Monday, 24 December 2012
Friday, 21 December 2012
It's Mayan Apocalypse day, I'm listening to 2112 as I type this, and it seems appropriate to reflect on the end of the world through the words that caught my attention over the last twelve months.
K-Pop
Some time today, fittingly, Psy's monster hit Gangnam Style is going to reach a billion views - it's about 998 million and counting as I type these words. The song is of course a parody of Seoul's posh Gangnam neighbourhood, and the style secret to the video is, "dress classy and dance cheesy." Making fun of the rich and their excesses is nothing new, but nobody did it better than Psy in 2012, and boy, it needed doing!
What's ironic is the phenomenon that made this possible, K-Pop. Psy is but one of a collection of Korean musicians who hit the charts in 2012 - I spent a week in September exploring bands like Sistar, Girls' generation, Big Bang, SM Town, The Wonder Generation, and the puzzling Man With a Mission (from Japan).
K-Pop is big business. According to Wikipedia, "The Korean music industry grossed nearly $3.4 billion in the first half of 2012, which amounts to a 27.8% increase from the same period last year, according to Billboard." Most of the music is manufactured; "In K-pop these record labels also function as agencies for the artists. They started operating as such at the beginning of the 2000sThey are responsible for recruiting, financing, training, marketing and publishing new artists as well as managing their activities and public relations." It's worth listening to this Al Jazeera examination of K-Pop.
Korea as a country is a lot like the nouveau riche Psy is depicting; there's a lot of excess, a lot of cheesyness, a lot of prancing. We are tempted to be swayed by the success of some of the new economies - and here I would also include countries like Russia, India, Taiwan and China, Vietnam, Singapore and Indonesia - but it's important to realize that this new wealth is superficial, that much deeper issues remain under the surface, and that it could disappear as quickly as it was created.
Oh, and the Gangnam Style view count? YouTube froze it for most of the morning at 998,976,706. So nobody knows exactly when the views hit 1 billion, nor exactly who viewed it. And yes, the image above is something I created this morning. Because in the brave new world of Gangnam Style, even our cultural moments and history are manufactured and fake.
Superstorm
OK, so Sandy wasn't a hurricane when it hit the U.S. eastern seaboard. It wasn't even a particularly big storm, historically. But what it did do is to dump an unprecedented amount of water into lower Manhattan and the New Jersey Shore, flooding homes businesses and subways while knocking out power for millions of subscribers. The term 'stormpocalypse' didn't really catch on, so we got 'superstorm'.
The most immediate aftermath of Sandy wasn't the flooding, damage or power outages, however. It was the caterwaul of denials that the storm had anything to do with global warming. In an otherwise good article, for example, the Washington Post hastens to tell us "Sandy should not be 'blamed' on climate change. Climate change does not cause storms and did not cause Superstorm Sandy." Perhaps not. But what the Post could have - and should have - done was to say, "climate change caused Sandy to be a superstorm."
Much better was Business Week's (surprising) headline, "It's Global Warming, Stupid." For a long time climate change denial has been a hallmark of all politics to the right, but perhaps this is changing. "If all that doesn’t impress, forget the scientists ostensibly devoted to advancing knowledge and saving lives. Listen instead to corporate insurers committed to compiling statistics for profit."
Insurers pegged $71 billion of damage caused by the storm. It puts all those stories about the 'economic effects of the Kyoto Accord' into perspective, a bit. And maybe now that business (and insurers) are paying attention, perhaps climate change will recapture the attention it deserves.
Hoarding
Speaking of preparing for the apocalypse, one of this year's biggest (but unfortunately under-reported) story was the one about businesses hoarding trillions of dollars in overseas accounts. So it's official - the corporate culture has gone from being merely psychotic to full-blown cat hoarder.
Here's what Psychology Today said about corporations back in 2011: "Corporations have no innate moral impulses, and in fact they exist solely for the purpose of making money. As such, these "persons" are systemically driven to do whatever is necessary to increase revenues and profits, with no regard for ethical issues that might nag real people."
So the news this year should come as no surprise: "A global super-rich elite has exploited gaps in cross-border tax rules to hide an extraordinary £13 trillion ($21tn) of wealth offshore." To put that into scale, the BBC tells us, "The figure is equivalent to the size of the US and Japanese economies combined."
Naturally the first reaction of business is to try to place a positive spin on the story. ""From another angle, this study is really good news. The world has just located a huge pile of financial wealth that might be called upon to contribute to the solution of our most pressing global problems." But of course, unleashing such a huge amount of money would instantly crash the economy.
So of course we're in the middle of a recession, governments are deep in debt and going deeper, businesses are still lobbying for lower tax rates (and of course tax cuts for the rich), and from what I can see, all of this has been caused by the almost pathological siphoning of money from the rest of us by the super-rich, an amount of money so large there's nothing to spend it on. Except, maybe, paying off government debts (but of course, they would never do that).
Ironically, about the only things the rich are willing to spend money on (besides floating cities) are elections. With regulations limiting super-PACs in the U.S. ruled unconstitutional, the dollars flowed into lobby group coffers, all with the intent of electing a government that would allow the rich to - what else? - keep on hoarding.
“The establishment of the candidate-specific super PAC is a vehicle to completely destroy candidate contribution limits,” says Fred Wertheimer, president of the campaign finance reform group Democracy 21. “It is a vehicle that will spread to Congress and it will lead us back to a system of pure legalized bribery, because you will be back, pre-Watergate, to unlimited contributions that are going for all practical purposes directly to candidates.”
Peak Apple
So back in July I learned I could upgrade my Palm Pre (if only I would sign a newer richer mobile phone contract) and, wishing to join the rest of the world, I did. But I did not follow the masses and buy an iPhone. I bought a Samsung Galaxy SIII, which has just come out.
So what inspired me to buy the latest in Korean technology? It was not so much the style and marketing of the phone (though I do admit, they're beautiful). It had a lot more to do with what I couldn't do with the Apple. I couldn't add memory. I couldn't change the battery. I couldn't run it without iTunes. And so on and on it goes.
Today I am basically inseparable from my mobile phone - this was never the case with my Pre (which I frequently lost) or any other phone before then. I use it as my music player (replacing my small and locked-down iPod touch), my telephone, my calendar (which syncs with Google Calendar and Outlook), my pocket camera, my map, and much more.
It's as though my new phone represented freedom while the iPhone represents control (but in the back of my mind I know it's all an artifice).
K-Tech and the Samsung represent a trend that I have come to think of as 'Peak Apple'. I described it in my newsletter as follows: "Apple has long exhibited the 'NIH' syndrome - 'not invented here' - and sought to clamp down on the user experience with total control over key aspects of its operating system environment. It also has a penchant for launching billion dollar lawsuits against its suppliers. This is now biting them back. Your evidence: a Tumblr dedicated to the new Map application for the iPhone, widely touted as a disaster. Apple stocks, which have been nudging the magic $700 mark this week, will never be higher than they are right now. Never. Enjoy your maps."
The problem, of course, is that Apple feels it must own, manage and trademark key aspects of the user experience. For example, in another move, it patented page-turning. Here's the patent. "It won’t be long before Apple files a trademark application for the first person pronoun, or as Apple calls it, 'A personal pronominal inanimate graphical mark or figure of the first person singular nominative, roman minuscule.' The goal in doing so? To improve our experience as users of ourselves."
So yesterday, the eve of the Mayan apocalypse, it pleased me to read that the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) is rolling back some of the key patents in the Samsung case. The USPTO ruled that all twenty claims included in Apple's so-called "rubber-banding" patent are invalid. It had also ruled against the patent on 'snapback scrolling' back in October. So it looks like Samsung will prevail.
One would think we have learned the dangers of business models based on hoarding - whether it be hoarding of knowledge, money, information or technology. Eventually, whatever has been hoarded becomes unusable. But no, that still seems to be the dominant model for our times.
Fracking
The technology known as hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, has been a hot topic around New Brunswick this year, and so I read, across North America as well. Basically it involves injecting a mixture of water and chemicals at high pressure into sedimentary rock layers two kilometers or so deep, fracturing the rock in these layers, and releasing natural gas trapped in bubbles in the rock.
There has been widespread opposition to the technology. People argue that it pollutes groundwater and causes earthquakes, among other things. It may well do these things; it's hard for me to tell. However, from my perspective, these problems pale in comparison to some of the damage caused by traditional energy, such as Exxon Valdez or the Deepwater Horizon oil spill, to name just a few.
Many of the protests against fracking are well-intentioned. In general, I think, the problem people have with fracking has very little to do with groundwater or earthquakes, and rather more to do with the contribution more gas exploitation will do to the climate in the long run.
Because, here's the thing about oil: it's making a comeback. Due to new discoveries and new technologies, the United States is poised to become the largest oil producer in the world by 2020, a turnaround that started this year. "In a report released on Monday, the world's foremost energy watchdog, the International Energy Agency (IEA), said the US would benefit from so-called unconventional sources of oil and gas, including shale gas and shale oil, derived from fracking – blasting dense rocks apart to release the fossil fuels trapped within."
This is exactly the wrong development at exactly the wrong time. "If pursued with vigour, they would also lead to huge increases in greenhouse gas emissions that would put hopes of curbing dangerous climate change beyond reach."
In posts this year I have supported fracking under three conditions:
- the industry completely compensate for any damage caused
- profits from the industry be shared with the people of the province
- developments in natural gas be used to cease production of coal and dirty oil
None of these conditions has ever come close to being met in any statement from out government ministers. I doubt they have any intention of fulfilling them. The intent is to add to the hoard of cash, to hell with global warming.
Robocalls
The jury is still out in Canada as to whether election results will be overturned, but the issue of robocalls points to a wider phenomenon undermining out democracy.
The concept of a robocall is simple enough: a computer automatically dials phone numbers and plays a pre-recorded message. They are so common as to be ordinary. It is when they are misused that they raise wider issues.
For example, Canada recently instituted a 'do-not-call' list so that people would not be interrupted at the dinner table by marketing robocalls. What happened, however, is that people who registered for the list received an increase in the number of calls. Marketers were simply using the lists to program their computers, ignoring the law.
The Canadian election of 2011 saw an even more disturbing use, and the case wound its way through the courts through 2012. Robocalls were used by unnamed parties - famously using the alias 'Pierre Poutine' - to tell people intending to vote for the Liberals or NDP that the location of their polling station had been changed.
Although blamed on rogue individuals, it was a massive effort. "Documents show the probe of voter suppression calls has expanded to encompass 56 of the country’s 308 federal ridings... in a growing controversy that has led to accusations that widespread electoral fraud distorted the outcome of last year’s election and helped Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s Conservatives win a majority government."
