James Burke

Thinking about Internet memes and “e-learning”

james.burke@deburca.co.uk — Thu, 18 Nov 2010 09:13:00 GMT

A few tweets about the “web culture”, memes and their lack of use in academic conferences got me thinking.

A @storify "curation" below prompted this post which coincided with an Ignite talk by Ben Huh at the Web2.0 Summit earlier this week.

Ben Huh is a former journalist turned dot com entrepreneur who has a knack for nailing the zeitgeist. He has been credited with bringing Internet memes to the mainstream and popularizing Internet culture. The success of his business is attributed to his knowledge of memes, viral content, and crowd sourcing. Ben graduated with a BSJ from Northwestern University’s Medill School of Journalism.

Web2.0 Summit

#cetis10 “Curators, context & collections”

james.burke@deburca.co.uk — Wed, 17 Nov 2010 08:49:00 GMT

Slides, notes and related links for the “Locate, Collate and Aggregate” session at the JISC CETIS Conference 2010.

What metadata is really useful? #cetiswmd

james.burke@deburca.co.uk — Tue, 19 Oct 2010 07:09:00 GMT

A@storify curated bundle of tweets from the cetis event: “what metadata is really useful”.

Using @storify following on from an experiment with using @apture to present #lrnchat tweets, then looking at the rise in curation and use of @curatedby for embedding tweets.

Tags: cetis jisc curation oer

Free(konomic) E-books

james.burke@deburca.co.uk — Mon, 13 Sep 2010 09:55:00 GMT

Whilst re-reading various extracts of Cory Doctorow's book Content this short essay titled “Free(konomic) E-books” from 2007 caught my eye.

The rational question isn't, "Will giving away free e-books cost me sales?" but rather, "Will giving away free e-books win me more sales than it costs me?"

I've had literally thousands of people approach me by e-mail and at signings and cons to say, "I found your work online for free, got hooked, and started buying it." By contrast, I've had all of five e-mails from people saying, "Hey, idiot, thanks for the free book, now I don't have to buy the print edition, ha ha!"

I started giving away e-books after I witnessed the early days of the "bookwarez" scene, wherein fans cut the binding off their favorite books, scanned them, ran them through optical character recognition software, and manually proofread them to eliminate the digitization errors. These fans were easily spending 80 hours to rip their favorite books, and they were only ripping their favorite books, books they loved and wanted to share.

The Internet isn't going to get harder to use. Better to confront this challenge head on, turn it into an opportunity, than to rail against the future (I'm a science fiction writer -- tuning into the future is supposed to be my metier).

Tags: creative commons,ebook

curated.by – making collections out of tweets

james.burke@deburca.co.uk — Fri, 03 Sep 2010 11:55:00 GMT

curated.by (@CuratedBy) is a beta service being developed by Bastian Lehmann and Sam Street that currently allows “collections” of tweets to be “bundled” via a “Bundler” web app or via the twitter website using their Chrome extension.

Bundles can presented as a URL (eg http://curated.by/deburca/open-education-resources-oer) or as a widget that can be embedded into a blog, website page etc.

RSA Animate – The Secret Powers of Time

james.burke@deburca.co.uk — Mon, 14 Jun 2010 15:24:00 GMT

In this beautifully animated video by Andrew Park (of Cognitive Media) forThe RSA, Professor Philip Zimbardo conveys how our individual perspectives of time affect our work, health and well-being. Time influences who we are as a person, how we view relationships and how we act in the world.

Tags: rsa,video,animation,visualisation

A year in public data, a view from within…

james.burke@deburca.co.uk — Sat, 29 May 2010 15:21:00 GMT

Slides from a short talk on The Guardian and open/public data given by Chris Thorpe (@jaggeree) at the Gov2.0 Expo in Washington on the "Four perspectives of data.gov.uk" panel with Sir Tim Berners-Lee, John Sheridan and Dominic Campbell.

At the same conference Tim O’Reilly had a discussion (videoed) with Aneesh Chopra around “Government as a Platform” and in particular Healthcare.

Tags: government,web2.0,web3.0,platform,data,open standards,open innovation

Bike to Work - cycle2work

james.burke@deburca.co.uk — Tue, 25 May 2010 21:09:00 GMT

Bike to Work is a great “Digital Guide to Bicycle Commuting” by Carlton Reid (@calrtonreid).

This 98 page guide covers cash incentives (including the UK cycle2work scheme) “women on wheels”, security and clothing and more.

Yes, there are lots of adverts but much of this is just “cycle porn”!

There are some great counter points to “I don’t have time”, “I’ll get all sweaty”, “I’ll smell”, “My co-workers will laugh at me”, “Only expensive bikes are good”, “I can’t, I have to wear a suit” and so on.

For me, I’m going to return to my 23 mile each way commute to the office on the back of this and use @runkeeper to keep track of commutes…!

The State of LinkedIn

james.burke@deburca.co.uk — Tue, 25 May 2010 15:56:00 GMT

LinkedIn(CrunchBase profile) is the “de-facto” business/professional social networking site.

Personally I use LinkedIn as a “CV” but I’m not an avid “connector” in the business sense using this platform nor a user of this platform in the “social media” sense, however, my use case aside, the growth of the platform is undeniably impressive and this platform is around to stay as a “whuffie” component.

This infographic by Vincenzo Cosenza (licensed under a Creative Commons licence) provides a good current overview of the platform.

Tags: social media,linkedin,whuffie,social graph

Curation is the "new black"...!?

james.burke@deburca.co.uk — Sun, 23 May 2010 18:09:00 GMT

The term "curation" appears to be on the rise lately in many web, iPhone and iPad applications emerging and mainstream blog articles being published such as “Why Content Curation is Here to Stay” and “Curators of the Real-Time Web: Distilling the chatter to relevant, actionable information” although this is not showing up too much yet on google trends.

User Generated Content (UGC) has become the "norm" in many web2.0 and post web2.0 applications where text, images, audio, video etc. is openly shared and licenced with licences such as Creative Commons or freely shared via the "embed" where legal reuse and repurposing rights and obligations can sometimes be difficult to ascertain due to that lack of an adopted content licence.

RSS is well established for sharing a "collection" of resources from a single source and OPML is gaining adoption for "collections" of resources from multiple sources. On the real-time-web front protocols such as PubSubHubbub allow the real-time publishing of feeds but the usefulness and relevance of these feeds appears to be sparking a new area of interest in web apps.

One aspect of "Web 3.0" could be seen as the "return of the expert" and the rise and validation of the "subject matter expert" where their curated "works" is seen as holding value over and above other people and their collections due to them having more contextual social capital or "whuffie".

Tags: curation,web2.0,web3.0,creative commons,social media,social capital,whuffie

9/11 Commission Report – from Public Domain to Graphic Novel

james.burke@deburca.co.uk — Sat, 22 May 2010 10:18:00 GMT

The 9/11 Commission Report, formally named Final Report of the National Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States, is the official report of the events leading up to the September 11, 2001 attacks. It was prepared by the National Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States (informally sometimes known as the "9/11 Commission" or the "Kean/Hamilton Commission") at the request of the President and Congress, and is available to the public for sale or free download.

The 9/11 Commission Report was released to the Public Domain(follow @thepublicdomain if interested in this topic) and available as a PDF, on scribd (flash & HTML5), LibreVox audio and an XHTML version amongst many other formats.

The 9/11 Report: A Graphic Adaptation by Sid Jacobson and Ernie Colón, and published by Hill & Wang, is an abridged graphic novel adaptation of the report (although a copyrighted work).

Tags: public domain,creative commons,graphic novel,comic,remix

Fiat Mio - a Creative Commons Concept Car

james.burke@deburca.co.uk — Fri, 21 May 2010 16:25:00 GMT

The Fiat Mio CC (@fiatmio) is a concept car where more than 15,000 people have submitted their ideas and contributions against 21 topics / discussion areas. All contributions have been submitted under a Creative Commons licence (see Fiat's terms) and have been used to shape the Fiat Concept Car III (FCC III) - "a car to call your own".

Users were stimulated to think in broad terms about traffic and life onboard. From the analysis of almost 17 thousand contributors, a briefing was elaborated containing the most popular ideas, suggestions and demands that make more sense with regard to the scenery faced by most participants. The end result was summarized as follows:

“A compact and agile car, comfortable and safe with innovative traffic solutions for big cities, a pollutant-free engine and the capacity to receive personalized updates, and changes in configuration, and having interface between car and user”.

The FCC III is the end result of this briefing. Fiat will unveil this future Concept Car at the Automobile Show in October 2010.

Tags: open source,creative commons,fiat,mio

Open Source Architecture

james.burke@deburca.co.uk — Wed, 19 May 2010 16:52:00 GMT

Cameron Sinclair is the 2006 TED Prize winner and co-founder (and “Chief Eternal Optimist”) of Architecture for Humanity (@archforhumanity) and the Open Architecture Network, a non-profit that seeks architecture solutions to global crises.

Hundreds of projects are available on the Open Architecture Network and are all licensed with a Creative Commons licence – eg “Adaptable Hillside Classrooms”.

Each project contains a workspace, team profiles, project updates and access to related files that aims to offer open source architectural plans and blueprints on the web.

Tags: open source,creative commons,architecture,ted

Connection is what humans crave

james.burke@deburca.co.uk — Mon, 29 Mar 2010 15:29:00 GMT

Lets get real about this, connection is what humans crave...

Tags: bbc,virtual revolution

#debill to be passed on a good day to bury bad news…!?

james.burke@deburca.co.uk — Mon, 29 Mar 2010 13:49:00 GMT

The second reading of the Digital Economy Bill (#debill) has been confirmed for the 6th April 2010.

We are now entering the time for “wash-up” of unfinished business before Dissolution of Parliament which apparently was announced by MP Tom Watson earlier today at the Games Based Learning Conference.

The #debill has caused much debate in the Internet community together with lobbying for and against but very little quality and detailed debate by the elected Ministers of Parliament has occurred. Many letters have been sent by constituents to their MP’s and under the FOI Act one letter has a note from MP Clare Short in which she confesses "I am afraid I do not really understand the complaint but I would be grateful for your response." which highlights the issue rather well.

