Android Demo

This demo of the Android GNU/Linux is impressing!!!

New business models

Very good Blog post from "Open Road" as usual:

You get the picture. The general principle is always the same: focus on maximizing abundance, and then sell value around minimizing the complexity inherent in abundance.

The old model was to assume that the value was in the software itself and to therefore lock it up. It turns out, however, as Tim O'Reilly notes, that data is the real value, not bits and bytes. You don't discover or, rather, uncover, that value until you have abundance.

Blogs and science journalism

Interesting

Microsoft, forlag og drivhuseffekten

Microsoft, forlaga og oljelobbyen har gått tomme for argumenter og Fear, Uncertainty og Doubt (forkorta FUD). No er det øyrebiting og slag under beltestaden som gjeld. Microsoft har tydelegvis hatt lukka med seg på fisketuren etter Oh Oh xml røyster i Kazakstan, Columbia og Congo, pluss ein del andre statar. Eg var ganske nyfiken for nokre veker sidan då eg las dette:

Interestingly, while 13 countries have publicly announced their votes, not one of the new 11 P members has thus far revealed how it has cast its vote. As I have pointed out in several recent blog entries, (the latest is here), it will be very interesting to see how these last-minute additions to the P membership cast their votes. Those new P members, once again, are Cote d'Ivoire, Cyprus, Ecuador, Jamaica, Lebanon, Malta, Pakistan, Trinidad and Tobago, Turkey, Uruguay and Venezuela.

9 av desse 11 røysta for utan at til dømes It-departementet i Pakistan ante noko om dette til dømes. Sjå her

Det nyttar ikkje å seie at dette er berre "business as usual". Kva skal ein med ISO viss ein berre kan kjøpe seg bananrepublikkar til å røyste. Dette er undergraving av viktige institusjonar.

No er det sjefen for antitrust kontoret i USA som klagar på EU-domstolen si avgjerd om at Microsoft er monopolist. EU bad han halde tåta :-) Liknande som den amerikanske domstolen kom fram til i 2001, men så kom Bush til makta og tilsette Microsoft advokaten som leiar for antitrust kommisjonen. Artig utvikling på børsen forresten. No er det mindre enn 100 mrd usd som skiller Google og MS.

PRISM er slakta i filler, dei endra sidene sine for nokre dagar sidan, det er litt artig. Her var David Dezenhall hyra inn som ein slags Goebbels. Veldig bra innsats frå ein gjeng tullingar som har dumma seg loddrett ut.

Bush fekk kjøpt ein gjeng liksomforskarar han også for å tvile på drivhuseffekten, akkurat som han greidde å inbille verda at det var demokrati og masseøydeleggjingsvåpen han var ute etter i Irak. Eg trudde halvvegs på denne Saddam-historia sjølv. Greenspan er tydelegvis i tvil han også.

Eg er litt liberalistisk for tida, men å blande liberalisme med Microsoft, oljelobbyen, forlagsindustrien og liknande er fullstendig på bærtur.

Her på berget så har det kome ut ei artig bok om BA-HR advokatfirma, Fleischer si bok er også utruleg interessant, her er det fleire hundre sider med skikkeleg underhaldande åtak på korrupte og halvkorrupte juristar, les den. Lawrence Lessig skal ta seg av denne type korrupsjon me har sett mykje av i desse siste åra. Har veldig tru på dette. Ein slag "lovleg korrupsjon" som undergrev det kapitalistiske systemet og demokratiet.

For å seie det slik, skilnaden på såkalte bananrepublikkar og vestlege demokratier er ofte veldig liten når det kjem til korrupsjon og "klan-tenkjing". Berre sjå på kor lett ISO-institusjonen i Sverige lot seg kjøpe. Det var niks problem, bortsett ifrå at det vart oppdaga og prøvd bortforklart med at "ein eller annan leverte to røyster istadenfor ein".

Men no visar alle trendar at det går i rett retning, SCO er så å seie i gang med krampetrekningane (verd 4 mill usd i skrivande stund), Microsoft stupar på børsen (verd 268 mrd) (alle veit at OS'a deira og Office er i ferd med å rakne), PRISM er så skamfert at dei neppe eingong går gjennom eit korrupt senat i USA eingong, open access har hatt solid vekst over fleire år og antal land og fond som sluttar seg til har nådd "kritisk masse", GNU/Linux og ODF er ustoppelege når Sun, IBM og Google legg breidsida til.

