Photos from BETT

This link to Flickr

More on this blog later

BETT story for MyNews India

A revised version will be sent to OhmyNews after the event


Schools Minister suggests parents can solve UK bandwidth problems
BETT chance to compare rich internet applications

Jim Knight, UK Schools Minister, has told The Guardian that parents should now assume responsibility for providing IT resources at home, including web access. "We need to get to a point where in the same way when they start school the expectation is you've [the parent] got to find a school uniform, provide them with something to write with and probably these days a calculator, and in secondary school some sports gear - well, you add to that some IT." The statement came in an interview with Will Woodward who reports that "parents could be required to provide their children with high-speed internet access under plans being drawn up by ministers in partnership with some of the country's leading IT firms."

http://education.guardian.co.uk/schools/story/0,,2235303,00.html

Talks continue with companies such as Microsoft, BT, Sky, Virgin and RM to help close the widening achievement gap between pupils from the richest and poorest families. More than one million UK children have no access to a computer at home. The issues will be discussed at next week's BETT show on educational technology at Olympia. Last year Jim Knight announced at BETT a Home Access Taskforce following a study by Intel. Dell and RM on "universal home access".

The implication is that access to the web is now accepted as part of a learning environment. Jim Knight made the case for better web access-
"Obviously you need to make that affordable, you need to make that universal otherwise you just advantage those who can afford it. To some extent that's the case at the moment, where 50% of homes have got IT broadband, but they are hugely powerful educational tools ... we know from the research evidence the difference that information technology can make."

Much educational design has been intended to restrict access to unreliable information and to avoid time wasting through networking. Products at the 2008 BETT will include Autology, based on corporate technology from Autonomy, which is limited to 12,000 websites believed to be "credible". As reported in Personal Computer World, Bloxx will demonstrate how to "block bandwidth-hogging social-networking sites" and also block "proxy servers that allow crafty students to get on the web."

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/education/6245899.stm

www.bloxx.com

www.autology.com

http://www.pcw.co.uk/crn/analysis/2206425/safe-bett-innovation-3724662

There has yet to be any official statement in 2008 about the future use of open source software in UK schools. Many people at home are using Firefox and Open Office even if Linux is rare on the desktop. This is one way that web access is easier to afford. The statement from Jim Knight seems still mainly concerned with negotiating for discounts from existing sources, suggesting that "the government could in effect procure millions of new customers for them".

Last year BECTA, an advisory body, suggested delay in accepting Windows Vista and new versions of Office. There was also some support for Open Source. Asked by ZD NET about alternatives to Microsoft, Stephen Lucey said "The majority of functionality is not used in schools' typical use. But if schools make use of the additional functionality in Office 2007 then it is a decision for them".


http://news.zdnet.co.uk/software/0,1000000121,39285734,00.htm

However, in October 2007 BECTA complained about Microsoft to the Office of Fair Trading claiming "alleged anti-competitive practices by Microsoft in the schools software marketplace and in relation to Microsoft's approach to document interoperability." The licences available sometimes have the effect that cost differences are not easy to identify when considering choices. "Document Interoperability" is probably a reference to the Open Document Format used in Open Office and supported as an international standard by ISO. However there is no apparent change in approach to open source. "Open source is a separate issue, and schools can make their own decision," said a Becta spokesman to ZD Net.

http://news.zdnet.co.uk/software/0,1000000121,39290148,00.htm

"This is a mini-step in the right direction, but what Becta is actually doing is keeping Microsoft in front of the market to the exclusion of alternatives," said Mark Taylor of the Open Source Consortium pressure group."They're in danger of looking a bit silly, giving the market a non-recommendation and showing a lack of direction."


There are critics of the BETT event who notice the costs involved for the major stands at Olympia. Graham Brown-Martin on Handheld Learning describes BETT as "an event where the combined investment of all the participating companies, attendees, etc could probably fund the provision of a million learners with a device and connectivity. Or even a couple of new schools." There is some enthusiasm for the event, but then Brown-Martin answers his own question. "Where would we be without the annual pilgrimage to Olympia following the holiday season?" Possibly at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, seen as a bit more "glamorous". The Handheld Learning article continues to make a case that it is consumer electronics driving the home adoption of ICT as the Web is known in education.


