Film is part of the scope for the research project on safe living. Annette Davison is in the photo, talking about "The Conversation" as part of a presentation on "Ear Defenders : designing film for safe living". There is a readiness to use media from the web or anywhere, not just a print format suitable for journals.

I have found a couple of links from Blinkbox where you can create a one minute sample. This seems a good chance to test this. More argument later if things fit together.

Not much music on this one


www.blinkbox.com

Only some at the end on this


www.blinkbox.com

safetypaper

The workshop last week on documents, mediation and presentation was mostly related to examples of state policy on immigration and terror. It turned out that the chance of being blown up on a flight is less than one in a million so discourse theory is a reasonable way to explain the theatre at airports. Also the number of terrorists arrested so far on the USA / Mexico border is reported as zero.

However I still think that danger could be real. Also that there is something that could be explained as a "knowledge economy" or something like it. And that the word "quality" has a meaning. There is such a thing as rhetoric to support a neo-liberal project, but this is not a way to explain everything.

I realise I am repeating more or less the same points every so often but there is a benefit in testing ideas so trying to connect with academic conferences is worth a try sometimes. I am not sure what a "paper" is, now that the web allows versions to exist at different times. Still, I have managed 300 words more or less on topic.

This blog post can be edited so will have more links later

=================

current version, deadline 15 April

Possible thread- Distributing protection and 'Safe Living'


Search results, documents, and integrated management

Documents can be part of a process with a scope that includes safety. Web search can be a source, probably with a wider range than an academic library. The paper considers the possibility that danger can be real.

Standards for health and safety compete for the attention of senior policy makers. They can be audited and reviewed together with other standards. Comparisons can be made with studies on quality policies. Academics have concentrated on “quality” as a discourse. Wilmott and Wilkinson describe the word as “meaningless”.

Even if the management procedures described in standards are seen as an imaginary there is still a question as to how organisations learn or otherwise change behaviour over time.

One area to concentrate on is security around mobile communications. There is currently a trend for material promoting security software to present social networking as a danger. How to balance this with the benefits of web access will be considered taking an internet cafe as a case study. A PayPal account was compromised during 2007, evidence that danger can be real.

The style of presentation is intended to be as close to a workshop as possible. The paper could be combines with others in a session. Reference will be made to two scripts for film fiction. One deals with the difficulties for practitioners in maintaining a focus on a project while relating to the “critique” concerns of academics. The other covers a security catastrophe intended to focus on responses seen in the context of organisation.

The presentation will conclude by looking at a Swicki, a search engine using a social approach associated with Wikis. It will be claimed that documents can be part of a management process, possibly contributing to safety.

There has been some progress on the "Sciences of Protection" Swicki that I started as a test. "Fears" and "Anxieties" have been added to the buzzcloud following their use in searches. I have also added "danger", a word I used last week at a meeting of the Deming SIG. Apparently the people who work on risk rarely mention the word danger though it has turned up on the website for the workshop later this week. Documentation in itself is seen as potentially dangerous, even if usually there is no danger that could be as interesting as language. Where I am going way off topic may become clearer so check this blog next weekend.

A couple of things fit together from recent reading. Through the Financial Times I have found a research project into Second Life funded by IBM. There is a company website for www.seriosity.com, linked to research by Byron Reeves at Stanford and Thomas Malone at MIT. There is evidence of leadership development through online games, refencing a leadership model developed at MIT. I have now found three PDF files about this and they make a lot of sense.

Then earlier today I caught up with Buzzmachine, the blog from Jeff Jarvis. He mostly writes about media as changing with the web , but occasionally mentions education. He expacts a similar scale of change at some point to what he observes in news organisations. The universities he mentions as having content online already are Stanford and MIT. In the UK there is often mention of research and teaching universities as if there is a need to concentrate on a small number of research brands. As the effect of the web speeds up I am not sure why any research universities would be in the UK in terms of destination sites. It seems to me that the universities where there is most interest in the web are not the same ones that get research funding. Bit sweeping but something to come back to.