Ok, det var alt eg fekk tid til på ein lånt PC, har sagt opp breiband og brukar tida på toåringen min for tida.

Lessig from copyfight to fighting "corruption"

Lessig skiftar delvis beite, og den type korrupsjon som han går etter er like innbakt i vårt politiske demokrati som klanstilhøyrigheit er bakt inn i mange tredje verda regimer. Gjer ein opprør mot klanstilhøyrigheita i desse landa så gjer ein opprør mot sin eigen familie. Liknande er det med Lessig sin korrupsjon, her er det kanskje familie og nære vener som får svi, eller at ein ikkje har pengar til å drive valkamp.

Hugsar godt eg for nokre år sidan las at American Geophysical Association hadde, etter tredve års debatt, kome fram til konsensus om at global oppvarming var menneskeskapt og ville få store konsekvensar. Eg vart overraska over at det skulle ta fleire år før til og med dette skulle få litt gjennomslag i offentleg politikk.

I ein av kommentarane på bloggen til Lessig stod dette: ""Every political system makes the crucial but erroneous assumption that the citizens are rational and strive for social justice. “The best argument against democracy is a five-minute talk with the average voter.”—Churchill."



"This is a thought I've often had in the debates I've been a part of, especially with respect to IP. Think, for example, about term extension. From a public policy perspective, the question of extending existing copyright terms is, as Milton Friedman put it, a "no brainer." As the Gowers Commission concluded in Britain, a government should never extend an existing copyright term. No public regarding justification could justify the extraordinary deadweight loss that such extensions impose.

Yet governments continue to push ahead with this idiot idea -- both Britain and Japan for example are considering extending existing terms. Why?

The answer is a kind of corruption of the political process. Or better, a "corruption" of the political process. I don't mean corruption in the simple sense of bribery. I mean "corruption" in the sense that the system is so queered by the influence of money that it can't even get an issue as simple and clear as term extension right. Politicians are starved for the resources concentrated interests can provide. In the US, listening to money is the only way to secure reelection. And so an economy of influence bends public policy away from sense, always to dollars."

Bra kommentar:

"Every political system makes the crucial but erroneous assumption that the citizens are rational and strive for social justice. “The best argument against democracy is a five-minute talk with the average voter.”—Churchill."

http://www.lessig.org/blog/archives/003800.shtml

Mobile is the hottest these days

"Mobile, mobile, mobile" were the words of Google Inc. Chief Executive Eric Schmidt this week when asked what technologies are most intriguing to the computer Web search leader.

http://www.pcworld.com/article/id,131051-c,google/article.html

Sjekk denne bibliotekkatalogen!

Dette er litt rått, sjå venstre del av denne vevsida: http://www.myapl.org/aquabrowser/

Fujitsu Flepia i farge e-papir

Denne kan fåast i A4 storleik, og har eit batteri som skal vare opp mot 50 timar i vanleg bruk.

http://www.frontech.fujitsu.com/services/products/paper/flepia/

Her er detaljene på engelsk: http://www.mobileread.com/forums/showthread.php?t=10480

Interessant norsk Vista diskusjon

Her er ein veldig informativ forumdiskusjon:

http://norskwebforum.no/viewtopic.php?t=31499

Schneier: "In the meantime, the only advice I can offer you is to not upgrade to Vista."

Some very intersting thoughts from Bruce Schneier on Vista:

It might not be as obvious as Microsoft using its operating system monopoly to kill Netscape and own the browser market, but it's really no different. Microsoft's entertainment market grab might further entrench its monopoly position, but it will cause serious damage to both the computer and entertainment industries.

http://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2007/02/drm_in_windows.html

Open source and scientific development

Red Hat has partnered with University of North Carolina to collaborate in clinical research. This is the future for science, and the winners of the futures innovation contest will be the one that has realized this.

Kudos to Red Hat for thinking outside the software box. Open source is a methodology and a mentality that is exceptionally useful well beyond software. It is something that will bring integrity and value to software. Surely, it can help to do the same in other areas, like clinical research.

http://weblog.infoworld.com/openresource/archives/2007/04/red_hat_lets_op.html

Science and blogging

Carl Zimmer has posted some interesting experiences with blogging scientific papers. As he wrote:

I suspect this situation has come about because scientists as a group are only just becoming comfortable in the blogging environment.