38 Degrees has teamed up with the Open Rights Group in providing an easy to use means of sending a letter to your MP requesting proper debate on this bill (copy of response from MP William Hague).

If you live in the UK this Bill could affect you both domestically and professionally. The articles by The Guardian and a brief from the Open Rights Group provide a good way of “getting up to speed” on this Bill and the issues surrounding it.

Tags: debill,deact,digital economy,broadband,copyright

Is the web making us conform and be less individual, is free devaluing our things?

james.burke@deburca.co.uk — Sun, 21 Feb 2010 16:31:00 GMT

In this video interview with Doug Rushcoff for the excellent BBC Virtual Revolution series he explores the nature of the web as free.

Are we conforming our web identities to a “completely formatted” and predictable existence on the web using tools like the market friendly presence of a facebook page as opposed to the freeform and often chaotic nature of myspace profiles? “You know, what we've done is moved from personal, human, open-ended self-expression to completely market and computer-friendly regimented and conformist expression”?

Google wants every system to be open. But what Google really want is every system to be open to Google so that Google can serve ads through every piece of technology. You know, the same way that the World Bank says, 'Oh, we want to give money to all these developing nations as long as they open their markets to first world activity. That means, we're going to give them money so that they allow a factory to be opened on their land, you know, we're going to give them money so they have the privilege of paying us back with interest.'

“Things are free and things are devalued now”.

Doug Rushkoff interview below:

BBC Digital Revolution licence

All interview clips & rushes from the BBC Virtual Revolution series available here.

Tags: bbc,virtual revolution,profile

TED is great, unless you are not there…!

james.burke@deburca.co.uk — Sun, 14 Feb 2010 18:57:00 GMT

This year the anti-TED movement seems to have geared up a level with criticism coming right, left and centre with TechCrunch seeming to lead the way…

I like TED (@TEDtalks).

I like how all the TED talks are distributed under a Creative Commons licence.

I like the annual TED conference where attendees gather for a “brain spa” and a number of those talks are subsequently used for various follow-on campaigns, eg:

Al Gore on averting climate crisis
Tim Berners-Lee on the next Web which proved a helpful reference point to establishing http://data.gov.uk/ and
Jamie Oliver's TED Prize wish: Teach every child about food which I think that we will be seeing a lot more of this year.

I like TEDx where local communities such as schools, businesses, libraries, neighbourhoods or just groups of friends to organize, design and host their own independent, TED-like events .

Is TED elitist?, “yes, (in a good way), but also no”

Tags: ted,1938media,creative commons

Interacting with data using Microsoft Pivot

james.burke@deburca.co.uk — Fri, 12 Feb 2010 17:19:00 GMT

The Microsoft Pivot project is now available outside for general download and its an impressive tool for visualising and interacting with data.

Tags: microsoft,pivot,data

Remix Culture – social play and copyright policy

james.burke@deburca.co.uk — Mon, 08 Feb 2010 11:16:00 GMT

This Julian Sanchez 8-minute video on remix culture talks about how this isn't just about sitting around your house remixing, but often turns into a social event among remixers and their friends.

via boing boing (@boingboing)

Tags: creative commons,remix,copyright

TED Talk – David S Rose on How to Pitch to a VC

james.burke@deburca.co.uk — Sun, 07 Feb 2010 01:43:00 GMT

An excellent sub 15 minute video by David S Rose on How to Pitch to a VC

This is an excellent sub 15 minute presentation by David S Rose (http://www.rose.vc/) on “How to Pitch to a VC” as delivered at TED in 2007.

Tags: ted,vc,pitch,investment

Reflecting on a week of tweets, could be useful?

james.burke@deburca.co.uk — Fri, 05 Feb 2010 15:30:00 GMT

I’m treating this blog post as an experiment to see if reflecting on tweets over the past week unearths any useful activity for taking forward!

Tags: twitter

#lrnchat 90 minutes exploring training and learning myths & truths

james.burke@deburca.co.uk — Fri, 05 Feb 2010 09:48:00 GMT

#lrnchat is a weekly twitter discussion that occurs every Thursday evening from 8:30 est, yesterdays explored some of the myths around training and learning

Tags: lrmchat,training,learning,lurker,learning

Open Innovation / Innovation in Open Networks

james.burke@deburca.co.uk — Fri, 29 Jan 2010 10:08:00 GMT

This TEDx Dubai 2009 talk by Joi Ito is a great introduction to the technical and legal stack underpinning and driving innovation in open networks with a focus on how sharing changes things.

Tags: ted,tedxdubai,joi ito,open standards,open stack,creative commons,osi,prezi,vc,investment,open source

Entrepreneurs Manifesto: If you are silent, you are part of the problem

james.burke@deburca.co.uk — Tue, 19 Jan 2010 10:30:00 GMT

Yesterday Doug Richard took part in a live webchat before publishing his Entrepreneurs Manifesto accompanied by a short background interview carried out by Smarta staff.

Tags: menifesto,entrepreneur,doug richard,business link,digital britain

What Matters Now – free e-book from @ThisIsSethsBlog

james.burke@deburca.co.uk — Tue, 15 Dec 2009 15:54:00 GMT

What Matters Now is a free e-book from Seth Godin (@ThisIsSethsBlog) containing thoughts/ideas from 70 big thinkers.

Tags: seth godin,squidoo,joi ito

Startup Metrics Model – from AARRR! to RARR!

james.burke@deburca.co.uk — Fri, 04 Dec 2009 14:08:00 GMT

Inspired by Jude Gomila’s post on Mapping Out Your Web Startup which in turn is based on Dave McClure’s Startup Metrics 101 I thought that I’d have a go at creating a framework for applying relevant metrics to – sounding less of a pirate going from AARRR! to RARR! though…

Tags: metrics,startups

Creative Commons Licences and use of Trademarks to protect your work

james.burke@deburca.co.uk — Thu, 03 Dec 2009 10:18:00 GMT

CCLearn has prepared a useful guide on CC Licenses and Trademarks targeted towards organisations creating OER works but is of use to any organisation wanting to allow others to adapt, localise and remix their works whilst still retaining retain control of their intellectual property rights including copyright and also trademark(s)

Tags: creative commons,trademark,oer,opsi

The difference engine (ala Y Combinator, Techstars, Seedcamp) launches

james.burke@deburca.co.uk — Mon, 30 Nov 2009 11:06:00 GMT

The Difference Engine is a new programme for early stage digital businesses that provides £20k funding and mentoring support over a 16 week period for 10 companies, the programme runs twice a year.

Tags: startups,incubator,techstars,ycombinator,difference engine,codeworks

A Wordle of this blog...

james.burke@deburca.co.uk — Sat, 28 Nov 2009 18:04:00 GMT

A quick wordle of this blog…

Tags: wordle,tagcloud,blog

Digital North East – a regional #digitalbritain strategy for the digital sector

james.burke@deburca.co.uk — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 23:00:00 GMT

Digital North East is a North East England regional strategy that aims to expand the digital sector and stimulate the regions economy through digital technology. The strategy, which is owned by ONE North East.

Tags: north east,digital britain,digital economy,strategy

50 Years of Space Exploration - Seadragon Ajax version

james.burke@deburca.co.uk — Sun, 18 Oct 2009 15:41:00 GMT

50 Years of Space Exploration in one graphic that you can zoom and pan around

Tags: infographic,ajax,seadragon,deepzoom,space

Using Apture to collate resources and <embed> in any page

james.burke@deburca.co.uk — Sun, 18 Oct 2009 08:00:00 GMT

Apture is a great addition to any website that provides and there is now a creator/builder tool that allows you to collate and embed resources in any webpage without the need to install any apture related plugins.

Tags: apture,semantic,embed

CCPlus / CC+ – being clear with Creative Commons AND your own agreement

james.burke@deburca.co.uk — Fri, 09 Oct 2009 10:18:00 GMT

CCPlus allows you to clearly add a human, legal and machine readable Creative Commons (CC) licence to your work PLUS clearly highlighting to users how they can obtain any additional rights not granted by the CC licence.

Tags: creative commons,cc0,copyright

Videographics from the Economist

james.burke@deburca.co.uk — Thu, 01 Oct 2009 14:11:00 GMT

The Economist now has an interesting section on videographics, each of which can be downloaded or embedded into blogs, teaching resources etc.

Tags: infographic,economist

Bookmarking is a delicious gateway drug to Social Media

james.burke@deburca.co.uk — Wed, 30 Sep 2009 11:54:00 GMT

Social Media is now mainstream in most web applications that deliver content and have a community that consume and influence that content. Over the last few months I have been training various staff in the NHS where an appreciation regarding the benefits of embracing social media was needed to be quickly acquired before moving on to more specific training relating to e-learning – I needed to get them hooked on and bought into the concepts Social Media quickly – bookmarking ended up be my delicious gateway drug to Social Media!

Student loans and decades of debt

james.burke@deburca.co.uk — Tue, 29 Sep 2009 08:01:00 GMT

It is that time of year again when students embark on Higher Education and take on loans to cover fees and living expenses, but where does all that money go and how long does it take to pay it back…?

Tags: infographic,student,debt

MindMapping on the iPhone

james.burke@deburca.co.uk — Fri, 21 Aug 2009 10:40:00 GMT

I’ve been a fan of mindmapping techniques for many years and used a number of different applications on Windows and the Mac, now there is an iPhone application from MindMeister and first impressions are good.

Tags: mindmap,iphone,mindjet,mindmeister

Thoughts on teaching resources, Copyright and Creative Commons #ukoer

james.burke@deburca.co.uk — Tue, 18 Aug 2009 18:03:00 GMT

Open Education Resources (OERs) are gaining momentum with licences such as Creative Commons proving to be an enabler for the promotion, sharing and repurposing of copyrighted materials without seeking permission directly from the copyright owner. Creative Commons is a great mechanism to clearly exercise your rights for legal interoperability but they could be used to greater effect in schools and Higher Education?