I have put a comment on the blog for the New Sciences of Protection project. This is at the Institute for Advanced Studies at Lancaster, where I tried to link quality assurance and learning organisations at a previous conference on the knowledge economy. Not sure where this will go. They seem mostly interested in language, but documents can be a real cause of danger.

By the way, the Knowledge Economy will turn up again quite soon at the Work Foundation. This appears to be a study in government, not rhetoric, so could be a basis for credibility.

Thinking about updating the learn9 website. I don't feel like insisting on definite statements. I think the search engine woreks well for people to find what they want or suits them.

i still think the ISO approach is useful, especially for print organisations but things are more in flux at the moment. Adobe are now promoting Flash and AIR so i think there is anew phase after Postscript and PDF. In some ways I find it hard to adjust to this but also things seem much more fluid that previously. I like Scribd for example and they could do well. The approach is fairly straightforward in using Flash to present documents online, including PDF. There are other products such as share that are still in beta on Adobe labs so I don't know what will happen eventually. Sevice providers that already do some combination of print and web design could go in various directions.

I have sent in a story on Learning Technologies to OhmyNews. More on this when I see how they edit it. It is based mostly on the Adobe move towards Flash so some of the issues will continue on the blog about drupa.

Learning Technologies draft

This is a draft of a story for Ohmynews, probably to be finalised next weekend.

Adobe proposes Flash for learning
e-Skills Maturity Model continues to feature on business radar


Adobe emphasised a view of learning around Flash for video and an animated web at their stand during Learning Technologies, a show at Olympia in London last week. Although the word "Acrobat" is still used to describe a software product there was almost no mention for the Portable Document Format (PDF) widely assumed to be associated with a large proportion of current income. The implication is that Adobe anticipates a web based less on text and learning environments based less on paper. Acceptance for online learning was evidenced by e-Skills UK, featuring case studies linked to a maturity model launched at Learning Technologies last year.

The combination of Captivate and Connect allows for rapid creation of presentations starting from Powerpoint which is assumed to be familiar for most people working on training in organisations. Content is displayed through Flash whether it is video or a form of paper. Collaboration is possible through video conferencing or text chat. Connect Professional has administration features that are not available in the Acrobat Connect offer that is now part of Acrobat. Previously Acrobat was known as software relating to PDF, a format that put on screen a recognisable representation of design for a paper page. In 2005, Adobe appeared to buy Macromedia though the discussions at the time may have suggested some form of merger. Managers from Macromedia continue to be influential in several Adobe business units. When Acrobat 8 was released in 2006 it included a menu choice to launch Connect, formerly known as Breeze when part of Macromedia. Although Adobe claim there is integration between the Flash and PDF formats it is my impression that the Connect approach in Acrobat 8 has almost no relation to the rest of the PDF based part of the software that most people are familiar with. There is no way to save a record of text chat as a PDF though it can be saved as text from which a PDF could be created. There is no way to save a PDF version of slides unless the presenter chooses to offer this.If this sounds confused it is because I am confused. I am stuck on PDF as a normal route so suddenly having Flash all over the place needs some getting used to. -Will 2/3/08 1:15 PM

There were many other signs of support for video as a direction. datmedia showed how videos can be integrated with web pages through any browser. They support many channels from organisations, including the Learning Technologies event. A presentation from last year is on the datmedia website. Techsmith offer Snagit as a way to capture screen sequences as a Flash file and Camtasia Studio for related processes. Flash is assumed to be widely available or at least within the scope of software supported by a training department.

There was some evidence in progress on establishing learning as a business priority. Last year e-Skills UK launched a report - "Towards Maturity" - showing how technology is adapted in organisations. Recently Laura Overton has reported on the e-Skills website about Online Educa Berlin where Sue Todd – President and CEO of corporate University exchange - who presented details of her recent benchmarking activity with her membership organisations around the globe.

Her research shows that businesses are waking up to the value of learning to the bottom line of their business. Sue believes this as potentially a great thing as learning success in the future will require training to be perceived as a core business process supporting business goals in the same way as marketing or manufacturing does.