The efforts to subvert democracy were not limited to Canada. There were widespread reports of efforts in the United States election to turn voters away or discourage them from voting. These efforts were mostly focused toward urban votes, as in Ohio, where advanced polling was going to be available only to Republican-leaning districts (the plan was cancelled at the last minute), and minorities, as in Florida where new voter ID laws were drafted to enable voter suppression.
Not to be outdone, governments in other nations around the world, such as Russia, ran their own questionable elections. And so in the same year we were celebrating things like the Arab Spring, we were at the same time undermining the principles we have been working toward for so long. In psychology this is called self-sabotage. Just one of the many psychoses our society seems to display.
Wolfgang
Yesterday I paid five dollars online to download a rare concert recording of Neil Young and the Bluenotes in 1988 from a site called Wolfgang's Vault. I've been listening to concerts (and playing them on Ed Radio) for a number of years, so when the site converted to a subscription model this year, I was willing to pay the fee.
I have been paying for an increasing number of online goods and services. I've always paid for internet access, of course, currently subscribing to Bell Aliant's fibre-op service. I pay for a dedicated server for my websites as well as another for my radio station, and of course I pay for domain registration. I have paid Flickr for several years, and also have purchased subscriptions from LogMeIn, Photomatix, and many more goods and services.
I've even purchased access from Major League Baseball. Not video access - the blackout zone for Toronto Blue Jays games is all of Canada, which means that despite being 1,000 kilometers from home plate (pretty much on the nose; I've measured it) I cannot watch the games on video. No matter; I'm much more of an audio person anyways, so I listen to all the games on web radio.
So where do I draw the line? It's clear from my own actions that I can at least tolerate, if not enthusiastically endorse, a commercial web. But it's also clear to me that I purchase these because I can, and that in the main, people get the web they can afford.Beyond a certain point, the commercial web ceases to be a good way to make a living (and a great source of rare music and fancy software) and begins to act against society.
I find that in practice I react negatively to the commercialization of knowledge and research, education, and news media. So I have reacted negatively to reports that the local newspaper is behind a paywall, that the Globe and Mail (Canada's self-style national newspaper) has gone behind a paywall, and so on and on it goes.
People who know me know of my lifelong campaign for free learning. But I am equally passionate about a free press. So one of my projects over the last 12 months has been the Moncton Free Press. This is a local news cooperative founded to create an alternative free and open media in the city. As a secondary project (since the primary Drupal site is so unsatisfying) I'm setting up gRSShopper as a news media aggregation service, which I'll roll out in 2013.
The impetus for the original Moncton Free Press project wasn't news media paywalls - those came later - but rather last year's Occupy protests. The coverage of Occupy was so one-sided, and so contrary to what I actually witnessed with my own eyes, that it became clear that an alternative was needed.
You see, it's not simply that commercializing science, education and news media makes them inaccessible to the poor. That could simply be addressed with money. It's that commercializing them changes them. It changes the message. It politicizes them. When you see the news from free, open and non-commercial sources - we aggregated the CBC, Rabble, NB media Co-Op, Global Voices, indyMedia, EFF, and many more - you see a different reality. A reality that is more about people, and less about manufactured history and culture.
Oh yeah - I gave most of these money too. Not because I believe in 'voting with my dollars' - that game is rigged and I could never win. But because I can, and it seems like the only way to practice epistemology in contemporary society. I've very aware that my own prosperity could disappear in a moment, and all of this would go away. But I do what i can while I can.
Wrecking Ball
In the summer of 2011, U2 came to play in Moncton. It was the last show of their world tour, a huge event for the city, and a brilliant evening on a beautiful day.
The internet has opened my world to music and art in ways that used to be impossible for me to imagine. I used to spend most of my mental life thinking in words - a constant internal monologue, playing and replaying scenarios, working out ideas, thinking in alternative realities. I would spend my evenings in silence, or listening to the radio, reading science fiction and philosophy, and of course writing.
With the coming of MP3 players, music exploded in to my world. With the coming of digital cameras, everything around me became art.
It's not like you think. I didn't suddenly take out a Napster membership. I actually paid for my music - most of it in te form of vinyl, some of it on CDs and casette tapes. I painstakingly recorded almost all my music collection from over the years, and the 1980s were reborn. Bands I had not listened to for years, like Luba and Styx, reminded me of the role music had played in my youth in helping me define and understand my own values.
U2, of course, is well-known as the band trying to do some good for the world, sponsoring campaigns like Live Aid and One. The best progressive politics money can buy. These have faded into the background in these years of austerity. These campaigns have been, of course, trivialized by the media. But I am hopeful the seeds they plant bear as much fruit as those that were planted so many years in me.
In 2012 we had a visit from an artist of a different kind as Bruce Springsteen brought his Wrecking Ball tour to the Hill. Springsteen's activism is different from U2's. Rather than haunt the halls of the United Nations, Springsteen seems more comfortable on the factory floor and the workplace. And he sings of a world that's more familiar to most of us:
Lockout
Most of the summer this year Moncton was without a bus service. Here's what happened: the contract expired and bus drivers sought to earn the same rate as other drivers for the city, proposing that the contract go to arbitration. The city refused, but at least they kept talking.
Until after the election, that is. Less than a week after the mayor and most of council were re-elected, they pulled the plug and locked out the transit workers, refusing to budge for almost half a year. The city's responsibility to provide public transportation was essentially abdicated.
The media couldn't help itself, continually referring to the lockout as a strike. The local newspaper (now helpfully behind a paywall, but still spreading its propaganda though its paper edition) called for the essential elimination of the service, arguing that we should instead embrace a system of small buses run by private operators.
It was a bad year for public transportation in the region. The intercity bus service, Acadian Lines, announced that it was ceasing operations. The company, which had been purchased by a Quebec operator, was eventually replaced by a local company. The company planned to coordinate with the regional rail service, but that too was cut back - now we have one train three times a week.
I would also use some of the space here to talk about the NHL payer lockout, but it's difficult for me to care. The union is dissolving, at which point it will file an anti-trust suit. The rest of us meanwhile are wondering how we allowed control of our national pastime to be monopolized by a couple dozen or so billionaire owners. But I'm thinking, why not? We've allowed the same of every other part of society.
The local newspaper is owned by the local oil company. Its primary advertisers are local car dealerships.
The Beautiful Wild
Every summer for the last few years Andrea and I have been vacationing for several weeks by the seashore in Prince Edward Islands. This year was no exception.
The Beautiful Wild is the name of an album released this year by Jenn Grant, a Halifax-based artist who grew up near where I go camping every year. I can picture it in my mind, because it's very similar to my own upbringing in rural Ontario. "Never knew we were living in the beautiful wild".
I came to know of Jenn Grant through some advertising she did a few years ago for a local children's hospital. I found her most recent album by accident in a bin at the local used music store. I'm a regular in there; it's nice to go in and talk about the concerts and buy good music at reasonable prices.
The beautiful wild keeps me sane - not the music so much (though it helps) but the wilderness through which I cycle every year, the highways and back roads of West Prince. That part of the island feels like my second home. It's far away from anything and in the opposite direction from the Green Gables house and the commercial development around Cavendish.
This year my work is being pitted against my wilderness. While the bulk of my travel is funded by conferences and educational organizations, NRC has at least allowed me the time to go. This year management has decided I would do better research in the confines of my own office than by meeting firsthand with educators and researchers around he world. So I've been using vacation time to travel.
Now, not only am I running out of the vacation time I've accumulated over the last ten years, my summers on Prince Edward Island are being threatened. It's all in the interests of our new business plan, a commercial focus, and an emphasis on outcomes.
I don't think I would waste anyone's money were I allowed to manage my own time. But we've entered a new era in the workforce where management no longer trusts the employees. We've entered an era where management is embracing a sort of psychosis.
At the end of the day, the world didn't end after all. That doesn't mean it's not going to. We as a global society are not well. We are imbalanced and behaving irrationally. Our institutions are psychotic. We are unable to cease self-destructive and self-defeating behaviour. We lie to ourselves, hoard all our resources where they cannot be used, and seek dirty energy like an addict looking for his next fix.
Collectively, we need to stop. We need to put on some nice music and get out of the city, cycling in the open air, embracing the seaside and the forests and the farms and the cottages, hiking among the windmills of North Point and taking pictures of the seals in the bay. We need to stand out there, let the wind blow in our hair, watch the endless waves, and dream of the day after tomorrow, the day after the end of the world.
K-Pop
Some time today, fittingly, Psy's monster hit Gangnam Style is going to reach a billion views - it's about 998 million and counting as I type these words. The song is of course a parody of Seoul's posh Gangnam neighbourhood, and the style secret to the video is, "dress classy and dance cheesy." Making fun of the rich and their excesses is nothing new, but nobody did it better than Psy in 2012, and boy, it needed doing!
What's ironic is the phenomenon that made this possible, K-Pop. Psy is but one of a collection of Korean musicians who hit the charts in 2012 - I spent a week in September exploring bands like Sistar, Girls' generation, Big Bang, SM Town, The Wonder Generation, and the puzzling Man With a Mission (from Japan).
K-Pop is big business. According to Wikipedia, "The Korean music industry grossed nearly $3.4 billion in the first half of 2012, which amounts to a 27.8% increase from the same period last year, according to Billboard." Most of the music is manufactured; "In K-pop these record labels also function as agencies for the artists. They started operating as such at the beginning of the 2000sThey are responsible for recruiting, financing, training, marketing and publishing new artists as well as managing their activities and public relations." It's worth listening to this Al Jazeera examination of K-Pop.
Korea as a country is a lot like the nouveau riche Psy is depicting; there's a lot of excess, a lot of cheesyness, a lot of prancing. We are tempted to be swayed by the success of some of the new economies - and here I would also include countries like Russia, India, Taiwan and China, Vietnam, Singapore and Indonesia - but it's important to realize that this new wealth is superficial, that much deeper issues remain under the surface, and that it could disappear as quickly as it was created.
Oh, and the Gangnam Style view count? YouTube froze it for most of the morning at 998,976,706. So nobody knows exactly when the views hit 1 billion, nor exactly who viewed it. And yes, the image above is something I created this morning. Because in the brave new world of Gangnam Style, even our cultural moments and history are manufactured and fake.
