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Tuesday, September 17, 2002 |
The Internet goes to college.
Here are a few more statistics:
- 73% of college students say they use the Internet more than the library.
- Two-thirds (68%) of college students reported subscribing to one or more academic-oriented mailing lists that relate to their studies. They use these lists to carry on email discussions about topics covered in their classes.
- 42% of college students say they use the Internet primarily to communicate socially.
The study also suggests that "Colleges and universities might be experiencing an Internet generation gap between professors and students in terms of their Internet usage interests or abilities." I seriously think there is such a gap, and it has to do with the fact that professors already have established means of finding information and connecting with people, while students have nearly empty professional networks and are likely to search for information in the most convenient way, which at this time is the Internet.
But I feel that the most important observation is the following one: "While formal distance learning has not replaced the classroom, informal learning often takes place online." Teachers aren't always around, and our knowledge needs are constantly increasing. How are we coping? By becoming teachers to one another, which is now becoming possible across time and space. To quote Andy Oram, look at how individuals solve information problems on their own, and you'll see that this is what is happening. [Seb's Open Research] Maybe the students need to adopt a teacher and teach them how they would like to interact with eachother via internet communication channels. Its still the classic problem between adoptors and internalizers.
3:57:49 PM 
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Page Rank and the new science of networks Has pagerank run it's course?.
Daniel Brandt: Google's Original Sin. [Scripting News]
» A good piece. The main thrust is that Google's reliance on pagerank, far from being democratic, is uniquely autocratic. Because sites with a high pagerank matter most, they have more power and it is harder for site with a low pagerank to get noticed regardless of the relevance of their onpage content.
"In a democracy, every person has one vote. In PageRank, rich people get more votes than poor people, or, in web terms, pages with higher PageRank have their votes weighted more than the votes from lower pages. As Google explains, "Votes cast by pages that are themselves 'important' weigh more heavily and help to make other pages 'important.'" In other words, the rich get richer, and the poor hardly count at all. This is not "uniquely democratic," but rather it's uniquely tyrannical. It's corporate America's dream machine, a search engine where big business can crush the little guy."
The remedy?
"We feel that PageRank has run its course. Google doesn't have to abandon it entirely, but they should de-emphasize it. The first step is to stop reporting PageRank on the toolbar. This would mute the awareness of PageRank among optimizers and webmasters, and remove some of the bizarre effects that such awareness has engendered. The next step would be to replace all mention of PageRank in their own public relations documentation, in favor of general phrases about how link popularity is one factor among many in their ranking algorithms. And Google should adjust the balance between their various algorithms so that excellent on-page characteristics are not completely cancelled by low link popularity. "
Even if I agree, and I not certain that I do, it's hard to see Google give up what they see as a key differentiator. It's quite possible that they see an advantage for themselves in the tyranny of pageranks and the power of corporate America to wield them! [Curiouser and curiouser!]It's simple the web is selforganizing. Read Linked by Albert Barabasi to get a comprehensive background on the new science of networks. Why is google the numberone searchengine even when it is late to the network. It has good fit. Page rank does mater and its a good thing infact it may be a winner take all model. We will have to wait and see.
10:53:53 AM
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IM Bans Hush Workplace Chatter. More and more workers are using instant messaging on the job. And more and more companies are telling them not to. But most bans have more to do with security than putting the kibosh on IM gab fests. By Joanna Glasner. [Wired News] Messinger is a key techonlogy to allow workers at the edge of the enterprise network the ability to maintain weak ties which can be transformed to other forms of capital that directly benifit the companies stock price. Messinger trafic is a key indicator of Social Capital in the workplace. If you want more of something you should subsidise it and if you want less of something you should tax it. So why are we taxing cooperation and corridination and subsidising technologies that decrease rapid exchanges between workers?
10:27:53 AM
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Totallyofftherecord/weblog I'm working with my friend to get the rss working for this blog. Mostly for selfish reasons, I want to recieve this in my news agrigator.
10:15:43 AM
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© Copyright 2002 Stephen Dulaney.
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Top 10 hits for THEORIES FROM THE EDGE OF THE ORGANIZATION on..
 | 10/1/2002; 8:58:05 AM. |
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