But, I think blogging and forum discussion is getting more and more common when the scientist get hammered out the etiquette of scientific engagement as one of the comments emphasize. It also has to find the right arenas for their discussions, but this will probably happen withing a couple of years, and then we will see a much more rapid moving scientific progress.

So, I do what any science writer does. I read the new paper and looked for some comments. I email Nick Matzke, a co-author of an earlier paper on this topic. He wasn't impressed. To register his displeasure, he wasn't content just to send me a grousing email. He blogged at length on Panda's Thumb. Commenters threw in their own two cents. Meanwhile, another source-turned-blogger, Ryan Gregory (whom I wrote about in an article on dinosaur genomes), wrote about the study as well, to which Larry Moran, himself a blogger as well as University of Toronto biochemist, responded harshly in the comments, saying that the paper should never have been published. (Moran, Matzke, and others complain about the methods the ASU scientists used to identify related genes.)

http://scienceblogs.com/loom/2007/04/17/when_scientists_go_all_bloggy.php

Young scientists flock to networking sites.

The social network activity at Nature's website is something I think will become very common in the near future. Here is an article about it: "Young scientists flock to networking sites."

Here is the link to Nature Network:
http://network.nature.com/

Google Earth show what happens in Darfur

I would recommend to check out the last version of Google Earth, it has changed a lot, use the upper right corner button to lower the horizont. Also Google has released a map over the terror in Darfur that is very sad to see. Here is more information about that:

Reuters: Google Earth maps atrocities in Darfur

Why GNU/Linux is Better

Recommended reading for all new GNU/Linux users here:

http://www.whylinuxisbetter.net/

YouTube’s Favorite Clips

Vidmeter, which tracks the online video business, determined that the clips that were removed for copyright violations — most of them copyrighted by big media companies — comprise just 9 percent of all videos on the site. Even more surprising, the videos that have been removed make up just 6 percent of the total views (vidmeter.com).

New York Times

Index of Economic Freedom and Globalization

Interactive mapping of globalization and economic freedom here.

http://www.macrofocus.com/public/products/infoscope/datasets/economicfreedom.html

Linux Media Center Edition for Ubuntu

Here is an ADDON for Ubuntu, should be MUCH easier to get a Linux Media Center up and go from now on.

LinuxMCE is a free, open source add-on to Ubuntu including a 10' UI, complete whole-house media solution with pvr + distributed media, and the most advanced smarthome solution available. It is stable, easy to use, and requires no knowledge of Linux and only basic computer skills.

LinuxMCE

Soon the UbuntuStudio will be launched as a package for video/music/graphic editors work.

Ubuntu Studio is aimed at the linux audio, video and graphic enthusiast as well as professional.

Open Course Ware and publishing on the web

I discovered on the Open Course Ware website that they use the http://www.abinitio.com and I clicked on it and found it to be interesting.

‘Microsoft sucks’, says top blogger

At a “global summit” of its most-valued software developers, Microsoft repeatedly declared that it would “win” in search and other parts of its Windows Live internet strategy.

“The words are empty,” Scoble responded. “Microsoft’s internet execution sucks (on the whole). Its search sucks. Its advertising sucks. If that’s ‘in it to win’, then I don’t get it.”

He continued: “Microsoft isn’t going away. Don’t get me wrong. They have record profits, record sales, all that. But on the inter-net? Come on.

From Times Online

Index Data Masterkey is out for demo

http://mkey.indexdata.com/demo/

Dataverse Network in alpha-version

This is really really big, check it out!

http://drupal-test.hmdc.harvard.edu/frontpage


"Tools for Research (A Biased Review)" (click on "brainwash" and see an interesting figure.

Commentary: Taiwan notebook players sound off on Linux

Commentary: Taiwan notebook players sound off on Linux: "OEMs, on the other hand, noted it is less costly to produce Linux-based notebooks and demand at the lower end of the market is worth developing. And while the authorization fees for Windows entry-level education OS edition in undeveloped countries are around US$40, those for Linux OS are nearly free, the OEMs noted. Therefore, the OEMs say they are optimistic about the opportunities a shift to Linux-based notebooks presents."

Open journalism

"Essentially, we're building a software platform for journalism 2.0 - open source and extensible - which we believe will bring new dimensions of creativity to news gathering."

Libraries Integrate New Tech

The operating hours of Harvard’s libraries can now be accessed by anyone with a Web-enabled mobile phone, the latest technological innovation available to patrons following the debut of a new search extension for the Firefox browser.

