack life,
the universe, and everything into these tiny essays in
OLDaily. I need more space, I need more time. Anyhow. I am
inspired by Pollard's blog. Not just the writing style and
the point of view, both of which resonate with me. But also
the use of multimedia, graphs, tables, charts, photos. I am
thinking of branching out, adding more extended writing to
my daily routine. By Dave Pollard, January, 2004
[Refer][Research][Reflect]
Time Savers for Bloggers
It has
been a constant with me, ever since I was writing on sheets
of paper on an old Underhill typewriter (I have been
writing for a long time). One page: fifteen minutes.
250 words. A thousand words in an hour. First draft -
everything is first draft; I don't rewrite anything. I use
almost all of Pollard's tips, everything, in fact, except
proper typing. Still. A longer write would be an hour out
of my day. What would go? Not this, though:
"Get away from reading and your computer and other media,
take a walk, do things that stimulate your creativity and
give you unique material to write about, talk to people to
get different viewpoints and ideas, clear your mind, think
about what's really important to you, what you really
believe, what you think needs to be done and said, and then
write about that. The time you spend in unencumbered
thought will be saved many times over in the process of
reading and writing: You'll know exactly what you want to
say, your enthusiasm and creative energy will make your
writing easier, faster and more entertaining and valuable
to readers, and you'll find it much easier to say 'no' to
wasting time reading and writing about things that are
suddenly much less important." By Dave Pollard, How to Save
the World, December 29, 2003
[Refer][Research][Reflect]
Ten Thgings to Keep You Awake at
Night
More Pollard: In Are You a Closet Canadian he documents
drifting social and political trends. His thoughts on Integrity. Visions of the future state and how to get there. What keeps executives up and night, their
solutions, and Dave's better solutions. By Dave Pollard,
How to Save the World, January, 2004
[Refer][Research][Reflect]
Blogs and Blogging: The 10 Most Important
Ideas of 2003
There are some good observations
collected in this article - but there should be, it's a
list of the best ideas related to blogging in 2003. At the
very least, it will give you some jargon - the "power law",
the "tipping point". Nice point about the abandonment of
blogs: far from being the crisis depicted by the media, it
represents simply " a large number of people deciding that
writing really isn't that important to them." Also worth a
read is Part Two of this list, highlighting
politics and economics and offering a nice set of views
very similar to my own. Take a look also at The Future of Business for some ideas on
the evolution of business culture. By Dave Pollard, How to
Save the World, January 5, 2003
[Refer][Research][Reflect]
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