Case studies from Towards Maturity site

So far I don't see much evidence of "leadership" or senior management as a driver for e-learning. Last year my impression was that technology was introduced by people in training or IT or because people found it useful at home. Senior managers got involved when given detailed training. conversation this year suggests things may be changing. Board approval is getting easier. I am still looking at the case studies.

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

Above is news, comment and quotes can follow. It strikes me that "social networking" is much discussed but academic theory around this is not connected.

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

The question for information professionals working across all types of sectors and organisations is what will the impact be on them and their work is learning 2.0 in all its proliferations does turn out to be something more than marketing hype. One cast-iron reason why it may stay the course is the simple reason that people (and especially younger learners) appear to enjoy the freedom, interconnection, and interactivity that is on offer. A few years ago one of the ways that the internet was fostering learning (especially informal learning and knowledge sharing) was through communities of practice (CoPs). These CoPs are individuals which technology could connect and bring together so that they could share knowledge and improve both individual and organisational performance through sharing of experience in an unstructured way. Just by belonging to the community your experience, knowledge and expertise was assumed and accepted. Learning 2.0 can be seen as the young cousin of CoPs. Learning 2.0 is social network transformed for a learning purpose.

From Information World Review blog, based on Stephen Downes at Learntech Conference

I think the CoP discussion started as an academic way to describe something. It became a practical aim later. Now seen as from the past because I think the academic discussion is not connected with the blogs. I may be wrong but the people who are published in journals seem to be in a parallel world. "Networked Learning" has a critique of the idea of community but I can't find anything recent online for free. There may be something in journals but it is expensive to find out.

Ideas of Community and Implications for Theorising Networked Learning

My impression so far is that "leadership" is not a way to explain how organisations take on e-learning, and "distributed leadership" drifts back to organisation.


Back to News

From the Houston Chronicle

"While Adobe will have new product releases this year (including Photoshop Express, Acrobat 9 and Creative Suite 4 in our view), we are concerned that these won't be strong enough to buck the picture of deteriorating demand," MacMillan said.analyst Ross MacMillan said in a client note. He also cut his price target to $30 from $50.

So what will Acrobat 9 be like? There is almost no publicity for MARS, an XML rewrite of the PDF format. I still think the hard copy aspects of communication have some sort of base. But the Adobe push on Flash and AIR (integrated runtime) mark a significant break away from page based design.

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.

"Kids are not stupid" claims forum leader.

David Brunnen, forum leader for networked services, part of the communications management association (CMA) has made series of claims in the September issue of Networking.

"Good news that in the sometimes wierd world of Web 2.0, youth-led innovations like Facebook are being translated into new services for business."

But wait. There is more.

"According to sources close to their deadlines , the shock for the media industry is that they've not noticed that kids are not stupid."

So if this is true about building trust in media, it could also be true for education. Start with where the kids are at, and design around it.

On the other hand it would have been nice if the case for socially constructed methods online had been better accepted and resulted in more funding for projects. But it just seems to be so that the example of what is already happening is more persuasive.

One more quibble. It seems to me quite strange how much money some people are prepared to pay on ringtones for mobile phones where the sound quality is not really that good. But there may be very sensible reasons for this that I just don't understand.

I am having another look at Squidoo and Eurekster. I tried out editing often a while back, then lost track. But a check on Alexa shows they have grown over the last couple of years.

There will be a version of this post with a bit more technology included on the drupa2008 blog but the Adobe MAX event is an occasion to just list some options for online collaboration or forms of publishing. I have been working on a page about a possible eTEN research project. This was around the Adobe project for server software and PDF. At the time I saw PDF as central to the move of documents online. PDF has all the function of paper. But recently Google docs are showing that the format of the page is not that crucial if it is the text that is central to collaboration. Adobe have now bought Buzzword and it looks as if this will work ok with the same sort of collaboration as with Google docs plus the display and design of pages as they would print. By the way I don't see these as competing too much ; both ways of processing words would suit some purpose. Adobe seem converted to the Google model of free online apps supported by adverts. It is unclear whether the PDF approach will also change. In my opinion the acceptance of PDF for online collaboration has been delayed by the very high prices charged. LiveCycle is only really promoted to a few banks and some governments. Perhaps PDF is only required in a corporate setting for security and signatures etc. It may just stay rare and expensive while Flash is promoted on another model.