Read more here

British and Irish research library records usable with Zotero

Copac offers an excellent model for other data providers, self-publishers, and bloggers who wish to make their content available to Zotero. By embedding COinS tags in their library records, the Copac developers have made it possible for Zotero to automatically capture the bibliographic information contained in them.

OpenCourseWare at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health

OpenCourseWare at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health: "The Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health's OPENCOURSEWARE (OCW) project provides access to content of the School's most popular courses. As challenges to the world's health escalate daily, the School feels a moral imperative to provide equal and open access to information and knowledge about the obstacles to the public's health and their potential solutions."

Dell want your opinion on which GNU/Linux you prefer

Here is the link to the survey:
http://www.dell.com/content/topics/global.aspx/corp/linux

The Impoverished Social Scientist's Guide to Free Statistical Software and Resources

Here are some good suggestions to statistical software and some good jokes:

"Doing econometrics is like trying to learn the laws of electricity by playing the radio." - Orcutt's observation

"One problem with political science is that its laboratories are unsecured, allowing real people to roam around inside them, spitting in test tubes and fiddling with computers" - Walter Kirn

"You can see a lot, just by looking." - Yogi Berra

http://www.hmdc.harvard.edu/micah_altman/socsci.shtml#SOFT

liveplasma music, movies, search engine and discovery engine

liveplasma music, movies, search engine and discovery engine

Try to type beatles in the search field.

UNEP: Atlas of Our Changing Environment

UNEP: Atlas of Our Changing Environment

Nice environmental atlas.

Mac Rumors: More Multitouch from Jeff Han

Mac Rumors: More Multitouch from Jeff Han

Amazing video of multi touch screen.

GCensus: Using Google Earth for Census Analysis

Mashup between Google Earth and Census Bureau. This is something Statistics of Norway should take a look at.

And this World Wildlife Fund mashup with Google Earth is also promising for the understanding about how we destroy the earth.

Et samfunn på dugnad - ITavisen

Et samfunn på dugnad - ITavisen: "Åpen kode, egenprodusert musikk og video, gratis programvare. Blir Microsoft, Hollywood og platebransjen overflødige?" Jøss, gjennomtenkt artikkel frå Itavisen. Bra!

Tories want more open source

Tories want more open source: "Let's save £600 million per year, says shadow chancellor"

Report: Linux, open source greener than Windows

Report:

Linux, open source greener than Windows
But the British report touches upon a simple fix that could also fix the environment: Use open source.

"One of the benefits frequently put forward for the use of open source software is the level of resources needed to support it. This means that for equivalent open source and Microsoft Windows systems, the open source will require less memory and a slower processor speed for the same functionality," the report said.

Industry observers quote a typical hardware refresh period for Microsoft Windows systems as three to four years; the U.K. government report cites a major unnamed U.K. manufacturing organization that quotes its hardware refresh period for Linux systems as six to eight years.

The New Science of Sharing

The New Science of Sharing: "But advances in storage, bandwidth, software, and computing power are pushing collaboration to the next level. Call it Science 2.0."

ConsortiumInfo.org - ICT Sandards, Accessibility and Self-Regulation

This blogpost from Andy Updegrove is very thoughtprovoking and important. I recommend to take your time to read it if you are interested in the future of the information society.


ConsortiumInfo.org - ICT Sandards, Accessibility and Self-Regulation: "As our dependency on ICT increases exponentially, it therefore makes sense to ask whether the continuation of this laissez-faire atmosphere will remain (even) on balance a good thing."

Tame The Web: Libraries and Technology: Ten Tech Trends for Librarians 2007

Tame The Web: Libraries and Technology: Ten Tech Trends for Librarians 2007: "So here's this year's list, with a new name: 'Trends' instead of 'Things.' Sure it puts a finer point on it but it also recognizes the changes in my thinking about the essential duties of librarians:

Learn to Learn
Adapt to Change
Scan the Horizon

As we carry out or essential mission of service, stewardship and access, I really want folks in libraries to be able to watch the horizon for trends -- and I told the group that in Toronto: 'We can all be trendspotters. We can all watch for trends that impact not only the profession but our specfic communities and user groups.'"

