Blurts

If you are attempting to understand the various issues associated with net neutrality, you might explore this summary by Stephen Light. His post offers a visual summary and plenty of links if you want to investigate in depth.

Back in 2006, I started an online bookmarking site. The original idea was to offer a searchable directory of Internet resources to those who were using our textbook. So, resources were tagged by chapter but also using other descriptors.

I also wanted to make this site “social” or “participatory”. Users could add their own bookmarks. Use of the site also changed which bookmarks appeared at the top of search lists. The priority system was based on a combination of links followed and user ratings.

As systems such as this grow, maintenance is necessary. With more than 1000 records and the passage of time, certain links no longer functioned and there was no easy way to identify these links. The “rating” system was intended to take care of this problem. Poor quality resources or resources that were no longer available should be rated poorly and should sink down the list. Even if I did not make use of the ratings to remove links, this system should have buried links that were not useful.

My “concept” ran into two challenges. An open system may have encouraged users to add links and to add ratings, but it also encouraged the addition of far too many inappropriate links. I had to add a registration system. The registration system pretty much eliminated the inappropriate content, but also severely limited the addition of links and ratings.

The slow evolution of the site also created a problem with the other mechanism of prioritizing links. A substantial correlation developed between the length of time a resource was available and the number of times the link was used. So, older links tended to appear at the top of most searches. This created a secondary problem in that the links at the top of the output were more likely to be used. Over time, it became more and more difficulty to find new “quality” links.

I spent some time this summer modifying the raw link frequency data to address this problem. I hated to discard the “real data” but it became clear that this has to be done to improve the usefulness of the system. Just for the record, the most used link was followed 457 times.

So, I encourage you to give the site a look. Again, the focus is on Internet resources appropriate to education. Registration is not necessary to conduct searches (key work or tag). The site is a bit deceptive at first glance and a the tag list is a good place to start. If you have a little more time, I encourage you to register and contribute your own favorite links and rate the results of links I provide. These practices make the greatest contribution to the development of the site.

There has been a lot of interest lately in the connection between heavy tech use and the brain. I am not certain what to make of it yet – physical changes, learned patterns resulting in rapid shifts in attentional focus, or hype. Anyway, the NY Times has an interesting article today focused on this topic. I would think the discussion of wildnerness exploration as a way to get away is just a hook (I watch baseball), but other issues raised may be of greater substance.

Apple has announced a purchase discount for those purchasing apps in volume. Details are available in an Apple FAQ.

This is an iPad recommendation (with thanks to iPad Today).

Diptic is an app for combining images. You have very likely seen this method for displaying photographs in the form of multiple images inserted within a frame. Cindy has created several such frame-based combinations in preparation for the wedding of our youngest daughter. For example, a frame may contain both a childhood image and an image of the bride and groom.

Anyway Diptic ($2) allows you to explore image combinations of the purely digital variety (no frame). Your creations can then be exported as a single image. My own artisitic ability is somewhat limited. If this description fails to generate any ideas, take a quick look at this collection of examples on Flickr.

“We are spending $8 billion to $15 billion per year on textbooks” in the United States, Mr. McNealy says. “It seems to me we could put that all online for free.”

This quote taken from a widely linked NYTimes article. The quote references Scott McNealy of Sun Microsystems fame. McNealy made a fortune when Sun was swallowed up by Oracle.  The articles obviously is focused in McNealy’s position that education resources are drastically overpriced and he has decided to put some of his money into Curriki to offer an alternative.

It is ironic that someone who makes a fortune selling one form of content assumes another form of content should be free. Perhaps now that Bill Gates has made his fortune he might be willing to give Windows away. I happen to think the cost of Adobe products is insanely high. How many versions of CS are there? Do they simply put out another edition to make more money?

Obviously, I find rich guys who have made their fortune working with one form of content complaining about the cost of educational resources to be a bit disingenuous.

Disclosure – I have written a couple of textbooks. I have also written a book I offer at no cost. I am guessing that the folks who develop useful software assume that the risk of the activity and the skill required warrant a reasonable return. I happen to think the same thing about writing a book. I do expect that educational content will take a different form and this will allow a different business model, but the I think the expectation of free is misguided.