Most of what was announced at MAX is still beta. Actual releases next year. So my view at the moment is that it is not really possible to design any learning situation given the rate of change in available formats and software. The next few months are a time for observation and experiment. There is a relevant theory of learning no doubt but this may be clarified later.

On the drupa2008 blog I have suggested that the London College of Communications do their Futures conference in reverse order, putting print in a web context. The publishing bit in the middle could link to discussion at Online Information. I don't understand how the courses are organised at LCC but for some reason the issues for the panel at Online Information seem slightly distinct from the Digital Print World conference.

So in a mild attempt at time travel, here is my question for the panel. In real life this will be asked around lunchtime on December 6th towards the back of the hall in Olympia.

What to make of the London printed reviews of "Everything is Miscellaneous" by David Weinberger. So far as I know there have not been any. There is no UK publisher but the book is available from Amazon UK. Is there something about books such as Andrew Keen's "The Cult of the Amateur" that appeals more to the sort of people who edit review pages? Since David Weinberger gave a keynote two years ago for the Online Information conference with similar content, is the lack of book reviews evidence that the conference is of very little interest for the world of London literature?

My impression is that the Swicki is working ok. So the idea that there is a link between learning and quality could be valid. I will try out putting that more definitely. Quality systems work as people learn from them or in them, maybe it is more about learning design or the learning is accidental. So I will arrange other blogs and claims as if this is a reasonable assumption for a while.



I have just done a search on "learning quality" in the Learn9 Swicki. The results are ok. I am not surprised that a European project turns up. The continental universities are serious about online learning and using quality ideas as part of this. The concern is quality in support of learning but this is probably as good a context as any to find out about learning within quality, the concern I started out with. Of course "non-learning" and system failure are just as easy to study. There may be more data.

I have tried out a post about forms of knowledge on the Guardian Talk. I have posted a series on the QR funding part of research assessment. Some academics have helped to explain things. It is a way to find out what they think about quality.

Also on the learning with ISO 9000 log there will soon be something on forms of knowledge that might overlap. The current debate about amateurs that mostly comes from professional journalists strikes me as related to discussion by academics about mode1 and mode 2 knowledge. My own interest is in quality and I am gradually turning to forms of journalism rather than attempt academic writing. Most quality theory has come from practitioners. The web is changing the location of styles of knowledge. If it turns up in a Google search it may be from a journal, a magazine or just a blog or something. Continues on blog.

Since writing that I have had a printed promotion for the Online Information Conference and I think it will leave it as open as possible till then. The keynote speaker is Jimmy Wales and the topics are all "web 2.0". It seems a good chance to talk about validity claims in a wider context. I'm sure some form of quality will fit in there.

There is every chance that the Hunky Mouse or someone from Newswireless will turn up and report. Could Guy Kewney revise his views on amateurs given new discussion on user generated content?

There are speakers from universities so I will contact others and see what they think. In 2002 there was a "Manifesto: Towards E-Quality in Networked E-Learning in Higher Education" but I don't know how this has developed since. Is the word "quality" part of this? Chris Grey wrote "Against Learning" (PDF file)in 2001. I got the impression the web was part of the learning he was against.

Academics may not recognise the conference as carrying weight in their discussion. There is still no UK review of "Everything is Miscellaneous" that I can find though I think a keynote at Online Information is worth some consideration.

I have had an email invite to a survey on e-learning, or rather whether the term "e-learning" should vanish and just be known as "learning". Strangely there is also another term "technology-enhanced learning". This seems to have been recently invented by academics looking for another discipline. Hey, this is just a blog don't take offence. I have sent a reply and suggested "the web" as a term that is in use. It seems obvious to me that some form of learning is involved in using the web. One problem is that "education" is associated with institutions. In the UK there has recently been less emphasis on adult education other than basic skills or through employment sectors. So I think the web should be part of the mix.

