Fair Use--An Important Topic for Higher Education

This is a fascinating topic. Especially as the younger generation seems to thrive on taking bits and pieces of various media (i.e. parts of a song)and re-mixing it into something for public consumption. Dan Tapscot and Anthony D. Williams covered this topic in their book entitled Wikinomics ("Prosumer" chapter, if I remember correctly). It seems that times are changing--Philipp Lenssen from "Blogoscoped" notes that Microsoft, Google and Yahoo are backing a Defend Fair Use Initiative This is an amazing development! Microsoft thrives on a proprietary software, yet the latest version of the Office Suite (2007) is actually XML content and a zip file. In other words, the proprietary file format that was used in Office 2003 is now very "open" in Office 2007. What is this world coming to--the more I know the more confused I get.

CCIA - Defend Fair Use

Tags: Classroom, Higher Education, Learning, Teaching, Google, Microsoft, Yahoo, Books

American Marketing Association Paper--To Be Presented at the Higher Ed Symposium

I authored the following paper that was accepted by the American Marketing Association to be presented at the upcoming Higher Education Symposium in San Diego, November 11-14, 2007.

A CHIEF ENROLLMENT OFFICER THAT SLEEPS AT NIGHT—A WEBSITE THAT WORKS

ABSTRACT

Today’s student prospects have a myriad of communication options available to them. Where the telephone and mail strategies seemed to work in the past, that’s not always true anymore; the website seems to be the most effective place to get the message out to prospects. With that comes the need for our institutions to practice strong knowledge management as it relates to organizing content. Organizing the success stories of our respective learning communities is very important to a successful recruitment process. This paper seeks to provide overview information to its reader on Content Management Systems, Really Simple Syndication (RSS) news feeds, and Taxonomies.

Full paper available as a Google Doc

Tags: Higher Education, Enrollment Management, American Marketing Association, RSS, Content Management System

The Future Classroom

Wiki becomes textbook in Boston College classroom Annotated

Anyone in higher education should take note of the following article. It makes me think of two questions that need to be answered as the needs and services the future student will expect from our higher education institutions continues to change:

1. Will open source software, like the wiki and Google Docs, replace the proprietary software of companies like "Blackboard" and "Microsoft Office" respectively? 2. Will retention of the higher education student be negatively impacted by the lack of the interactive web based tools like those cited in this article? A list of items that I highlighted from the article--see link at the top of this entry for the article in its entirety. At many colleges and universities, wikis are used mostly as a supplement to primary teaching tools like textbooks and labs, while other Web 2.0 technologies -- such as social networking sites like Facebook -- have become a staple of student life.

In one Boston College professor's classroom, however, wikis have become a primary learning tool, replacing textbooks and allowing improved collaboration among students.

Gerald Kane, assistant professor of information systems at the Chestnut Hill, Mass., school, has been using a wiki from SocialText Inc. as the primary teaching tool in his classroom since October, relying on the technology to integrate content from other Web 2.0 technologies like social book-making tools, RSS systems, and Google for his "Computers in Management" courses.

Some recent research surveys have found that some companies are investing in wikis, but the technology is used less heavily than other Web 2.0 tools like RSS feeds and social networks.

The survey concluded that companies are investing more heavily in Web services, RSS, podcasts, social networking and peer-to-peer networking

A Search Engine for Video (AOL)

AOL's Truveo Introduces New Video Search Site And Consumer Destination Annotated

Last night, Truveo relaunched as a consumer video search destination. Emphasizing branded content (including branded channels), it may be the most comprehensive video search site on the Internet.

Arguably Truveo overwhelms users with too much content and too many choices, but there will be refinements over time as users interact with it.

The single biggest drawback to the site (esp. vs. YouTube) is the fact that many (though not all) of Truveo's content partners contractually require that videos be served on their sites rather than on Truveo

Peer to Peer Filesharing (P2P)

Education 2.0: The College Student's Guide to File Sharing Annotated

A list of items that I highlighted from the article--see link above for the article in its entirety.

Heard of Napster or BitTorrent? Both are peer-to-peer networks through which your computer, equipped with the proper software, can find files to download.

The actual file transfers happen between your computer and other computers using protocols that distribute the file-sharing load among all the computers, or "peers," on the network. As a true P2P network without a central server to be sued, raided by police or otherwise confiscated, there's little chance of BitTorrent ever being shut down. The protocol's great popularity means there's no shortage of juicy intellectual property to fill every last perpendicularly stored bit your hard drive has to offer. Many colleges block BitTorrent traffic Direct Connect is somewhat risky business for college students who seek large quantities of internet content. Every new public hub you visit is one more that might reveal your queries and the files you're sharing When privacy is at a premium and download speed doesn't matter, it's hard to beat one-click hosting services like Megaupload, RapidShare and Sendspace While one-click hosting is fairly private at the moment and darknets keep content away from prying eyes, it's all for naught if your university actively monitors traffic and is determined to shut down peer-to-peer activity. We recommend you check your college's "acceptable use policy" and similar documents to determine their position on file sharing before engaging in potentially illegal activity, or at least make sure you save three grand, the going rate, in case you get caught. For the legal perspective, go right to the source: the United States Copyright Office FAQ

The Dog Days of Summer