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

A TEST OF LEADERSHIP : Charting the Future of U.S. Higher Education

This is in my opinion probably the best strategic document available in higher education and research today!

"The commission encourages the creation of incentives to promote the development of information technology-based collaborative tools and capabilities at universities and colleges across the United States, enabling access, interaction, and sharing of educational materials from a variety of institutions, disciplines, and educational perspectives. Both commercial development and new collaborative paradigms such as open source, open content, and open learning will be important in building the next generation learning environments for the knowledge economy."
Spellings commission report

See also the interesting discussion about this part of the report here:
Changing the Report, after the Vote

Sun to plug OpenDocument to global summit

"Software patents and proprietary APIs "are now being used to manipulate the direction of the network effect and to thwart widespread interoperability of computer programs" and this, the paper says, "will be particularly harmful to developing countries.""

Read more here

Ebook format coming spring 2007?

The new .obe format should be introduced in spring 2007. It looks interesting.

Read more in the article: "Will the eBook Finally Supersede Paper?"

Ny bok av Carl August Fleischer: Korrupsjonskultur, kameraderi og tillitssvikt i Norge

Her er ei fantastisk spanande bok som visar korleis vitskaplege prinsipper som rettskjeldelæra kan formast slik at det tener oljeindustrien og andre pengeinteresser:

Korrupsjonskultur, kameraderi og tillitssvikt i Norge
ISBN 82-92395-29-6

Carl August Fleischer
Les meir på Kolofon

Open standards 'essential to Europe's IT future'

A French official has prepared a report to the prime minister and suggested the adoption of the OpenDocument Format ODF. Think about how efficient the information society could be with open standards that is easy to implement in solutions that always changing?

"Open standards ensure flexibility for government information technology solutions and infrastructure, increasing technology options for citizens and users," said Harbison. "Implementers can easily configure information systems and procure technology from a wide variety of vendors at best value price points, helping [IT professionals] to adapt to ever-changing requirements and procedures."

Read more here

British library calls for copyright action

Here is a very GOOD and WELLPLACED comment on current copyright laws:

"Unless there is a serious updating of copyright law to recognize the changing technological environment, the law becomes an ass."
--Lynne Brindley, CEO, British Library

Read more at CNET News

One of my favourite websites for legal information is Groklaw.net, and I found this happy comment on the IP Manifesto to British Library there:

" I am so thrilled, I can't even express myself. And you know how rare that is! You may recall that I wrote a lengthy article detailing exactly what DRM was like and what it was doing to their collection and accessibility of the world's knowledge, The British Library - The world's knowledge DRM'd and for a price," and if I contributed to today's result in any small part at all, I can die happy. Of course, it is Larry Lessig who first noticed the problem and made it an issue for us all to consider.

You know how I always tell you that the law often moves to a better place as people get to understand new issues? It's happening. I see it. And I am glad. "

Read the rest here: The British Library Gets It!

From Bloglines to Google Reader

I first started up with using the Sage RSS reader, and then I jumped on to the Google Reader so that I could use the same RSS reader wherever I go, independent of my laptop. With the last upgrade on Google Reader it has become really fast and efficient. I found this review that compared it to the earlier state of the art RSS reader, the Bloglines from Ask.com. I agree in the conclusion about Google.

"But overall, Google Reader takes the cake for this daily RSS consumer, in the very short time it's been in Google Labs. Like that kid in class who always wins every spelling bee, dontcha just wanna kick Google for being so damn good all the time?" Read more here

Welcome to Wikiversity!

This is another interesting site from the Wikimedia Foundation:

"Wikiversity is a community for the creation and use of free learning materials and activities. Wikiversity is a multidimensional social organization dedicated to learning, teaching, research and service. Its primary goals are to:

* Create and host free content, multimedia learning materials, resources, and curricula for all age groups in all languages
* Develop collaborative learning projects and communities around these materials

Learners and teachers are invited to join the Wikiversity community as editors of this wiki website where anyone can edit the pages. The community portal lists information about many aspects of Wikiversity." Read more about this exciting project at http://en.wikiversity.org

Zotero in public beta in a few hours...

and on the top of that they have received an "incredibly generous grant". The American university has already granted 250 000 dollar to reach this public beta of Zotero and a grant on top of that shows that the money is ready for such free software products.

"The big news is that the Center for History and New Media has received an incredibly generous grant from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation to help build major new features into the 2.0 release of Zotero (coming in 2007)." Read more at Dan Cohen's blog.

Sony Reader launched in USA.

Now the Sony Reader is launched in US. It is a little smaller than the Irex Iliad Linux e-book reader so it is perhaps not so ideal for reading A4 sized documents.

Mitt Romney the next president of United States?

Mitt Romney (republican) has backed the OpenDocument Format in Massachussets, and that is why I have sympathy for this guy. Now there is a lot of blogs that already has started to campaign him as the next president of US. It is interesting to see the importance of blogs in the political life today:

""The Internet's such a powerful force in politics now that I think we could do some good things to get his name out," says Nathan Burd, who runs AmericansforMitt.com and is one of the founders of the movement to host sites in every state."
Salt Lake Tribune

University of California on Google Video

University of California has started to distribute video lectures on Google Video.

