OLDaily
By Stephen Downes
June 4, 2003

Microsoft Patents Video on Demand? Gimme a Break
According to this report, Microsoft has obtained a patent on video-on-demand."If your company is thinking about delivering interactive video-on-demand cable-television programming or movies via satellite to consumers, maybe it'd better start thinking about paying royalties to Microsoft first. That's because Microsoft has just been granted exclusive United States patent rights to a 'networked interactive entertainment system' which 'allows viewers to create their own customized lists of preferred video content programs, such as movies, games, [and] TV shows.'" I agree with Dan Gillmor's assessment: "The U.S. Patent & Trademark Office is out of control. This is definitive proof." By Dan Gillmor, SiliconValley.Com, June 3, 2003 [Refer][Research][Reflect]

So, What Is A Content Management System?
High-level overview of the use of content management systems (CMSs) in the creation of websites. Describes business benefits, escription, and content lifecycle. By James Robertson, Step Two Designs, June, 2003 [Refer][Research][Reflect]

Macromedia Updates E-learning Tools
According to the article, "The new version (or Authorware), 7, includes a number of enhancements intended to streamline the process of putting together such presentations, most notably the ability to import files created in Microsoft's PowerPoint software." As Maish comments in eLearningPost, "Here we go again..." By David Becker, Business Week, June 3, 2003 [Refer][Research][Reflect]

If You Really Want to Know, Ask a Blogger
This nice article hammers home some points that traditional news media ought to keep in mind: Because bloggers are often experts in a field, and journalists are often not, the information found in a blog may frequently be more accurate than the information found in a corresponding news article. And because bloggers are not constrained by the commercial or political interests of a publisher, bloggers are able to report news that will not be covered (or that will be covered only from a certain point of view). Finally, because bloggers link freely, and because traditional news coverage is hidden behind subscription walls or registration screens, bloggers' coverage is more likely to show up on search results than that of traditional journalists. It seems to me that unless traditional media (a) begins to attract the writing of experts, (b) manages somehow to escape the biases inherent in its corporate structure, and (c) opens up its coverage to the web at large, then traditional media is in significant danger of being eclipsed by blog news coverage. By John Naughton, The Observer, June 1, 2003 [Refer][Research][Reflect]

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