By Stephen Downes
May 28, 2004
The Educational Semantic Web
I
haven't had time to write summaries for each of the papers
in this issue, though they certainly deserve that (maybe
next week). But I don't want to delay announcement of this
special issue of JIME, featuring some of the major writers
in the field, including Diana Oblinger, Rob Koper, and yes,
myself. Each of the nine essays is commented upon by such
people as David Wiley, Rory McGreal and Robin Mason. This
volume is a must-read, and a great way to spend your
weekend. By Terry Anderson and Denise Whitelock, JIME,
May, 2004
[Refer][Research][Reflect]
Improving Metadata Quality: Augmentation and
Recombination
Nice paper looking at some of the
issues faced by the National Science Digital Library in the
process of incorporating from diverse sources. The problems
encountered are typical of those documented elsewhere:
missing data, incorrect data, confusing data and
insufficient data. One way to address these is to perform
'transforms' from the original source, producing a
standardized data set. But another, more effective way, is
to think of metadata in a different way. "If a metadata
record can be seen as a series of statements about
resources, then it should be possible to manage the
metadata at the statement or element level, rather than the
record level. Aggregating both complete and fragmentary
metadata from many sources provides the opportunity to
build a more complete profile of a resource." The remainder
of the paper describes this process using concrete
examples. By Diane Hillmann, Naomi Dushay and Jon Phipps,
National Science Digital Library, May, 2004
[Refer][Research][Reflect]
Elsevier Gives Authors Green Light for Open
Access Self-Archiving
The details are not yet
completely clear, but this move by Elsevier is a
significant step forward. Writes Stevan Harnad, "Authors
have the publisher's official green light to
self-archive both their pre-refereeing preprints and their
refereed postprints." It's a bold move by Elsevier, putting
the ball squarely in the authors' court. "Let researchers
and their employers and funders now all rise to the
occasion by adopting and implementing institutional OA
provision policies." By Stevan Harnad, BOAI, May 27, 2004
[Refer][Research][Reflect]
PeopleSoft a Focus of Budget Fight at Calif.
University
This is the other shoe that will
begin dropping with increasing frequency as people look at
expenses like $15 million for software and ask whether they
are receiving value for their money. Via University
Business. By Todd R. Weiss , Computer World, May 21, 2004
[Refer][Research][Reflect]
Clear Channel Limits Live
CDs
Selling a CD of a concert right after the
show - seems pretty obvious, right? Not to the U.S. Patent
Office, which granted a patent for it, and not to Clear
Channel, which now intends to enforce this patent. This
sort of action is what prompts a general and widespread
contempt for the concept of intellectual property. By Steve
Knopper, Rolling Stone, May 24, 2004
[Refer][Research][Reflect]
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