Today the jury returned a guilty verdict in the corruption trial of long-standing Republican Senator Ted Stevens. While Stevens vows to fight the conviction, one would think the reaction of Republican Gov. Palin would make it difficult to successfully seek a future government position.
Statement of Senator Ted Stevens I am obviously disappointed in the verdict but not surprised given the repeated instances of prosecutorial misconduct in this case.
Sen. Stevens holds key committee appointments that influence technology applications. Yes, this is the Senator associated with statements regarding clogged pipes when addressing the topic of net neutrality. I am more focused here on “filtering”. Senator Stevens has been associated with DOPA (Deleting Online Predators Act) and introduced a new version of DOPA entitled “Protecting Children in the 21st Century Act” in 2007 and continued this focus through the beginning of this month.
“Specifically, the bill requires schools that receive E-Rate funds to offer age appropriate education regarding online behavior, including social networking, chat rooms, and cyberbullying awareness and response. The schools would have to include this education as part of their Internet safety policy.
In the past, I have argued that making e-rate funding contingent on filtering was misguided because the dangers to K-12 students are far more likely to be encountered from a home (student’s home or the home of a friend) computer than from a school-based computer and blocking commercial social sites eliminated potentially useful educational tools without addressing the potential dangers of using such tools outside of school. It appears the new direction for DOPA endorses a similar switch in priority.
First, these measures help shift the focus of federal efforts in this area toward education and away from regulation. No matter how much regulation lawmakers propose or enact, access to objectionable materials and concerns about online safety will remain problems that must be confronted.
Without getting into the politics and legal issues of the present, it seems reasonable to suggest that future developments in this area will go through the office of another legislator.
I ran across a post on LifeHacker describing an interesting election season technology project. The basic idea was to identify links leading to conservative or liberal sites. Conveniently, the add-on color codes the links (blue, pink, red).
The colors don’t necessarily represent each blogger’s personal views or biases. It’s a reflection of their linking activity. The algorithm looks at the stories that bloggers linked to before, relative to all other bloggers, and groups them accordingly. People that link to things that only conservatives find interesting will be classified as bright red, even if they are personally moderate or liberal, and vice-versa.
The project is described at Waxy and is based on a three-month collection of link history borrowed from Memorandum (a political web information portal). The technique is interesting to read about and I think I might even understand how it works if I spent a little more time. Think of it this way – the approach defines an orientation by the associations (i.e., links) they keep. You can play with an exploration tool they make available. As I understand it (and from my limited experience using it), the tool calls upon the database they have created and will color code the link if that link is in the database. Don’t expect to explore your local newspaper to determine which direction it leans. The Memorandum site works the best because this was the basis for the project.
I happen only to have Safari on the machine I was working on when exploring this site. The add-on available from Waxy does not work with Safari, but a link to Daytime Running Lights provided a bookmarklet that does. This post also suggested that the exploration of Google News.
The following screen capture will give you an idea what applying this tool (to Memorandum – the ideal target) generates.
It occurred to me that this tool could be the basis for some interesting classroom activities. The Bionic Teacher must also read LifeHacker because I was not the first with this insight.
What an opportunity to consider some topics in digital literacy (e.g., media bias). Just for kicks I did a search for Fox News in Google and then applied the tool. Nearly all of the links turned red. “Fair and Balanced” and red. I searched for CNN and found that nearly all links turned blue. NPR – mostly blue.
I have no business background. I am a college professor. Still, I believe in funding models and I distrust situations in which I cannot figure out what the funding model is. Often, the funding model is there but not apparent. Some web companies offer content or a service in hopes you will click on ad links that generate some money for the owner of the content or provider of the service. Providers must weigh the cost of creating the content/services against the ad revenue they generate. Some companies offer free services just so web users will spend more time with other revenue generating web services. Maybe the only benefit is reputation that generates a payoff in another area – call this the college athletics model. The model also works quite well for Google. I see today that the founders are buying a fighter jet. In my way of interpreting the world, the reputation model explains the efforts of some who create web content/services and then make a living speaking about their experiences. The web resources are basically advertising.
The music distribution “industry” is fertile ground for exploring competing funding models. There is file sharing, but I don’t count illegal ways of making money as funding. iTunes is clearly the leader – if I remember correctly Mr. Jobs claims the iTunes store now sells more music than any other outlet. Apple has now forged ahead of Walmart.
For a couple of years, I have been following (and paying a small monthly fee) to use LastFM. This company is more of a social site focused on music. If you are into the social thing, you can interact with others and learn about music in the process. This following/friending thing gets a little weird when you are sometimes 3 times the age of a potential friend. Perhaps classical rock, blues, and jazz works something like classical classical – good music is simply good music. Anyway, you can “discover” music that may interest you by noting the gaps in the overlap with others who have similar tastes. It works much like exploring the social bookmarking sites of others with similar interests and finding new sites you have yet to explore. You pay a little for this service and you contribute by simply using the site and sharing your own preferences. You do end up purchasing music, but not from last.fm.
I mostly pay the last.fm fee because last.fm keeps track of the music I listen to online and from my ipods. I am interested in these data (nearly 60,000 plays now) and in the “online radio” station I can access based on my preferences. They can’t play specifically what I request, but the “mix” is so heavily saturated with my favorites that it does not really matter. Not sure how this is legal. I assume there is an ASCAP fee. I guess my $4 a month must cover the cost. Beats me.