Openoffice bundlar Mozilla

To gode nyhende her:
1) Thunderbird og Lightening vert bundla med OpenOffice
2) OpenOffice får same geniale systemet som Firefox har hatt med extensions og plugins.

Med www.zotero.org så vert dette skikkeleg bra.

Roche help to produce HIV medicine in Africa.

This is good news that I want to share.

Why is open source so fast?

Interesting research project from University of California, Davis.
"Premkumar Devanbu is heading up the team, and told reporters that while most projects move at the pace of the slowest team member, open source projects proceed at the pace of the fastest one and that, when more people are added, things move even faster."

The LearningOnline Network with CAPA

Interesting free software online learning from the University of Michegan. Read more about this teaching innovation here.

British Library launches IP manifesto

BBC News har eit nyhende om korleis den digitale musikksamlinga ved biblioteka kan forsvinne på grunn av DRM. Og The British Library har akkurat kome med sitt manifest om åndsverkslovgjevinga.

Har ikkje fått sett så mykje på det, men det ser fornuftig ut.

Biblioteksreform 2014: tafatt og lettvindt

Biblioteksreform 2014 er skumma gjennom, og her er nokre kritiske (surmaga:-) merknadar:

Ting går for tregt. Den strategiske kunnskapen for å lage ein slik rapport har vore tilstades i fleire år.

Til dømes er det ein grunnleggjande motsetjing i å understrekje humankapitalens rolle for samfunnet, kor viktig kunnskap er for utdanningssystemet bla bla bla.. når det går så usansynleg tregt i å avgjere hovudsstrategien. Dette minnar for mykje om at Stortinget skal drive flatskjermproduksjon på Fornebu. Når dei endeleg har krangla ifrå seg så har det gått ti år, og då er det rett og slett for seint.

Men verst av alt, denne treheita er faktisk lagt inn i tidshorisonten for gjennomføringa av tiltak!

Det er greit at offentleg sektor ikkje kan oppføre seg som Ericsson og sparke alle som er over 35 år, men no er det snart vel på tide at også offentleg sektor girar om til kunnskapssamfunnet?

Så litt om innhaldet: Sjølv om det var mykje positive tiltak og erkjenningar, så var det mykje lettvint også.
"Bærebjelkane" som skal til for å "sprikre opp" alt det som listast opp av ynskjemål. Så lenge "Trusted computing" og "Digital rights management" kan overstyre alle dei fine tankane om tilgjenge blandt dei ulike gruppene i samfunnet samt for ettertida så meinar eg at dette burde ha hatt ein sjølvsagt plass i ei biblioteksutgreiing. Ikkje berre at dette skal Nasjonalbiblioteket syssle med, og ferdig med saka.

Til dømes: teknologi går ikkje ut av copyright slik som bøker, og med lisenssystemet og DRM så risikerar ein at innhaldet aldri vil koma inn i det offentlege domenet.

Når det gjeld tekniske, juridiske og økonomiske problemstillingar for bibliotekvesenet, så er nok biblioteksektoren i Noreg (med visse unntak), synd å seie det, ein lågkompetent bransje sjølv om mange har lyst til å framstille den som det motsatte.

Det verkar som at rapporten speglar at ein ikkje har kompetanse til å greie ut korleis patentar på programvare til dømes kan påverke framgangen i biblioteksektoren, men brukarvanar og slikt som er langt lettare å seie noko om får stor plass.

"Knowledge management" med overordna strategiske tiltak såg eg lite av, derimot mange lause framlegg til tiltak.

På feltet "open access" så er det nok eit døme på at norsk biblioteksektor gløymer at tida er ein sjølvstendig faktor:
"All norsk offentlig forskning skal
være tilgjengelig i åpne institusjonsarkiv innen 2010."
Dette skulle vore på plass i dag, kvifor måtte bruke over 3 år på dette? Denne tregheita er ikkje i samfunnets interesse i alle fall.

Når det gjeld lagringsformater, kvifor har ikkje norsk bibliotekssektor gått inn for OpenDocument Format slik som dei amerikanske forskningsbiblioteka og andre nasjonale biblioteksorganisasjonar i USA? Er det ein naiv og gammaldags holdning om at ein ikkje skal bry seg med det private næringslivet som gjeld?

Ok, litt feilslått næringslivskritikk er komen med, slik som kritikken mot Google og engelskdominansen. Men kvifor kan ikkje Google få lov til å skanne norske samlingar slik at me kunne unngå denne "engelskdominansen"? Dette gjer dei jo gratis, og me får behalde originalen. Nei, istaden så skal dette gjerast for skattebetalarane sine pengar. Det kostar Google mellom 1-2 dollar per bok å få den skanna, medan OpenContent Alliance har utgifter på over 30 dollar. Trur nok Nasjonalbiblioteket kjem opp i noko liknande ettersom rekninga kjem på bordet. Tippar forlaga og forfattarforeininga har hatt mange ord med i laget, på bekostning av skattebetalarane.

