By Stephen Downes
March 25, 2004
Free Culture: How Big Media Uses Technology
and the Law to Lock Down Culture and Control
Creativity
Lawrence Lessig's book is released
today, online and for free. I haven't read it yet (it's
printing out as I type this note) but the promo states:
"Lawrence Lessig shows us that while new technologies
always lead to new laws, never before have the big cultural
monopolists used the fear created by new technologies,
specifically the Internet, to shrink the public domain of
ideas, even as the same corporations use the same
technologies to control more and more what we can and can’t
do with culture."
This, of course, made me curious to see how my own online
book, The Learning Marketplace, is doing (even
though it's more of a compilation than a book) and it was
interesting to see that it has been downloaded about 450
times since I released it in January. What's realling
interesting, though, is that my 2001 book, Knowledge, Learning and Community, was
downloaded about 1,000 times in the same three-month
period. Go figure. Of course, Lessig will beat these
numbers in the first hour. Doesn't bother me a bit. By
Lawrence Lessig, March 25, 2004
[Refer][Research][Reflect]
What Every Citizen Should Know About DRM
a.k.a. "Digital Rights Management"
Gerry sends
along this link to a straightfoward guide on digital rights
management for non-technical readers. The guide is grounded
in good common sense and its understanding of the problem
is precise: The aspect of the Internet that most bothers
content companies is an aspect that is central to its
design. In effect, it is exceedingly difficult to craft a
law or regulation that categorically outlaws peer-to-peer
file sharing without, in doing so, outlawing the Internet
itself." Exactly. The requirements described by the authors
are sensible: content owners need a way to deter widespread
commercial reproduction of their work and varying business
models, technology designers need a way to make a wide
range of non-infringing products, and consumers need a
system that respects their fair use and other rights and
which provides access to a wide range of works, including
public domain works. 42 page PDF download, but it's a quick
read. By Mike Godwin, Public Knowledge, March, 2004
[Refer][Research][Reflect]
First Generation Electronic Paper
Display
It looks and feels like the iPod of
e-book readers, and prices about the same, and is,
according to Sony and E-Ink, the "the world's first
consumer application of an electronic paper display
module." The e-book reader holds about 500 books, which can
be downloaded from the internet. Still. These are the
2000s. People want to do more than just read books - they
want to copy them, share them, mode them, cut and paste
from them, and more. So, as John Paczkowski says, it may still be
better to wait for the next generation, which does all of this
and more (think of it: you want a computer program, like a
calculator? Simply print out a fully function version of
the program, roll it up, and stick it in your back pocket).
By Press Release, E-Ink, March 24, 2004
[Refer][Research][Reflect]
Human Resources and Skills Development
Canada
The new Human Resources and Skills
Development Canada website has launched, along with a
sister site, Social Development Canada. In an email,
the website coordinator comments, "Every page of the 2 new
sites have 21 metadata tags, including the Common Look and
Feel core tags. The metadata is applied by authors through
the web content management system (Interwoven) and is being
indexed by our search engine (Verity). The metadata/Verity
combination produces over 800 dynamic menus in each
language daily (each page is regenerated every morning
based upon the content publishing and indexing of the day
before)." By Various Authors, March 17, 2004
[Refer][Research][Reflect]
Canadian Society for Training and
Development
The CSTD has launched a new news
feed (including RSS). "CSTD is Canada's national
organization dedicated to the profession of training,
workplace learning, and human resources development. With
over 1600 members, CSTD represents learning and performance
professionals in both the public and private sectors." By
Various Authors, CSTD, March, 2004
[Refer][Research][Reflect]
Signing Off
The Invisible Adjunct
calls it quits - rather than face another year without
anything like a career, he or she is leaving academia and
finding a job that will last more than eight months. "It’s
thanks to this blog and its readers that I don’t feel the
kind of life-twisting bitterness that I might otherwise
have experienced. I’ll take with me, among other things, a
knowledge of XHTML (which I never thought I could learn!),
an undiminished passion for the Scottish Enlightenment, and
a heightened sense of life’s possibilities." By Anonymous,
Invisible Adjunct, March 23, 2004
[Refer][Research][Reflect]
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