It is making more sense that the Online Information show can be imagined. I might as well assume it is happening now or last week. Also I have managed to read all the way through "Everything Is Miscellaneous" by David Weinberger. I do read some books by the way. I do not spend all my time watching TV or online. Just most of it. But I still read newspapers and magazines and sometimes a book. Usually they have some kind of typological guide or outline. "In this chapter you will discover x y and z" or an introduction that sums up the main points. In this case there is just a long continuous text with occasional breaks for a chapter heading. Maybe it is thought this is how a book should be. Based at the Berkman Center, Harvard Law School and a frequent keynote presenter at events such as Online Information maybe he thinks that speaking without interruption for an hour or so at a time is no bad skill and printed text should have the same effect. Not that I'm complaining about the content now I have managed to read it. I just think there should be a route map.

One thing disappointed me, the representation of people who work on quality assurance. An imagined character, Carla (page 160), has just one line. "I'll be making sure what we build meets company standards." This is in a chapter on "what nothing says", how fiction communicates more than our information about people we know through work. My own view is that quality assurance can be more than this. Maybe I should turn to fiction for a Carla who would guide the team through the next morphosis.

Jimmy Wales, scheduled to present this year's keynote for Online Information, is quoted on page 136. "I'm not all that interested in French philosophy. An article is neutral when people have stopped changing it."

Wales is currently working on the Wikia search engine. One of the principles is quality ( as well as transparency, privacy and collaboration).

"* Quality - Significantly improve the relevancy and accuracy of search results and the searching experience."

Discussion so far points out that search engines sometimes turn up mostly commercial sites : social networking sites suffer because people use the wrong tags : there is plenty of room for improvement.

It is a mystery to me why Weinberger's book has not been more widely reviewed in the UK. That is, reviewed at all as far as I can tell. It is now available through Amazon UK. On Huffington Post Weinberger recently explained why there has been media attention for "The Cult of the Amateur" by Andrew Keen

How could they not feature an author -- a former dot-com guy no less -- who says that the Internet is killing our culture, as his subtitle puts it? Even better, the culture the Internet is supposedly killing is the mass media's presented in its best light -- the home of poetry, opera and fine journalism.

Some points from his own book are repeated but there is support for some of the points made by Keen.

Keen's best case largely fails. It's strongest at pointing to the strengths of the modern ecology. Some institutions that have nurtured talent are likely to go bankrupt. We do not yet have replacements for some of them, and it's possible that for some of them, no economic model will emerge that will enable them to continue.

So this is interesting for business students as well. The Wikipedia may not have a normal business model but it seems to survive. Online Information will include some discussion about publishing.

This post is going away from theory and into news but maybe the time is right for this. The Online Information conference in the first week of December is a significant event. With stands for university presses including Oxford and Stanford there is potential interest for academics.

A couple of years ago the keynote speaker was David Weinberger, author of the book "Everything is Miscellaneous". My main interest in this is to at least break down the divisions between learning and quality as academic subjects. Just enough to make some connections.

The news is that this year the keynote will be from Jimmy Wales and cover "Web 2.0" , whatever that turns out to be.



It surprises me that "Everything is Miscellaneous" has not been reviewed by the Guardian. They have covered a book on the "Cult of the Amateur". Maybe this is better suited to the views of proper journalists such as Victor Keegan and Tim Dowling. So far as I know there has not been a review of "Miscellaneous" in Information World Review, although "Amateur" has been together with an interview.

Screenshot of search on Guardian shows that "Miscellaneous" has only been mentioned by Jeff Jarvis, in 2006, before the book existed. So what is the point of a book format? Available from Amazon UK ( special offer includes the Amateur one as well if you are really interested). Is UK review space limited to London publishing? What is going on?



Discussion continues online. Olympia in December is actual space.

There is more happening around the discussion of expert authority in a web context. On this blog I still think it is worth repeating this, just to create a space where quality and learning can be seen as related. It is the view of distinct academic subjects that has been a block on this.

