b.cognosco
Where leaping to conclusions is my primary form of forward motion.
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NFL: Atlanta Crushes Carolina
Asian Patent Unity
Radio vs FTP
Copyright for Beginners
Funding for Blog Research
First Principles of Communication
Posner on Copyright
Six Sigma and KM
Sunday, November 24, 2002
Content Management and Learning Objects
James Robertson finds a helpful paper that describes learning objects and their structure in a very understandable way.
What is a learning object?. Glenn Millar has written a very good primer on learning objects, that walks through what they are, how they are constructed, and what they are used for. To quote: First, many educators see learning objects as a viable alternative to... [Column Two]
The paper, from the British Columbia Institute of Technology, classifies learning objects as having the following characteristics:
Smaller units of learning: Learning objects usually comprise a smaller unit of learning than a course, typically ranging from two to 15 minutes. Self contained: Each learning object is self-contained and can be used independently of other learning objects. Reusable: Learning objects are reusable. The same learning object can be used in multiple contexts for multiple purposes. Can be aggregated: Learning objects can be grouped into larger collections of content to create more substantial units of learning. Tagged with metadata: All learning objects are tagged with metadata that describes the learning object and allows it to be easily retrieved in a search.
All of these are characteristics typical of what one looks for in setting up a CMS. Another important point the author makes is:
The second thing that needs to happen before learning objects can become the norm in educational practice is that educators need to learn more about them. They need to feel comfortable about using them and they need to become adept at searching for them and creating them.
Weblogs, and their associated CMS systems would make great introductions to the modular, reusable, and bite-sized concepts expressed in learning objects. Can we find a way to formalize this connection and build a stronger, long-term value proposition for the educational sector?
NFL: Atlanta Crushes Carolina
Atlanta makes it 7-in-a-row, and soundly whips the rabble from Carolina. The Falcons certainly aren't as dominant as they appeared in today's 41-0 drubbing, but there were a number of high spots. The defense appears to be coming together, no longer looking like a Class 5A high school squad, and Vick is learning to use the rest of the offense instead of carrying the whole game on his own. Five different players scored TDs, including a defensive TD on an interception return.Next week it's off to Minnesota to face the 3-9 Vikings, fresh from another loss to New England. We should win that one, too. Then we face Warren Sapp in Tampa Bay for the toughest game on the rest of the schedule.
Asian Patent Unity
Asian powers seek to unify their patent offices and cooperate on patent protections. This note on Asian Piracy from back in July picks up on a Salon article on the rampant piracy in the Asia-Pacific region. We'll have to see if this patent move is symbolic or literal, and if it ammounts to more than lip service for intellectual property protection.
Korea, China, Japan to link patent networks. Korea Herald Nov 24 2002 12:48PM ETKorea, China and Japan are to agree today to set up a computer network linking the three countries' patent offices in a bid to conduct joint screening of patents and share results of their patent screenings, the Korea Intellectual Property Office (KIPO) said yesterday. [...] [Moreover - IP and patents news]
Radio vs FTP
I have a suggestion for working around the serious problems with Radio's FTP function. Like others, I've been struggling with Radio's dysfunctional FTP upstream drivers while trying to move this weblog to my own domain. Radio's whole FTP driver structure is broken and needs to be fixed, but that probably won't happenThe main symptom seems to be Radio locking up during the upstream function, failing to send any data but churning away at 100% CPU usage for hours at a time. The only fix seems to be shutting down Radio and restarting, at which time Radio will pickup where it left off on the upstream process. I'm wondering if one of the Radio scripting gurus could write some sort of FTP monitor/restart script similar to Andy Fragen's Keep Web Server Up tool.
Keep Web Server Up monitors and restarts Radio's web server function under Mac OS X, which seems to have a habit of killing the Web Server service in Radio for no good reason. The FTP problem is probably more complicated since FTP isn't a separate Radio service that can be easily stopped and started. Maybe the solution has to run as some sort of external service. I don't know. But it's bound to be doable.
The other real problem is Radio sucking CPU cycles just querying for new files. When Radio uses the XML Storage System method it's CPU load for background upstreaming functions are trivial. But switch to FTP and the CPU pegs at 100% every five seconds. Radio basically takes a full 20% of CPU capacity to do nothing but monitor folders for FTP upstream. This can be stopped by turning the background upstream function off, or setting it to upstream only after publishing. But that's less convenient than leaving Radio's publish service on all the time.
Copyright for Beginners
A very basic, but useful, primer on copyright issues for those just getting into web publishing, or learning the basics of citing and quoting for weblogging.
Beginner Tip: Understand Copyright Basics. Net Mechanic Nov 23 2002 11:13PM ET [Moreover - IP and patents news]
Funding for Blog Research
I'd like to put together a package of weblogging products and support services for public schools and municipalities. Taking inspiration from the Bay Area Writing Project and the mlk Digital Daily Agenda, I think weblogs and their associated publishing technologies can be a boon to the communication and learning challenges these groups face.But given how tight budgets are for the public sector it seems likely that grants would be one of the few ways school districts and municipal governments could make this happen. I hope Liz will blog the grant proposal process. Judging from the comments on her post she's already generated some interest.
Research on weblogs: getting funding?.Liz is thinking of applying for funding at the U.S. National Science Foundation to study blogs. Ideas on her mind include "designing new curricula, creating new professional publication models, sponsoring a conference, developing a new online resource center for microcontent publishing, etc, etc." Alex might be interested in such a thing...
This might be the first time that plans for a research grant application are unraveled in such an overt manner. I must say Ilike the approach.
[Seb's Open Research]
Friday, November 22, 2002
First Principles of Communication
Jerry Michalski looks at how to get less crufty communications technologies.
All the communication technologies we use -- telephones, newspapers, radio, IM, e-mail, mailing lists, TV, books -- are mired in historical cruft that keeps us from seeing clearly what to build next. It is useful to go to first principles, then reexamine whatever communication task you have at hand. So let me suggest the following basic dimensions of communication: timing, audience, mode, length, persistence, production level, identity and permission.The list with explanations and more on my wiki here. [Sociate]
Thursday, November 21, 2002
Posner on Copyright
Conservative right begins to see the light on copyright issues.
Judge Posner criticizes the "enormous expansion" of intellectual property law. Howard Bashman reports "Richard A. Posner speaks out against the "enormous expansion" of intellectual property law: Seventh Circuit Judge Richard A. Posner delivered remarks on Tuesday of this week at an event entitled "Intellectual Property Law: A New Perspective." [via How Appealing].Haven't I been saying what a great judge Posner is? [Ernie the Attorney]
Six Sigma and KM
The November issues of APQC CenterView has an interesting article on the intersection of KM and Six Sigma disciplines, and using Six Sigma to define knowledge-based processes. Mini-case studies from Raytheon, Halliburton, and Compaq. This article begins the discussion of how you justify KM based on results.Professionals in both arenas can learn from each other. Six Sigma can learn from KM how to recognize knowledge, as well as processes. Joseph Hofer-Alfeis from Siemens said, "Six Sigma is oriented to the quality of products and processes. If you think of a knowledge-intensive business, 'Six Sigma for knowledge quality' -- the quality of the proficiency, the quality of knowledge flows, and the quality of description knowledge -- should also be a very interesting thing. And exactly what we do with our business owners, when you make a knowledge strategy, is a Six Sigma process; and it ends up in business improvement actions [by] improving the knowledge."
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