Thursday, July 15, 2004

Nice PHP, with Class: FeedCreator. FeedCreator.class.php- File this one away for future or near future code use. FeedCreator.class.php provides an easy way to create RSS feeds from within PHP using ease to use classes. * creates valid feeds according to RSS 0.91, 1.0 or 2.0 as well as PIE 0.1 (deprecated), OPML 1.0, Unix mbox and ATOM 0.3 format. * configurable feed caching This is code you can use within your own PHP that allows you to generate RSS files from any source you can load data into. I like the options to generate different RSS flavors, from 0.91 through Atom and a bunch in between. I might be using this rather than the RSSWriter (RSS 1.0 only) I had been using for the MLX feed generation. [cogdogblog] 11:26:31 PM      Google It!.

ePortfolio Survey Results (inside an ePort). Thanks to six of you who took up my offer to complete a silly survey inside my eportfolio. Well, there is one ringer in there, at least. And someone else got very serious about answering the open ended questions, but helped us clear up a bug. So not only can you create a survey to exisit inside an eP, you can publish the results-- I just whipped them up from the tool, and cleaned it up as HTML, and loaded it as a Templated document type- here are the Big ePort Survey Results certainly nothing to hang a PhD on. But think again what we have here- this ePort is a container for all kinds of items. [cogdogblog] 11:23:32 PM      Google It!.

Sakai Release Candidate 1 released today (anyone got a demo running yet?). http://www.sakaiproject.org/press/sakai-rc1.html You've probably seen this news announced already in a number of places; as promised Sakai Release Candidate 1 was released today. This post is more a query if anyone has got a build up and running that I can have a look at. Pressed for time right now myself, but maybe I'll get one going in the next few weeks if no one else steps forward. It looks slightly involved, though not too bad. - SWL [EdTechPost] 11:21:11 PM      Google It!.

For the Fretting Pet Owner, a Wireless Distress Signal. Wireless technology may one day allow owners to find their missing pets, whether the animals have strayed across town or across the border. By By ANNE EISENBERG. [The New York Times > Technology] 1:35:00 PM      Google It!.

Major development in providing OA to taxpayer-funded research. Rick Johnson, Director of SPARC, just sent this message to SPARC members. I blog it here with his permission. I want to alert you about an important development. Yesterday the U.S. House of Representatives Appropriations Committee approved an important provision in connection with the FY 2005 National Institutes of Health (NIH) appropriation. The Committee Report accompanying the FY 2005 Labor, HHS, Education and Related Agencies Appropriations Bill recommends that NIH provide free public access to research articles resulting from NIH-funded research. The Report calls on NIH to offer access to authors' final manuscripts (as accepted for journal publication) and supplemental materials via PubMed Central six months after publication. If the grantee used NIH funds to pay any publication charges (e.g., page or color charges, or fees for digital distribution), PMC access would be immediate. The Report instructs NIH to inform the Committee by December 1, 2004 how it intends to implement the policy. This proposal is a reasoned, incremental step that balances the interests of taxpayers and publishers. We believe it will enhance the nation's return on investment in NIH research and contribute to the translation of bench science into clinical practice. SPARC and its allies are working to ensure that the proposal is endorsed in the Senate. In the coming days I will share with you additional information, including steps you can take to demonstrate your support. PS: This is extraordinarily important news. It sensibly focuses on OA archiving, which leaves authors free to publish in non-OA journals if they like. It sensibly avoids the mistakes of the Sabo bill, such as needlessly requiring the public domain rather than open access and needlessly interfering with patentable discoveries. The NIH is the largest funder of science in the US federal government, five times larger than the second-largest funder, the NSF. Expect opposition, and be prepared to support this proposal through personal and institutional letters to members of Congress. I'll report further details as I get them. [Open Access News] 1:33:13 PM      Google It!.

AT&T Wireless to Launch 3G Service Next Week. CHICAGO (Reuters) - AT&T Wireless Services Inc., the third-largest U.S. mobile operator, on Thursday said it was on track to launch a high-speed Internet service for mobile phones this year, and sources close to the matter said the rollout would begin in four markets early next week. [Reuters: Technology] 1:27:37 PM      Google It!.