Superstorm
OK, so Sandy wasn't a hurricane when it hit the U.S. eastern seaboard. It wasn't even a particularly big storm, historically. But what it did do is to dump an unprecedented amount of water into lower Manhattan and the New Jersey Shore, flooding homes businesses and subways while knocking out power for millions of subscribers. The term 'stormpocalypse' didn't really catch on, so we got 'superstorm'.
The most immediate aftermath of Sandy wasn't the flooding, damage or power outages, however. It was the caterwaul of denials that the storm had anything to do with global warming. In an otherwise good article, for example, the Washington Post hastens to tell us "Sandy should not be 'blamed' on climate change. Climate change does not cause storms and did not cause Superstorm Sandy." Perhaps not. But what the Post could have - and should have - done was to say, "climate change caused Sandy to be a superstorm."
Much better was Business Week's (surprising) headline, "It's Global Warming, Stupid." For a long time climate change denial has been a hallmark of all politics to the right, but perhaps this is changing. "If all that doesn’t impress, forget the scientists ostensibly devoted to advancing knowledge and saving lives. Listen instead to corporate insurers committed to compiling statistics for profit."
Insurers pegged $71 billion of damage caused by the storm. It puts all those stories about the 'economic effects of the Kyoto Accord' into perspective, a bit. And maybe now that business (and insurers) are paying attention, perhaps climate change will recapture the attention it deserves.
Hoarding
Speaking of preparing for the apocalypse, one of this year's biggest (but unfortunately under-reported) story was the one about businesses hoarding trillions of dollars in overseas accounts. So it's official - the corporate culture has gone from being merely psychotic to full-blown cat hoarder.
Here's what Psychology Today said about corporations back in 2011: "Corporations have no innate moral impulses, and in fact they exist solely for the purpose of making money. As such, these "persons" are systemically driven to do whatever is necessary to increase revenues and profits, with no regard for ethical issues that might nag real people."
So the news this year should come as no surprise: "A global super-rich elite has exploited gaps in cross-border tax rules to hide an extraordinary £13 trillion ($21tn) of wealth offshore." To put that into scale, the BBC tells us, "The figure is equivalent to the size of the US and Japanese economies combined."
Naturally the first reaction of business is to try to place a positive spin on the story. ""From another angle, this study is really good news. The world has just located a huge pile of financial wealth that might be called upon to contribute to the solution of our most pressing global problems." But of course, unleashing such a huge amount of money would instantly crash the economy.
So of course we're in the middle of a recession, governments are deep in debt and going deeper, businesses are still lobbying for lower tax rates (and of course tax cuts for the rich), and from what I can see, all of this has been caused by the almost pathological siphoning of money from the rest of us by the super-rich, an amount of money so large there's nothing to spend it on. Except, maybe, paying off government debts (but of course, they would never do that).
Ironically, about the only things the rich are willing to spend money on (besides floating cities) are elections. With regulations limiting super-PACs in the U.S. ruled unconstitutional, the dollars flowed into lobby group coffers, all with the intent of electing a government that would allow the rich to - what else? - keep on hoarding.
“The establishment of the candidate-specific super PAC is a vehicle to completely destroy candidate contribution limits,” says Fred Wertheimer, president of the campaign finance reform group Democracy 21. “It is a vehicle that will spread to Congress and it will lead us back to a system of pure legalized bribery, because you will be back, pre-Watergate, to unlimited contributions that are going for all practical purposes directly to candidates.”
Peak Apple
So back in July I learned I could upgrade my Palm Pre (if only I would sign a newer richer mobile phone contract) and, wishing to join the rest of the world, I did. But I did not follow the masses and buy an iPhone. I bought a Samsung Galaxy SIII, which has just come out.
So what inspired me to buy the latest in Korean technology? It was not so much the style and marketing of the phone (though I do admit, they're beautiful). It had a lot more to do with what I couldn't do with the Apple. I couldn't add memory. I couldn't change the battery. I couldn't run it without iTunes. And so on and on it goes.
Today I am basically inseparable from my mobile phone - this was never the case with my Pre (which I frequently lost) or any other phone before then. I use it as my music player (replacing my small and locked-down iPod touch), my telephone, my calendar (which syncs with Google Calendar and Outlook), my pocket camera, my map, and much more.
It's as though my new phone represented freedom while the iPhone represents control (but in the back of my mind I know it's all an artifice).
K-Tech and the Samsung represent a trend that I have come to think of as 'Peak Apple'. I described it in my newsletter as follows: "Apple has long exhibited the 'NIH' syndrome - 'not invented here' - and sought to clamp down on the user experience with total control over key aspects of its operating system environment. It also has a penchant for launching billion dollar lawsuits against its suppliers. This is now biting them back. Your evidence: a Tumblr dedicated to the new Map application for the iPhone, widely touted as a disaster. Apple stocks, which have been nudging the magic $700 mark this week, will never be higher than they are right now. Never. Enjoy your maps."
The problem, of course, is that Apple feels it must own, manage and trademark key aspects of the user experience. For example, in another move, it patented page-turning. Here's the patent. "It won’t be long before Apple files a trademark application for the first person pronoun, or as Apple calls it, 'A personal pronominal inanimate graphical mark or figure of the first person singular nominative, roman minuscule.' The goal in doing so? To improve our experience as users of ourselves."
So yesterday, the eve of the Mayan apocalypse, it pleased me to read that the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) is rolling back some of the key patents in the Samsung case. The USPTO ruled that all twenty claims included in Apple's so-called "rubber-banding" patent are invalid. It had also ruled against the patent on 'snapback scrolling' back in October. So it looks like Samsung will prevail.
One would think we have learned the dangers of business models based on hoarding - whether it be hoarding of knowledge, money, information or technology. Eventually, whatever has been hoarded becomes unusable. But no, that still seems to be the dominant model for our times.
Fracking
The technology known as hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, has been a hot topic around New Brunswick this year, and so I read, across North America as well. Basically it involves injecting a mixture of water and chemicals at high pressure into sedimentary rock layers two kilometers or so deep, fracturing the rock in these layers, and releasing natural gas trapped in bubbles in the rock.
There has been widespread opposition to the technology. People argue that it pollutes groundwater and causes earthquakes, among other things. It may well do these things; it's hard for me to tell. However, from my perspective, these problems pale in comparison to some of the damage caused by traditional energy, such as Exxon Valdez or the Deepwater Horizon oil spill, to name just a few.
Many of the protests against fracking are well-intentioned. In general, I think, the problem people have with fracking has very little to do with groundwater or earthquakes, and rather more to do with the contribution more gas exploitation will do to the climate in the long run.
Because, here's the thing about oil: it's making a comeback. Due to new discoveries and new technologies, the United States is poised to become the largest oil producer in the world by 2020, a turnaround that started this year. "In a report released on Monday, the world's foremost energy watchdog, the International Energy Agency (IEA), said the US would benefit from so-called unconventional sources of oil and gas, including shale gas and shale oil, derived from fracking – blasting dense rocks apart to release the fossil fuels trapped within."
This is exactly the wrong development at exactly the wrong time. "If pursued with vigour, they would also lead to huge increases in greenhouse gas emissions that would put hopes of curbing dangerous climate change beyond reach."
In posts this year I have supported fracking under three conditions:
- the industry completely compensate for any damage caused
- profits from the industry be shared with the people of the province
- developments in natural gas be used to cease production of coal and dirty oil
None of these conditions has ever come close to being met in any statement from out government ministers. I doubt they have any intention of fulfilling them. The intent is to add to the hoard of cash, to hell with global warming.
Robocalls
The jury is still out in Canada as to whether election results will be overturned, but the issue of robocalls points to a wider phenomenon undermining out democracy.
The concept of a robocall is simple enough: a computer automatically dials phone numbers and plays a pre-recorded message. They are so common as to be ordinary. It is when they are misused that they raise wider issues.
For example, Canada recently instituted a 'do-not-call' list so that people would not be interrupted at the dinner table by marketing robocalls. What happened, however, is that people who registered for the list received an increase in the number of calls. Marketers were simply using the lists to program their computers, ignoring the law.
The Canadian election of 2011 saw an even more disturbing use, and the case wound its way through the courts through 2012. Robocalls were used by unnamed parties - famously using the alias 'Pierre Poutine' - to tell people intending to vote for the Liberals or NDP that the location of their polling station had been changed.
Although blamed on rogue individuals, it was a massive effort. "Documents show the probe of voter suppression calls has expanded to encompass 56 of the country’s 308 federal ridings... in a growing controversy that has led to accusations that widespread electoral fraud distorted the outcome of last year’s election and helped Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s Conservatives win a majority government."
The efforts to subvert democracy were not limited to Canada. There were widespread reports of efforts in the United States election to turn voters away or discourage them from voting. These efforts were mostly focused toward urban votes, as in Ohio, where advanced polling was going to be available only to Republican-leaning districts (the plan was cancelled at the last minute), and minorities, as in Florida where new voter ID laws were drafted to enable voter suppression.
Not to be outdone, governments in other nations around the world, such as Russia, ran their own questionable elections. And so in the same year we were celebrating things like the Arab Spring, we were at the same time undermining the principles we have been working toward for so long. In psychology this is called self-sabotage. Just one of the many psychoses our society seems to display.
Wolfgang
Yesterday I paid five dollars online to download a rare concert recording of Neil Young and the Bluenotes in 1988 from a site called Wolfgang's Vault. I've been listening to concerts (and playing them on Ed Radio) for a number of years, so when the site converted to a subscription model this year, I was willing to pay the fee.
I have been paying for an increasing number of online goods and services. I've always paid for internet access, of course, currently subscribing to Bell Aliant's fibre-op service. I pay for a dedicated server for my websites as well as another for my radio station, and of course I pay for domain registration. I have paid Flickr for several years, and also have purchased subscriptions from LogMeIn, Photomatix, and many more goods and services.
I've even purchased access from Major League Baseball. Not video access - the blackout zone for Toronto Blue Jays games is all of Canada, which means that despite being 1,000 kilometers from home plate (pretty much on the nose; I've measured it) I cannot watch the games on video. No matter; I'm much more of an audio person anyways, so I listen to all the games on web radio.
So where do I draw the line? It's clear from my own actions that I can at least tolerate, if not enthusiastically endorse, a commercial web. But it's also clear to me that I purchase these because I can, and that in the main, people get the web they can afford.Beyond a certain point, the commercial web ceases to be a good way to make a living (and a great source of rare music and fancy software) and begins to act against society.
I find that in practice I react negatively to the commercialization of knowledge and research, education, and news media. So I have reacted negatively to reports that the local newspaper is behind a paywall, that the Globe and Mail (Canada's self-style national newspaper) has gone behind a paywall, and so on and on it goes.
