Ruby, Blackboard and the Challenge for Open Source

By Stephen Downes
October 24, 2005

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Re: Ruby, Blackboard and the Challenge for Open Source

Anymouse, November 7, 2005

Commenting on the above post: You're not nagged about such downloads if you use the rather pleasent Preview.app that Apple supplies with Mac OS X, or the equally spiffy Evince viewer that is part of Gnome desktop on Linux. There are literally thousands of other options on various platforms so yes, PDF is open (by many, though not all, definitions of that ambigious term). [Comment] [Permalink] [Previous][Next]

Re: Ruby, Blackboard and the Challenge for Open Source

Anymouse, October 30, 2005

Whether PDF is an open or closed format does not really matter when users are nagged to download 17Mb+ updates each time a newer version comes out. The fact that the spec is available FROM Adobe means that they control the spec. Is this open format? [Comment] [Permalink] [Previous][Next]

Re: Ruby, Blackboard and the Challenge for Open Source

Anymouse, October 26, 2005

You're absolutely dead-on about Blackboard. I was just talking to my students about this yesterday in fact. I just use it as an access control for a course weblog and S5-based presentations (oh, and a gradebook). And as someone very much into scholarly/teaching related software and open standards, I have to say I have ZERO interest in all the learning objects stuff. It's as if these specs are designed to bar entry. You may be interested, BTW, in a talk I gave last week in Edmonton at the Access conference on some related issues: http://netapps.muohio.edu/blogs/darcusb/darcusb/archives/2005/10/18/a-complete-metadata-cycle [Comment] [Permalink] [Previous][Next]

Re: Ruby, Blackboard and the Challenge for Open Source

Anymouse, October 26, 2005

Some more feedback/reflections on your Ruby trials and tribulations via Why The Lucky Stiff (author of Why's Poignant Guide to Ruby): http://redhanded.hobix.com/inspect/aTourOfRubyEveryBlinkOfTheEye.html [Comment] [Permalink] [Previous][Next]

Re: Ruby, Blackboard and the Challenge for Open Source

Anymouse, October 26, 2005

On page 23 you state that PDF is a closed format. That's not quite true. The PDF spec is available directly from Adobe and for free. No, I don't think they have an open spec committee. I also didn't get the point about iTunes and renting or sharing (p.31). With iTunes you buy, you don't rent. You also get limited but generous sharing that allows you to permanently make many copies of the originally purchased product. [Comment] [Permalink] [Previous][Next]

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