Lessig: Just how badly have we messed up the architecture of access to scientific knowledge?
Seb Schmoller, Fortnightly Mailing, May 3, 2011.

Seb Schmoller summarizes: "50 minute talk given by Lawrence Lessig on 18 April at CERN shows, followed by concrete suggestions about what to do about it. Lessig hits the nail on the head about how restricted access to scientific knowledge actually is, unless you happen to be a member of the "intellectual elite"; and if you are a member of the intellectual elite (a tenured professor in a rich-world university, or a student at one) the restriction on access is obscured from you."

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Networks explained by Barabåsi
Judy Breck, SmartMobs, May 3, 2011.

From the post: "Captured on this video is a 34-minute lecture by Albert-Låszló Barabåsi on Network Science delivered to The Royal Society. Barabåsi led the original discovery a decade ago that small-world networks obey the power law. He now presides over the BarabasiLab at Northeastern University's Center for Complex Network Research where seminal network science continues." Certainly worth a half hour of your time, I would say.

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A New CeLEA Directory for Contractors and Consultants
Press Release, CeLEA, May 3, 2011.

Claude Martell writes, on ModSimWorld, 'CeLEA is now offering a new service to the eLearning and new media community, the CeLEA contractor and consultant directory." CeLEA is the Canadian eLearning Enterprise Alliance, the major voice of the eLearning industry in Canada. "CeLEA is already well known for the for the Canadian eLearning directory where about 400 eLearning producers and distribution organizations are registered." To be listed in the directory, contractors and consultants will pay $75. Access to the nascent directory is free (though you may want to give it some time to fill up wth entries; there was only one when I looked today).

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Guidelines for Leveraging Collective Knowledge and Insight
Nancy Dixon, Conversation Matters, May 3, 2011.

Interesting post describing "seven principles that work together to make the most of collective knowledge in conference settings as well as in-house meetings."
- get connected to each other before trying to construct new ideas together
- organize in circles. "Circles represent unity. They help individuals in the group view themselves as part of the whole."
- "Learn in small groups – integrate knowledge in large groups"
- diverge first, then converge. "Without time for divergence the many differences within a group are not expressed and without their expression they cannot be made use of by the group."
- Experts from outside "can provide much needed cognitive diversity, but experts cannot provide solutions."
- "Connect new ideas to what knowledge workers already know"
- Put ideas into words, into action "puts an idea together in a way that allows him or her to explain the idea to others, that the idea takes shape."

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Guidelines for Leveraging Collective Knowledge and Insight
Nancy Dixon, Conversation Matters, May 3, 2011.

Interesting post describing "seven principles that work together to make the most of collective knowledge in conference settings as well as in-house meetings."
- get connected to each other before trying to construct new ideas together
- organize in circles. "Circles represent unity. They help individuals in the group view themselves as part of the whole."
- "Learn in small groups – integrate knowledge in large groups"
- diverge first, then converge. "Without time for divergence the many differences within a group are not expressed and without their expression they cannot be made use of by the group."
- Experts from outside "can provide much needed cognitive diversity, but experts cannot provide solutions."
- "Connect new ideas to what knowledge workers already know"
- Put ideas into words, into action "puts an idea together in a way that allows him or her to explain the idea to others, that the idea takes shape."

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SeoQuake
Various Authors, Website, May 3, 2011.

Interesting. "Seoquake is a powerful tool for Mozilla Firefox, aimed at helping web masters who deal with search engine optimization and internet promotion of web sites. Seoquake allows user to obtain and investigate many important SEO parameters of the internet project under study on the fly."

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Workgroup to develop a Code of Conduct for WikiEducators
Various Authors, WikiEducator, May 3, 2011.

The authors of WikiEducator have posted a draft code of conduct for discussion and review. "The Code of Conduct presents principles for positive and productive collaboration among community members, and is rooted in WikiEducator's core values: diversity, freedom, innovation, transparency, equality, inclusivity, empowerment, human dignity, wellbeing and sustainability." Though I would be hard-pressed to find fault with those core values, I am generally opposed to codes of conduct - those who are generally good don't need them, and those who aren't use them to find loopholes. Discussion of the code of conduct may be found on the page issue tracker.

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