Tags: oer,creative commons

Digital economy can lift Europe out of crisis, says Commission report

james.burke@deburca.co.uk — Tue, 04 Aug 2009 17:46:00 GMT

The European Commission's Digital Competitiveness report published today shows that Europe's digital sector has made strong progress since 2005. Europe can advance even further as a generation of digitally savvy young Europeans becomes a strong market driver for growth and innovation. Building on the potential of the digital economy is essential for Europe's sustainable recovery from the economic crisis. Today the Commission has asked the public what future strategy the EU should adopt to make the digital economy run at full speed.

Tags: digital economy,europe,ict

Digital North East – a regional #digitalbritain strategy for the digital sector

james.burke@deburca.co.uk — Fri, 31 Jul 2009 06:19:22 GMT

Digital Economy – Where Do You Think Youre Going…? #wdytyg

james.burke@deburca.co.uk — Mon, 06 Jul 2009 11:12:00 GMT

The Internet has evolved in the last 20 years from a network connecting people to a bigger network connecting more people, but has something more significant happened during this expansion? This is a copy of the presentation delivered at the #wdytyg workshop.

Tags: digital economy,digital britain,creative commons,open source,wikinomics

The Edgeless University: why higher education must embrace technology #edge09

james.burke@deburca.co.uk — Tue, 23 Jun 2009 09:53:00 GMT

A Demos report funded by the JISC that looks at how technology is changing Universities as they become just one source among many for ideas, knowledge and innovation.

Tags: university,jisc,demos

Universities should be the incubators of creation

james.burke@deburca.co.uk — Sun, 21 Jun 2009 22:15:00 GMT

Tech podcast This Week in Tech episode 197 had a really good discussion at the end about education and how pedagogy and the models of learning really need to change to cater to the students paying to go through the system.

Tags: university,incubator,innovation

Twitter Whore – Essential Twittering and follow me…

james.burke@deburca.co.uk — Wed, 15 Apr 2009 20:12:00 GMT

I first came across these videos last summer but they still feel fresh and, to me, clearly illustrate what twitter can be to some people and the driving force of increasing followers!

Tags: twitter

Walk This Wii – A Technology Junkie Scenario

james.burke@deburca.co.uk — Sun, 12 Apr 2009 18:09:00 GMT

John in Fairfax provided this excellent scenario relating to his usage of technology discussed during Buzz out Loud episode 947

Tags: wii,bol

Thoughts on Building a Reputation System

james.burke@deburca.co.uk — Sat, 11 Apr 2009 22:08:00 GMT

An appropriate reputation system is essential for any application that has a community and aims to provide an insight into the reputation and authority of members within the community but where to start…

Tags: profile,reputation,social capital,whuffie,design patterns

The Public Domain: enclosing the commons of the mind

james.burke@deburca.co.uk — Tue, 10 Mar 2009 22:02:00 GMT

This evening I listened in to the RSA Event - The Public Domain: enclosing the commons of the mind delivered by Professor James Boyle. In his new book The Public Domain, Professor James Boyle describes how our culture, science and economic welfare all depend on the delicate balance between those ideas that are controlled and those that are free, between intellectual property and the public domain —the realm of material that everyone is free to use and share without permission or fee.

Tags: rsa,public domain,james boyle,creative commons

Headup – A Semantic Web Firefox Addon

james.burke@deburca.co.uk — Mon, 09 Mar 2009 16:39:00 GMT

Headup is a beta firefox addon that provides seamless access to relevant related content as you browse.

Tags: semantic,firefox,headup

Using Deep Zoom Composer for Seadragon Ajax (Gigapixel images)

james.burke@deburca.co.uk — Sun, 08 Mar 2009 20:41:00 GMT

Using Microsoft Deep Zoom Composer to present Gigapixel images via the web.

Tags: deepzoom,photosynth,seadragon,ted

Practical Application of Deep Zoom for Office Applications

james.burke@deburca.co.uk — Sat, 07 Mar 2009 22:29:00 GMT

Microsoft have been demonstrating Seadragon technology and Deep Zoom for a couple of years now primarily in the form of Photosynth; the latest concept tests from Microsoft Office Labs are really starting to show some potential for day to day use within the Office suite.

Tags: seadragon,deepzoom,photosynth,canvas,microsoft

CMS: Content Technologies Vendor Map & Web Trend Map

james.burke@deburca.co.uk — Sat, 07 Mar 2009 16:49:00 GMT

CMS Watch have released a subway style map illustrating 100 CMS / Content Technology vendors with categories: Enterprise Content Management; Web Content Management; Enterprise Portal; Web Analytics; Search & Information Access; XML & Component Management; Social Software & Collaboration and Digital Assets Management.

Tags: cms,map,tube

ccLearn: What is an Open Educational Resource.?

james.burke@deburca.co.uk — Mon, 22 Dec 2008 08:54:00 GMT

As the term OER (Open Educational Resources) gains traction the definition of what makes an educational resource Open in terms of licensing is a mixed picture.

Tags: oer,cclearn,creative commons,hefce,jorum,licence,copyright,mit,openlearn

An Update on the Creative Commons ccLearn project

james.burke@deburca.co.uk — Thu, 11 Dec 2008 07:50:00 GMT

An update on the Creative Commons project: ccLearn from the December email Newsletter

Tags: cclearn,creative commons,oer

Thinking Digital 2009 Shaping Up

james.burke@deburca.co.uk — Sat, 29 Nov 2008 21:21:00 GMT

Thinking Digital is in the final planning stages for May 2009 and their blog and twitter is worth a look at for updates as the programme and speaker list develops.

Tags: tdc,thinking digital,codeworks,north east,conference

Thinking Digital 2009 Shaping Up

james.burke@deburca.co.uk — Sat, 29 Nov 2008 21:21:00 GMT

Thinking Digital is in the final planning stages for May 2009 and their blog and twitter is worth a look at for updates as the programme and speaker list develops.

Open Source Business Models - not just for software...

james.burke@deburca.co.uk — Sat, 08 Nov 2008 08:28:00 GMT

Business models around Open Source Software have matured over the last 10 years generating significant revenues for those organisations that open up their intellectual property. This open source approach is now spreading into other areas where collaboration, peering, openness and sharing can bring tangible benefits to all participants.

Tags: open source,business model,innovation,biobricks,reprap,goldcorp,wikinomics

Word Clouds and Tag Clouds

james.burke@deburca.co.uk — Fri, 31 Oct 2008 00:00:23 GMT

Tag clouds may have become a little passe for websites but they offer lots of scope for written reports.

Loren Feldman: Web 2.0 - Its Over...

james.burke@deburca.co.uk — Sun, 12 Oct 2008 21:20:00 GMT

Lots of thoughts, blogs etc. on the demise of Web2.0 in conjunction with the global financial crisis which Loren Feldman from 1938media sums succinctly in his own way!

Tags: 1938media,web2.0

Future of Web Apps (FOWA) 2008 - leaving with inspiration

james.burke@deburca.co.uk — Sat, 11 Oct 2008 19:47:00 GMT

It was my second year at FOWA UK and although I left with a feeling that I saw nothing new or innovative I did leave feeling inspired which to me is what this conference is all about. Ryan Carson and the Carsonified team definitely deliver the best conference in this space and the fact that there will be hundreds of blog articles by people reflecting on the conference this week has got be a great complement.

Tags: fowa,carsonified,social graph,digg,cop,scalability

Steve Balmer - Interview with BBCs Rory Cellan-Jones in the UK

james.burke@deburca.co.uk — Sat, 04 Oct 2008 20:22:00 GMT

Steve Balmer was doing the rounds in Europe ealier this week and the BBCs Rory Cellan-Jones conducted a short but wide ranging interview with him on the 2nd October.

Tags: bbc,microsoft,balmer

PLEs and more Scary Web2.0 Software in the Workplace - Yammer!

james.burke@deburca.co.uk — Sat, 27 Sep 2008 13:39:00 GMT

Personal Learning Environments (PLEs) have been around for quite a while in conceptual form but various technology implementations are now starting to offer not only the academic but also the commercial workplace some tangible benefits with simple small steps implementation - but should this scary Web2.0 technology be introduced into the workplace!?

Tags: ple,e-portfolio,yammer

VRM - The Personal Platform; A Free Customer is more Valuable Than a Captive One

james.burke@deburca.co.uk — Wed, 24 Sep 2008 00:19:00 GMT

VRM can play a pivotal role in the creation of the Personal Platform.

Tags: vrm,crm

Top 10 Tools Used on a Daily Basis

james.burke@deburca.co.uk — Tue, 23 Sep 2008 23:18:00 GMT

A top 10 list of tools that I use on a regular basis that just make life easier with a computer...

Tags: webware,twitter,crm,netvibes,firefox,dotnetnuke

Whuffie: Social Capital and Winning with Online Communities

james.burke@deburca.co.uk — Tue, 23 Sep 2008 22:14:00 GMT

Social Capital is often referred to as the currency of the web but what is this social capital and the whuffie thing...!?

Tags: social capital,whuffie,reputation,trust,authority,social graph

The Interfering iPhone?

james.burke@deburca.co.uk — Sat, 16 Aug 2008 23:00:00 GMT

The iPhone is a great device but like many smartphones includes a large number of radio transmitters/receivers that may interefere with other devices.

Tags: iphone,wireless,wifi,gps,blutooth,3g,gsm,polar

BBC Radio Podcasts for the iPhone

james.burke@deburca.co.uk — Thu, 14 Aug 2008 23:00:00 GMT

The BBC has many great podcasts from its radio channels available for downloading and transferring to an MP3 player, there is now a beta iPhone page that streams podcasts on demand.

Tags: bbc,iphone,podcast

A Week of Podcasts

james.burke@deburca.co.uk — Sat, 05 Jul 2008 23:00:00 GMT

Podcasts are a great way of keeping up to date with technology news to supplement blogs, tweets etc. These are my favourite daily and weekly technical podcasts.