Today's post, actual through the letterbox hard copy stuff in cellophane, included Information World Review. Splash next to the front page title- "The Wicked Web 2.0 - Culture Killer" . This is a bit loaded. I have not given up on dialogue through Guardian Talk but have decided to concentrate on this blog. So in future most words will turn up here to avoid repeating things. But today, here is a copy from Guardian Talk

Information World Review has joined in the publicity for Andrew Keen's book. "A book is a fitting medium to argue for a reassessment" writes Mark Chillingworth. This is a very fair point. This stream of thought is coming from the print world. I am not sure Victor Keegan was right to say it represents any trend on the web.

In an interview, Keen says "We need to re-install a principle of authority. The mainstream media and experts can civilise the web."

Presumably Guardian journalists support this view of experts and mainstream media. Who knows? They rarely join in this sort of Talk.

I may continue to add to this topic but probably will kepp my own blog more updated

http://www.learn9.net

By the way, as far as I know there is no IWR review yet of "Everything is Miscellaneous" by David Weinberger. As mentioned before, this is a proper book. Continuous text with an index. Maybe this will have to wait for UK publication. The US version is now on Amazon UK.

Also similar points on the chatspace for NewsWireless. Guy Kewney recently wrote about the threat to journalism from user generated content on the web. However NewsWireless seems fairly open to contributions.

A printed version of Information World Review has arrived, dated for July and August. The opinions are a bit exetreme in my own view. Web 2.0 is linked with the words "wicked" and "culture killer". That is just the splash on the cover. The review of the book "The Cult of the Amateur" by Andrew Keen is headlined "The monkey cult destroying the temple of knowledge". It opens by comparing the web to "infinite monkeys ....perpetuating the cycle of misinformation and ignorance". The recent views in IT Week from Guy Kewney seem fair and balanced by comparison.

In an interview with Mark Chillingworth, Andrew Keen said "We need to re-install a principle of authority. The mainstream media and experts can civilise the web."

Strangely the same Mark Chillingworth writes an editorial about a recent discussion panel on Web 2.0. "My hat goes off to the information professionals....who put their hands in the air and admitted they didn't fully understand the technology and the issues it presented to their working lives."

So what sort of authority do they have? There could be some sort of dialogue with the people who have been using the web in ways now described as Web 2 or whatever.

I am not sure who finds this topic. There seem to several routes from the Newswireless pages. So here is a link to my own blog, which may be more likely to be updated-

http://www.learn9.net

Also there is a comment on the IWR blog. I don't think they have reviewed "Everything is Miscellaneous" as yet. If I'm wrong another comment should turn up.

I have previously come across the Information World Review mostly through the Online Information show. It now seems to put more emphasis on print than I had realised. The case made about "The Cult of the Amateur" seems to get attention just because it is in a book.

The Online Information show would be a good time to talk about online information.

I will do a course later this month on autobiography, part of the summer school at Lancaster. The first slant is as a situation. More chronology will follow later. I have included some time travel, taking in up to drupa next year.

Jeff Jarvis on Buzzmachine recently described the possible consequence of web availabilty for education.

"I keep coming back to the idea that the next institution to explode — after media, advertising, consumer companies, politics, and government — is the academe. This will have profoundly disruptive implications for both education and research. But why shouldn’t educational institutions — especially publicly funded ones — follow the lead of MIT and other universities and put their curricula online? And wouldn’t it be ducky if there were a good, standard infrastructure for doing so and even for joining in with other online students? And, of course, why shouldn’t we all be able to create courses to share?"

This interest me as it would change the way people think about learning and quality, and the way that print fits with the web.

My guess is that Nature will be at the Information Management Show or Online Information. They both have a blogger stream in the free seminars that are on the show floor. I get confused as to which is which.

Guardian Education this week has ann article about Nature Network and a quote from Dr Timo Hannay, director of web publishing at Nature Publishing Group.

"We are increasingly seeing the online world with its informal rapid communications complement the slower, more formal communications of academic journals. There should be a way of measuring the impact of a scientist who posts comments on a site like Nature Network. These could be added to their publishing record for the research assessment exercise [in which every active researcher in every university in the UK is assessed by panels of other academics]. I think the funding bodies will see that these contributions add to the scientific knowledge base."

