Tuesday, April 30, 2002

Scientific American has limited its archives -- so sad #

I went to look for Tim Berners-Lee's article on the semantic web today, only to discover that Scientific American has gone the route of showing only a teaser.  I'm not sure how I feel about this -- I certainly know that there's a great temptation to try to make money directly off their archives.  However, the fact that the magazine has limited access to the article now makes me very hesitant to link to articles in the magazine.  I wonder whether such a move will hurt the publication more in the long term....   Posted by Raymond Yee on 4/30/02; 5:36:57 PM from the Web Technology dept. Discuss

KALW online streaming available #
I'm thrilled that I can access KALW through the internet.  Right at this moment, I'm able to listen to As It Happens.   Posted by Raymond Yee on 4/30/02; 5:12:14 PM from the Personal Notes dept. Discuss

At work on an annotated reading list for ed. tech. standards #

A month ago, I was in the process of writing an article for BC&C to explain educational technology specifications and standards to the campus community.  I wrote a draft that I feel hit upon the key issues but really wasn't terribly engaging.  I had plans to rewrite the article for the upcoming issue of BC&C -- but have now decided to write an annotated reading list instead.  Why?  There's already so much good materials out there that I would be wasting my own time trying to write an essay for which there are already excellent alternatives.  However, I figure that I might be doing a service to the campus by offering a short guide to these materials. I'll be posting later today a rough draft of this guide.  I welcome any suggestions of what you consider excellent starting points in the area of "educational technology standards". Correction:  I won't be posting anything until tomorrow.   Posted by Raymond Yee on 4/30/02; 11:37:34 AM from the Web Technology dept. Discuss

Government and Finance Industry Urge Caution on XML #

"On 5 April 2002, the XML world received a double-dose of sobering news, as reports from both the U.S. General Accounting Office and NACHA, an electronic payments organization, urged their constituents to move cautiously on any commitment to XML. Both reports cite XML's bright promise but express concerns about its stability. Nonetheless, recent events suggest the industry has begun to get the message and started addressing these concerns."   Posted by Raymond Yee on 4/30/02; 7:33:57 AM from the Web Technology dept. Discuss