Tags: podcast,twit,bol,cranky geeks

Social Media in Plain English - social ice cream

james.burke@deburca.co.uk — Fri, 30 May 2008 23:00:00 GMT

Another Plain English video from Common Craft - this video introduces Social Media by the way of a story about ice cream in the fictional town of Scoopville

Tags: social media,common craft,plain english

Shift Happens - Did You Know? 2.0

james.burke@deburca.co.uk — Thu, 22 May 2008 23:00:00 GMT

This is a presentation that is intended to be a conversation opener to reflect upon shifts that are happening in to consider the implications for education.

Tags: shift happens,xplane,ted

Thinking Digital - continuing the conversation

james.burke@deburca.co.uk — Wed, 21 May 2008 23:00:00 GMT

Thinking Digital is a two and a half day conference where an eclectic mix of outstanding individuals gather together in Gateshead & Newcastle upon Tyne to take part in a conversation about technology, ideas and our future.

Tags: thinking digital,twitter,zeitgeist,north east

Examples of Microformats and the Operator plugin for Firefox

james.burke@deburca.co.uk — Sat, 22 Mar 2008 23:00:00 GMT

Microformats are designed for humans first and machines second, but what do they look like and how can they be used?

Tags: operator,firefox,microformats

Microformats - Adding Semantics to Existing Content

james.burke@deburca.co.uk — Sat, 22 Mar 2008 00:00:00 GMT

Microformats are one way for providing more intelligent data on the web following a reduce, reuse and recycle principle.

Tags: microformats,metadata

Sport Relief Mashup - quick, cost effective dynamic website content

james.burke@deburca.co.uk — Fri, 14 Mar 2008 23:00:00 GMT

The two day Sport Relief Super Cycle undertaken by Alan Shearer and Adrian Chiles made good use of a wide range of technologies mashed together in a single page that provided dynamic updates of their progress

Tags: social media,twitter,gps

Web 2.0 to Web 3.0

james.burke@deburca.co.uk — Wed, 12 Mar 2008 00:00:00 GMT

Web 2.0 to Web 3.0 and its relevance to e-learning

Twitter - in Plain English

james.burke@deburca.co.uk — Thu, 06 Mar 2008 00:00:00 GMT

Another excellent Plain English video from Common Craft - this time its Twitter and I am hooked!

Tags: twitter,common craft,plain english

Net Neutrality - The Internet is at Stake!

james.burke@deburca.co.uk — Wed, 05 Mar 2008 00:00:00 GMT

If I pay to connect to the Internet, and you pay to connect to the Internet, it is fair to assume that you and I can communicate without having to refer to another authority and potentially pay a premium for that communication. This is not how we have grown accustomed to using the Internet but can we take this model of communication for granted in the future?

Tags: net neutrality,internet

The Birth of Wikipedia

james.burke@deburca.co.uk — Sat, 23 Feb 2008 00:00:00 GMT

This 20 minute video from TED delivered by Jimmy Wales describes how a ragtag band of volunteers created Wikipedia

Tags: ted,wikipedia

Time is a Strategic choice, Attention is a Personal choice

james.burke@deburca.co.uk — Wed, 20 Feb 2008 00:00:00 GMT

This is the opening slide from netvibes founder Tariq Krim at last years FOWA conference in London

Tags: netvibes,open social,social graph

Open your mind to sharing innovation

james.burke@deburca.co.uk — Thu, 07 Feb 2008 00:00:00 GMT

Open Source and Creative Commons licensing supports new ways to share ideas that can accelerate your company’s rate of innovation and growth, how could this work and what are the potential benefits?

Tags: open innovation,creative commons,open source,open standards

Data Portability

james.burke@deburca.co.uk — Mon, 04 Feb 2008 23:00:00 GMT

The DataPortability group is gathering pace with membership to the group recently attracting people from Google, Facebook, Plaxo and Microsoft to but name a few, but what is Data Portability?

Tags: data portability,creative commons,open standards

Worldwide Connectivity Scorecard

james.burke@deburca.co.uk — Sun, 03 Feb 2008 23:00:00 GMT

A report by Leonard Waverman of the London Business School that takes a fresh look at worldwide connectivity and looks beyond broadband bandwidth and more at how consumers, businesses and governments are actually using technology.

Tags: oecd,connectivity

The Fragile Internet

james.burke@deburca.co.uk — Sat, 02 Feb 2008 00:00:00 GMT

Following the submarine cable breaks earlier this week that disrupted Internet services in the Middle East and India, how secure and robust is the Internet?

Tags: internet,broadband,infrastructure

Blogs - in Plain English

james.burke@deburca.co.uk — Thu, 31 Jan 2008 00:00:00 GMT

Another exellent video by Common Craft introducing blogs and how they were inspired from news.

Tags: blog,common craft,plain english

90-9-1 theory

james.burke@deburca.co.uk — Wed, 30 Jan 2008 23:00:00 GMT

The 90-9-1 theory explains the percentage of a wiki's particpation, breaking it down as readers being the highest percent, with minor contributors composing the 9 percent and enthusiastic and active contributors composing 1 percent of the total participants in a wiki.

Tags: 90-9-1,participation,lurker,wikipedia,cop

Testing tool for IMS Common Catridge format

james.burke@deburca.co.uk — Tue, 22 Jan 2008 00:00:00 GMT

IMS Global Learning Consortium announces development of community source software for testing content in the Common Cartridge format

Tags: ims,common cartridge,open standards

Reflective learning

james.burke@deburca.co.uk — Tue, 15 Jan 2008 23:00:00 GMT

Over at DIGG there are a number of optical illusion related links but this one from hemmy.net got me thinking about reflective learning and web 2.0 in education.

Tags: e-portfolio,jisc

Public Domain Day

james.burke@deburca.co.uk — Mon, 31 Dec 2007 23:00:00 GMT

Today is Public Domain Day in most countries of the world, where copyright runs from the death of the author of a work until the end of the 50th, 70th, or some other year thereafter depending on the country. Today is the first day where works which have passed out of copyright first enter the public domain.

Creative Commons Journal

james.burke@deburca.co.uk — Thu, 27 Dec 2007 23:00:00 GMT

The University of Edinburgh School of Law has started to publish a journal under a Creative Commons licence.

Tags: creative commons,script-ed

Geeks on Christmas Eve

james.burke@deburca.co.uk — Sun, 23 Dec 2007 23:00:00 GMT

Its not only Santa that stays up late on Christmas Eve...

Tags: xkcd

Syncing Phone and MP3 on the move in the car

james.burke@deburca.co.uk — Fri, 21 Dec 2007 00:00:00 GMT

Microsoft Sync has launched in the US and adverts for the vehicle manufacturer Lincoln are playing regularly on TV. Sync essentially provides centrally dashboard display of phone and music player devices along with interaction of those devices via voice.

Tags: microsoft,sync

Here comes another bubble

james.burke@deburca.co.uk — Sat, 08 Dec 2007 00:00:00 GMT

The Web 2.0 bubble as portrayed in a catchy little song with video, and yes - as the song says I blogged about it...

Tags: web2.0,bubble

LMS - does anybody want to be an LMS vendor anymore?

james.burke@deburca.co.uk — Thu, 06 Dec 2007 23:00:00 GMT

Learning Management Systems (LMS) vendors appear to be distancing themselves from their core products and the delivery of self directed e-learning frameworks towards embracing community and social networking.

Tags: lms

Technorati relaunch

james.burke@deburca.co.uk — Tue, 04 Dec 2007 00:00:00 GMT

Technorati has had a relaunch today with a new core focus on bloggers

Tags: blog,technorati,creative commons

Fasthosts password reset - customers locked out waiting for post...

james.burke@deburca.co.uk — Sun, 02 Dec 2007 00:00:00 GMT

In mid-October Fastshosts had a security breach and asked all customers to change their control panel, email and FTP passwords, some did not and as a result all shared server sites passwords were changed with no notice late last Thursday evening.

Tags: fasthosts

Zoho - Take your online documents offline...

james.burke@deburca.co.uk — Mon, 26 Nov 2007 23:00:00 GMT

Zoho has beaten Google to implementing Google Gears into their online word processer - Zoho Writer

Tags: zoho,gears,google

Google and Yahoo - Global Reach Stats over 5 years

james.burke@deburca.co.uk — Mon, 26 Nov 2007 00:00:00 GMT

This chart from Alexa shows the global reach to the Google and Yahoo sites - Yahoo has been leading Google for the last 2 years

Tags: google,yahoo,alexa

eLearning Usage is on the Rise

james.burke@deburca.co.uk — Fri, 23 Nov 2007 00:00:00 GMT

According to the American Society for Training & Development (ASTD) the use of eLearning in the US is on the rise with technology-based delivery accounting for approximately 30% of learning hours.

Tags: elearning,cop

News Corp eyeing up LinkedIn

james.burke@deburca.co.uk — Thu, 22 Nov 2007 23:00:00 GMT

According to Tech Crunch News Corp may be looking to acquire business social network LinkedIn

Tags: linkedin,social capital

Safari Books Online

james.burke@deburca.co.uk — Mon, 19 Nov 2007 00:00:00 GMT

The books from OReilly have always been a favourite of mine, particularly with the open flat friendly spines, but I have finally succumbed to an subscription to their online bookshelf.

Tags: safari,oreilly

Scribd licence handling now improved - CC update

james.burke@deburca.co.uk — Mon, 19 Nov 2007 00:00:00 GMT

Scribd is one of my favourite document sharing sites - they have recently overhauled their interface and included new features, including clearer handling of Creative Commons licences

Tags: scribd,creative commons

26% of Canadians use the Internet for Learning

james.burke@deburca.co.uk — Mon, 05 Nov 2007 00:00:00 GMT

Richard Nantel, CEO of Brandon Hall, has reported in his blog this rather impressive statistic for any country

Tags: elearning,internet

Learning through Reinforcing Synergies

james.burke@deburca.co.uk — Fri, 02 Nov 2007 00:00:00 GMT

The Reinforcing Synergies project aims to stimulate improved awareness, understanding and adoption of e-business in North East England, and to transfer the learning which emerges to Pomerania in Poland.