My new experiment is LaLa. You can pay to download MP3s (without DRM) for .89. You can also pay .10 per song to create an online library you can continually access from any computer. In addition, you can upload the music you own (the site went through the 4000+ songs I have in my two computers with iTunes accounts) and play this music online just like the .10 songs you purchase. I sit at a computer the great majority of my waking hours so this seems like a steal. I will likely invest $10 a month in this site, but I could easily play 20-30 hours of exactly the music I feel like listening to from this site each week. I understand they are generating some money, but I am not certain they will make much money on me. The bandwidth costs must be immense. The cost for perpetual online access to the music I purchase is low, but there seems some possibility this company may not make it and then all that dime music is gone. We will see. Go slow.
What about Pandora and PandoraFM? Free music as in FM radio. There are some ads on the sites. The Music Genome project which selects the playlist based on preferred artists and then songs you like and dislike first interested me (for those interested in the latest from Apple – this is very similar to Genius). I am not sure how these sites make it. They offer a great service to those who purchase music and I feel certain they encourage the sale of music, but they pay to stream nonetheless and face serious challenges.
I read a blog post today from Rheingold’s SmartMobs blog describing the FlatWorld Knowledge project. I have commented on this venture previously because the idea is to offer online textbooks for the college market at no cost (you might pay for ancillaries). The blog post indicates the company “announced the completion of a $700,000 round of funding“. Talk about an angel investor.
The Flat World Knowledge Business Model
Flat World Knowledge publishes professionally-produced, peer-reviewed college textbooks from leading educational experts. The company offers the textbooks as free web-hosted textbooks to students, and earns its revenue by providing students the option to purchase print-on-demand textbooks, audio textbooks, and digital study aids.
I would love to meet the folks who sold this model. I have been in the higher education setting for 30+ years and my experience has been that it works in the opposite way. You can give away ancillaries to instructors and students for using your book. I would be very skeptical that you can get enough students (and instructors) to fund the costs of free books by purchasing supplements. There is plenty of supplemental material already available at no cost (e.g., Merlot, search for instructor generated content in about any area of interest using Google). The effort and expertise to generate 300-400 pages of content requires an entirely different level of commitment. Perhaps states should commit funds to a grant program to support authors. Perhaps professional societies could generate resources (wait they are selling their products and clearly do not see themselves offering educational resources at no cost). I am certain that many universities are interested in this project (at least according to the press release). I wonder if these universities would be interested enough to fund summer writing projects or do they believe in the “free” business model too.
It appears that Oprah has become fascinated with reading books on a Kindle. The financial folks are projecting a bump in Kindle sales.You certainly will get no negative reaction from me. I wonder if Kindle reading is subject to the same hurdles that have prompted the recent discussion of the downside of reading from a screen (a recent discussion on WWWEDU focused on Nielson’s description of typical online scanning patterns and the concerns of some that this was encouraging a shallow style of interaction with text). I am guessing the content available for the Kindle offers little to those who want to skim. I don’t think I will invest in another gadget, but I hope a more general purpose “tablet” will eventually become available. I keep hoping Apple will offer a larger version of the “Touch” which I see as about half-way there.
Now, if we could direct Oprah toward other financial targets. How about hybrid cars?
In general, I think that the distinction between those who grow up with technology and those who have discovered technology after first learning to relate to their world is other ways is not that important. For me, there is a great difference between skill and perspective. I accept the reality that younger folks have a different perspective than I – some specific uses of technology are all they have known. Sometimes those with a different perspective can take advantage of the awareness of change to understand things on a deeper level and to develop greater skill. The acceptance of “this is the way the world is” is far from equivalent to understanding why the world is this way.
My oldest granddaughter, a digital native, contacted me via interactive video this morning to let me know she had made a jack-o-lantern. In my head, the carving of a pumpkin seemed pretty risky for such a young child, but it turns out she has pasted pieces of colored paper on a plastic milk jug.
Andrew Keen (Cult of the Amateur) predicts that the downturn in the economy will deal a blow to open source software and information. This position is similar to my concern expressed several days ago that the economy may lead to the termination of free online services that are attractive to educators.
Mass unemployment and a deep economic recession comprise the most effective antidote to the utopian ideals of open-source radicals. (Keen)
As I have considered the present situation, I have generated several concerns not presented by Keen. Free resources will be less likely because:
companies may withdraw a commitment to “exploratory time” for employees – e.g., Google allows employees time (20% I think) to work on personally defined initiatives instead of requiring them to spend 100% of paid time on assigned projects. BTW – universities often offer a similar opportunity (e.g., 20% time for secondary activities that pay – clinical psychologists seeing clients). The original motive as I understand it was to offer creative people an opportunity to be creative within the company as a way to keep them from going off to form their own companies. The threat of individuals leaving is greatly reduced in times of constriction.
companies may withdraw web services and open source projects that do not directly generate revenue and only promote the company (e.g., Google services that do not display ads)
individuals stressed by competition will be reluctant to contribute their time for the “good of the group”.
The interdependence of energy, global warming, the economy, and the flat world continue to fascinate me. Despite the intended focus of this blog, other issues sometimes simply require our attention.
PBS aired a Frontline special this evening focused on this identical set of interrelated topics. The entire program is available online with related in-depth material. What a tremendous resource.
Segment 8 contains an interview with T. Boone Pickens and his take on wind power. Check out the reference to North Dakota in this segment.
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