People who know me know of my lifelong campaign for free learning. But I am equally passionate about a free press. So one of my projects over the last 12 months has been the Moncton Free Press. This is a local news cooperative founded to create an alternative free and open media in the city. As a secondary project (since the primary Drupal site is so unsatisfying) I'm setting up gRSShopper as a news media aggregation service, which I'll roll out in 2013.
The impetus for the original Moncton Free Press project wasn't news media paywalls - those came later - but rather last year's Occupy protests. The coverage of Occupy was so one-sided, and so contrary to what I actually witnessed with my own eyes, that it became clear that an alternative was needed.
You see, it's not simply that commercializing science, education and news media makes them inaccessible to the poor. That could simply be addressed with money. It's that commercializing them changes them. It changes the message. It politicizes them. When you see the news from free, open and non-commercial sources - we aggregated the CBC, Rabble, NB media Co-Op, Global Voices, indyMedia, EFF, and many more - you see a different reality. A reality that is more about people, and less about manufactured history and culture.
Oh yeah - I gave most of these money too. Not because I believe in 'voting with my dollars' - that game is rigged and I could never win. But because I can, and it seems like the only way to practice epistemology in contemporary society. I've very aware that my own prosperity could disappear in a moment, and all of this would go away. But I do what i can while I can.
Wrecking Ball
In the summer of 2011, U2 came to play in Moncton. It was the last show of their world tour, a huge event for the city, and a brilliant evening on a beautiful day.
The internet has opened my world to music and art in ways that used to be impossible for me to imagine. I used to spend most of my mental life thinking in words - a constant internal monologue, playing and replaying scenarios, working out ideas, thinking in alternative realities. I would spend my evenings in silence, or listening to the radio, reading science fiction and philosophy, and of course writing.
With the coming of MP3 players, music exploded in to my world. With the coming of digital cameras, everything around me became art.
It's not like you think. I didn't suddenly take out a Napster membership. I actually paid for my music - most of it in te form of vinyl, some of it on CDs and casette tapes. I painstakingly recorded almost all my music collection from over the years, and the 1980s were reborn. Bands I had not listened to for years, like Luba and Styx, reminded me of the role music had played in my youth in helping me define and understand my own values.
U2, of course, is well-known as the band trying to do some good for the world, sponsoring campaigns like Live Aid and One. The best progressive politics money can buy. These have faded into the background in these years of austerity. These campaigns have been, of course, trivialized by the media. But I am hopeful the seeds they plant bear as much fruit as those that were planted so many years in me.
In 2012 we had a visit from an artist of a different kind as Bruce Springsteen brought his Wrecking Ball tour to the Hill. Springsteen's activism is different from U2's. Rather than haunt the halls of the United Nations, Springsteen seems more comfortable on the factory floor and the workplace. And he sings of a world that's more familiar to most of us:
Now when all this steel and these stories, they drift away to rust
And all our youth and beauty, it's been given to the dust
When the game has been decided and we're burning down the clock
And all our little victories and glories have turned into parking lots
When your best hopes and desires are scattered through the wind
Lockout
Most of the summer this year Moncton was without a bus service. Here's what happened: the contract expired and bus drivers sought to earn the same rate as other drivers for the city, proposing that the contract go to arbitration. The city refused, but at least they kept talking.
Until after the election, that is. Less than a week after the mayor and most of council were re-elected, they pulled the plug and locked out the transit workers, refusing to budge for almost half a year. The city's responsibility to provide public transportation was essentially abdicated.
The media couldn't help itself, continually referring to the lockout as a strike. The local newspaper (now helpfully behind a paywall, but still spreading its propaganda though its paper edition) called for the essential elimination of the service, arguing that we should instead embrace a system of small buses run by private operators.
It was a bad year for public transportation in the region. The intercity bus service, Acadian Lines, announced that it was ceasing operations. The company, which had been purchased by a Quebec operator, was eventually replaced by a local company. The company planned to coordinate with the regional rail service, but that too was cut back - now we have one train three times a week.
I would also use some of the space here to talk about the NHL payer lockout, but it's difficult for me to care. The union is dissolving, at which point it will file an anti-trust suit. The rest of us meanwhile are wondering how we allowed control of our national pastime to be monopolized by a couple dozen or so billionaire owners. But I'm thinking, why not? We've allowed the same of every other part of society.
The local newspaper is owned by the local oil company. Its primary advertisers are local car dealerships.
The Beautiful Wild
Every summer for the last few years Andrea and I have been vacationing for several weeks by the seashore in Prince Edward Islands. This year was no exception.
The Beautiful Wild is the name of an album released this year by Jenn Grant, a Halifax-based artist who grew up near where I go camping every year. I can picture it in my mind, because it's very similar to my own upbringing in rural Ontario. "Never knew we were living in the beautiful wild".
I came to know of Jenn Grant through some advertising she did a few years ago for a local children's hospital. I found her most recent album by accident in a bin at the local used music store. I'm a regular in there; it's nice to go in and talk about the concerts and buy good music at reasonable prices.
The beautiful wild keeps me sane - not the music so much (though it helps) but the wilderness through which I cycle every year, the highways and back roads of West Prince. That part of the island feels like my second home. It's far away from anything and in the opposite direction from the Green Gables house and the commercial development around Cavendish.
This year my work is being pitted against my wilderness. While the bulk of my travel is funded by conferences and educational organizations, NRC has at least allowed me the time to go. This year management has decided I would do better research in the confines of my own office than by meeting firsthand with educators and researchers around he world. So I've been using vacation time to travel.
Now, not only am I running out of the vacation time I've accumulated over the last ten years, my summers on Prince Edward Island are being threatened. It's all in the interests of our new business plan, a commercial focus, and an emphasis on outcomes.
I don't think I would waste anyone's money were I allowed to manage my own time. But we've entered a new era in the workforce where management no longer trusts the employees. We've entered an era where management is embracing a sort of psychosis.
At the end of the day, the world didn't end after all. That doesn't mean it's not going to. We as a global society are not well. We are imbalanced and behaving irrationally. Our institutions are psychotic. We are unable to cease self-destructive and self-defeating behaviour. We lie to ourselves, hoard all our resources where they cannot be used, and seek dirty energy like an addict looking for his next fix.
Collectively, we need to stop. We need to put on some nice music and get out of the city, cycling in the open air, embracing the seaside and the forests and the farms and the cottages, hiking among the windmills of North Point and taking pictures of the seals in the bay. We need to stand out there, let the wind blow in our hair, watch the endless waves, and dream of the day after tomorrow, the day after the end of the world.
Saturday, 1 December 2012
This is my first set of submissions for an online course in digital badges being hosted by BC Campus's Scope Forum. I'm not really sure how I got enrolled, but I did, and it seems like a good thing to be following up on.
1. Man of Letters
This was a badge I received as a Boy Scout (I received a large number of badges as a Cub Scout and Boy Scout, mostly based around civic knowledge and wilderness skills - yes, I could survive in the wilderness, and not only that, I would like it). The Man of letters badge was awarded for performing some act of public writing (I forget what the exact conditions were). Specifically, it was awarded for my publication The Eagle Report, a monthly newspaper I wrote and published myself, distributing it around the community.
2. On a Sash
Badges are worn on a red sash worn over one shoulder. They are arranged as you wish (I arranged mine in neat rows, of course). All badges are equal (there is no 'Eagle Scout' designation in Canada). No badges from external organizations were displayed on the sash.
More information:
Here is the list of badges and stars awarded to Cub Scouts (I got all five stars when I was a Cub - there are more stars now - my favourite was the Tawny Star): http://www.scouts.ca/ca/cub-scouts-badge-requirements
Here are the Boy Scout badges, including some of the new higher designations ('Man of Letters' is now 'Communicator'). http://www.scouts.ca/ca/scouts-badge-requirements
Just a brief note:
In Scouts, it was very clear ahead of time what the requirements were for different badges, and you could set out earning them. In the examples badges I've seen online (eg. the Mozilla badge program, and this course, even) you are given a sequence of activities and badges just appear at (for me, unknown) intervals.
The certificate, in turn, links to badge criteria, again hosted on the awarder or 3rd party web site. This data, available as structured data (XML or JSON) is standardized: name of badge, issuing organization, criteria, category, etc.
For example:
The badge code (hosted at http://badgeissuer.org/badgename/ ) lists criteria only - the criteria are listed distinct from any evidence of individual achievement. Each criterion has its own URL, eg:
Evidence publicly displayed (unlike, say, this forum) can be listed in the certificate, by URL. For example, at the document hosted at http://badgeissuer.org/badgename/badgewinner, the following code can be used:
Do I get a badge now?
Task 1: Describe the merit badge
1. Identify a merit badge you earned during your lifetime.
What did you have to do to earn it? Did you earn more than one badge? And were they awarded by the same organization?
2. Describe how you displayed the merit badge(s).
If you earned more than one badge, did you display them together? Did you display badges from different organizations together?
1. Man of Letters
This was a badge I received as a Boy Scout (I received a large number of badges as a Cub Scout and Boy Scout, mostly based around civic knowledge and wilderness skills - yes, I could survive in the wilderness, and not only that, I would like it). The Man of letters badge was awarded for performing some act of public writing (I forget what the exact conditions were). Specifically, it was awarded for my publication The Eagle Report, a monthly newspaper I wrote and published myself, distributing it around the community.
2. On a Sash
Badges are worn on a red sash worn over one shoulder. They are arranged as you wish (I arranged mine in neat rows, of course). All badges are equal (there is no 'Eagle Scout' designation in Canada). No badges from external organizations were displayed on the sash.
More information:
Here is the list of badges and stars awarded to Cub Scouts (I got all five stars when I was a Cub - there are more stars now - my favourite was the Tawny Star): http://www.scouts.ca/ca/cub-scouts-badge-requirements
Here are the Boy Scout badges, including some of the new higher designations ('Man of Letters' is now 'Communicator'). http://www.scouts.ca/ca/scouts-badge-requirements
Just a brief note:
In Scouts, it was very clear ahead of time what the requirements were for different badges, and you could set out earning them. In the examples badges I've seen online (eg. the Mozilla badge program, and this course, even) you are given a sequence of activities and badges just appear at (for me, unknown) intervals.
Task 2: The digital badge(Keeping in mind I don't know the details of how Mozilla set up its program - this is only how I would do it, off he top of my head): The badge itself would be a simple PNG image (or even text script; there's no reason why the badge has to have one and only one visual representation). The image of the badge is contained within a div structure indicating that it is a badge. The code is deliberately very simple: For example:
3. Identify the digital and internet technologies best suited to create a digital merit badge. How would you create the digital file (image) of the badge? Is it possible to keep people from copying the badge without having earned the badge?