Tags: sme,north east

The Internet - this may change the world...!

james.burke@deburca.co.uk — Thu, 01 Nov 2007 00:00:00 GMT

This video on a new thing called the Internet from the 1990s. Amazingly the same soundbites about what can be achieved by using the Internet and e-business are being used today...

Tags: internet

Google OpenSocial – a hub for social networks

james.burke@deburca.co.uk — Wed, 31 Oct 2007 00:00:00 GMT

Google is launching OpenSocial this Thursday which allows developers to create a single application for partner social networks that can access profile, friends and activity APIs.

Tags: google,open social

Todays Learning Terrain

james.burke@deburca.co.uk — Tue, 30 Oct 2007 23:00:00 GMT

What is the state of play within the learning environments used in education and business today?

Tags: elearning

The Goldcorp Challenge

james.burke@deburca.co.uk — Wed, 24 Oct 2007 23:00:00 GMT

In early 2000 Goldcorp Inc “Open Sourced” its proprietary information in its core business - gold-mining.

Tags: goldcorp,wikinomics

A vision of students today

james.burke@deburca.co.uk — Wed, 24 Oct 2007 23:00:00 GMT

What influence does technology have on how post compulsory students engage with full time learning today?

Tags: elearning

Information R/evolution

james.burke@deburca.co.uk — Tue, 23 Oct 2007 23:00:00 GMT

Another video clip from Kansas University - this time on the nature of information and its classification and storage. I'm not too sure where the Semantic web fits into this picture though...

Tags: elearning,web2.0

Embedded Flash Documents in Blogs and Websites

james.burke@deburca.co.uk — Wed, 17 Oct 2007 23:00:00 GMT

There appears to be a bit of a competition brewing for the next Web2.0 app relating to the area of converting documents (PDF, Word, PowerPoint etc.) to browser based format that can be embedded in blogs and websites.

Tags: scribd,flashpaper,edocr

OpenLearn Unit Content

james.burke@deburca.co.uk — Mon, 15 Oct 2007 23:00:00 GMT

A Grazr widget providing an accessible view on OPML feeds from the Open University OpenLearn content.

Tags: rss,openlearn

Link, Lurk and Learn…

james.burke@deburca.co.uk — Sun, 14 Oct 2007 23:00:00 GMT

Most Web2.0 companies are measured in terms of how many registered member accounts they have and the page impressions that they create but are there other metrics that can be used to measure success?

Tags: lurker,cop

Communities of Practice: Open Source Learning

james.burke@deburca.co.uk — Thu, 11 Oct 2007 23:00:00 GMT

John Seely Brown was interviewed by Steve Hargadon on Web 2.0 and the culture of learning - his thoughts on Web 2.0 and in particular how building blocks such as Open Source, Communities of Practice and the value of lurkers are quite illuminating.

Tags: cop,open source,elearning

MySpace Platform to launch

james.burke@deburca.co.uk — Wed, 10 Oct 2007 23:00:00 GMT

Following the successes of the Facebook platform launched earlier in the year, MySpace is set to also provide a developer platform by opening up access via a set of APIs.

Tags: myspace

Tim O Reilly - What is Web 2.0

james.burke@deburca.co.uk — Tue, 09 Oct 2007 23:00:00 GMT

Tim O Reilly's keynote speech at SAP Tech Ed Oct 1st 2007

Tags: web2.0,oreilly

Ofcom Consumer Panel Questions Broadband Providers

james.burke@deburca.co.uk — Tue, 09 Oct 2007 23:00:00 GMT

Ofcom are questioning six top broadband provider executives and seeking proposals on how to improve how the ISPs advertise and sell broadband.

Tags: ofcom,broadband,dsl

Open Source eLearning Stack from Intel

james.burke@deburca.co.uk — Mon, 08 Oct 2007 23:00:00 GMT

The Intel Integrated Solution Kit for Education (ISKE) is a hardware and open source software “stack” for the education sector that shows potential for a follow-on stack promoting Moodle to the Corporate sector.

Tags: open source,intel

Web 3.0 - The Official Definition...

james.burke@deburca.co.uk — Thu, 04 Oct 2007 23:00:00 GMT

Jason Calcanis is starting a debate (intentional?) regarding his definition of Web 3.0 - is defined as the creation of high-quality content and services produced by gifted individuals using Web 2.0 technology as an enabling platform.

Tags: web2.0,web3.0

Fon finally coming to the UK

james.burke@deburca.co.uk — Thu, 04 Oct 2007 23:00:00 GMT

British Telecom (BT) has signed a deal with Fon that will allow its 3 million + users to opt in to sharing their WiFi routers.

Tags: fon,wifi,wireless

The Next Internet Millionaire...

james.burke@deburca.co.uk — Wed, 03 Oct 2007 23:00:00 GMT

Following on from The Apprentice, Dragons Den, Survivor etc. another show currently running in the States is seeking to find the next Internet millionaire - all shows are available free on revver.

Tags: video,internet,millionaire

Open ID $5,000 Bounties Awarded - DotNetNuke, Drupal and Plone

james.burke@deburca.co.uk — Tue, 02 Oct 2007 23:00:00 GMT

The OpenID Foundation has $5,000US bounties available to the first 10 applications that implement OpenID into their applications satisfying their eligibility.

Tags: openid,dnn,dotnetnuke,drupal

Product Development 2.0

james.burke@deburca.co.uk — Mon, 01 Oct 2007 23:00:00 GMT

Web 2.0 is probably coming to an end now and more and more people are looking to defining and developing “revision 3” for new Internet product developments.

Tags: web2.0,product

iLife 08 looking good.

james.burke@deburca.co.uk — Tue, 07 Aug 2007 23:00:00 GMT

The new iMac desktops were the main event at an Apple event earlier this week but for me the iLife 08 update is really a step jump for mac users.

Tags: ilife,apple

Drupal 5 - What's New?

james.burke@deburca.co.uk — Mon, 23 Jul 2007 23:00:00 GMT

This is a great short video providing an overview of what is new in Drupal 5. Drupal is a CMS framework that is ideally suited towards business blogging & websites that require user interaction around content.

Tags: drupal

How Drupal will save the world!

james.burke@deburca.co.uk — Sat, 21 Jul 2007 23:00:00 GMT

Drupal is an extremely popular CMS, especially within the developer’s world but can Drupal be made more easy to use so that the developing world average user can adopt it more readily?

Tags: drupal

Treeview for better data visualisation

james.burke@deburca.co.uk — Mon, 16 Jul 2007 23:00:00 GMT

Visualisation of data is a key element of “Human Computer Interaction” (HCI). I’m a big fan of mindmapping and “spider diagrams” but treeview for visualising directory tree structures is certainly becoming more common on the web, particularly “Web 2.0”

Tags: treeview,visualisation,mindmap

Social Networking in Plain English

james.burke@deburca.co.uk — Sat, 14 Jul 2007 23:00:00 GMT

Social networking sites are showing no end of losing their popularity with Facebook the new darling on the block, but what are they? - this short video from CommonCraft provides a great introduction.

Tags: social media,plain english

RSS Feeds in Plain English

james.burke@deburca.co.uk — Sat, 14 Jul 2007 23:00:00 GMT

RSS is a great technology for having the web come to you rather than you going out to endless sites looking for updated content. This short video from CommonCraft provides a great introduction to RSS.

Tags: rss,common craft,plain english

Viral Marketing

james.burke@deburca.co.uk — Sat, 14 Jul 2007 23:00:00 GMT

Viral Marketing is a powerful tool on the web for getting your message "out there" - this video from 5min.com provides a quick overview on viral marketing.

Tags: viral,marketing

Creative Commons vs Copyright

james.burke@deburca.co.uk — Sat, 23 Jun 2007 23:00:00 GMT

A short video on how to use an Open Source licence recorded at a Channel 4 event in Inverness in 2006.

Tags: creative commons,copyright

Trends and Impacts of eLearning 2.0

james.burke@deburca.co.uk — Fri, 22 Jun 2007 23:00:00 GMT

Notes and video of a talk by Stephen Downes on eLearning 2.0 are contained within this blog entry. Also this entry first pointed me towards the excellent Web 2.0 presentation sharing application - SlideShare

Tags: elearning

ICT Guides and Tools for the SME

james.burke@deburca.co.uk — Sat, 09 Jun 2007 23:00:00 GMT

The Business Link website is a good source of short IT & eCommerce topics complete with a few toolkits for getting the best out of the site.

Tags: ict,sme,business link

More Thoughts on Open Source Business Models

james.burke@deburca.co.uk — Sat, 02 Jun 2007 23:00:00 GMT

There is no “one” business model for a business that totally or partially derives its main income from Open Source, here are a few thoughts on business models in use.

Tags: open source,business model

Practice Makes Perfect: Trust Workers to Identify Their Development Needs

james.burke@deburca.co.uk — Sat, 02 Jun 2007 23:00:00 GMT

According to a survey from the National Institute of Adult Continuing Education (NIACE), UK workers have an overwhelming preference for less formal ways of learning to improve job performance.

Tags: trust,training,cop

A Disney Introduction to Copyright

james.burke@deburca.co.uk — Thu, 31 May 2007 23:00:00 GMT

A Fair(y) Use Tale. Professor Eric Faden of Bucknell University created this humorous, yet informative, review of copyright principles delivered through the words of the very folks we can thank for nearly endless copyright terms.

Foundation Degrees - Too Risky?

james.burke@deburca.co.uk — Wed, 30 May 2007 23:00:00 GMT

Report contains words of caution on Foundation Degrees

Tags: foundation degree,training

Train to Gain – Who gains?

james.burke@deburca.co.uk — Wed, 30 May 2007 23:00:00 GMT

10 Months on - is Train to Gain making any gains?

Tags: training,skills

Google “My Maps” – a great mashup source

james.burke@deburca.co.uk — Fri, 18 May 2007 23:00:00 GMT

Google maps has always had a fantastic API for embedding high quality interactive maps in web pages and now there is a “My Maps” service that allows you to add placemarks, lines, polygons, images and video clips.