http://www.handheldlearning.co.uk/content/view/43/2/

I would certainly agree that the most interesting stands are not always the largest. Open Source software will probably be on the balcony of the smaller hall, somewhere near Open Forum Europe. But BETT is now the only UK computer event that fills most of the space at Olympia. There is now a trend for companies to organise their own events that sometimes appear to be a closed world. BETT may be the only chance in 2008 to compare the new approaches to "Rich Internet Applications" from Adobe and Microsoft. Both are moving away from a web based on text. Video and animation are seen as a way forward. Computerworld has reported that during 2008 Microsoft will compete with Flash through Silverlight.

http://www.computerworld.com/action/article.do?command=viewArticleBasic&articleId=9053739&pageNumber=2

At BETT 2007 Microsoft announced Grava, for creating content. My impression was that this was a sort of bundle of Expression tools adjusted for education. There has not been much news since that I can find.

http://connect.microsoft.com/Grava/content/content.aspx?ContentID=4256

Adobe are promoting Creative Suite so there will be some familiarity in schools. There may be more emphasis on coding at BETT as the future of applications depends on support from developers.

Moodle and other open source developers will be there. My guess is that a high proportion of developers will be considering open source options. the BECTA concern with "Document Interoperability" is only part of this discussion.

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2007/11/27/broadband_summit_berr/

Jim Knight is not the only UK government minister concerned about bandwidth. Chris Williams in The Register reported a "next generation broadband summit" hosted by Stephen Timms, Competitiveness Minister at the Department for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform (BERR). Knight takes the view that the meeting decided "that they definitely need to start thinking around what to do about the UK's creaking internet infrastructure at some unspecified point in the future (perhaps)." There will be a vision statement and a further meeting later in 2008. Ofcom chief Ed Richards made it clear that the regulator won't be intervening to encourage early investment. He said: "Ofcom's role is to deliver a robust regulatory framework allowing industry to deploy when there is a clear business case for doing so."

This is the same sort of approach that minimises a role for government as such in providing a web environment for learning. My own opinion is that statements such as "the UK will be not too far behind in the knowledge economy by such a such a date" are actually to be welcomed as something relevant might then happen. At least UK parents have been warned about the dangers of the digital divide. They have only themselves to blame.

OhmyNews have published my story on Online Information and the Wikipedia.

More on this later.

At the Online Information show I was looking for a chance to photograph the book - Everything is Miscellaneous. The FT must have had one stand too many as this one was unattended.

More photos at Flickr

There is a post about e-books on the InfoToday blog

I think e-books or access to content online has indeed made it for academics and related readers. More on this later.

I still can't find any London paper based reviews for 'Everything Is Miscellaneous' by David Weinberger. I realise I am repeating myself but I hope to raise this with the publishing panel around lunchtime. I asked the question on the Guardian Books Talk and the explanation so far is that London reviewers don't recognise hardbacks published in New York.

I think they should have a case by case sort of approach. This book in an earlier version was a keynote for this event. Now not much sign of interest in the book. Still on Amazon UK and video of similar content is on Youtube.

There is one photo so far on Flickr tagged onlineinfo2007.

Mine is not turning up. Not sure why.

There is web access in the press office. They have let me in as a blogger. Things are looking up.

Yesterday one of the free seminars close to the exhibition was about how to source business information from BRIC, Brazil India Russia China or emerging markets in general. It was seen as a problem that so much information is not originally in English.

As I understand it, the Wikipedia policy at the moment is to address the problem that not enough languages other than English are well represented. But here on the locally/globally blog it turns out that some people seek out English anyway.

There could still be symbiosis between various forms of structure and approach. The word "symbiosis" keeps turning up. No news yet on the voting for Japanese buzzwords.

More Googling on "Jimmy Wales Wikipedia" finds this in the jamendo blog-

Breaking news: Wikipedia announces Creative Commons compatibility!

Sylvain (Jamendo’s CTO) just got back from a Wikipedia/iCommons party in San Francisco where he taped a very exciting announcement from Jimmy Wales : Creative Commons, Wikimedia and the Free Software Foundation just agreed to make the current Wikipedia license (the GFDL) compatible with Creative Commons (CC BY-SA). As Jimbo puts it, “This is the party to celebrate the liberation of Wikipedia”.

There is some info from the Online Information conference keynote in the IWR blog.

The InfoToday blog will have more on this later.

Well the bad news is that Easy web access on Kensington High Street is about to become Easy something else. So I have gone back to Earl's Court where I know the deal is good. One Great British Pound then stay as long as you like. No return number though.

Link to Internet Lounge

There is a rumor that either Olympia or Earl's Court is about to become a giant Pizza Express with flats on the top. My vote would be to keep Earl's Court. It seems more like a high street.