4. Describe the technologies that could be used to attach (reference or link) the learning to the digital badge. Is there more than one way of "attaching" learning criteria (or outcomes) to a digital badge? Would this criteria differ from a learners evidence toward earning the badge? Could a badge criteria change through time?
The awarder of the badge (or a third party) keeps a list of the people who received badges. The person is given an image and script referring back to the original list, so when a person clicks on the badge image, they are taken to the awarder or 3rd party certification that the badge is genuine. Here's a sample certificate (could also be in JSON):<div class="badge">
<a href="http://badgeissuer.org/badgename/badgewinner">
<img src="http://badgewinner.com/badge.png" /> </a> </div>
<badge resource="http://badgeissuer.org/badgename/">
<badgewinner resource="http://badgewinner.com/" /> </badge>
The certificate, in turn, links to badge criteria, again hosted on the awarder or 3rd party web site. This data, available as structured data (XML or JSON) is standardized: name of badge, issuing organization, criteria, category, etc.
For example:
The criteria are created though any number of processes, and would be encoded using a JSON or XML encoder (the number of badges should be sufficiently low that you don't need an automated way of generating massive numbers of badges).<badge>
<name>Man of Letters</badge>
<issuer resource="http://www.scoutscanada.ca">Scouts Canada</issuer>
<classification resource="http://schema.org/class/subclass">Class / Subclass</classification>
<criteria> ...
</badge>
The badge code (hosted at http://badgeissuer.org/badgename/ ) lists criteria only - the criteria are listed distinct from any evidence of individual achievement. Each criterion has its own URL, eg:
http://badgeissuer.org/badgename#criteria1Criteria do not change through time; if the criteria change, a new version of the badge is created, and badges must be referenced through version number. Hence the record for a badge awarded to a person displays only the criteria in use at the time the badge was awarded.
or http://badgeissuer.org/badgename/criteria1 (if it's at a separate URL).
Evidence publicly displayed (unlike, say, this forum) can be listed in the certificate, by URL. For example, at the document hosted at http://badgeissuer.org/badgename/badgewinner, the following code can be used:
<badge resource="http://badgeissuer.org/badgename/">At least, that's how I'd set it up, first draft...<badgewinner resource="http://badgewinner.com/" />
<criteria resource="http://badgeissuer.org/badgename/criteria1">
<evidence ref="http://badgewinner.com/badge/criteria1" /> </criteria>
etc...
</badge>
Do I get a badge now?
Tuesday, 27 November 2012
Everton Zanella Alvarenga tossed a hand-grenade into the OER discussion group: "An interesting text by Stallman... On-line education is using a flawed Creative Commons license ... 'the CC-BY-NC and CC-BY-NC-SA licenses, as they are today, should be avoided.'"
When I asked Richard Stallman about the use of open licenses for educational materials, first he complained because I didn't use the word "free", then he said that he wasn't interested in educational content, that his arguments applied specifically to software. Clearly his views have been modified since then, as this post attests
Without extending this into a full-blown debate, as I have already written at length about this elsewhere:
In sum, this discussion would be better conducted without further debated about which open license 'is best' and especially with fervent declarations in favour of commercial-friendly licensing. The suggestion that the free sharing of non-commercial content is not 'practical' is not Stallman at his best, and is refuted by the experiences of millions in the field.
Wayne McIntosh objected, "Stephen, your assumption is incorrect with reference to access to learning materials and the OERu assessment model.."
Again, not to pursue the argument regarding the One True License beyond reason in the present forum...
- I very specifically referred to OERu assessment, not content, and assessment will cost students $1000 for a typical 5-course semester
- I have been following and commenting on WikiEducator and OERu since the beginning, and have expressed my concerns in this regard on numerous occasions
- In particular, I expressed my concerns regarding the 'logic model' employed by OERu, as well as the 'founding partners' methodology, both of which entrenched educational institutions as an essential part of the process,
- No mechanism for recognition of learning exists, or was even contemplated, other than institutional recognition, which as noted, carries a significant financial burden
I have no objection to the mechanism whereby OERu converts OERs it receives for free from volunteers into revenues for universities. What I object to is the ongoing campaign by OERu staff to depict non-commercial OERs as 'non-free' and to lobby for their exclusion from the definition of 'free educational resources'. I wish to pursue my support of OERs in such a way that does not impose significant cost on students. To this date, the best and only mechanism for ensuring their use of OERs remains genuinely free is through the use of the NC license.
As an aside: there is always in this context a reference to the 'original' version of open source licensing, and of course Stallman's four freedoms. I would like to point out that open source licenses existed before GPL, and open content licenses existed before Creative Commons. Until the intervention of staff from large U.S. universities (Berkeley-Stanford-MIT-Harvard) these licenses required that distribution be unencumbered with cost. It is only with the intervention of staff from these institutions that 'free' comes to mean 'commercial'.
Again: people may attach licenses allowing commerical use to their work if they wish. I have no objection to this. But such people should cease and desist their ongoing campaign to have works that are non-commercial in intent, and free in distribution, classified as 'not free'. Content that cannot be enclosed within a paywall, and cannot be distributed with commercial encumbrances attached, is just as free - indeed, more free - than so-called 'free' commercial content.
Also...
To follow up on some points made by Rory:
Content (under whatever license) is 'enclosed' when it is contained behind a barrier such as proprietary encryption, a digital lock or a paywall. Enclosure does not restrict the content itself, but restricts access to the content; access is granted (typically under some other name) only via some concession, such as payment, or provision of personal information.
To my understanding, all of Flat World's content will now be enclosed behind a paywall. OERu assessments enclose assessment content. This mailing list (OER-community) encloses content behind a subscription requirement (I can't even link to discussions in my newsletter; all non-subscribers see is a barrier).
Enclosure is an important concept because it leads to 'conversion'. The process of conversion is one where what was once a resource that could be freely accessed is (for all practical purposes) accessible only through a barrier of some sort; in other words, the content is free, but has been effectively completely enclosed. This is what happened (for example) to many UseNet newsgroups. It almost happened to Wikipedia, and would have happened, has Google not intervened.
Having said that, let me be clear how perspective plays a significant role in the free / not-free debate:
- from the perspective of someone who already has the content, the content is 'not free' if there are limitations on the use of that content, including the right to sell it
- from the perspective of someone who does not already have the content, the content is 'not free' if there are barriers preventing the person from accessing the content (note that the putative assertion that the content 'could be made free somewhere' does not constitute a removal of the all-too-practical barrier
It is not to me surprising that the people with wealth - namely those in U.S. universities - could view 'free' from the perspective of those who have the content. But I speak from the perspective of one who does not have access to the content. And my argument, in a nutshell, is that the second perspective is just as valid as the first (even though the second perspective cannot afford lobbiests).
Content behind barriers - for example, content that is being sold - is 'not free'. This perspective matters. For 99 percent of the world, it's the only perspective that matters.
And finally
Totally agreed with David Wiley: "It would be great if the world were simple enough that One License to Rule Them All could exist, but it doesn't."
It needs to be recognized that for many people, 'open' and 'free' do not mean 'commercial'. For many people, the idea of 'selling a free resource' is a contradiction in terms. For many people, access to the resource, rather than making money from it, is the primary concern.
I don't wish to continue restating this (though it seems the campaigning from the CC-by people against NC is endless). I would simply urge UNESCO to respect the wishes of those people who are not commercial publishers or multi-million-dollar educational institutions, to recognize the intent of people creating NC-licensed resources to ensure they can be accessed for free, and to recognize resources licensed with a NC clause as OERs with equal standing.
This is consistent with the 2012 Paris declaration, which I remind people, refers to OERs as "teaching, learning and research materials in any medium, digital or otherwise, that reside in the public domain or have been released under an open license that permits no-cost access, use, adaptation and redistribution by others with no or limited restrictions." (My emphasis)
When I asked Richard Stallman about the use of open licenses for educational materials, first he complained because I didn't use the word "free", then he said that he wasn't interested in educational content, that his arguments applied specifically to software. Clearly his views have been modified since then, as this post attests
Without extending this into a full-blown debate, as I have already written at length about this elsewhere:
- licenses that allow commercial use are less free than those that do not, because they allow commercial entities to charge fees for access, to lock them behind digital locks, and to append conditions that prohibit their reuse
- works licensed with a Non-commercial clause are fully and equally open educational resources, and are in many cases the only OERs actually accessible to people (because the content allowing commercial use tends to have costs associated with it)
- the supposition that works that cost money can be 'free' is a trick of language, a fallacy that fools contributors into sharing for commercial use content they intended to make available to the world without charge
- the lobby very loudly making the case for commercial-friendly licenses and recommending that NC content be shunned consists almost entirely of commercial publishers and related interests seeking to make money off (no-longer) 'free' content.
In sum, this discussion would be better conducted without further debated about which open license 'is best' and especially with fervent declarations in favour of commercial-friendly licensing. The suggestion that the free sharing of non-commercial content is not 'practical' is not Stallman at his best, and is refuted by the experiences of millions in the field.
Wayne McIntosh objected, "Stephen, your assumption is incorrect with reference to access to learning materials and the OERu assessment model.."
- I very specifically referred to OERu assessment, not content, and assessment will cost students $1000 for a typical 5-course semester
- I have been following and commenting on WikiEducator and OERu since the beginning, and have expressed my concerns in this regard on numerous occasions
- In particular, I expressed my concerns regarding the 'logic model' employed by OERu, as well as the 'founding partners' methodology, both of which entrenched educational institutions as an essential part of the process,
- No mechanism for recognition of learning exists, or was even contemplated, other than institutional recognition, which as noted, carries a significant financial burden
I have no objection to the mechanism whereby OERu converts OERs it receives for free from volunteers into revenues for universities. What I object to is the ongoing campaign by OERu staff to depict non-commercial OERs as 'non-free' and to lobby for their exclusion from the definition of 'free educational resources'. I wish to pursue my support of OERs in such a way that does not impose significant cost on students. To this date, the best and only mechanism for ensuring their use of OERs remains genuinely free is through the use of the NC license.
As an aside: there is always in this context a reference to the 'original' version of open source licensing, and of course Stallman's four freedoms. I would like to point out that open source licenses existed before GPL, and open content licenses existed before Creative Commons. Until the intervention of staff from large U.S. universities (Berkeley-Stanford-MIT-Harvard) these licenses required that distribution be unencumbered with cost. It is only with the intervention of staff from these institutions that 'free' comes to mean 'commercial'.