Tags: google,maps,kml

Viddler – Timeline Tagging and Commenting

james.burke@deburca.co.uk — Thu, 17 May 2007 23:00:00 GMT

You Tube is undoubtedly the leader in online video clips and their platform for uploading and viewing short video clips within a web browser is great but whilst they concentrate on monetising their huge marketshare other video content providers are concentrating on improving technology and access.

Tags: viddler

Delivering i2010 – Better coordination of IT skills needed

james.burke@deburca.co.uk — Sun, 13 May 2007 23:00:00 GMT

The Information Age Partnership’s (IAP) 2010 working group released its report on the 9th May highlighting the need that Government, Industry and Academia must improve how they work together to ensure a strong UK economy or risk falling behind in the race for innovation and competitiveness.

Tags: ict,government

Flash Based Aerial Mapping

james.burke@deburca.co.uk — Tue, 08 May 2007 23:00:00 GMT

Aerial maps vary between Google, Microsoft, Yahoo and Ask, the FlashEarth utility is a handy way of quickly comparing and contrasting the maps available from these sources.

Tags: maps

SharePoint Learning Kit – Learning Objects delivered via SharePoint

james.burke@deburca.co.uk — Sat, 28 Apr 2007 23:00:00 GMT

The SharePoint Learning Kit is a SCORM 2004 conformant eLearning delivery and tracking application built as a Windows SharePoint Services (WSS) 3.0 solution.

Tags: microsoft,sharepoint,elearning,scorm

A History of Online Learning and VLEs

james.burke@deburca.co.uk — Sat, 28 Apr 2007 23:00:00 GMT

Online learning and most notably Virtual Learning Environments (VLEs) and Learning Management Systems (LMSs) have had a long and chequered history.

Tags: moodle,vle,lms,elearning

White label Social Networking

james.burke@deburca.co.uk — Thu, 26 Apr 2007 23:00:00 GMT

There is no doubt that social networking is showing little signs of letting up as user accounts continue to rise and people migrate from myspace to friendster to facebook and so on. There are now many Open Source social networking applications that allow specific purpose social network applications to be reused for other purposes and businesses are now being targeted.

Tags: social media,elearning,linkedin

An introduction to eLearning 2.0

james.burke@deburca.co.uk — Mon, 23 Apr 2007 23:00:00 GMT

Clive Shepherd from fasttrack consulting has produced a great audio / slideshow introduction to “what is e-learning” that covers the building blocks of eLearning 2.0.

Tags: scorm,saas,social media,vle,mle,lms,cop,jisc

CRM is broken, can VRM fix it?

james.burke@deburca.co.uk — Thu, 22 Mar 2007 23:00:00 GMT

Customer Relationship Management (CRM) systems allow businesses to establish better relationships with their customers but what about customers establishing better relationships with their suppliers or vendors?

Tags: crm,vrm

Government can't ignore open source any longer

james.burke@deburca.co.uk — Thu, 08 Mar 2007 23:00:00 GMT

George Osborne, the shadow chancellor, has criticised the government over its apparent lack of support for open-source software.

Tags: open source,government

Communities of Practice: An Introduction

james.burke@deburca.co.uk — Wed, 28 Feb 2007 00:00:00 GMT

This blog entry contains a series of Flash animations that are intended to provide an overview and and an introduction to Communities of Practice.

Tags: cop

How green is Web 2.0!?

james.burke@deburca.co.uk — Sun, 25 Feb 2007 23:00:00 GMT

Web 2.0 has the potential to be a liberating development of applications and services delivered over a wide range of increasingly convergent devices, but how “green” in Web 2.0!?

Tags: web2.0

IP and Keyword misuse

james.burke@deburca.co.uk — Tue, 20 Feb 2007 23:00:00 GMT

This blog entry contains an interesting advertisement listed in the Intellectual Property section of The Times today.

Tags: ip,copyright

Free as in “Free Beer”!

james.burke@deburca.co.uk — Mon, 19 Feb 2007 00:00:00 GMT

Open Source Software is often touted as free as in free speech rather than free as in free beer, but now the Open Source philosophy has spread out of the software development field into more mainstream activities resulting in “free beer”!

Tags: open source,creative commons

Creative Commons - Wanna Work Together?

james.burke@deburca.co.uk — Fri, 16 Feb 2007 23:00:00 GMT

This video clip is an intro to Creative Commons licensed media that can be legally shared and reused for free!

Web 2.0 - The machine is Us/ing Us

james.burke@deburca.co.uk — Thu, 15 Feb 2007 23:00:00 GMT

This video clip is a great 5 minute introduction to Web 2.0 starting from clearly illustrating what Web 1.0 was / is and how it has evolved to embrace Us.

Web 2.0 timeline and key characteristics

james.burke@deburca.co.uk — Sat, 27 Jan 2007 23:00:00 GMT

This blog entry contains two images that show the Web 2.0 technology features timeline from 1992 to 2006 and Web 2.0 functionality features as a tagcloud.

Tags: web2.0

UK Government invites Expressions of Interests for Academies

james.burke@deburca.co.uk — Sun, 21 Jan 2007 00:00:00 GMT

The Learning and Skills Council, and it partners for the National Skills Academies, are currently inviting employers to work together and expand the network to help the Government meet the target of 12 Academies by 2008.

Tags: skills,training,acadamies

Business 2.0 – re-imagined logos

james.burke@deburca.co.uk — Thu, 11 Jan 2007 00:00:00 GMT

Most Web 2.0 business tend to have a common look in terms of logo and branding but what if well known company brands were created now – what would their logo look like?

Tags: web2.0,logo

State of play within the UK Workforce

james.burke@deburca.co.uk — Tue, 09 Jan 2007 23:00:00 GMT

Recent forecasts suggest that by 2009, 40% of jobs in the UK will fall into the managerial, professional and professional categories, with only 21% of employees in operative jobs.

Tags: e-portfolio,skills,sme

Newsvine – A Community of Practice for Current Affairs?

james.burke@deburca.co.uk — Tue, 26 Dec 2006 23:00:00 GMT

Newsvine is a hybrid of syndicated news feeds (all of the Associated Press content) and user generated content where the editorial control is left to the users. Every news article has the facility to vote, chat and start discussions – similar in concept to a Community of Practice?

Tags: cop,newsvine

Aggregation for WiFi

james.burke@deburca.co.uk — Fri, 22 Dec 2006 23:00:00 GMT

WiFi on the move can be a real pain in terms of logging onto a service without a monthly subscription. Now, a new company – Divine Wireless – intends to aggregate access to WiFi hotspots and offer a no commitment pay per minute service.

Tags: wifi,wireless

Apple OSX and the Month of Bugs

james.burke@deburca.co.uk — Thu, 21 Dec 2006 23:00:00 GMT

January 2007 is set to be a month where an anonymous security researcher will be releasing security flaws in Apple’s OSX Operating System every day.

Tags: apple,osx

National Skills Academies launched to help address skills gap

james.burke@deburca.co.uk — Mon, 13 Nov 2006 00:00:00 GMT

The education secretary, Alan Johnson, launched the first three National Skills Academies this month (1st November 2006).

Tags: skills,acadamies

33% of employers believe that a skills shortage is their biggest threat

james.burke@deburca.co.uk — Mon, 13 Nov 2006 00:00:00 GMT

A Lloyds TSB poll reveals that a third of employers cite skills shortage as the biggest threat to their business

Tags: skills,training

Useful employment law guide from DTI

james.burke@deburca.co.uk — Sun, 12 Nov 2006 23:00:00 GMT

DTI guide for employers and employees

Tags: employment law

Google analytics – matchmaking websites and customers

james.burke@deburca.co.uk — Sat, 04 Nov 2006 00:00:00 GMT

Google analytics is a free web based analytics suite that, when integrated within a website, provides beautiful charts, tables and statistics of website metrics such hits, visitors, search engine keyword referrals, adword spend etc. This, combined with an eCommerce enabled website, provides a powerful business tool for promoting your business online and understanding online buying behaviours.

Microsoft collaborates with Open Source Linux vendor

james.burke@deburca.co.uk — Fri, 03 Nov 2006 23:00:00 GMT

Microsoft and Novell have released a letter to the Open Source community announcing a collaboration deal that is being put forward as a watershed moment for Linux.

Tags: microsoft,linux,open source,moodle,crm,novell

Photoshop - beautiful technology

james.burke@deburca.co.uk — Wed, 01 Nov 2006 00:00:00 GMT

This short video clip shows the "beauty" of technology such as Adobe Photoshop...

Tags: photoshop

School 2.0 – there is no one path to the school of tomorrow…

james.burke@deburca.co.uk — Fri, 27 Oct 2006 23:00:00 GMT

School 2.0 is a brainstorming tool designed to help schools, LEAs and communities to develop a common education vision for the future and to explore how that vision can be supported by technology.

Tags: elearning,school2.0

eBusiness, CRM and improving sales

james.burke@deburca.co.uk — Fri, 27 Oct 2006 23:00:00 GMT

"sell side" eBusiness applications such as Customer Relationship Management (CRM) provide a business with toolkit that can unite departments within a business. This entry contains some short online guides to eBusiness, CRM and selling strategies.

Tags: xplane,ebusiness,crm

Sweet spots for group cohesion - communications tools

james.burke@deburca.co.uk — Wed, 25 Oct 2006 22:00:00 GMT

There are many online techniques and technologies of facilitating group communication and collaboration but which offer the most benefits for the size of the group and help with the “cohesion” of the group?

Tags: xplane,communication

LSC announces over £3b of investment for improving adult skills

james.burke@deburca.co.uk — Sun, 22 Oct 2006 23:00:00 GMT

Colloborative working needed to deliver demand led training

Qualification Framework to be reframed

james.burke@deburca.co.uk — Sun, 22 Oct 2006 23:00:00 GMT

Personal Learners Records with transferrable and accumulated credits should give learners more control over their learning

Tags: qualification,framework,skills

Content Management Systems - a smorgasboard of opportunities

james.burke@deburca.co.uk — Sat, 21 Oct 2006 23:00:00 GMT

Businesses that are looking for a website, whether it be for the public, an intranet or an extranet, nearly always insist for a Content Management System (CMS) in their statement of requirements - what does this mean and what are the associated risks and opportunities available to businesses who embrace Open Source Software?

