b.cognosco
Where leaping to conclusions is my primary form of forward motion.
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Book Reviews
Recently
Correction and Clarification
Atlanta Hax0r's Conference Hit by DMCA
First Audio Blog Entry
Easy News Topics 1.0 PURL
TIA - the New ESP Research
Interactivity and Access
Workflow Embeds eLearning Tools
Virtual Team Resources
RadioPoint Presentation Tool
10,000 Drones
Sunday, April 13, 2003
The Ultimate Blogger
Ernie points to a brief summary of the key success strategies for the world's most economically successful blogger -- Matt Drudge.
Pioneer weblogger makes 800k a year.Tom Mighell has a great post on how Matt Drudge makes $800,000 a year, basically using the weblog model of publishing. Of course, his site isn't a weblog was started before weblogs came in to the fore, but look at Drudge's 4 keys to success on how to make money without breaking a sweat. Only problem is that he got there first.
[Ernie the Attorney]
Correction and Clarification
In a recent post on the TIA I incorrectly credited words by David Reed to Bob Frankston. Reed was the author of the source material at SATN. I discovered my error via The Doc Searls weblog. Thanks, Doc.Atlanta Hax0r's Conference Hit by DMCA
Doc Searls has posted a lengthy excerpt from a Cease and Desist letter sent by BlackBoard, Inc. to the organizers of interz0ne II in Atlanta. I have not looked into this enough to verify the claims made regarding published information on the web site, but I suspect it would be difficult to prove any economic damage to Blackboard as a result of this scenario.Blackboard, Inc. can't really be blamed for responding. I would do the same. But once again the preemptive power of the DMCA, and its severe penalties for previously minor infractions, weights the legal argument so heavily in favor of the copyright or patent holder that even legitimate discussion becomes a completely one-sided game of legal "chicken".
DMCA vs. Free Speech, cont'd.I just heard from folks at the InterZOne conference in Atlanta, where, apparently, conference organizers and two scheduled speakers have been served with cease-and-desist requests. At issue are the "intellectual property rights" of Blackboard Inc. Here's an excerpt from Blackboard's attorney's letter:
It recently has come to Blackboard's attention that Billy Hoffman and Virgil Griffith are intending to speak as co-panelists in your upcoming InterzOne II conference on April 11, 2003. The website located at www.yak.net/acidus, Mr. Hoffman's website, states that, "The signals to and from several Blackboard readers have been captured, as well as how data is stored on the cards. Using this knowledge Virgil and I have created a drop-in compatible reader, that will work with an existing RS-485 network. Computer code to emulate any reader made as well as hardware specs to wire the readers and control circuits will be launched." Explaining, Mr. Hoffman's website states that "This will show not only did we hack the system, but we hacked it so far we could build functional readers from scratch." The website states that he intends at this conference to "release code to make a computer emulate any Blackboard reader, as well as the hardware designs ... to make a drop in replacement for any Blackboard reader." The website also threatens that, because "Blackboard wouldn't make their system more secure, or tell people how to secure it, I'll simply make compatible ones myself and give them away."
Please be advised that the actions described on Mr. Hoffman's website, including the hacking of Blackboard's system, are illegal, and that any effort by either Mr. Hoffman or Mr. Griffith to convey to others at your Conference any information gleaned in whole or in part from such actions, particularly in an effort to cause Blackboard economic harm, would be improper. Please be advised of our view that it would be actionable for you or your conference to facilitate Mr. Hoffman's and Mr. Griffith's announced plans for, among other things, the disclosure of signals captured, the releasing of code, the description of development of functional readers, and the hardware specs to wire the readers and/or control circuits. Please be advised further that the www.yak.net/acidus website's use of the Blackboard name and the Blackboard logo is unauthorized and far exceeds the parameters of any nominative fair use, constituting a false designation of origin in violation of the federal Lanham Act, and we caution that we have not authorized Blackboard's name or logo to be used in any seminar or conference materials or in any presentation. We are also examining whether the actions of Mr. Hoffman and Mr. Griffin may have violated other federal laws, including (among others) the Digital Millenium Copyright Act, the Economic Espionage Act, the Electronic Communications Privacy Act, the Wiretap Act, and the Consumer Fraud and Abuse Act, as well as Georgia's Computer Systems Protection Act.