Small Pieces (Not So?) Loosely Joined (and already spammed). Our NMC 2004 Small Pieces session intended to make a case for creating effective net-based collaboration using a discrete set of free tools, not so tightly controlled. This was fine, fun, and (frilly), but I wanted to describe here how we are trying to implement this for some real work. We are headed into the 18th year of a faculty-led initiative for instructional technology at Maricopa called "Ocotillo" (see some history and the details on the metaphor). Dealing with technology, this almost organic organization evolves and re-invents itself, and just this past year, we "flipped" over a structure from representing college interests to topical ones (more details than anyone wants). Anyhow, bottom line, this coming academic year, we will have four "action groups" each led by a pair of faculty, who will research, promote, prod, disseminate, dissect, and hopefully engage people in the areas of: Learning Objects Hybrid Courses ePortfolios Emerging Learning Technologies Being a large, decentralized college system in an ever sprawling metropolis, I am vigorously promoting using more technology to share, communicate, and conduct this work, and get us out of the "F2F meeting/workshop" mode. So while ramping up for our Small Pieces presentation, I was also cobbling together a system of weblogs, wikis, and discussion boards, tied together with RSS, tape, and bailing wire, and hoping we can spring this effectively on our system this year. In what will become a long rambling post, I will describe how this all works together. Brian has already pointed out that this is actually not loosely joined but rather "tight" (a compliment, I hope). And as an off kilter kind of success, before even sharing the URL, this morning already got a drug product spam (MTBlacklist now engaged)... [cogdogblog] 8:16:41 AM      Google It!.

Novell as Open Source Hero? [Slashdot] 8:13:18 AM      Google It!.

Universities to Release Free Course-Management Software - JEFFREY R. YOUNG, Chronicle of Higher Education. A cooperative venture by several major universities to build free course-management software is expected to release the first version of its product today, together with the complete source code, so that any college or individual can customize and enha [Online Learning Update] 8:11:16 AM      Google It!.

Sony Ericsson debuts keyboard smart phone. P910 to succeed P900 [The Register] 8:08:03 AM      Google It!.

Phone Cam Fine Art: SENT.Taking place in Los Angeles starting July 10, 2004, SENT brings perhaps your cheesy phone camera snapshots to a level of fine art? Images will be invited to be submitted by the public. <>It looks like it may be too let to send your phone snaps, but stay tuned to see the results.SENT will be the first major exhibit of phonecam art in the United States. We'll explore the camera phone's potential as a creative tool in two ways: through an online public dialogue in which amateur photographers and phonecam users around the world share mobile snapshots of their lives; and through an invitational exhibit in which professional photographers, artists, and public figures test the limits of creative possibilities offered by these hybrid devices. I think it is a cool idea- yes the technology and photo quality are limited compared to some of the newer 8 megapixel digital cameras, but that is the creativity of working in a limited media. <> Found via the Flickr blog there is a lot going on over there, been a few months since I "flickr-ed". They have many new tools and features and this new concept of flick, mix, and blog with Fliccker and Feedburner. Looks like I will be diving in deeper with Flickr to use for image holding, as I have plans to translate our MovableType Blogshop to one hosted and about blogging with Blogger. The free version has no image loading capability. [cogdogblog] 7:59:33 AM      Google It!.

InfoWorld: "Google added a new feature to its toolbar this week that allows users to navigate the Web by typing in a name instead of a URL." [Scripting News] 7:56:56 AM      Google It!.

Looking forward to the report from the UK House of Commons. The Public Library of Science has issued a press release to anticipate the July 20 release of the House of Commons Science & Technology Committee report on its inquiry into journal publishing and open access. Excerpt: "As the second largest research funder in the world, the decisions of the British government have a global impact on access to science and medical research results, and will influence U.S. government policy and legislation....Recent analyses of open access publishing model by impartial and vested parties such as the Wellcome Trust have shown it to be cost-effective and sustainable." [Open Access News] 7:54:35 AM      Google It!.

UK's BT, Yahoo Launch Instant Message Voice Service. LONDON (Reuters) - Britain's top fixed-line telecoms operator BT Group launched a new service on Thursday allowing users to make phone calls over Yahoo Inc's instant messenger product, the companies said. [Reuters: Technology] 7:52:29 AM      Google It!.