Apologies.

If you have been getting a lot of apparently "contentless" changes to this weblog this morning, it's because I realized (after looking at my posts being quoted in other weblogs) that my posts don't show up as having titles. I think it's because I've not been using a heading style on the first line. Didn't know you needed to do that. Hope I got it right. Please forgive me.

10:22:22 AM    

Apologies.

If you have been getting a lot of apparently "contentless" changes to this weblog this morning, it's because I realized (after looking at my posts being quoted in other weblogs) that my posts don't show up as having titles. I think it's because I've not been using a heading style on the first line. Didn't know you needed to do that. Hope I got it right. Please forgive me.

10:22:04 AM    

Microsoft adding support for weblogging.

It was just a passing mention. But Chairman Bill noted at yesterday's Newspaper Association of America Annual Convention that Microsoft is very interested in making sure blogging tools are there to support folks doing "bottom-up publishing." Microsoft has been sticking its toes in the blogging tools waters, as of late, with everything from a Windows Media 9 blogging plug-in, to its Community Starter Kit, to other goodies under development by some of Microsoft's best bloggers. [Microsoft Watch, April 30, 2003]

Worth watching. Will they extend to "k-blogging" (using weblogs for knowledge management)? Maybe by connecting to Access? Stay tuned.

9:35:54 AM    

Best Newsreaders, help with rolling your own RSS.

Sam is heavily into RSS news aggregators and notes the best Windows software is Wildgrape NewsDesk.

I use OS X and am still very happy with NetNewsWire Pro.

Try one of these and see if it doesn't change your way of using the Web.

___

On the production end one has to worry about making the RSS feed. Most blogging tools handle this automatically, but enabling a website may be an issue. This link, should you choose to roll your own, may be useful. [Crandall Surf Report]

Wildgrape NewsDesk is begware - they ask for a donation via PayPal. NetNewsWire Pro is $39.95; the Lite version is free. Download 30 free trial here -- the link above takes you to the download site for the new beta version (NOT recommended - bugs).

8:14:47 AM    

Open Source Courseware.

The cost of doing business is going up for colleges and universities, particularly when it comes to course management systems. Proprietary enterprise solutions for course management -- BlackBoard, WebCT, eCollege -- are beginning to cost the same as other enterprise solutions. Translation -- they're getting very expensive. This rise in cost, along with the traditionally closed architecture of such systems has lead some universities and organizations to develop in-house programs tailored to their specific pedagogical needs and development resources.

Some of these home-grown solutions have been heavily influenced by the aggressive open source movement and have adopted both development and licensing strategies that allow other to adopt the software for free, or participate in the development process. The purpose of this paper is to outline the major open source courseware projects and to rate their usefulness. This is not intended as a definitive ranking but rather as a point of departure for those interested in investigating these systems and who are considering an open source courseware implementation. [Xplana]

(comments added 5/5/03, after posting) I am looking for an active backlash aimed at "very expensive" enterprise solutions. In one sense this is already happening (just look at sales figures and stock prices for some of these companies). An "active backlash" would be in the form of more organizations going to open source solutions (and they do exist, you just don't hear about them) or to collaborative use of XML (e.g., Canada's eduSource).

8:04:22 AM