Inside Google Book Search: The Bavarian State Library becomes largest non-English library partner

Inside Google Book Search: The Bavarian State Library becomes largest non-English library partner: "The Bavarian State Library becomes largest non-English library partner"

E-book's new chapter - 05 Mar 2007 - IT Week

E-book's new chapter - 05 Mar 2007 - IT Week: "Electronic paper display undoubtedly works. Your eyes don’t get tired from reading the screen as they do with a computer, and the iLiad is perfectly comfortable to use outside and indoors under a variety of lighting."

BBC NEWS | Technology | Push for open access to research

BBC NEWS | Technology | Push for open access to research: "Cancer patients seeking information on new treatments or parents searching for the latest on childhood development issues were often denied access to the research they indirectly fund through their taxes."

Money for nothing? Open source VC funding - CBRonline.com

Money for nothing? Open source VC funding - CBRonline.com: "'The VC community is trying to predict where the market is going, the whole job is trying to predict where the [hockey] puck is going to be,' says Robin Vasan, managing director at venture capital firm Mayfield."

Amazon.com: The Economics of Open Source Software Development: Books: Jürgen Bitzer,Philipp J.H. Schröder

Amazon.com: The Economics of Open Source Software Development: Books: Jürgen Bitzer,Philipp J.H. Schröder: "The topic of open source software development is truly interesting, and very timely. There is clearly a need for a book like this on the economics of the phenomenon. This book, due to its analytical and theoretical focus, will be a great complement to the many books that have been published on the phenomenon....The editorial team is highly accomplished and well regarded in the research community. They are very well known for the contributions to the economic theory on open source software,"

Gigantene styrt av bloggen

Jøss, trudde ikkje dette nyhende skulle koma til Noreg før tidlegast i 2010.

"Store selskaper lar blogg-lesere styre viktige avgjørelser – for å vise at de følger med i tiden."
Les meir om dette i Dagensit.no

Users Who Know Too Much And The CIOs Who Fear Them - Editorial - CIO

Users Who Know Too Much And The CIOs Who Fear Them - Editorial - CIO: "A new IT department is being born. You don't control it. You may not even be aware of it. But your users are, and figuring out how to work with it will be the key to your future and your company's success."

Thomson Learning :: Thomson Learning Adopts Sakai Open Source Collaboration and Learning Environment

Thomson Learning :: Thomson Learning Adopts Sakai Open Source Collaboration and Learning Environment: "Thomson Learning Adopts Sakai Open Source Collaboration and Learning Environment"

Firefox3: Web Apps Game changer

Rod Drury > Firefox3: Web Apps Game changer: "A session with huuuuge implications first up today from Robert O’Callahan from Mozilla. He’s based in NZ but drives the rendering engine of Mozilla/FireFox. (Aside1: I think that it is completely cool that such a web significant thing is being built from a guys sun room in New Zealand - rocking!)"

Haakon Wium Lie want something else than OOXLM and ODF

I'd pick the 700-page specification (ODF) over the 6,000-page specification (OOXML). But I think there is a better way.

It is possible to build a new format on top of the universally understood HTML and CSS.

Read more at CNET.COM

Stats Show Google Dominates the International Search Landscape

Searchenginewatch.com has some interesting statistics about the overwhelming dominance of Google in the search landscape.

Worldwide readership of the Open Access News Blog

This Clustermap shows that Peter Suber's blog has got a worldwide readership.

Web 2.0 "no going back"

Today I opened up my Google Reader, found last news from the Peter Suber Blog, Then I clicked on the Open Repositories 2007 conference link and found a del.icio.us page and a Flickr photoset from the conference. After that I read the article “Latest News”: EPrints Meets Web 2.0 and then clicked on the Eprint statistics page and find out from wich country people had downloaded this article, how many abstract and full text views that had happened. I clicked on some other articles, and found the integration of Google Scholar to the citations in them by clicking on "SEEK" in the reference list. (it was not working this time). Anyway, this is a good example on how mashups and mixing is functioning. I have been using around 10 different web 2.0 services about a topic I was interested in. Bill Thompson wrote earlier today in the BBC News this:

But Yahoo! has given us a glimpse of the networked future, where the world's information is not only at our fingertips, but available to be mixed, mashed and filtered on demand, giving us what we want, when we want it - and from wherever we can get it. There will be no going back.

I agree, this services is simply so useful that "There will no going back.

