Sunday, March 4, 2007

The Assassination of Wi-Fi. justelite writes "John C. Dvorak from PC Magazine has up an article looking at the new strategy of American cell-phone-service companies. From article: 'There is mounting evidence that the cellular service companies are going to do whatever they can to kill Wi-Fi. After all, it is a huge long-term threat to them. We've seen that the route to success in America today is via public gullibility and general ignorance. And these cell-phone-service companies are no dummies.'"[Slashdot] 6:54:24 PM      Google It!.

Carl Malamud to Brian Lamb: [base "]You should not treat the U.S. Congress like Disney would treat Mickey Mouse[per thou]. When I posted a video clip of Hillary Clinton[base ']s talk at the Keene High School, which I[base ']d TiVo[base ']d from our community access cable station, I wasn[base ']t entirely sure it was OK to do that. But when I asked Lee Perkins who runs Cheshire TV he said absolutely, go for it. The following week I was puzzled by a New York Times primer on which C-Span videos can, or cannot, be excerpted and reposted. Apparently only the [base "]5 to 15 percent[per thou] of C-Span[base ']s programming that[base ']s from the House and Senate floor is considered to be in the public domain. Here was C-Span VP and general counsel Bruce Collins[base '] explanation: What I think a lot of people don[base ']t understand [~] C-Span is a business, just like CNN is,[per thou] Mr. Collins said. [base "]If we don[base ']t have a revenue stream, we wouldn[base ']t have six crews ready to cover Congressional hearings. I wondered about that, but lacked context. Now Carl Malamud has provided the missing context. In a stunning letter to C-Span[base ']s president and CEO Brian Lamb, which includes the above quote, Malamud points out that C-Span is supported not only by its revenues operating as a nonprofit business, but also by [base "]considerable public largesse.[per thou] Taxpayers, Malamud argues, are footing the bill for much of the facilities, wiring, and equipment that enable C-Span[base ']s camera crews to do their work. Malamud concludes: I thus write to you today with a specific request and a notice: Your inventory shows 6,251 videos of congressional hearings for sale in the C-SPAN store at an average price of $169.50, for a total retail value of approximately $1,059,544. I am offering today to purchase this collection of discs from you for the purpose of ripping and posting on the Internet in a nonproprietary format for reuse by anybody. I understand your store would take a while to process such an order and am willing to place it in stages. I have purchased Disc 192720-1 from the C-SPAN store, ripped more than one minute of video from the disc, and used it for the creation of a news and satirical commentary of compelling public interest and then posted the resulting work at the Internet Archive. I did not ask C-SPAN for a license and I assert fair use of this material. Mr. Lamb, C-SPAN has been a pioneer in promoting a more open government. You created a grand bargain with the Cable Industry and the U.S. Congress. When I created the first radio station on the Internet and was asked why I did so as a non-profit instead of going for the gold like many of my colleagues, my reply has always been that I was inspired by your example. Your grand bargain has served the American people and the C-SPAN organization well. Holding congressional hearings hostage is not in keeping with your charter, and it is not in keeping with the spirit of that grand bargain you made with the American people. Please re-release this material back into the public domain where it came from so that it will continue to make our public civic life richer. Wow. [Jon Udell] 12:08:12 PM      Google It!.

Two Faces of Integrative Learning. These are the slides of my presentations to the meeting of the second and third cohorts. It roughly parallels the chapter I'm writing for the integrative learning section of the book on the work of the Coalition I'm editing with Barbara Cambridge and Kathleen Yancey. I work through the distinction between what I'm calling networked and symphonic selves, which parallel two dimensions of integrative learning and characterize the kinds of learning that are often associated with social software and eportfolios, respectively. I think we need both, and figuring out how they interface is a key challenge. [Inter/National Coalition for Electronic Portfolio Research blogs] 12:06:06 PM      Google It!.

University Migrating Students to Windows Live Mail?. An anonymous reader wonders: "My University has begun a migration of student email services to Windows Live Mail. All students will be forced onto the system by the end of the semester, but it doesn't support POP or IMAP. Because of that limitation, the only freely available mail client it supports is Windows Live Desktop, which is only available on Windows and I'm worried its ads might be vulnerable to malware just like the ones in Live Messenger. I depend on my mail client and I am concerned about this, because we're not allowed to forward our mail but are responsible for information received there from the University and classes, I'm not on a Windows machine, and I don't have the time to regularly check for web-mail, during the day." What are the pros and cons of such a move for a mid-sized or large college? If you were in charge of the communications of a such a university, would you outsource [please note the vendor neutrality, here] your e-mail? [Slashdot] 12:05:12 PM      Google It!.

Book Publishers Agree to Online Browsing. eldavojohn writes "Random House & HarperCollins have agreed to allow book browsing and searching on all their books. According to the article, 'Book publishers are to trying to update their businesses as more young readers consume media via the Web, a trend that already has affected the music, movie and newspaper industries.' I am definitely looking forward to more publishers following suit. It's not that far of a stretch to imagine a person searching for a book, finding something else and then buying both books." [Slashdot] 12:03:26 PM      Google It!.

Schools Banning Homework?. theodp writes "Alarmed by indicators of student stress like cheating and substance abuse, some SF Bay Area schools are reducing an education staple: homework. Homework is mostly banned at Menlo Park's Oak Knoll School, but some teachers apparently have higher 'expections' [sic]."[Slashdot] 12:02:28 PM      Google It!.

When a CGI Script is the Most Elegant Solution. An anonymous reader writes "Writing local Web applications can be quick, easy, and efficient for solving specific Intranet problems. Learn why a Web browser is sometimes a better interface than a GUI application and why experienced Web developers find themselves struggling to learn a GUI toolkit, and descover that a simple CGI script would serve their needs perfectly well, if not better."[Slashdot] 12:00:52 PM      Google It!.

Objections Over Antibiotic Approved for Use in Cattle. An anonymous reader writes "The Washington post reports that the FDA is expected to approve the marketing of the new antibiotic called Cefquinome for use in cattle. This is over objections of the American medical association, the FDA advisory board and the World Health Organization. Cefquinome is from a class of highly potent 'last line of defense' antibiotics for several serious human infections. It is feared that large scale use in cattle will allow bacteria to develop a resistance to these drugs. This news follows complaints from the FDA that it is no longer getting the funds needed to do the research required for the desired level of food safety."[Slashdot] 11:59:17 AM      Google It!.