Wednesday, January 14, 2004

Notelets for 2004.01.14 #

Implementation Challenges Associated with Developing a Web-based E-notebook (JoDI): should be relevant to our work on ScholarsBox. Experimental OAI Registry at UIUC -- a posting about an interesting OAI registry -- will look at once I play with the OpenArchivesInitiative protocol Help Wanted: a Chief Knowledge Officer (Fast Company): What is the biggest business blunder in the past half-century? That's easy: Steve Jobs's decision not to license the Macintosh operating system, which cost Apple $559 billion (going by peak market values). Apple had, and probably still has, a better OS than Microsoft's. Instead of leading a $23 billion also-ran, Jobs could have been Bill Gates, with a company worth $582 billion. But Jobs failed to foresee the Mac OS's decline and to take appropriate action: Give in to the inevitable and license the thing. You can't really blame him. Those who invent something are always the last to part with it. Fortunately for Microsoft, Gates did not invent the original DOS operating system, but bought it. What is bought is easily sold (or, in the case of Windows, leased). It's up to the knowledge chief to cast a cold eye on the future, gather unbiased intelligence on emerging threats and opportunities, and make the tough recommendations to buy, hold, or sell. Gates is a prototype CKO. He passed the chief-executive reins to Steve Ballmer and gave himself a new mission as Microsoft's chief software architect. Gates is still defining his role, but according to Ballmer, it is Gates's job to forecast how "emerging software technologies can be woven together and parlayed into must-have industry-standard products." To put it bluntly, it's up to Gates to ensure that Microsoft continues to control the technology channels that have made it rich. By focusing on this challenge, not on running the company, Gates will determine Microsoft's future success or failure. A knowledge chief must understand, just as Gates had, that every market eventually reaches saturation. The personal computer, for example, is at a point where more memory and faster speeds are irrelevant for most users. Peak computer penetration seems to have been already reached, with about two-thirds of all U.S. households owning one. The PC industry is confronting a replacement market, not a growth market. It is the job of the CKO to anticipate this cycle and to manage its downside. From MIT Technology Review comes the greatest hype I've ever read about any recent technology, not just MIT's OKI project: MIT’s project is "easily of the importance of moveable type, the alphabet, and printing," says Ed Walker, CEO of the IMS Global Learning Consortium, an international group of corporations, governments, and universities that develops international standards for data exchange for educational products and services. Walker has been involved in the Open Knowledge Initiative since its inception. Through the consortium, which is now a partner with MIT, the Institute hopes to promote the use of its definitions worldwide. UC System Inks Five Year Deal with Elsevier, Stops Price Inflation (Library Journal): After an intense negotiation, the University of California system has renewed its bundled deal with leading STM publisher Elsevier--and UC is paying less than before., UC officials announced a five-year agreement with Elsevier, through the California Digital Library (CDL). Letter to UC Faculty from UC librarians   Posted by Raymond Yee on 1/14/04; 10:52:46 PM from the Notelets dept. Discuss

First Written Impressions about the Vancouver Meeting #

I got back from Vancouver late last night.  Today, I was back at work, attending a meeting at the CDL and talking with my colleagues at the IU.  A very good day, full of catching up, reflecting on the great amount of activity in which we have been awashed, and yes, doing a bit of gossiping (that is to say, engaging in communal learning). My hope is to write a thoughtful essay on what I learned in Vancouver -- but sorry, I can't do that right now.  I do have to say that my overall impression is that of a vibrant scene with lots of energy and much progress -- but one that gets very little attention in the U.S.  Not surprising, I suppose, since that's really not that different from all things in how Canadians and Americans relate.  I've been particularly interested in eduSource, particularly the use of the eduSource Communications Language (ECL) in that project and how ECL might be fruitfully applied outside of Canada.  No doubt, I'll have more to say on this topic when I sit down to do some concrete work in the area. There is much more to say -- but I'll leave it at that given that I'm within 10 minutes of 11pm.   Posted by Raymond Yee on 1/14/04; 10:49:35 PM from the Educational Technology dept. Discuss