Google is under legal attack by the E.U. - MarketWatch

I bet that the appeal from Google will win ultimately, because this is just to ridiculous to pass through a court. It has nothing to do with protecting the francophone languages and culture because Google has an interface in French and index French and Belgian newspapers/libraries as much as they want in French. It has nothing to do with copyright infringement as long as they don't cache (they don't). This is just about coming late to the search business and see that they have lost. This is just to fantastic, there is no lock-ins in the search engine market, still they want to use the court to harass the companies. I see nothing support from nongovernmental groups in support of the publishers, nobody except corrupted politicians and search hungry publishers.

John Dvorak second opinion is always one of the best comments to the market:

Google is under legal attack by the E.U. - MarketWatch: "This legal action is so fishy that the U.S. government should take this up with the World Trade Organization regarding unfair trade practices, and feed the E.U. some of its own medicine."

Cultural anthropology in cyberspace

Michael Wesch has a lot of interesting stuff on his webpage about digital anthropology.

Zotero and Simile

Some interesting thoughts about two of the most promising project in the academic world:

Why I Like These Two Projects

I am an omnivore for finding new, exciting projects. I have specific aims in mind, and they are (generally) different than what is motivating the specific project developers. Of the many hundreds of projects I have investigated, I think these two are among the best, but for different reasons and with different strengths.

The Zotero project, though early in the process, has all of the traits to be an exemplar in terms of documentation, professionalism, openness and active outreach to its communities. I take the criticisms from some in the community (motivated, I believe, by good will) to be a result of possible frustrations regarding pent-up needs and expectations, rather than the project’s poor execution or arrogance. I think posing the discussion as the dialectic of the cathedral v. the bazaar is silly and does the project and its sponsors a disservice. What looks to be going on is simply the real-world of the open-source sausage factory in the face of constraints.

As for Simile, we are seeing true innovation being conducted in real time in the open. And while some of these innovations have practical applications today, many are still cutting edge and not fully vetted. With the program’s stated aims of addressing emerging computer science challenges, this tension will remain and is healthy. Criticisms of the Simile efforts as “research programming”, I think, miss the boat. If you want to know what is going to be in your browser or influencing your Internet experience a few years hence, look to Simile (among others).

http://www.mkbergman.com/?p=330

Google Reader in Google Apps for Your Domain

This is unofficially news from the blogosphere: "I nearly fell out of my chair but look top right and saw I was logged in with my Google Apps for Your Domain account and not the @gmail.com login."

paulmwatson.com

Linux Foundation and Linux Mobile Foundation established

It is so nice to see the biggest companies in the world do something with the Microsoft constantly trying to lock-in consumers, businesses, and governments with their proprietary "industrial standards". I am especially happy with this list from the Linux Foundation:
http://www.linux-foundation.org/en/Members (impressive industrial support behind GNU/Linux)

And a few days later, these well-known companies formed the Linux Mobile Foundation:
Motorola, NEC, NTT DoCoMo, Panasonic Mobile Communications, Samsung Electronics, and Vodafone

LiMo Foundation

Adobe to Contribute Entire PDF Specification to AIIM - ISO

Good news from Adobe today, it is always good with freedom, and it feels a little bit easier to breeth now. Here is a comment from the standards blog:

With the full specification in that state, the PDF formats will once and for all abandon the rather confusing, schizophrenic existence that they have maintained to date.

Andbudsrunder på universiteter

Anbudsrunder i det offentlege er trege saker, og ofte vert kravspesifikasjonar skrive av folk som ikkje har fylgd så godt med dei siste åra, dvs. folk som oppdagar mashup-omgrepet for fyrste gong slik rundt 2010:-) ikkje noko negativt med folka, mange av mine nærmaste vener er ikkje akkurat teknofrikar. Her er ein artikkel om "It's Learning" frå NTNU, og her ser ein at anbudsrunda var for fem år sidan, og ein kan rekne med at dei hadde brukt eit par år på å vurdere tilboda, samt at det var litt etterslep på kunnskapen om alternativa. Det er kanskje 7-8 år gamle vurderingar som vart lagt til grunn for at studentane i 2007 skal bruke denne læringsplattforma. Er dette noko å halde på med? Kunne ein ikkje berre gå over til Google Apps for education med ein gong, og få alt saman implementert gratis på eit par veker, og ende opp med 2007-teknologi som fungerar utruleg bra?

– Det vi kan si er at vi har en kontrakt vi er fornøyde med, og som er nøye vurdert ved inngåelse. Den var vurdert etter en anbudsrunde i 2002, hvor It's Learning kom best ut, sier hun.

