Courses work in an environment when knowledge/information is fairly static and
developing slowly. The more rapidly information develops, the more quickly
courses cease to serve the needs of learners. The information is outdated before
the ink is dry.
[...] learning communities allow us to become knowledgeable in a specific area of
interest...much like courses teach one specific subject matter.
Most of us belong to more than one learning community. These multiple
communities form a personal learning network. If a learning community
equates somewhat with a course, then our learning network is equivalent to a
degree program.
Yes! Definitely. Precisely. Spot on. As the evolution of the different
fields of knowledge speeds up, each crosses a threshold point where it
makes more sense for most learners to give up on courses and embrace
learning networks. In IT this is already happening.
Accurate observations in there. I honestly believe blogging as we
currently know it will never become mainstream. The reason is that it
is a poor fit for anyone who isn’t the (hyper)text-driven, infovore kind of
person.
However, that doesn’t mean that the more general practice of broadcasting information of personal relevance will not become mainstream. My vision of the future in this respect is closest to what Marc Canter’s been pushing under the moniker of “digital lifestyle aggregator”; this also seems to be where Meg Hourihan is heading with the Lafayette project.
Think about restaurant/show reviews, recipes, pictures. The Web is
already full of user-contributed stuff like that; most of it currently
resides on centralized sites like
Amazon. The individuals who help build those sites do so most of the
time with no reward other than a high local profile that is generally non-transferable
(how many Amazon reviewers are on your blogroll?). I’m willing to bet
that many of them would prefer keeping control over their contributions
and putting themselves at the center of their content if systems were available that made that easy.
Ishkur's Guide to Electronic Music[via Hossein] is
simply great. It features representative samples from loads of
different subgenres, and provides colorful descriptions for each. This
from the Acid Jazz definition:
This kind of
music is best meant for late-night coffee houses and alternative
culture eateries where the waitresses are all short-haired lesbians,
the coffee comes in tall glasses, and there's a small smokey stage
where a crowd of intellectuals wearing dark-brimmed glasses are
listening to some guy in a turtle neck reciting crappy poetry like a
bunch of pretentious post-ginsbergian beatnicks. Ooh yeah! Gotsta love
that post-modern poetry.
I also got to learn about the origin of the ubiquitous Amen break,
about the difference between the TR-808 and 909 ("The 909 is ALL about
the handclaps."), and I discovered a genre I didn't - and maybe shouldn't - know about: Glitchcore, also known as CD Skipping. My only complaint is that I can't deeplink, as this
is a Flash monolith. Still, a wonderful resource.
PoliticsOnline asked
its 30,000 readers and subscribers to name the people, organizations
and companies that are changing the world of Internet and politics.
From these nominations, 25 world changers and five rising stars were
selected.
Interestingly, warbloggers don't show up in this world-changers list - save for Salam Pax (#23). Meetup is number 13.