My correspondent writes, We're trying to get the word out as fast as possible because this is most definitely not cool.
[The Doc Searls Weblog]
First Audio Blog Entry
I am behind the curve on this -- the typical late adopter. Most of the audio blogging hoopla seems to have passed and it now seems a bit passe'. But no matter, I still wanted to understand how it was done, how I could do it, and how I might use the technology to begin making multi-modal presentations. All in the hopes that I can, at some point, create useful learning object. This goes along with my earlier query about the RadioPoint presentation tool.So here is my first audio blog entry. I just added an MP3 file to an entry I made earlier. I may have to change my item template around a bit to get the audio enclosure icon to be more noticeable. But it's a start.
I want to thank Hugh Madison of American Invisible for patiently guiding me through the process and offering "sound" advice (pun intended). Like everything else in technology, getting sound recorded and into the computer the first time is utterly counter-intuitive. I couldn't have done it without some help.
I'm far from proficient, but it's a start. We'll see how it goes from here.
Saturday, April 12, 2003
Easy News Topics 1.0 PURL
Easy News Topics (ENT) is an RSS 2.0 module for extending topical metadata management to RSS feeds. I'm really pleased to see Matt and Paolo expanding the metadata structure outward from blogs to RSS. I really can't grasp the more technical aspects of this specification, but I can certainly grasp the possible benefits. And I eagerly await some aggregator support so I can begin playing around with it.Thanks guys. Nice job.
The ENT URL.We have created a PURL, or permanent URL,
http://www.purl.org/NET/ENT/1.0/
to prevent any breakage when the spec moves to a better home. The PURL is the real URL for the spec. [Curiouser and curiouser!]
TIA - the New ESP Research
Bob Frankston on the value of statistics and more reasons to fear the DARPA TIA program.
TIA - the new ESP research?[...] And I am afraid that the country is unable to understand that the so-called scientists (including Adm. Poindexter) who are leading this are about as clueless as the ESP researchers were, as to their biases, etc. Clever computer science, even powerful and correct computer science, will serve the same role in this process that the powerful statistical methods served in the Dr. Rhine's ESP research enterprise. The math was not wrong... but it helped create a delusion.
The result in the TIA case will be very dangerous pseudo-scientific bullshit, I suspect. Unfortunately it will be turned on us. I hope the computer science participants working on the data mining and inferencing tools don't expect a pass because they were "just following orders". [SATN]
Interactivity and Access
Sebastian refers to a Tim Berners-Lee quote from Weaving the Web and asks why so many people see the Web as merely a distribution and retrieval system, with creators/distributors on one side and consumers on the other.
We should be able to create with others.
[...] How come that so many people see the Web mostly as a large distribution and retrieval system? They see designers, creators, domain experts, etc., on one side ... and loads of consumers on the other. Hm... if I think about it... that last sentence reminds me somewhat of schools... [Sebastian Fiedler] [Seblogging News]
It's because we seem to inherently think of ourselves as consumers, except in some narrow area we call a job where we get paid to produce. I don't know if it's cultural or biological in origin (it seems to cross cultural boundaries), but we seem clearly predisposed to act, think, and respond like "consumers" most of the time.
Hence we end up with a 1-way Internet, brain-dead technologies like ADSL, and user-hostile service agreements that preclude the actual use of connectivity for anything other than "consuming". We get media conglomerates who see masses of consumers at the other end of broadband.
We get politicians who think starting the economy requires giving control of the Internet to the conglomerates, so they'll put movies on-line and inspire us to run like lemmings to consume them.