Akademia ikkje lenger i tet

JonblOGG har eit veldig bra innlegg om e-læring og korleis utdanningssektoren ikkje greier å henge med her. Eg meinar at Universitetene må opne seg opp mot omverda i langt større grad. Det burde til dømes verte eit viktig moment for karaktergrunnlaget å skrive oppgåver som har aktualitet, og gje karakter på korleis studentane greier å tileigne seg lærdom frå kva som foregår på forskningsfronten. Ein kan godt seie at slik har det alltid vore, men når ein går nærmare etter i saumane så er det lite premiering for å vite om forskning som ikkje er publisert i vanlege trykte bøker og tidsskrifter. Ein kunne også arrangere videokonferansar for studentar, og bruke dette som grunnlag for eksamensoppgåver. For samfunnsøkonomi kunne ein til dømes laga ei konferanse med Standford om bruken av konkurranseloven mot XAML er samfunnsøkonomisk optimal? Dette ville vore ypperleg trening i å bruke den samfunnsøkonomiske verktykassa, og studentane ville måtte bruke bloggar og forum for å gripe an problemet, akkurat som samfunnsøkonomane i den verkelege verda må gjere. Dessutan er det vanskelegare å jukse sidan det ofte er lite ferdig stoff på slike nye tema. Her er nokre gode refleksjonar frå Jon Hoem:

"Samarbeidslæring står for tiden sterkt innen sosiokulturell og konstruktivistisk pedagogisk teori, en retning som er populær ved mange tradisjonelle undervisningsinstitusjoner.

Problemet med tradisjonell samarbeidslæring er at den ikke skalerer særlig godt."

"En rekke kommersielle aktører har skjønt dette, at brukeraktivitet, sosiale funksjoner, og brukergenerert innhold har egenskaper som folk finner stadig mer interessante. I første omgang når dette underholdningsmediene, noe som understrekes av at både avissalget og fjernsynsbruken går dramatisk ned. Dette handler om tidsbruk og informasjonstilgang, en utvikling som også vil påvirke utdanningssektoren, selv om denne lever en ganske beskyttet tilværelse."

The IT-crisis

Service oriented architecture is a very interesting topic these days. The institutional repository of the University of Oslo does only contain 25 doctoral thesis, and nothing is searchable via search engines. Compared with the institutional repositories at Stockholm University in Sweden, the University of Oslo missed perhaps 150 000 downloads of doctoral thesis in 2006. Instead they have to wait till they eventually are published in journals or books, and that takes on average a couple of years. I wonder how many citations these thesis missed?

Instead of building up a working institutional repository the it-appartment are more concerned about other day to day work. Is that a good investment? Dave Girouard in Google has some interesting remarks about this phenomenon:

"Google’s general manager of enterprise business, Dave Girouard, says a “crisis” in IT is preventing organisations from pursuing the type of innovations that allow businesses to grow."

"“Information security, as critical as it is, needs to be taken care of by organisations who live and die by it, who invest the money, time, resources and staff. Why should every company in the world have to build up their own expertise and have to maintain servers and provide security?”"

PR's 'pit bull' takes on open access

"Although Dezenhall declines to comment on Skilling and his other clients, his firm, Dezenhall Resources, was also reported by Business Week to have used money from oil giant ExxonMobil to criticize the environmental group Greenpeace."
http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v445/n7126/full/445347a.html

The new era has begun

"It's big stuff says my wise futurist friend Paul Saffo - a long time resident in, and observer of, California's Silicon Valley.

He divides the 20th century economy into two long eras: 50 years of mass production where the worker was the centre of things and the time clock was the symbol of the age. Then as supply caught up with demand across the developed world, the consumer society with the credit card as the symbol.

But after those two 50-year eras, we're entering something else, just as the 21st century starts, says Paul Saffo."
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/6280489.stm

The Alliance for Taxpayer Access

Talking about justice, we should have an association like this in Norway too!

The GNU/Linux revolution?

"That said, I assume that ports have already been completed on most of those programs on the list "just in case." If so, the tide toward a Linux desktop OS could happen so fast—overnight, in fact—that everyone would be shocked."
http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,1895,2086366,00.asp

Talking about ICTs and development

"The bulk of these efforts, when co-ordinated, have brought together computer scientists, policy analysts and engineers to mould solutions that make a difference to the lives of ordinary people. At the same time, however, academics from the legal, human and social sciences have also attempted to forge paths that make optimal use of ICTs for meaningful transformation. Many have argued that the best ICT solutions, with free and open source software, among them, will remain meaningless without adequate understanding of how pathways of knowledge and empowerment work."

