Stephen's Web

OLDaily

by Stephen Downes
November 23, 2007

Escaping the Age of Speed: New Paradigms of Learning As Impacted by Social Technologies
Teemu Arina's presentation on industrial learning presented at SURF Education Days last week, now available as video online. "The industrial revolution changed the meaning of the word 'speed' from 'good luck, success, prosperity and advancement' to something that resembles machine-like mechanical speed, effectively disconnecting context from time." Teemu Arina, Tarina November 23, 2007 [Link] [Tags: Video] [Comment]

When Two Tribes Go To War
The post addresses divergent approaches to managing institutional technological requirements - one view being the standard instiututional view, the other being the one standards and systems view. Good discussion, but what stood out as insightful was this: "I now wonder whether it might be better to sometimes leave such gaps unfilled. For as ‘Webdunc' recently commented 'To oversimplify; I don't think I've ever heard of a policy for what to do when you pass a peer/colleague/superior/lecturer/student in the street - why do we need one for online social behaviour?'." The beauty of living in a free society is in how much of our behaviour goes unregulated. Brian Kelly, UK Web Focus November 23, 2007 [Link] [Tags: none] [Comment]

Conversation As a Radical Act
Interesting diagram looking at the act of communication (online and off, but the implication is more online than off, to me at least). The 'diversity' petal to me speaks to the structure of the network, and I would add things like autonomy, openness and interactivity to that part of it. The 'key issues' speaks to meaning or content, which I've addressed a bit with semantics. But the 'process' part of it is something I haven't spoken a whole lot about: communications, even in networks, can vary greatly in type. In traditional networks, we think simply of a 'signal' being sent from one node to another, but in fact what we send are complex patterns. Handshakes, protocols, syntax, customs, flames, emoticons - these are all ways of representing the forms those patterns take. Viewed from one perspective, these are signals sent from one node to another. Viewed from another perspective, these are patterns of connectivity with emergent meaning (recognizable only from outside) sent from one network to another. Worth thinking about. Nancy White, Full Circle Online Interaction Blog November 23, 2007 [Link] [Tags: Networks, Semantic Web, Semantics, Interaction] [Comment]

Fun
That's the one word title of this summary of the Manitoba edubloggercon just completed. "About 60 people showed up and Andy Mckneil the president of their provincial technology group, organized and paid for the event. Andy also did a great job filming and recording the entire event." A link is provided to the UStream video coverage. Dean Shareski, Ideas and thoughts from an EdTech November 23, 2007 [Link] [Tags: Video] [Comment]

If You Were a Tech Steward, What Would Your Starfish Look Like?
Nancy White picks up on one note of dissonance regarding Scoble's 'starfish': "The starfish focuses on communications channels, while typically I approach community technology stewardship from an activities approach - what sorts of activities does my community need to be together and do what it wants to do together." I pick up on another: most of Scoble's 'arms' point to commercial services - while so much of my own reach is in the form of non-commercial services, open source applications, or even aspects of my own (hand-built) website. Also, I'm a little uncomfortable with the 'tech steward' language. Nancy White, Full Circle Online Interaction Blog November 23, 2007 [Link] [Tags: Open Source] [Comment]

Le Ouebe Au Service Des Routiers
This is pretty neat. We can now look at live images of road conditions anywhere in New Brunswick (it's so neat when the people in government departments have a positive view of technology). This is the link to the service itself. This blog post is in French, but the images are in a universal language: snow. Jacques Cool, Ze cool blogue November 23, 2007 [Link] [Tags: Web Logs] [Comment]

Naming Aggregations
Terry Anderson isn't so impressed by Dave Snowden's suggestion that 'crew' is a useful category. "A 'crew' is just another name for a group, much as 'team' is often used for a group in business contexts. I like the nautical inference of 'crew', but think the distinction implied by the two criteria above fit as well for many of the forms of 'group' that Jon and I (and others) have addressed." Terry Anderson, Virtual Canuck November 23, 2007 [Link] [Tags: Ontologies] [Comment]

Amnesty International's Powerful Unsubscribe Campaign
Showing the power of networking and video to do something right in the world. Unsubscribe. Alec Couros, Couros Blog November 23, 2007 [Link] [Tags: Networks, Video] [Comment]

Is Facebook Really Censoring Search When It Suits Them?
Facebook has been taking some (well-deserved?) umps in the press regarding its use of personal information, its failure to delete accounts when requested, and now this, the evident gerrymandering of search results. Michael Arrington, TechCrunch November 23, 2007 [Link] [Tags: Privacy Issues, Books] [Comment]

Here's a Video I Helped Create
This is nice. The video discusses the history of the Maori people who lived around the Otago harbour in New Zealand. If you look closely you'll see Second-Life style animations mixed in with the film footage. It blends really well. Leigh Blackall, Learn Online November 23, 2007 [Link] [Tags: Video] [Comment]

 

This newsletter is sent only at the request of subscribers. If you would like to unsubscribe, Click here.

Know a friend who might enjoy this newsletter? Feel free to forward OLDaily to your colleagues. If you received this issue from a friend and would like a free subscription of your own, you can join our mailing list. Click here to subscribe.