Have you ever read a couple of articles that just seem to pull everything together? I’ve just read a couple of articles, mentioned by the cogdogblog, sometimes known as Alan Levine. They are so great I have to pass the links along, even though my classroom is currently in a highly transitional state (that means its a complete shambles) and I need to prep for classes starting on Tuesday. Ah well, what is blogging if not a truly terrific way to procrastinate! The first article is Educational Blogging by the ever illuminating Stephen Downes. Stephen is always lucid, relevant and engaging. Consider the following: Despite obvious appearances, blogging isn’t really about writing at all; that’s just the end point of the process, the outcome that occurs more or less naturally if everything else has been done right. Blogging is about, … Continue reading »

We’re building a web OS::So says Marc Canter. And I think he understands what this is all about: The ants are united in their intentions. All this little grains of informational sand that we are pushing around do create a design that is bigger than any of us ants could imagine.

What Are the Differences Between Message Boards and Weblogs?::There seems to be a lot of discussion around this post, at least in the Knowledge-Management-Social-Software-Markets-Are-Conversations sphere. I appreciate the analysis, and I think that Lee is right as far as he goes, but I think there’s something missing. Both blogs and discussion boards have lost some of their, to me, essential flavour in the analysis. Blogs aren’t just publication – blogs are a party. Its like talking about books, but only examining textbooks and forgetting the literature.

OK – the great project of the summer of 2004 is almost done. My editor is looking it over while sipping her tea. So far, she has not made any marks on the paper so I must be doing well. Time to get back into the blogoverse. I’ve been looking at various blogware packages as part of my research for the big summer project, and I am impressed with the quality of what I have seen. I think that MovableType is still the best in field, but some of my upcoming projects would involve fairly substantial licensing costs. I think I can tweak some of the open source packages to do what I need, but I’m holding off until the release of MovableType 3.1 before I make any decisions. Some of the open source packages that I think have a … Continue reading »

How can a web be stigmergic? Stigmergy is a change in behaviour caused by indirect interactions, such as changing the environment. Continue reading »