Fortnightly Mailing

ALT-C 2007 submission deadlines: 14 February (Research); 28 February (Other proposals)

In the other half of the week I work for ALT, and several contributors to Fortnightly Mailing are on the conference programme committee.  I make no apology for mentioning the programme committee for September's ALT Conference, ALT-C 2007: Beyond Control  where the keynote speakers will be:  Michelle Selinger, Education Strategist, Cisco Systems;  Peter Norvig, Director of Research, Google; and Dylan Wiliam, Deputy Director of the Institute of Education).

Key deadlines for the submission of Research Papers and Abstracts:

• last date for Research Papers: 14 February 2007;
• last date for Abstracts for short papers, symposia, workshops, demonstrations and posters: 28 February 2007.

The online paper submission system for ALT-C 2007 is now open, from where you can also access the submission guidelines for research papers and for abstracts,  along with a "research paper remplate".

E-assessment of Short-Answer Questions

Tom Mitchell of the company Intelligent Assessment, sent me a link to E-assessment of Short-Answer Questions [0.5 MB PDF], a succinct and example-rich 10 page "White Paper" published in 2006.

New Wave Computing - Peter Day on BBC "In Business"

Slightly breathless 30-minute business-oriented broadcast, available as an MP3 file, about Open Source software, in the BBC In business series. The programme which was broadcast on 11 January and 14 January 2007, explains clearly what is happening in part of the Open Source world, comparing the UK adversely with the US in its uptake and development of Open Source software, and blaming, in part, the lack of strong Government backing for Open Source software. The individuals interviewed are:

• Paul Sterne of Open-Xchange, an messaging and collaboration product;
• Peter Yared of ActiveGrid, an application development environment;
• John Newton and John Powell of Alfresco, a UK-based content management system;
• Scott Dietzen of Zimbr, a messaging and collaboration environment;
• Paul Radamacher of Google (Radamacher is described as the person who made the first "mash-up" - 2 years ago - linking Google Maps with property information on Craig's List, and who was then recruited by Google);
• Di-Ann Eisnor, of Platial, a.k.a. "The People's Atlas", a map-making system;
• Paul Saffo, writer and technology forecaster.

Home Access Taskforce: to ensure all children (in England) have home access to the internet

Picture reused from previous OLPC post

The BBC reports on the Schools Minister Jim Knight's 10 January speech at the BETT show (a largely schools oriented ICT in education trade show). Excerpt:

"The government is to set up a taskforce to ensure all children have access to the internet outside of school. The government says more than 800,000 children and young people in England are currently not online at home and wants to close the 'digital divide'."

"I am setting up a home access taskforce which I will personally chair. I want this to bring together key industry players, the voluntary sector, and education representatives to look at the issues, because ICT at every child's fingertips is not the be-all and end-all of our ambitions."

Echoes of One Laptop Per Child (OLPC), but with the initial internal study by Dell, RM, and Intel, the impression is that there will be an emphasis on providing devices running proprietary "industry standard"  rather than open source software, and costing rather more that the OLPC machine's $100+. OLPC is directing its efforts at developing countries, but you would imagine that they'd not slam the door in Jim Knight's face if he was to open a dialogue, assuming he has not already done so. Personally I think the issue is as much about connectivity as devices. Increasingly, internet access is like a utility: if connectivity was ubiquitous and free (and there are examples of area-wide WiFi networks with the basic level of connectivity free, not to mention creative initiatives like Fon), then organising the provision of devices would become much more straightfoward.

Many DfES websites on the Government closure list

Over 100 Department for Education and Skills run/funded web sites are amongst the 551 sites closed or due to close under a far-reaching rationalisation of the UK Government's web site presence described in the Government's Transformational Government - Enabled by Technology - Annual Report 2006 [3.6 MB PDF]. One of these is reported to be the Further Education Resources for Learning web site, but my assumption - some readers of Fortnightly Mailing will know if this assumption is correct - is that its contents will be moved somewhere else. Also on the list are:

• National Grid for Learning, which closed in April 2006;
• Help is at Hand;
• ACLearn.net.

A key excerpt from the report is below. From the full list of sites earmarked for closure [795 kB PDF], it is pretty obvious that rationalisation is warranted, especially if the process of redirecting, re-using valuable content, and archiving some of it as cultural assets, is properly managed. However one could imagine that a cruder process of simple closure may actually be the approach taken.

"Website rationalisation

The Government’s objective is to have strong, strategically effective communications and service delivery via the internet, designed around the needs and lifestyles of citizens.

Ministers commissioned the main central government departments to review their websites and develop plans for their rationalisation and the migration of content to the Directgov22 website for citizens and the Business Link23 website for businesses. In the first phase of departmental reviews, 951 websites were considered across 16 central government departments. Decisions have already been taken to close 551 (58 per cent) of these websites; 90 sites have already closed. Decisions have also been taken to continue with 26 websites – although some of their current content will move to Directgov and Business Link – and decisions on the remaining 374 sites will be taken in the next six months. Further discussions will take place over the next few months in order to produce detailed implementation plans, confirm the role of departmental corporate sites, extend the review to executive agencies and non-departmental public bodies, and encourage further collaboration between departments. This will be completed by June 2007."

2 Elsevier executives defect to Biomed Central, saying "the future is open"

2/1/2007 piece in Information World Review by Tracy Cladwell. Extract:

"Two senior publishers have departed Elsevier and joined rival Biomed Central, placing their bets on an open access future for scientific research.

Bryan Vickery joins as deputy publisher, with responsibility for the Chemistry Central portal launched in August. He will also develop a portfolio of open access journals in chemistry.

Chris Leonard will lead the development of open access titles in physics, maths and computer science."

Thanks to Rhonda Riachi for this link

How to test the speed of your broadband connection

The chart (requires Shockwave) in the continuation post below  to  shows the upload and download speeds acheived on my cable connection to the internet. You can test your own connection in the same way from thinkbroadband's web site.

Front Porch Forum: to knit your neighborhood together

Front Porch Forum - not yet available in the UK, but there maybe equivalent services:

"Your neighborhood's forum is only open to the people who live there. It's free and requires no work from you. Simply join and receive occasional email newsletters written by your neighbors. Contribute messages as you like. It's all about helping neighbors connect."

Very high adoption rates are reported, probably in well-heeled areas where the proportion of households with an Internet connection is high. Would this work in the UK?

[23/1/2007. See also the helpful demographic and uptake information below from Michael Wood-Lewis of Front Porch Forum in the comment below.]

Presentations from Boston University Conference: Software Patents - A Time for Change?

Thanks to Jim Farmer for sending this archive containing the programme, background, and summary, and 211 presentation slides [3.2 MB PDF] from a 17 November 2006 conference on software patents.  The event was co-sponsored by the Berkeley Center for Law and Technology, the Computer & Communications Industry Association, the MIT Sloan School of Management, the Public Patent Foundation, and Research on Innovation. 

INFOBITS in continuous production for 13 years. Now with RSS feed.

INFOBITS, written by Carolyn Kotlas has been published for 13 years by the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Each month Carolyn monitors and selects from a number of information and instructional technology sources that come to her attention and provides brief notes for electronic dissemination to educators. I've subscribed to it for at least the last 10 years. I always make a point of at least scan reading it, and usually find at least one item of interest.December 1993 issue. December 2006 issue. RSS feed. Web subscription form.