Previously I had thought of "Research Assessment Friendly" knowledge and "search engine constructed" knowledge as two different things. They could be complementary but I have not previously come across anyone suggesting the web be given the sort of credibility suggested here.

I would welcome it because as the management learning establishment still have little time for quality as a topic, still less recognition as a subject. By contrast any discussion coming out of real situations can often cover both learning and quality.

I am starting to include more in this blog about the nature of the knowledge that is on the web. The actual book, "Everything is Miscellaneous" has arrived. It is now on Amazon UK. Last weekend was the third forum on citizen journalism organised by OhmyNews. Very little coverage so far, but the issues keep cropping up. Proper print journalists seem to be getting upset.

Latest example, Guy Kewney in IT Week.

Headline - Warning: user-generated sites may contain nuts
Real news and informed opinion are being drowned out by conspiracy-fuelled drivel

selected quote -

User Generated Content makes these people think they have a point worth making and allows them to make it. This is a recipe for mob rule, not intelligent consensus.

"Real News" on NewsWireless has included a story about Hutchison which was denied and then appeared not to be valid. The explanation came out that the prediction was essentially correct except that Chinese beliefs in the benefits of a new year had led to a delay. Very entertaining and easy to read, but surely there could be a bit of tolerance for bloggers from real journalists such as these?

Serge Ravet has posted a Google Doc including the original formatting. This is fantastic as it would have taken ages to guess.

I have highlighted the bits that jump out. There will be more on the website later.

This is a Green Paper about eQuality. There was an awards event in Paris in January and this paper was written later. So the meaning of the word is still for discussion. Any scope that includes learning, quality and technology is helpful for me.

Checking out the links on the website I find that the various European quality research projects seem to have combined to support a Quality Foundation. Here there is a wiki with several texts.

My impression is that the discussion has gone a long way in combining ideas about learning and quality. I am trying to reformat this text to get a better idea of it. It is very encouraging so far and may be a base on which to reorganise other material.

The book "Everything is Miscellaneous" has been published.

There are extracts and versions and reviews have started. See the blog for links.

there is also a video on Google



I will come back to this later.

What interests me is the possibility of breaking down the gap between learning and quality as academic subjects. On the web my impression is that many people search on either word and maybe both. But academics in the UK at least who are researching learning tend not to be interested in quality except to critique it.

I have found a couple of links following an article in yesterday's Guardian. Michael Rosenblum has a copy of most of an article by Ian Reeves, who has some video on his own site.

Rosenblum is quoted as distinguishing web 1 as based on text and web 2 as based on video. Personally I find the use of webs 1- n confusing but the idea of a text web and a video web is interesting. The video on Ian Reeves site shows several examplesof newspappers moving to the web. Jeff Jarvis believes that video is suitable for conversation but I don't really expect US candidates to respond in detail to every post on YouTube. Text still has some scope, even if email exchange started in web zero.

Today Adobe announced a new Creative Suite ans I am struck by the low priority for print. My guess is that most people still relate to hard copy. But 'design' seems to be one of three words, the others being web and video. Within 'design' print is hanging on with mobile devices. The most recent figures show sales of Flash to device OEM as about 2% of Adobe revenue. Postscript sales are included with 'other', totalling about 10%. So somebody expects the mobile video aspect to grow fairly rapidly.

"text web" relates back to hard copy. "video web" may not. Except that if flying type is included in the animation I hope knowledge about typography survives somewhere.

I am posting this in learn9, about learning and quality, and in drupa2008, about whatever pre-press is supposed to be doing, and in a Guardian Education Talk comment about QR. I still don't understand the UK academic approach to quality but when a new set of students arrive one day expecting to borrow cameras from the library there must be some way to manage the transition.

I have had another look at word clouds and search engines. One reason is that the websites I have worked on have limitations. Based it the UK they are always going to have less scope than the US sites on similar topics. Planet PDF and PDF Zone get more news and have more resource. Stats so far show that the UK audience is usually less than 20% of the site intended for the UK, even with an opening screen suggesting going to the dotcom site. So maybe now there is some broadband in the UK there could be less diffence between them. The dotcom could be more about Flash for example. I have written on drupa2008 about my difficulty keeping up with Adobe. I realise there is some point in Flash but I think the UK is still slightly into hard copy.