Again: people may attach licenses allowing commerical use to their work if they wish. I have no objection to this. But such people should cease and desist their ongoing campaign to have works that are non-commercial in intent, and free in distribution, classified as 'not free'. Content that cannot be enclosed within a paywall, and cannot be distributed with commercial encumbrances attached, is just as free - indeed, more free - than so-called 'free' commercial content.
Also...
To follow up on some points made by Rory:
Content (under whatever license) is 'enclosed' when it is contained behind a barrier such as proprietary encryption, a digital lock or a paywall. Enclosure does not restrict the content itself, but restricts access to the content; access is granted (typically under some other name) only via some concession, such as payment, or provision of personal information.
To my understanding, all of Flat World's content will now be enclosed behind a paywall. OERu assessments enclose assessment content. This mailing list (OER-community) encloses content behind a subscription requirement (I can't even link to discussions in my newsletter; all non-subscribers see is a barrier).
Enclosure is an important concept because it leads to 'conversion'. The process of conversion is one where what was once a resource that could be freely accessed is (for all practical purposes) accessible only through a barrier of some sort; in other words, the content is free, but has been effectively completely enclosed. This is what happened (for example) to many UseNet newsgroups. It almost happened to Wikipedia, and would have happened, has Google not intervened.
Having said that, let me be clear how perspective plays a significant role in the free / not-free debate:
- from the perspective of someone who already has the content, the content is 'not free' if there are limitations on the use of that content, including the right to sell it
- from the perspective of someone who does not already have the content, the content is 'not free' if there are barriers preventing the person from accessing the content (note that the putative assertion that the content 'could be made free somewhere' does not constitute a removal of the all-too-practical barrier
It is not to me surprising that the people with wealth - namely those in U.S. universities - could view 'free' from the perspective of those who have the content. But I speak from the perspective of one who does not have access to the content. And my argument, in a nutshell, is that the second perspective is just as valid as the first (even though the second perspective cannot afford lobbiests).
Content behind barriers - for example, content that is being sold - is 'not free'. This perspective matters. For 99 percent of the world, it's the only perspective that matters.
And finally
Totally agreed with David Wiley: "It would be great if the world were simple enough that One License to Rule Them All could exist, but it doesn't."
It needs to be recognized that for many people, 'open' and 'free' do not mean 'commercial'. For many people, the idea of 'selling a free resource' is a contradiction in terms. For many people, access to the resource, rather than making money from it, is the primary concern.
I don't wish to continue restating this (though it seems the campaigning from the CC-by people against NC is endless). I would simply urge UNESCO to respect the wishes of those people who are not commercial publishers or multi-million-dollar educational institutions, to recognize the intent of people creating NC-licensed resources to ensure they can be accessed for free, and to recognize resources licensed with a NC clause as OERs with equal standing.
This is consistent with the 2012 Paris declaration, which I remind people, refers to OERs as "teaching, learning and research materials in any medium, digital or otherwise, that reside in the public domain or have been released under an open license that permits no-cost access, use, adaptation and redistribution by others with no or limited restrictions." (My emphasis)
Ilkka Tuomi wrote,
> Logically, CC-BY-NC is a subset of CC-BY. In this sense, it is more restricted.
Not so. No entity in the set “CC-BY-NC” is also in the set “CC-BY”.
It’s a trick of the way CC licenses were originally formulated. The designations in factmean:
- CC-by-Commercial (CC-by-C)
- CC-by-Noncommercial (CC-by-NC)
So as you can see, the two sets are disjuncts, specially, not-C and C
The creators of CC treated ‘Commercial’ as the default. There’s no reason why they should have had to do this. They could have established the licenses the other way (indeed, the way I would have done it):
CC-by – allows all free uses, ie., no limitations on access and distribution
CC-by-C – allows commercial vendors to restrict distribution contingent upon payment
In fact, each of CC-by-C and CC-by-NC create restrictions. They create different sets of restrictions, which may be more or less limiting, depending on your perspective.
The ‘commercial-by-default’ world in which we live is something recent and something that has been created through the use of language and the setting of assumptions. The creation of a ‘non-commercial’ clause is a way of setting ‘commercial’ as the default. It makes it seem as though ‘commercial’ implies no additional restrictions. But it’s just a trick of language, just a trick of perspective.
That’s why it’s false and misleading to say that ‘CC-by-C’ is ‘more free’, and why people shouldn’t do it.
Saturday, 24 November 2012
Responding to David W. Campbell, Thanks, Robert. What’s next?
Suppose the Irvings had not set up shop in Moncton...
Would we have a transport company, like Midland? Almost certainly! In fact, we may have had several, with competition making them more productive, and wages reflecting national averages. Perhaps national and international companies would have set up shop here, creating potential for servicing and spinoffs.
Would we have frozen potato products, like Cavendish? Of course we would; any region that grows potatoes would have such an industry. Maybe it would be McCains. Maybe it would be, again, a national or international company.
Similarly, we would have agri-services industries as well. Perhaps more than one. Such an environment might have been much more favorable to the local agriculture industry, which may have resulted in greater conversion of land to agriculture, increased production, and again, better wages.
Would Moncton have a tissue company, like Royale and Majesta (both owned by Irving)? Again, we may have international brands, like Kleenex, Kimberly-Clark, or some other wood product company. These companies locate anywhere there is wood, so there would be a substantial presence in Moncton and New Brunswick. Perhaps the province might even have a value-added wood products industry, like an Ikea, which it seems to be totally lacking now.
Would the city have a disposable diaper manufacturer, like Irving Personal Care? Well - probably not. So we can give them that.
What Irving brings to the city by way of transport companies, food processing and pulp and paper is minimal at best, and would probably exist without them. The companies that would have appeared here in its stead might have been larger, more productive, more competitive, and most importantly of all, might have paid better wages.
And what Irving brings to the city needs to be balanced out against the negative influence of a single large monopoly owning pretty much the entire wood production, agricultural production, transportation, energy and newspaper industry in the province.
Having one huge company has distorted the political process, pushed down wages, and left the cities of the province in a position where they need to grant extraordinary tax exemptions and Irving-friendly policies as they compete against each other for a share of the provincial behemoth.
New Brunswick has no major cities; it is the only province in the country in that position. Even tiny Charlottetown carries more weight on the national scale. Look how long it took to develop a proper highway system linking our cities, decades after every other province in the country. Only this year did we finish our four-lane link to the U.S.
The overt influence of the provinces major gas and oil company have left the transportation and energy industries in a shambles.
With the fiasco surrounding our nuclear plant restoration, people forget that it was an Irving transportation company that dumped the turbines into the bottom of Saint John Harbour. (It was also the oil-dominated Harper government that gutted Atomic Energy Canada, delaying the refit by years).
When we drive the highway to Halifax it's hard not to be struck by the wind turbines on the Nova Scotia side of Tantramar, and an emptiness on the wind-blown NB side. (Yes there are some windmills hidden in the hills; our province gave an Alberta company permission to build them and own them).
Our power generation industry is otherwise in fiasco. We have over the years foolishly depended on coal and (often dirty) oil. We were so much enthralled with it we lost hundreds of millions in the orimulsion bitumen-based fuel fiasco (interestingly, bitumen-based fuel is what is being contemplated for the Keystone pipeline).
The politics behind the deployment of natural gas in the province boggle the mind. Enbridge is the external company that took the risk to (finally!) bring a cheaper and cleaner fuel to the province. It has had a great deal of difficulty marketing to industrial partners, and (frankly) has been jerked around by the provincial government. Enbridge may not be the most pleasant company in the world, but here at least, it has been given a raw deal.
Meanwhile, in a city with a newspaper dominated with car and truck and Jeep advertisements, pubic transportation has been decimated. Irving has led the campaign to break the bus drivers' union. We have had no bus service for months, and the company now envisions a system of privately owned small buses more commonly found in the developing world. The rail system has also been essentially eliminated.
So, on balance, we are supposed to thank Irving for industries we would have had anyways? And ignore the harm a massive all-encompassing monopoly has caused to the province? This in the light of a provincial debt that has accumulated over the years, a debt that is coincidentally the same size as the Irving family fortune?
We need investments over the next 15-20 years, there can be no doubt of it. But rather than depend on the all-giving (but legendarily stingy) hand of the Irvings, we should be asking how we develop an economic development and investment regime that benefits *all* of us.
Suppose the Irvings had not set up shop in Moncton...
Would we have a transport company, like Midland? Almost certainly! In fact, we may have had several, with competition making them more productive, and wages reflecting national averages. Perhaps national and international companies would have set up shop here, creating potential for servicing and spinoffs.
Would we have frozen potato products, like Cavendish? Of course we would; any region that grows potatoes would have such an industry. Maybe it would be McCains. Maybe it would be, again, a national or international company.
Similarly, we would have agri-services industries as well. Perhaps more than one. Such an environment might have been much more favorable to the local agriculture industry, which may have resulted in greater conversion of land to agriculture, increased production, and again, better wages.
Would Moncton have a tissue company, like Royale and Majesta (both owned by Irving)? Again, we may have international brands, like Kleenex, Kimberly-Clark, or some other wood product company. These companies locate anywhere there is wood, so there would be a substantial presence in Moncton and New Brunswick. Perhaps the province might even have a value-added wood products industry, like an Ikea, which it seems to be totally lacking now.
Would the city have a disposable diaper manufacturer, like Irving Personal Care? Well - probably not. So we can give them that.
What Irving brings to the city by way of transport companies, food processing and pulp and paper is minimal at best, and would probably exist without them. The companies that would have appeared here in its stead might have been larger, more productive, more competitive, and most importantly of all, might have paid better wages.
And what Irving brings to the city needs to be balanced out against the negative influence of a single large monopoly owning pretty much the entire wood production, agricultural production, transportation, energy and newspaper industry in the province.
Having one huge company has distorted the political process, pushed down wages, and left the cities of the province in a position where they need to grant extraordinary tax exemptions and Irving-friendly policies as they compete against each other for a share of the provincial behemoth.
New Brunswick has no major cities; it is the only province in the country in that position. Even tiny Charlottetown carries more weight on the national scale. Look how long it took to develop a proper highway system linking our cities, decades after every other province in the country. Only this year did we finish our four-lane link to the U.S.
The overt influence of the provinces major gas and oil company have left the transportation and energy industries in a shambles.