Tags: cms,open source

Searching for Creative Commons content

james.burke@deburca.co.uk — Fri, 20 Oct 2006 23:00:00 GMT

Creative Commons content offers a valuable resource base for eLearning content collation. The creative commons website contains a search facility that current provides results from Google, Yahoo, Flickr and Blip.tv

Tags: creative commons

Web2.0 - how to get your service to the desktop...

james.burke@deburca.co.uk — Fri, 20 Oct 2006 23:00:00 GMT

Web2.0 applications are essentially Internet based and accessed by a web browser that does all the rendering. Web2.0 services and applications have caused a shakeup in how people use applications and data but still lack a market reach due to the constant need for an Internet connection and reluctance of some to stop using desktop based applications. Adobe Apollo is a cross operating system runtime environment that allows developers to deploy Rich Internet Applications to the desktop.

Tags: ajax,ria,web2.0

Open Source Software Primer

james.burke@deburca.co.uk — Thu, 19 Oct 2006 23:00:00 GMT

A short primer on Open Source Software, its licences and pro’s and cons

Tags: open source

OpenID is gathering momentum for single sign on

james.burke@deburca.co.uk — Thu, 19 Oct 2006 23:00:00 GMT

Most websites require a username and password to login which typically means that most people have the same username and password on a number of different service providers which inherently introduces a security risk. Many sites have facilities for providing comments and feedback on areas such as blogs and these typically require registration first in order to be authorised to leave feedback.

Tags: openid,authentication

IS, IM & IT strategies

james.burke@deburca.co.uk — Wed, 18 Oct 2006 23:00:00 GMT

Most businesses adopt an IT strategy which is the “how”, but what about the “what” and “wherefore” of the IS and IM strategies?

Tags: strategy,ict,im,is,it

Origins of Open Source Software

james.burke@deburca.co.uk — Tue, 17 Oct 2006 23:00:00 GMT

Richard Stallman is usually credited with being the first to crystallize the ideas underlying what's generally known as Open Source. Stallman had been a programmer at the MIT Artificial Intelligence Lab, and there he had witnessed what he saw as the decline of the ideal of scientific collaboration amongst programmers. Part of the problem was that around that time software makers stopped distributing source code along with their products; in one incident that infuriated Stallman, he found he couldn't fix malfunctioning printer software because he didn't have access to the source.

Tags: foss,floss,open source,gpl

Video Jug – not just User Generated Content (UGC)

james.burke@deburca.co.uk — Mon, 16 Oct 2006 23:00:00 GMT

User Generated Content such as YouTube is gathering significant headlines at the moment but how long will the randomness and disjointed content base prove to be appealing. Video Jug is intended as “learning resources” that are primarily professionally made by the website operators although it does also offer a UGC “Made by You” section.

Tags: video,ugc

SCORM, SCOs and Learning Objects

james.burke@deburca.co.uk — Fri, 13 Oct 2006 23:00:00 GMT

Increasingly, people are receiving training and education through their computers. The Shareable Content Object Reference Model (SCORM) is a technical specification that governs how this online training (or “e-learning”) is created and delivered to learners.

Tags: scorm,learning objects,vle,lms,cetis

web 2.0 and digital learning resource development

james.burke@deburca.co.uk — Fri, 13 Oct 2006 23:00:00 GMT

This is a useful and brief explanation of web 2.0 and what it means for those developing digital learning content.(BECTA)

Tags: web2.0,elearning

Community of Practice: overview, roles & responsibilities

james.burke@deburca.co.uk — Thu, 12 Oct 2006 23:00:00 GMT

Any Community of Practice (CoP) takes time to emerge, develop and then subsequently flourish. CoPs are a significant organisation investment and should not be implemented for quick fixes applied in order to make short term gains. Although once implemented CoPs rapidly become an integral part of organisational life that require minimal ongoing investment to maintain, there is a requirement for clearly defined roles and responsibilities in the important early CoP days. This entry contains an overview of CoPs and introduces some potential roles and responsibilities involved in successful implementations.

Tags: cop

Raising the demand for higher level skills in the North East

james.burke@deburca.co.uk — Thu, 12 Oct 2006 23:00:00 GMT

The challenge in the North East to raise employers'demand for higher level skills amongst their employees and to deliver those skills.

Tags: skills,north east

Business owners need a variety of skills,can you "upskill" to be an expert in all things?

james.burke@deburca.co.uk — Thu, 12 Oct 2006 23:00:00 GMT

"10m Britons will own businesses by 2011" so bdaily announced today so how do the business owners keep up with the demands of running their own business?

Tags: sme,skills,training

Flickr as a repository for “learning objects”

james.burke@deburca.co.uk — Wed, 11 Oct 2006 23:00:00 GMT

A “learning object” has many different definitions and is normally associated with standards compliant (SCORM & AICC) packaged resources, however, web2.0 applications such as flickr offer quick and easy implementation of “learning object chunks of learning”.

Tags: flickr,learning objects

IPTV is gathering momentum…

james.burke@deburca.co.uk — Wed, 11 Oct 2006 23:00:00 GMT

Following the $1.6b purchase of YouTube by Google earlier this week it is in no doubt now that IPTV is coming but in what format?

Tags: video,iptv

Writely & Spreadsheets now integrated in Googles new offering

james.burke@deburca.co.uk — Wed, 11 Oct 2006 23:00:00 GMT

It's taken a few months but Google has now released its "joined up" online spreadsheets and word processing package free to users - subject to beta disclaimers...

Tags: google,docs,writely

"I only use email for talking to old people"

james.burke@deburca.co.uk — Mon, 09 Oct 2006 23:00:00 GMT

I was listening to a podcast the other day and Theresia Gouw Ranzetta, venture capital firm Accel partner, conveyed this quote from her 15 year old nephew: "I only use email for talking to old people"...

Tags: communication,email,im,sme

Monetizing Web2.0 businesses

james.burke@deburca.co.uk — Sun, 08 Oct 2006 23:00:00 GMT

Don Hinchcliffe provides an excellent short blog entry on "struggling to monetize Web2.0" where he introduces and discussed the three main revenue models (the Web2.0 trinity). The feedback via comments on his blog provide useful insight into emerging business models and the application of tried and trusted business models for Web2.0

Tags: web2.0

The First Post - Sunday Papers on one page...

james.burke@deburca.co.uk — Sat, 07 Oct 2006 23:00:00 GMT

The First Post is a simple but convenient website where editors collate UK newspapers into a visually appealing website. A great single source for the Sunday Papers! Viral marketing appears to be the way of marketing the service and they have produced a great short video on YouTube that is included in this blog entry.

Tags: viral,newspaper

Portable Applications – have memory stick will travel…

james.burke@deburca.co.uk — Mon, 02 Oct 2006 23:00:00 GMT

USB memory sticks are ubiquitous and are far more valuable resources than purely for temporarily transferring spreadsheets and word documents from one PC to another. “Portable Applications” is a software application that you can install on your memory stick and use to carry not only your data but also the applications that run that data.

Tags: usb,memory stick

Legally savvy journalists at the BBC thanks to a virtual college

james.burke@deburca.co.uk — Sun, 01 Oct 2006 23:00:00 GMT

Online legal training for BBC Journalists and Producers

Tags: bbc,elearning

Learning to learn – Groups v Networks

james.burke@deburca.co.uk — Sat, 30 Sep 2006 23:00:00 GMT

Stephen Downes, a Canadian theorist and designer of eLearning, has been doing a worldwide tour recently and one of his popular topics has been exploring the differences between learning in groups and networks.

Netvibes has has a relaunch

james.burke@deburca.co.uk — Fri, 29 Sep 2006 23:00:00 GMT

If you are looking for the definitive Web2.0 homepage then look no further than NetVibes...

Tags: netvibes

JISC – Open Source, private sector acquisitions and resource catalogues

james.burke@deburca.co.uk — Mon, 25 Sep 2006 23:00:00 GMT

This entry contains a number of updates on JISC funded activity from August 2006.

Tags: jisc,open source

How to “kill” your VISA card…

james.burke@deburca.co.uk — Sun, 24 Sep 2006 23:00:00 GMT

This Week In Tech (TWIT) is a great weekly podcast on the “tech” news that is released every Monday morning. TWIT have always had a remit never to charge for their podcasts that typically run for over an hour but have now submitted to paid for advertising to fund their programming. Key advertisers include VISA and Dell and this weeks TWIT panel highlighted a quick and easy way to “kill” your VISA card.

Tags: twit,visa,podcast

Social WiFi networking

james.burke@deburca.co.uk — Sat, 23 Sep 2006 23:00:00 GMT

FON is WiFi "community" where members share their wireless Internet access at home and, in return, can access free WiFi wherever they find another Fonero’s Access Point.

Tags: wifi,wireless,fon

WiFi options on UK trains developing.

james.burke@deburca.co.uk — Thu, 21 Sep 2006 23:00:00 GMT

OfCOM released a new spectrum licence that could allow train operators such as GNER to upgrade their on-board wireless services to two-way satellite links, similar to those already in use on aeroplanes and ships in early September.

Tags: wifi,wimax,wireless,3g,gprs,gsm

99% of UK businesses are SMEs

james.burke@deburca.co.uk — Wed, 20 Sep 2006 23:00:00 GMT

There were 59,000 more businesses in 2005 compared with 2004, reveals new statistics on Small and Medium-sized Enterprise (SME) published by the Government’s Small Business Service.

Tags: sme

Forget connecting the last mile, its now about connecting the last 10 feet!

james.burke@deburca.co.uk — Tue, 19 Sep 2006 23:00:00 GMT

Broadband connectivity and the ever increasing need for increased bandwidth has recently been concerned with the “last mile” and the connectivity from the “exchange” to the home. Now with the increase of bandwidth hungry applications and availability of data the connectivity to the last “10 feet” is becoming all important.