Not much yet on Google searching with onlineinfo2007 . Karen Blakeman has a blog but only one post so far.

MyNews India have published my story ahead of Online Information. I was invited to contribute following stories in OhmyNews. I tend to keep text in draft and am often not sure whether to send in something ahead of an event or to wait for more definite information. So I sent the slightly speculative version to MyNews India and probably the eventual version for OhmyNews will be much the same except for the direct quotes. But who can tell? And they may get some other stories from Olympia anyway. Do send them in and don't worry about a variet of points of view. The editors can cope.

outline script bailrigg

This set of short YouTube videos shows the basis of a future video / chat show covering a conversation during a walk from Info21 to the Spicy Hut at Lancaster University. Further explanation later. Production standards to be improved if and when this can be explained to the resource controller.

Info 21 cafe, Lancaster University

Start of a journey to the Spicy Hut. Gather confidence in an IT project, supported through some vision of quality.



Route from Info 21, Lancaster University

Moves towards Alexander Square. Part of a journey to hold on to an IT vision.



Towards George Fox Building, Lancaster

Towards conference centre, and probably a critique of any project from many visiting directions.



Away from George Fox Building, Lancaster

Route returns towards Alexander Square. If it is not raining the tree could be a spot for some reflection.



Towards Management School, Lancaster

Further discussion may just make things more complicated. Look out for shape shifters.



Venue, towards Alexander Square. Lancaster

Another chance for reflection



Alexander Square, bookshop and library

Check out hard copy links



Leaving Alexander Square. Lancaster

From the newsagent in the opposite corner to the library. Another corridor, look out for sudden gusts of wind.



Institute for Advanced Studies, Lancaster

Could be a place to discuss language, or forms of realism.



Web and coffee at Institute for Advanced Studies

Almost like a proper cyber cafe. You may need a password. Wifi works ok at Info21.



Continuing Education

If there are still issues with the IT project, at least comparison with life long learning may reveal that someone is already doing something similar at home.



Towards the Spicy Hut, Lancaster

Shows the final corner. Can you still meet someone else and explain what the project is about? Don't worry about the food.

OhmyNews has now published my story on the ISO survey. They dropped the words "Quality Management" from the headline but otherwise most of what i sent in has been accepted.

China Leads Continued Growth in ISO 9000
New developments in information security

Possibly last year's version was not as likely to be published as it was less definite.

Continued growth in China use of ISO 9000
Mixed sector pattern in USA and UK

I hope to find response and comment on this story and the survey. I think it is a significant stage when ISO 9000 has momentum outside the UK and the history of BS5750.

ISO publishes survey for 2006.

I have tried to do a story on this for OhmyNews. I am not sure who reads OhmyNews. It could be anyone in English speaking countries but I think it is people near Korea who want to expand on use of English. So the China and Japan aspects of the recent survey could be interesting for them.

I tried before with a story about the 2005 survey. The editors found it too hard to follow for a general audience and I could not work out how to explain it better. For the 2006 survey I have tried to stick more to hard facts and leave the opinions and speculation for later.

There could be several stories from different points of view. In the UK ISO9000 is clearly in decline and there are people who claim this is a good thing. But on a global basis it is still growing and the sector specific standards have a base in at least one major country. To establish how the basic management approach supports learning only requires a few case studies that can be followed.

More later when I hear from the editors. The survey free version itself is a PDF.

OhmyNews have published my story on the LCC Futures Conference. David Penfold spoke about the Semantic Web as well as Web 2.0 and suggested ways to work with both. This is encouraging as to how the Online Information show may go. He chairs a panel discussion about publishing on the final day.

Apple was included in the discussion, mostly around the iTune University though there is no announced plan outside the USA and Canada. Deakin now teaches video editing as a standard part of journalism courses. Not very academic? Not in the newspaper recruitment spec? Maybe but surely they are correct. Check back next year for an update.





Apologies for the clumsy painting on the slide. Playing with the levels helped at first but it soon went adrift.

There is a new website following up a meeting on Changing Forms of Organisation.

It includes most of the presentations as PDF, mp3s of the talk and selected video. I did try to get there but it was fully booked. I think the website offers a fair view on what probably happened. Quality issues are part of the discussion. Leadership is seen in the context of organisation.

My guess so far is that the main difference between now and when the learning organisation idea was first considered is that the web is assumed to have happened. The talk is about the knowledge economy but I think the web is a major part of this. So IT is not something that is hard to introduce to an organisation if some some review method is supposed to exist. It is just something that has happened and will probably continue.