With the fiasco surrounding our nuclear plant restoration, people forget that it was an Irving transportation company that dumped the turbines into the bottom of Saint John Harbour. (It was also the oil-dominated Harper government that gutted Atomic Energy Canada, delaying the refit by years).
When we drive the highway to Halifax it's hard not to be struck by the wind turbines on the Nova Scotia side of Tantramar, and an emptiness on the wind-blown NB side. (Yes there are some windmills hidden in the hills; our province gave an Alberta company permission to build them and own them).
Our power generation industry is otherwise in fiasco. We have over the years foolishly depended on coal and (often dirty) oil. We were so much enthralled with it we lost hundreds of millions in the orimulsion bitumen-based fuel fiasco (interestingly, bitumen-based fuel is what is being contemplated for the Keystone pipeline).
The politics behind the deployment of natural gas in the province boggle the mind. Enbridge is the external company that took the risk to (finally!) bring a cheaper and cleaner fuel to the province. It has had a great deal of difficulty marketing to industrial partners, and (frankly) has been jerked around by the provincial government. Enbridge may not be the most pleasant company in the world, but here at least, it has been given a raw deal.
Meanwhile, in a city with a newspaper dominated with car and truck and Jeep advertisements, pubic transportation has been decimated. Irving has led the campaign to break the bus drivers' union. We have had no bus service for months, and the company now envisions a system of privately owned small buses more commonly found in the developing world. The rail system has also been essentially eliminated.
So, on balance, we are supposed to thank Irving for industries we would have had anyways? And ignore the harm a massive all-encompassing monopoly has caused to the province? This in the light of a provincial debt that has accumulated over the years, a debt that is coincidentally the same size as the Irving family fortune?
We need investments over the next 15-20 years, there can be no doubt of it. But rather than depend on the all-giving (but legendarily stingy) hand of the Irvings, we should be asking how we develop an economic development and investment regime that benefits *all* of us.
Friday, 23 November 2012
Email written as advice to the UNESCO OER mapping initiative.
This is beginning to read and sound very much like the debates around learning object metadata of the 1990s. I know that approaches such as LRMI represent an improvement in that elements are aligned with schema.org data types. But that said, knowledge of the history would be useful, and I do recommend to people making suggestions to look at IMS and IEEE LOM as well as LRMI.
It would also be helpful (through probably not practical) to review the discussion surrounding these specifications. For example, below, we read a request for "technical requirements for using the material." This is better addressed by describing the resource format and specifications (eg., its mime type) rather than specifying application software. This is because software changes rapidly. Consider the requirements in IMS-LOM documents specifying that a resource is 'best viewed in Internet Explorer 3.0'.
If course, this discussion is centered around OER *repositories* and not only the resources themselves. Consequently, mappings will need to describe repository properties. Consulting OAI or DSpace specifications would be helpful here. Minimally, we would want API specifications for resource creation, reading, update and deletion, as well as classification systems and resource metadata specifications.
All of this is difficult to build from the ground up. It is a discussion that has occupied the field for almost two decades. I am thinking at this point that the OER initiative should be drawing from the experiences of OER repositories and repository indices that already exist. The most useful beginning of a needs project ought most probably to be a summary of the properties of existing repository indices, including the range of resources indexed, metadata fields used, and more.
For those specifically interested in resource metadata, rather than repository profiles, may I recommend my article 'Resource Profiles' http://www.downes.ca/post/41750 (I'm sorry to recommend my own work but it will keep this post a lot shorter). It suggests approaches for the following sorts of metadata:
- first party metadata, which is metadata specifically about the resource itself, eg., technical data, rights metadata, bibliographic data
- second party metadtata (sometimes called 'paradata') related to the use of the metadata, such as ratings, accesses, etc
- third party metadata, such as classifications, educational metadata (including things like curriculum, keywords, etc)etc.
Additionally, readers should take account of the desirability of linked data. For example, the use of strings to represent authors and publishers creates the possibility of ambiguity, error and duplication. Contemporary resource repositories, such as Google Scholar or academia.edu, maintain separate registries of authors, which are linked to resources (JSTOR doesn't, but should, as a search for au:"Stephen Downes" already returns results from a bunch of strangers). It would be worth contemplating linking authors and OERs to additional resources, such as publishers and institutions (many of these are already described by schema.org). Another argument in favour of linked data is that any string data will need to have several properties, including character encoding and language. So it's best to use strings sparingly.
All of the considerations above must also be mapped to a consideration of what people will actually do in the way of creating and using resource metadata. I recall a study by Norm Friesen, for example, examining the use of IEEE-LOM to index learning objects. Though the specification enables detailed educational descriptions, most people used only ten percent of the fields. Much of the metadata available will be minimal. Any mapping will need to contemplate listings using the most basic data: title, link (ie., URI) and description. Any system should attempt to automatically generate metadata (my own website automatically generates image metadata) and make good use of tags.
Also (November 30): With respect to the summary and the map initiative itself, I would like to make one key recommendation: that it be a ‘submit-once’ system.
Typically, OER data owners would employ a form or some interface to deposit content into the database that will eventually be used to produce the map. The result of this approach is that OER data owners must submit separately for each mapping initiative. Eventually they tire of this, and the result is incomplete data.
So I would ask that any such map also *export* its data in a machine-readable format (plain XML will do, as would JSON, an RSS or Atom Extension, or pretty much any structured representation) along with licensing that allows it to be harvested and reused (pick whatever license you want). This would allow an OER data owner to submit *once* and have the data available for any number of maps.
I would also recommend:
- a mechanism that allows the OER data owner to update or edit records already submitted, to they can stay current
- an export mechanism, or a stand-alone record-creator, so an OER data owner can create the structured representation and store it on his or her own website
- a mechanism whereby databases of OER data repository information can publish and harvest each other’s data, thus essentially enabling them to sync records, so all databases will contain all OER information, no matter which database the record was originally added to
In redundancy is reliability. In synchronization is strength. In distribution is durability. In structured representation is stability.
This is beginning to read and sound very much like the debates around learning object metadata of the 1990s. I know that approaches such as LRMI represent an improvement in that elements are aligned with schema.org data types. But that said, knowledge of the history would be useful, and I do recommend to people making suggestions to look at IMS and IEEE LOM as well as LRMI.
It would also be helpful (through probably not practical) to review the discussion surrounding these specifications. For example, below, we read a request for "technical requirements for using the material." This is better addressed by describing the resource format and specifications (eg., its mime type) rather than specifying application software. This is because software changes rapidly. Consider the requirements in IMS-LOM documents specifying that a resource is 'best viewed in Internet Explorer 3.0'.
If course, this discussion is centered around OER *repositories* and not only the resources themselves. Consequently, mappings will need to describe repository properties. Consulting OAI or DSpace specifications would be helpful here. Minimally, we would want API specifications for resource creation, reading, update and deletion, as well as classification systems and resource metadata specifications.
All of this is difficult to build from the ground up. It is a discussion that has occupied the field for almost two decades. I am thinking at this point that the OER initiative should be drawing from the experiences of OER repositories and repository indices that already exist. The most useful beginning of a needs project ought most probably to be a summary of the properties of existing repository indices, including the range of resources indexed, metadata fields used, and more.
For those specifically interested in resource metadata, rather than repository profiles, may I recommend my article 'Resource Profiles' http://www.downes.ca/post/41750 (I'm sorry to recommend my own work but it will keep this post a lot shorter). It suggests approaches for the following sorts of metadata:
- first party metadata, which is metadata specifically about the resource itself, eg., technical data, rights metadata, bibliographic data
- second party metadtata (sometimes called 'paradata') related to the use of the metadata, such as ratings, accesses, etc
- third party metadata, such as classifications, educational metadata (including things like curriculum, keywords, etc)etc.
Additionally, readers should take account of the desirability of linked data. For example, the use of strings to represent authors and publishers creates the possibility of ambiguity, error and duplication. Contemporary resource repositories, such as Google Scholar or academia.edu, maintain separate registries of authors, which are linked to resources (JSTOR doesn't, but should, as a search for au:"Stephen Downes" already returns results from a bunch of strangers). It would be worth contemplating linking authors and OERs to additional resources, such as publishers and institutions (many of these are already described by schema.org). Another argument in favour of linked data is that any string data will need to have several properties, including character encoding and language. So it's best to use strings sparingly.
All of the considerations above must also be mapped to a consideration of what people will actually do in the way of creating and using resource metadata. I recall a study by Norm Friesen, for example, examining the use of IEEE-LOM to index learning objects. Though the specification enables detailed educational descriptions, most people used only ten percent of the fields. Much of the metadata available will be minimal. Any mapping will need to contemplate listings using the most basic data: title, link (ie., URI) and description. Any system should attempt to automatically generate metadata (my own website automatically generates image metadata) and make good use of tags.
Also (November 30): With respect to the summary and the map initiative itself, I would like to make one key recommendation: that it be a ‘submit-once’ system.
Typically, OER data owners would employ a form or some interface to deposit content into the database that will eventually be used to produce the map. The result of this approach is that OER data owners must submit separately for each mapping initiative. Eventually they tire of this, and the result is incomplete data.
So I would ask that any such map also *export* its data in a machine-readable format (plain XML will do, as would JSON, an RSS or Atom Extension, or pretty much any structured representation) along with licensing that allows it to be harvested and reused (pick whatever license you want). This would allow an OER data owner to submit *once* and have the data available for any number of maps.
I would also recommend:
- a mechanism that allows the OER data owner to update or edit records already submitted, to they can stay current
- an export mechanism, or a stand-alone record-creator, so an OER data owner can create the structured representation and store it on his or her own website
- a mechanism whereby databases of OER data repository information can publish and harvest each other’s data, thus essentially enabling them to sync records, so all databases will contain all OER information, no matter which database the record was originally added to
In redundancy is reliability. In synchronization is strength. In distribution is durability. In structured representation is stability.
Wednesday, 14 November 2012
Interesting commentary from Kevin Willey, which I quote at length from LinkedIn:
Interesting comment from Kevin Willey, and I can attest to his remarks about the stress of working in the public service.
In my experience, the primary qualification for advancement to leadership positions is obedience. This may seem paradoxical, but it actually makes sense in an organization that should be taking direction from elected officials.
However, the side-effect of obedience is that as it permeates through the ranks, the result is, as Willey observes, managers who do not take risks and who do not welcome innovation from below.
That said, I am not sure that the situation is very different in large corporations, where again accountability is to external agencies, in this case shareholders, and where direction typically flows from the top down.
