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My first slidecast
As part of the broadcast strategy review at the OU, I wanted to show the different types of outputs that academics can produce which might be considered broadcast in some sense. One of these is slidecasting (the combination of powerpoint and audio). I upload my powerpoint files to Slideshare regularly, so thought I’d try adding the audio to one too. It’s a bit fiddly – you have to upload the audio to a different site, as Slideshare don’t host it (yet). Synching the audio with slides took a bit of getting used to (I even had to look at the help splashcast), but once I had the hang of it,…
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FB – It can’t be private and not a walled garden
(Warning – this post contains some dangerously stretched garden metaphors). There have been lots of mutterings about Facebook being a walled garden recently, for instance danah boyd ponders I am utterly confused by the ways in which the tech industry fetishizes Facebook. There’s no doubt that Facebook’s F8 launch was *brilliant*. Offering APIs and the possibility of monetization is a Web 2.0 developer’s wet dream. (Never mind that I don’t know of anyone really making money off of Facebook aside from the Poker App guy.) But what I don’t understand is why so much of the tech crowd who lament Walled Gardens worship Facebook. What am I missing here? Why…
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Apple used to be so open…
I’m reading ‘Founders at Work’ at the moment (quite an interesting read, I’ll probably summarise the key issues in a later post). I know (or knew anyway) a lot about the start of the computer industry, having created a course on it, so I was more interested in the net start ups. But there is an interview with Steve Wozniak in there, in which he says of the Apple II (my italics) "It was just open to all these things. We made it easy for anyone to do what they wanted to do. And I think that was one of the biggest keys to its success. We didn’t make…
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NYT enters education market, and the changing nature of newspapers
The New York Times has announced an inititiative that will provide content and social networking to students and educators. They claim it is "a new online initiative that pairs Times content with faculty course material for both credit-bearing and continuing education courses. Educators will now have the opportunity to select Times articles, archival content, graphics and multimedia content, including videos and Webcasts, gathered around specific subjects, and make them available to students online, along with other course materials" Perhaps more interestingly they edge towards a ‘Facebook for learning’ when they propose "In addition to enhanced course offerings for college students and lifelong learners, the Knowledge Network will serve as a…
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Another blog mentee
As I mentioned before I’ve offered to mentor some nascent OU bloggers. Patrick McAndrew was first (I’m being lenient on him as he’s been on holiday, but now we start!). Next up is Will Woods. This is just by way of shaming them in to action. And following on from my previous post, while I’m on a Scoble love-in here is an excellent slideshow on creating a killer blog from him and Maryam (it’s nearly a year old now, but still a goodie), which I sent to Will and Patrick as starting advice.
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This week’s blog sport – Scoble bashing
Now if there’s one person who doesn’t need my support it’s Scoble, as Kathy Sierra has said ‘Scoble can handle it.’ But this week’s attacks on Scoble have been interesting to watch since they say both good and bad things about the blogosphere. Firstly, Scoble’s crime for those who don’t know, was to post a video where he argued that "Mahalo, Techmeme and Facebook are going to kick Google’s butt in four years". From what I can understand he is just plain wrong in some of the statements he makes (Danny Sullivan has a detailed long post on what’s wrong with his argument – he’s right, but he’s angry!). Secondly,…
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Childcare, summer holidays and my neglected blog
This summer has been tough on the old blog, and it makes me realise I’m a fairweather kind of blogger. We’ve had a couple of holidays, and I think divorce would loom if I were to say, ‘do you mind if I blog while we sip our G and Ts?’. And when not working we’ve been juggling childcare. My day usually goes something like: the morning I work, while daughter watches TV/plays with toys/gets frustrated with playstation; in the afternoon we go out and do something child oriented; in the evening my wife takes over and I do some more work. This means I can just about keep up with…
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Software sedimentation
I came across this term from Jaron Lanier (in an essay in the book The Next Fifty Years). He writes: "Software sedimentation is a process whereby not only protocols, but the ideas embedded in them become mandatory. An example is the idea of the file…. Files are now taught to students as a fact of life as fundamental as a photon, even though they are a human invention." I think there is truth in this, and I like the mental image of sediment building up within the concepts built in to software and technology. To expand the idea out somewhat, the same might be true of many educational practices. The…