It is for sure one big challenge to understand how to introduce these new instrument into the society.

Read more about this in the excellent magazine Tectonic

Linux Foundation to rival Microsoft

This is good news. The OSDL and FSG has now merged to the Linux Foundation.

“It’s really a two-horse race now, with computing dominated by two operating-system platforms, Linux and Windows,” said James Zemlin, executive director of the Linux Foundation.
New York Times

"Ledere er for tunge på tråden" står det i Aftenposten

Det er alltid litt frigjerande å få stilt rett diagnose. Ein treng ikkje ha lest gjennom den glitrande årskonferansa til NHO for å forstå at det ligg litt i dette. Les meir om "The Millennials"-generasjonen i Aftenposten.

Google Soon to Venture into the Realm of Downloadable E-Books

"Google is now reportedly planning on launching an accompanying service that will allow users to search Google Books for titles, and then allow them to download the full-text"
http://www.clevelandleader.com/node/1131

Could this be the final chapter in the life of the book

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2092-2557653,00.html

Google Librarian Central launched

Nice place to get tips and tricks
http://librariancentral.blogspot.com/

Great news from the Zotero team!

The Alpha version of the word processor integration is here.
http://www.zotero.org/blog/feature-spotlight-zotero-microsoft-word-integration-alpha/

Curriki

This curriculum wiki looks promising. Take a look for yourself at www.curriki.org

Zotero update available :-)

See www.zotero.org for more information or here.

One Laptop Per Child - 0.1 Watt Dual-Mode screen

"The dual-mode display is also stunning when you look at its power consumption while doing its tricks. A typical laptop screen consumes 8-10 Watts. The OLPC display only consumes 1 and then slips into reflective mode and drops down to .1 Watt (note that's one tenth a Watt!) without visible loss in detail."

A typical Windows Vista stationary PC is using something several hundred, and for what use? Is it worth to destroy the earths climate with useless features on a PC?



Dual mode screen

Introduction to Economic Analysis for FREE!

This textbook looks like a non-nonsense introduction to economics that will do the job very well as far as I can see. You will find the book and additional learning material here: http://www.introecon.com/

More books here: http://globaltext.org/books/website/books.html

About McAfee:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Preston_McAfee


"Why open source? Academics do an enormous amount of work editing journals and writing articles and now publishers have broken an implicit contract with academics, in which we gave our time and they weren't too greedy. Sometimes articles cost $20 to download, and principles books regularly sell for over $100. They issue new editions frequently to kill off the used book market, and the rapidity of new editions contributes to errors and bloat. Moreover, textbooks have gotten dumb and dumber as publishers seek to satisfy the student who prefers to learn nothing. Many have gotten so dumb ("simplified") so as to be simply incorrect. And they want $100 for this schlock? Where is the attempt to show the students what economics is actually about, and how it actually works? Why aren't we trying to teach the students more, rather than less?"
R. Preston McAfee from California Institute of Technology

Thoughtprovoking article about Wikipedia and historical science

This article is a must read for all historians and contributors to the Wikipedia.
The Journal of American History Volume 93, Number 1 (June, 2006): 117-46

http://chnm.gmu.edu/resources/essays/d/42

Google Scholar and eprint

This article is about what happens with this article. It is available to use and cite before it is printed, and the citation will probably not be catched in Web of Science, and it is a mashup of an open eprint archive and Google Scholar. Just click on "SEEK" behind the references and see whats happening.

From the body of the article:
"Another problem with Web of Science is that it ignores the fact that scientists increasingly publish or post their papers online via open-access journals, personal homepages, e-print servers or in institutional repositories so that others can freely access the material....Relying exclusively on Web of Science and a single citation measure will, in many cases, no longer be an option for making accurate impact assessments.

Scientists now need to make it their job to disseminate their work on as many platforms and in as many different ways as possible, such as publishing in open access and high-impact journals, and posting their work in institutional repositories, personal homepages and e-print servers, if they want their peers to be aware of, use and ultimately cite their work. Publishing a journal article is now only the first step in disseminating or communicating one’s work; the Web provides a multitude of methods and tools to publicize its scholarly worth."

You find the article here:
http://dlist.sir.arizona.edu/1703