But these observations tell us where we should be directing efforts to support innovation. The spin-off is a prime source, where experienced staff spot an opportunity and make their move. So is proactive recruitment of experienced staff from large organizations to management level positions in smaller organizations, for the same reason.
I'm not sure how much discussion exists around regarding large organizations and the public service as sources for ideas and expertise that can be, if you will, 'mined' by the surrounding community.
Indeed, the most productive way of streamlining corporations and the public service may be to develop programs that encourage exactly this sort of activity: it would provide a pathway for advancement and at the same time create economic drivers in the community.
Performance management is nothing more than buzz words in the government departments, and I speak from experience on this. I entered the government back in early 2001, with the false impression that being creative and innovative would be rewarded, and that I could help to change things for the better.
Was I ever wrong. The harder I tried to point out a better way, the more I was ignored, and eventually punished for being innovative. I was even told by one of the managers that attempting to, or suggesting alternatives was not part of my job function.
We hear again and again from the political types they want to attract the brightest and the best, yet, everyone in Ottawa knows that a government job is a dead end, and that the only ones who get promoted are those who write tests well. Truly, they raise to their level of incompetence.
I have lived in Ottawa for 54 years, and I have heard this same story over and over, before I joined the public service, and could not believe it as true. That impression was way wrong, all those people were correct. I also have two brothers who work in different departments, and they have reflected the same story.
In the public service, the managers are more interested about protecting their turf, than accepting new ideas for fear that they may be chastised for not thinking of the idea. Twice this approach has caused me to have to take short term disability for clinical depression, before the last time it was almost not necessary because I came very, very close to ending my own life out of frustration. Mental illness is almost at epidemic levels in the public service, I see it every day, and I have former friends who have killed themselves because of this frustration level. This is truly a sad state of affairs.
Interesting comment from Kevin Willey, and I can attest to his remarks about the stress of working in the public service.
In my experience, the primary qualification for advancement to leadership positions is obedience. This may seem paradoxical, but it actually makes sense in an organization that should be taking direction from elected officials.
However, the side-effect of obedience is that as it permeates through the ranks, the result is, as Willey observes, managers who do not take risks and who do not welcome innovation from below.
That said, I am not sure that the situation is very different in large corporations, where again accountability is to external agencies, in this case shareholders, and where direction typically flows from the top down.
But these observations tell us where we should be directing efforts to support innovation. The spin-off is a prime source, where experienced staff spot an opportunity and make their move. So is proactive recruitment of experienced staff from large organizations to management level positions in smaller organizations, for the same reason.
I'm not sure how much discussion exists around regarding large organizations and the public service as sources for ideas and expertise that can be, if you will, 'mined' by the surrounding community.
Indeed, the most productive way of streamlining corporations and the public service may be to develop programs that encourage exactly this sort of activity: it would provide a pathway for advancement and at the same time create economic drivers in the community.
Tuesday, 6 November 2012
OpenLearning.com, a venture born out of the University of New South Wales (UNSW) in Sydney, Australia. Starting this week, you can begin taking two of their courses (Observing and Analysing Performance in Sport & Services Marketing – The Next Level).
University of Western Australia. By next March, the Perth-based university plans to offer two courses (one in sociology, the other in oceanography) using an adapted version of Stanford’s open source platform, Class2Go.
SpanishMooc? It’s billed as “the first open online Spanish course for everyone.”
MobiMOOC Belgium - http://mobimooc.wikispaces.com/a+MobiMOOC+hello!
Open University in the UK is about to run a MOOC, a Massive Open Online Course on Open Translation tools and practices. http://www.ot12.org/ http://labspace.open.ac.uk/course/view.php?name=OT12
Sloodle MOOC - https://www.sloodle.org/blog/?p=252 - Europe (not many details on this one)
Observing and Analysing Performance in Sport small open online course (SOOC) commences on the Open Learning platform. - keith Lyons, Australia
eduMOOC 2011 (International) - http://edumooc2011.blogspot.ca/
Trainer MOOc - Larks Learning - India - http://larkslearning.com/blog/trainer-mooc-april-june-2012-po-ideas-in-training-provoking-our-thinking/
My Open Courses - India - a whole slew of (Khan video-style) open online courses - http://myopencourses.com/
Open Learning Design Studio MOOC (Massive Open Online Course) focusing on the theme of curriculum design with OERs, to be held in early 2013. - UK - http://www.jisc.ac.uk/whatwedo/programmes/elearning/embeddingbenefits2012/oldsmooc.aspx
Papers by Rita Kop on the Canadian MOOCs - http://ritakop.blogspot.ca/2012/01/research-publications-on-massive-open.html
Curriculum Design MOOC - Open University UK - http://www3.open.ac.uk/media/fullstory.aspx?id=23501 see also http://www.olds.ac.uk/
Future of Higher Education (CFHE 12) - Canada - http://edfuture.net/blog1/
EduMOOC 2011 - International - https://sites.google.com/site/edumooc/
Mechanical MOOC - P2PU - International-ish - http://mechanicalmooc.org/ - A Gentle Introduction to Python
Virtual Schooling MOOC - UK/US - 2012 - http://virtualschoolmooc.wikispaces.com/international
Games MOOC - Shivtr - not sure where they're based - http://gamesmooc.shivtr.com/
UniMOOC Æmprende - Spanish - http://iei.ua.es/mooc-emprendimiento/ - Instituto de Economía Internacional - Universidad de Alicante
OMS2012. Germany. Run by DW Akademie. Citizen journalism and digital media in the Maghreb + beyond: http://specials.dw.de/oms-en/?p=1 See also http://specials.dw.de/oms-en/?page_id=23#organize
Introduction à la Programmation Objet (in French) - Coursera - École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne - https://www.coursera.org/course/java-fr
MOOC ITyPA - Internet: Tout est Pour Apprendre - 2012 - France - http://itypa.mooc.fr/ See also http://www.studyramagrandesecoles.com/home_news.php?Id=7713
Pedagogy First MOOC - international - 2012 - http://pedagogyfirst.org/wppf12/
"La educación abierta en el siglo XXI" (México-UNAM, Spanish, Feb. 2012) http://www.cuaed.unam.mx/portal/img/educacion_abierta.pdf http://www.slideshare.net/larisaev/guia-general
Distance Education in Portugal and Brazil. Taking about models of Distance Education, Tools and ending with the way ahead. 2012 http://www.moocead.net
UNED in Spain has two MOOCs in Spanish on Open Data and e-Commerce. New courses will be added every momth: http://portal.uned.es/portal/page?_pageid=93%2C25731579&_dad=portal&_schema=PORTAL
EPCoP Mooc Australia 2011, design team led by Coach Carole
https://sites.google.com/site/epcoplearnspace/home
iDESWEB, Introducción al desarrollo web (Introduction to web development), http://idesweb.es
2012, more than 4,300 students enrolled. University of Alicante, Spain
iXML, Introducción a XML (Introduction to XML), http://ixml.es
November 2012, more than 200 students enrolled, University of Alicante, Spain
UniMOOC aemprende (Key factors in entrepreneurship), http://unimooc.com
November 2012, more than 6,000 students enrolled, University of Alicante, Spain
First Steps in Learning and Teaching in HIgher Education MOOC (FSLT12) - http://openbrookes.net/firststeps12/ - run by Oxford Brookes University, UK
MOOC EaD O primeiro MOOC em língua portuguesa - November, 2012 - Portugal
Some U.S.-based MOOCs
MOOC MOOC - based in the U.S. - http://www.moocmooc.com/
Faculty Commons - Engaging Technology and Online Pedagogy eTOP12 Micro-MOOC - U.S.-based - http://facultyecommons.com/engaging-technology-and-online-pedagogy-etop12-micro-mooc/
Health Informatics mooc - 2012 - http://www.healthinformaticsforum.com/MOOC
CMC11 - Creativity and Multicultural Communication - started Fall 2011 - U.S., SUNY/Empire State College; Facilitated by Betty Hurley-Dasgupta and Carol Yeager http://cdlprojects.com/
VizMath - Visualizing Mathematics started 15 October 2012, facilitated by Betty Hurley-Dasgupta and Carol Yeager, SUNY/Empire State College, http://www.cdlprojects.com/math/
Knight Center for Journalism in the Americas (University of Texas at Austin): Introduction to Infographics and Data Visualization, Oct. 28 - Dec. 8, 2012 http://open.journalismcourses.org
limited at 2000 attendees = full
EDG6931 -- Personal Learning Environments for Inquiry in K12 -- College of Education at the University of Florida -- Spring 2011 (Feb-Mar)Wendy Drexler & Christopher Sessums.
http://community.education.ufl.edu/community/pages/view/76239
A Crash Course in Creativity, taught by Tina Seelig through the Venture Lab at Stanford University
University of Central Florida (UCF), BlendKit2011 (200 registrants), BlendKit2012 (1230 registrants), BlendKit Course materials, see http://bit.ly/blendkit and for a quick intro, please see http://slidesha.re/O8kOwi
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Interestingly, to my mind, although the problem of understanding and responding to a student question is an almost intractable problem for machines, it is generally pretty straightforward for humans. So what we have tried to do with cMOOCs is connect people with the humans they need to connect with to get over the rough patches.
You don’t need an expert for this – you just needs someone who knows the answer to the problem. So we have attempted to scale by connecting people with many other students. Instructors are still there, for the tough and difficult problems. But students can help each other out, and are expected to do so.
An example of what I mean: I just purchased a new xBox and a copy of MLB 2K12, which is a baseball simulator. My first effort to puitch saw me walk most of the batters, throw numerous wild pitches, and finally get out of the inning only after giving up 14 runs. The problem was, I didn’t know what to do; the MLB 2K12 instructions are far too vague, and if there’s in-game help,. I haven’t found it.
I don’t need an expert in MLB 2K12 to show me how to pitch. I just need someone who knows what to do. Someone who can say “Well you move this control here then here and you’re trying to line this up with that.” Million s of people know the answer to this question. but I’m connected to none of them.
Indeed, I don’t even need then to do the actual explaining. They simply need to recognize what my problem is, then point me to a video or instructions that outline the solution.
Machines will eventually be able to do this, but they will first need to master natural language processing. This is going to take a while. In the meantime, if we want massive learning, we need o structure learning in such a way as to make asking questions easier, and as necessary, to provide more incentives to people to answer them.
I don’t think the xMOOCs are ever going to do this, because their focus is on placing all the emphasis on the expertise of the instructor. To the extent that they respond to this need, they will become cMOOCs. But to the extent that cMOOCs become viable, the value proposition behind the elite universities is weakened. People don’t need experts; they just need someone who knows.