Sebastian also notes that this 1-way dichotomy is prevalent in schools. He's right. Our schools do little to embed in us the belief and understanding that we are all creators -- not just for our jobs, but for ourselves.
We don't all need to write the Great American Novel. We can as easily contribute by serving pictures up to the family album, transcribing family histories, supporting the local homeowners association, or whatever.
We can all create. We can all produce. We can each add something of value to the global collection of consciousness, even if it is of value only to a small group. And we are entitled to access to make that happen. But we won't get access until enough of us understand the equation. And that understanding can come only from grasping, at a fundamental level, the power of interactivity over the network.
Workflow Embeds eLearning Tools
Sam Adkins has made an interesting observation over on Learning Circuits Blog regarding the convergence of e-learning and business process/workflow tools. The idea of managing business processes is increasingly important, but the task is increasingly complex as we are inundated with ever more information. I've never been comfortable with the jargon and IT-centric nature of business process/"workflow" solutions.For one, workflow is a broadly used, ill-defined, catch-all term that can mean almost anything. I often wonder when someone is going to try selling workflow by the slice -- like pizza; or in a box -- like laundry detergent. In the world of business process management (BPM) it has almost always meant some computer-to-computer interaction managed and controlled by some IT geek. Not the sort of thing that can get the support of a typical manager or knowledge worker.
But Sam points to a variety of new BPM offerings that are embedding learning tools into their structure, and are making it easier for normal people to see and understand a business process. This is, to me, the most important change that can happen. In order for any BPM solution to truly optimize a process it must address the human component. A process must be visible to those who perform it, changeable by those who rely on it, and logical and helpful to those affected by it. Until the IT component becomes invisible BPM will never move into the mid-market space, where it is desperately needed.
Workflow Displacing Courseware-based eLearning. I continue to be blown away by new learning technology hitting the market. These innovations are now displacing courseware-based eLearning... [Learning Circuits Blog]
Virtual Team Resources
eLearnspace Blog has posted a short list of links to good resources on the virtual team/group environment. A quick survey of the links shows some promising papers, books, and discussions. No time to delve deeply into them at the moment, but they are well worth noting.
Excellent groupware/virtual team links. I came across some excellent links for groupware/collaborative tools on the Evaluating Elearning group:Groupware Links - extensive listing of journals, types, features, etc. Great resource!
Virtual Teams - good list of resources, tools, wikis.
Virtual Team Articles - links to articles on virtual teams.
RadioPoint Presentation Tool
Back when I first started with Radio there was some interest in the RadioPoint presentation tool, but it sort of faded and I no longer see much activity around it. Many of the files and templates listed on the Docs page are now gone. So I'm looking for anyone actively using RadioPoint. Is Dave using it at Harvard? Is Paolo still using it for presentations? Have there been any further developments in using OPML to create presentations?Just wondering...
Friday, April 11, 2003
10,000 Drones
An amazing tidbit about Google from Bob Cringely. I had no idea it worked liked this.
04/10/03: Out of the Mouths of Dogs. This week, Bob shares random thoughts—beginning with those of his dog, Gilmore.[...] First there is Google, which runs four enormous data centers around the world containing in excess of 10,000 servers. It is the largest Linux cluster of all, and is constructed entirely of generic beige box PCs interconnected by 10/100 Ethernet. These are not racks and racks of state-of-the-art blade servers, just el cheapo PCs. So the magic must be in the software.
Now here is the part that sticks in my mind: the fault tolerant nature of the cluster is such that if a machine fails, the other machines simply take over its functions. As a result, whenever a server fails at Google, THEY DO NOTHING. They don't replace the broken machine. They don't remove the broken machine. They don't even turn it off. In an army of drones, it isn't worth the cost of labor to locate and replace the bad machines. Hundreds, maybe thousands of machines lie dead, uncounted among the 10,000 plus. [...] [I, Cringely @ PBS Online]
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