Ein ting eg ikkje har skjønt, og det er kvifor venstresida i norsk politikk vert oppfatta som biblioteka sin redning. Dei viktige "bærebjelkane" som open access, fri programvare og opne standardar er jo apolitisk, og når Magnus Marsdal snakkar om nasjonal digitalisering så lurer eg på om han tenkjer på prislappen. La Google gjere jobben gratis.

Her er forresten nokre interessante lenkar: http://www.brunei-online.com/bb/wed/sep20h39.htm
http://www.ed.gov/about/bdscomm/list/hiedfuture/index.html

Internasjonalisering vs den nasjonale interesse

No er det vel kanskje snart på tide å kaste vrak på å bruke utdanningssystemet for å fremje nasjonens interesse eller drive sosialpolitikk. Alt tydar på at å byggje opp utdanningsinstitusjonar som held verkeleg høg internasjonal standard er det som også gir pengar i kassa til sjuande og sist. Del heller ut pengane til unge norskingar på andre måtar enn å vergje dei mot "utlandet".

Her er eit døme på korleis forlagsindustrien brukar nasjonens interesse i sin bransjekamp:
"Allan Adler, vice president for legal and government affairs of the Association of American Publishers.." sa fylgjande: “Remember — you’re talking about free online access to the world,” he said. “You are talking about making our competitive research available to foreign governments and corporations.”

"And Dye of Oberlin scoffed at the idea that preserving the system was somehow linked to the national interest, noting that any journal available for a fee in the United States is hardly limited to American readership, and that such an approach is antithetical to science. “My goodness, publishers are international,” she said. “This whole business is international and the scientific research is international. I just don’t see any national interest that would be violated.”

http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2006/09/06/access

Rektor Arild Underdal var inne på internasjonaliseringa i november 2004 og stilte spørsmåla: "1) Hvor bredt og offensivt skal vi rekruttere utenlands når vi årlig må avvise flere tusen kvalifiserte norske søkere? (2) I hvor stor utstrekning, og i hvilke tilfelle, skal den norske stat betale for utdanning av utenlandske studenter (som i mange tilfelle ikke tar arbeid i Norge etterpå)? (3) Hvordan skal vi avstemme vår forpliktelse til å holde i hevd og videreutvikle norsk (fag)språk mot behovet for å legge om til engelsk for å kunne undervise internasjonale studentgrupper?"
http://www.admin.uio.no/kollegiet/rektor/underdal2002-2004/uniforum_spalte/uniforum111104.html

Fokuset må vere å skape utdanningsinstitusjonar i toppklasse, og ikkje subsidiere forlag eller drive sosialpolitikk. Kva meinar du?

FluxUBUNTU

For low-end hardware this is perhaps the solution.

GPL Energy technology?

The success of the free software development process may become useful for environmental technology.

"Non-patentable shared "open energy technology" has the potential to have a profound impact on the reduction of greenhouse gases that causing global warming, in the same way that open source software has changed computers and the Internet."

Can standards solve global warming?

This one is just wise for solving global problems:

EDITORIAL: THE POWER OF CERTIFICATION
More and more standards of all types (technical, professional, ethical and environmental) are supported by voluntary participation certification programs. These programs not only provide a nimble and cost-effective alternative to government regulation, but offer an increasingly important means to confront global challenges like global warming, environmental degradation, and achieving sustainable use of renewable resources as well.

Brunei Action Plan

Interesting top meeting in Brunei between the Asean ministers responsible for telecommunications and information technology. From the nine goals, I read at number three:

"3. Achieve broader economic and social benefits through wider access to ICT by: exploring open standards and open source technologies to increase ...." and the rest is like music in my ears. It is really good to read about this.

Google philantropic project

This is a for-profit project from Google.org that I think is a great idea.

A National Dialogue: The Secretary of Education's Commission on the Future of Higher Education

I highly recommend to read the draft from this commission:

They recommend 1) more science and math 2) more foreign students 3) more open-source and open access content 4) more meritocracy and less reputation driven universities 5) more citizen participation 6) more quality for less costs.

"In a higher-education system as diverse and complex as ours, it is no surprise that knowledgeable individuals can and do differ over certain matters. Nevertheless, there has been remarkable consensus among our members..."

I recommend this report, and look at page 23: "• The Commission encourages the creation of incentives to promote the
development of open-source and open-content projects at universities and
colleges across the United States, enabling the open sharing of educational
materials from a variety of institutions, disciplines, and educational perspectives.
Such a portal could stimulate innovation, and serve as the leading resource for
teaching and learning. New initiatives such as OpenCourseWare, the Open
Learning Initiative, the Sakai Project, and the Google Book project hold out the
potential of providing universal access both to general knowledge and to higher
education." NICE!

Firefox Scolar in private beta

Finally the Endnote-substitute is available in a private beta, a public beta is expected soon.

Top scientists fearing climate change

A leading top scientist tell BBC that the world already has entered serious climate change.