The site has a blog from John Burgoyne and a discussion forum. Also photos of the wall for starting ideas and post-it notes from the conclusions phase. A document summary is also on the site.

I have suggested a link with the Deming SIG at the Chartered Quality Institute. Terry Rose has given permission for me to load up his recent presentation on Language Processing. Something like this seems to be happening anyway but I think the theory is relevant here and shows where quality ideas can contribute.

One quibble so far. The photo of "the wall" includes a reference to Facebook and MySpace. I think these sort of sites may have more to offer than is sometimes supposed. They may not have a formal theory of learning design but they have just got on with it. Somehow the interface results in a lot of people contributing something. Let us hope the same is true for the Changing Forms of Organisation site.

Maybe I misunderstand what the words in the phot are about. Comment welcome.

"Quality" as language

Looking at the IAS blog and other online material about "Safety" I am more convinced that a lot of what academics write about quality is just about the word, not any sort of practice. As memory serves the book "Making Quality Critical" starts off with the claim that the word "quality" has no meaning. So maybe the rest of the book is just about how it is used anyway. If the project is to write about neo-liberal rhetoric it matters not what the instance is.

New blog on "Safety" from IAS in Lancaster

I have put a comment into an academic blog


Not sure if this is off topic already but I was interested to find this blog as I contributed to the earlier research project on the Knowledge Economy. I am interested in quality systems in practice and how this relates to ideas about learning organisations.

My guess is that most academics are interested in language, so what is meant by "safety" or "quality" is more interesting than whether defects or danger actually exist.

So my idea for a film is a conference introducing the Centre for Performativity Studies. In the openening scene the police turn up suddenly and the organisers are arrested. It turns out that all the credit cards used to book for the event have had unauthorised charges and £137,000 has gone through an identified account. A claim about "identity theft" through a wifi network is made but there is disputed evidence.

Quite what happens next I don't know, but at least things start with a clearcut problem situation.

===========

------------------
Professor Cindy Weber introduced the key questions for the program: how is safe living conceived today?

-----------

Dr James Wilsdon

The key question is: what is being smuggled in under the rubric of security, safety and protection? This does not mean turning to conspiracy theory as Adam Curtis, for instance, argues. How is security, safety and protection used to drive through policy decisions? From the perspective of science and innovation policy, there is a tendency to actually shut down debates even in the guise of opening up debate. The use of notion of risk is a good example since it often narrows debate down. The challenge of Chindia is also being used to drive policy decisions. We need to be suspicious and alert to these rhetorics of closure.

--------------

Professor Michael Dillon (Politics and International Relations, Lancaster University) looked to some of the wider conceptual issues to begin with. In a sense, we have discussed an architecture of security as an imaginary. It is a dominant imaginary.

Press release about Online Information

Online Information (4th- 6th December 2007 at Olympia, London) is pleased to announce that Adrian Dale, Managing Partner of Creatifica Associates,.as the new conference chairman for 2007. Dale commented, “It’s an honour and a privilege to be asked to chair the conference - whilst at the same time a challenge following on from Martin White.”

The Online Information Conference will provide a forum dedicated to learning, debate, professional development, technology reviews and assessments, expert discussion as well as case study presentations and the sharing of research results and opinion with over 30 sessions and more than 100 expert speakers.

The theme this year is "Applying Web 2.0 - Innovation, Impact and Implementation". Dale explains why this is so relevant for 2007-2008. “This year Online Information professionals will be "going mainstream" again. The world of Social Software has come alive this year and the challenge for the information professional is to show relevance, leadership and professionalism in this fast moving consumer market. We want to avoid the "bubble" and the "consumer froth" which we can leave to the market place - this conference is about what comes after this - deriving real business value from the opportunities that are coming for free, well, nearly free!”

Not much of a mention for academics, though some university librarians will be there. Maybe "leadership" is a word to work on. There is not much about quality and organisations in the material so far but I think "leadership" might connect with this.

Moving media discussion to readG

This blog has been covering media recently but this will reduce. I plan to move this to another blog about reading the Guardian.

The book "Everything is Miscellaneous" could be about academic writing or newspapers or both so the discussion around media helps to break down distinctions between disciplines such as learning and quality, and between academics and practitioners. But the media bit is off topic for thios blog to a large extent so there will be less of it.

Reading the Guardian includes the media section that covers most of the UK media in a global context.