Tags: wireless,wifi

Windows Live is now out of beta

james.burke@deburca.co.uk — Sun, 17 Sep 2006 23:00:00 GMT

Windows new online search portal (“live”) has now left the beta camp and gone live. Windows Live is a search portal for web (including video, blogs and RSS), images, news and “local” – the local services are particularly impressive making great use of the Virtual Earth data.

Tags: microsoft,windows,live

DIGG and their potential design dilemma

james.burke@deburca.co.uk — Fri, 15 Sep 2006 23:00:00 GMT

Digg's recent controversy around a growing number of incidents that suggest that a small group of users are having an undue influence on the promotion of stories has highlighted a potential design flaw in a number of the social networking aspects of Web 2.0.

Tags: digg

ZAP ZAP - the podcast directory

james.burke@deburca.co.uk — Mon, 11 Sep 2006 23:00:00 GMT

iTunes provides a great centralised directory of podcasts but the rating and "charts" available do not always reflect what is popular, quirky and new. User managed rated content sites such as www.digg.com, www.newsvine.com and www.youtube.com etc. provide a great means for community rating and now zap zap provides this usability for podcasts.

Tags: podcast,zapzap

Develop and share mindmaps...

james.burke@deburca.co.uk — Sun, 10 Sep 2006 23:00:00 GMT

MindJet has developed a dedicated website targetted towards higher education users to encourage mind "mapping" and sharing of those maps. All mindmaps can be downloaded and viewed with the free MindJet MindManager viewer.

Tags: mindmap,mindjet

Open Source business models evolving

james.burke@deburca.co.uk — Thu, 07 Sep 2006 23:00:00 GMT

Open Source developments are now maturing into competitive businesses with a range of models that are starting to give established vendors a run for their money. Several start-up businesses have adopted open source business models in an attempt to unseat incumbent business software providers and products are typically given away for free and customers pay for support. This blog highlights a number of OSS strategies that can be applied to create product value, attract customers, and generate revenue

Tags: open source,business model

10 most foolish mistakes of IT professionals

james.burke@deburca.co.uk — Mon, 04 Sep 2006 23:00:00 GMT

Stories are abound on the Internet about hapless computer users and how they make life hard (but funny) for the IT professional, this article from ZDNET and TechRepublic looks at the common mistakes (or "dumb things") that these professionals make. ITIL to the rescue...!

Tags: it

Making notes online - 50 ways to take notes...

james.burke@deburca.co.uk — Sun, 03 Sep 2006 23:00:00 GMT

Making notes, lists, todo, tasks etc. is just a way of life. I find that there is no single way of making notes that works for me (although mindmapping certainly works best) but this list of 50 online ways of taking notes is essential.

Tags: notes,mindjet

Steve Irwin

james.burke@deburca.co.uk — Sun, 03 Sep 2006 23:00:00 GMT

Tragically Steve Irwin, "the crocodile hunter", died today after a fatal sting from a Stingray barb. After looking up the Stingray record on Wikipedia to find out more about how dangerous Stingray's are I was amazed to see that the entry had already been updated to include today's sad event along with the entry for Steve. Quite a tribute to see such a quick community response.

Tags: steve irwin,wikipedia

Y Combinator - notes on how to start a startup

james.burke@deburca.co.uk — Sat, 02 Sep 2006 23:00:00 GMT

Paul Graham is an investor from Y Combinator which is a new kind of venture firm specializing in funding early stage startups. Paul believes we’re not in a bubble, that startups shouldn’t worry about their business models and the best companies are the ones with potential to kill old monopolies.

Tags: web2.0,ycombinator

UK version of Techcrunch available

james.burke@deburca.co.uk — Sat, 02 Sep 2006 23:00:00 GMT

A UK version of Techcrunch the blog covering Web 2.0 startups is now available.

Tags: techrunch,uk,web2.0,oreilly

Google Apps for your Domain – Google SME Services

james.burke@deburca.co.uk — Tue, 29 Aug 2006 23:00:00 GMT

Google has launched a beta of their “Google Apps for your Domain” this week that provides businesses with comprehensive mail and calendar services, Google Talk basic chat and web page management functionality.

Tags: google,sme

Online video editing with eyespot

james.burke@deburca.co.uk — Sat, 26 Aug 2006 23:00:00 GMT

eyespot is a Web 2.0 application that allows you to upload video (loads of formats accepted including MMS direct from your mobile phone), mix with other video, photos and audio files and then publish the results on the eyespot website or to your blog.

Tags: video

Collaboration in Networks for Learning

james.burke@deburca.co.uk — Fri, 25 Aug 2006 23:00:00 GMT

This entry contains some bulleted thoughts on collaboration and networks for learning (primarily post 16 education) as developed and presented during a recent Foundation Degrees Forward conference.

Tags: collaboration,cop,vle,lms

UK home Broadband access - digital divide still open

james.burke@deburca.co.uk — Thu, 24 Aug 2006 23:00:00 GMT

In the UK 43% of households still have no Internet access- the South East is the most “connected” region with 33% connected. However, on the plus side of those that do have connections 72% of them are broadband.

Tags: broadband,infrastructure,internet

Alternative user navigation for a website

james.burke@deburca.co.uk — Thu, 24 Aug 2006 23:00:00 GMT

Etsy is an online shop that enables craftspeople to promote and sell their wares. One of the things that sets etsy apart from other online shopping experiences is the range of flash based search / navigation tools.

Tags: website,navigation,design patterns

Ricky Gervais & Stephen Merchant Microsoft "Office" training video

james.burke@deburca.co.uk — Tue, 22 Aug 2006 23:00:00 GMT

In 2003 Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant produced and starred in an internal training video for Microsoft UK - earlier this week the two videos found their way to the Internet.

Tags: microsoft,office,video,training,gervais

Microsoft reaching out to the Open Source community for Firefox / Vista integration

james.burke@deburca.co.uk — Tue, 22 Aug 2006 23:00:00 GMT

An open letter fro Microsoft has been released onto the Internet as a "reach out" to the Open Source community with respect to Firefox development on belated Vista

Tags: microsoft,firefox,open source

IMS Common Cartridge for Learning Content Interoperability

james.burke@deburca.co.uk — Sun, 20 Aug 2006 23:00:00 GMT

Learning Objects can be transferred pretty much readily between mainstream LMS / VLE providers via ADL SCORM and IMS Content Packaging standards, but there is no equivalent for whole courses. As LMS vendor offerings mature and organisations are more ready to move LMS providers a means for course interoperability is required – enter IMS Common Cartridge.

Tags: ims,common cartridge,scorm,vle,lms,webct

AOL Search Logs – Database of Intentions and the Internet “Glasshouse”

james.burke@deburca.co.uk — Sat, 19 Aug 2006 23:00:00 GMT

Earlier in the month AOL released search logs of 650,000 US users containing around 20 million search queries for research purposes. After they have apologised ("This was a screw-up, and we're angry and upset about it,") and have been reported to the Federal Trade Commission for sharing customer information with 3rd parties without permission debate around privacy of data and personal identification is hotting up.

Tags: aol,privacy

“Real world” WiMax trial results from Pipex

james.burke@deburca.co.uk — Fri, 18 Aug 2006 23:00:00 GMT

Pipex, in a joint venture with Intel using their Rosedale chipsets (and funded via $25m from Intel Capital), has recently completed the first phase of its WiMax experiment, and the results that “exceed expectations” are hardly encouraging in terms of bandwidth but at least the technology works.

Tags: wimax,wireless,dsl

Steve Jobs - The Apple & Microsoft relationship

james.burke@deburca.co.uk — Fri, 18 Aug 2006 23:00:00 GMT

This blog entry contains a collection of 3 video clips showing Steve Jobs lamenting Microsoft's lack of originality in 1996, his return to Apple the following year and "that" Apple / Microsoft deal.

Tags: apple,microsoft

Storyboarding for reusable content

james.burke@deburca.co.uk — Tue, 15 Aug 2006 23:00:00 GMT

Learning objects are the core concept in an approach to learning content in which content is broken down into "bite size" chunks. These chunks can be reused, independently created and maintained, and pulled apart and stuck together like so many legos. All well and good, but how do you develop and storyboard for useful and reusable content?

Tags: scorm,learning objects,creative commons

The Digg Swarm – a great real-time graphical presentation of website activity

james.burke@deburca.co.uk — Mon, 14 Aug 2006 22:00:00 GMT

With the release of Digg 3.0 came a number of new developments from the “labs” – the swarm is an excellent real-time graphical representation of the live dig website activity.

Tags: digg,visualisation

eLearning - the fourth paradigm

james.burke@deburca.co.uk — Tue, 08 Aug 2006 22:00:00 GMT

eLearning tools, techniques and strategies have been developing rapidly over the past ten years and a number of eLearning paradigms (or big ideas) have emerged – could “personal learning” become a new paradigm that teachers, trainers and employers embrace within their delivery?

Tags: elearning,moodle,foundation degree

eLearning predictions for 2006

james.burke@deburca.co.uk — Sun, 06 Aug 2006 22:00:00 GMT

The world on online learning is continually evolving. Lisa Neal, Editor-in-Chief, eLearn Magazine has collated a list of predictions from eLearning experts mapping the road ahead for 2006 – “half way” through the year some of the predictions are be fulfilled

Tags: elearning,learning objects,lms,webct,vle,usb

Community of Practice development – useful background reading

james.burke@deburca.co.uk — Tue, 01 Aug 2006 22:00:00 GMT

Online content is all well and good but sometimes you just need a good book to sit down with and really get into a topic. Here is some great reading relating to developing, nurturing and sustaining Communities of Practice.

Tags: cop,elearning

Another successful moodlemoot…

james.burke@deburca.co.uk — Sun, 30 Jul 2006 22:00:00 GMT

The moodlemoot 06 conference appeared to be a great success and Quicktime webcasts of the main presentations are available.

Tags: moodle,moodlemoot

Organisational Change requires training

james.burke@deburca.co.uk — Thu, 27 Jul 2006 22:00:00 GMT

The success of organisational change in major organisations is being jeopardised by a failure to put in place adequate training and development measures, according to the 2006 Learning and Development Survey from the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD)

Tags: training,cpd