Anyway, the benefit of search engines is that they can include your own site and others. So the people coming to it get a range of sources even if one website is not updated. I started last year on Swickis and Squidoo lenses. It is easy to lose focus through this but I managed a 'Hello spiders' diagram that had some sort of coherence.

At Google University last year I got a freebie introduction to adwords so tried to promote this hello spiders diagram page. It is clearly too complicated as my 'quality score' has gradually dropped so that all the words are inactive within the budget. So I have tried a simplified version for Google Customised Search. Gradually Google offers enough to absorb most of what is happening. Their webpage creation tool is pretty good so I have used that. It started as a personal homepage which is ok as I can relate to most of the issues around the search engines on it.



Customised Search Engines start here.

So far it seems to work ok.

I am also working on a Google doc following up some ideas from last year. There is academic study on how the weak links of the web change views on communities of practice. I have not been able to follow how this relates to practice, but these search engines with social aspects may demonstrate some issues after a while.

I have started to think about updating the Acrobat Services sites. Relevant here because the technology around PDF is now a useful part of learning and documentation. Over the last few months I have got more into blogging than websites. It is easier and more provisional. Also I have not been settled in a view on Acrobat 8. It is too much about Flash. Now I know a bit more about Mars I have come to accept the Flash aspects. Apollo runtime is now available and some of it looks ok. So I realise what I am interested in fairly retro for the current Adobe direction. The dotcom site could expand into the Flash aspects of what is now Acrobat. The UK one will stay close to print, at least until drupa.

Last week I was in Lancaster and I had a look at the campus again. The new IT building is still a major feature and there is a lot going on to promote IT companies and projects. I think quality ideas could fit with this. I didn't check out the Management School but it should be possible to work on some kind of 'performativity' that is accepted to some extent. As in wifi should work some of the time, for example. In the cafe at the top of the building it is working fine.

Encouraged by feedback so far on Google docs I have merged two bits of text that may start a new connection with management learning as a subject. One is from an earlier proposal relating quality to FE and the other is the last part of a paper on the knowledge economy. Current version at Google docs.

I have revised a Google doc on eTEN to include some ideas on learning.

While checking the links I found a new vision statement from Kaleidescope.

There is reference to quality but it seems to me that there is no recognition that quality relates to the output of organisations.

(TEL means Technology Enhanced Learning. see previous posts on why I think using just the word "learning" is more useful)

"The role of TEL is to achieve the improvement in the quality and reach of education implied by our highest aims for education. Improving quality means using TEL to change the way learners encounter and engage with knowledge: it can rehearse them in the high-level cognitive skills of negotiating ideas, exploring systems, collaborating on projects, constructing their own representations of knowledge. Improving reach means exploiting the internet to bring wider access to knowledge and communities of practice: technology can bring far greater flexibility to the ways in which learning and education are conducted."

However there is some reference to the idea that organisations can learn.

"In a changing world it is organisations’ and individuals’ capability to learn, rather than simply their access to information, that determines socio-economic development."

My impression is that the work around the "learning organisation" is no longer a priority for academics. One consequence of informatioin technology could be changes in the organisation of universities. An explanation of the apparent lack of disruption so far could be the effective resistance from individual academics. Opposition to any quality theory is still well established in the UK as far as I can tell.

The statement recognises practitioner knowledge so there may be scope for exchange with people working on quality in other organisations. However it is described or whatever theory people start from, it seems to me that any effective quality system involves some form of learning and that non-learning explains much else.

"We see ‘knowledge’ in two different ways. It may be seen as something fairly stable – the expert view, the common knowledge, received wisdom – which is to be passed on, enabling us to learn from others. It may also be seen as something quite unstable - the product of our experience, practitioner knowledge, local wisdom. There is a continuous interplay between the two - we rely on stable representations and treat knowledge as independent of context, and at the same time have to engage in 'work' to make sense of them in a particular setting - then creating new stable representations and so forth. The two types of knowledge are complementary."

Previously I have thought about this as "Research Assessment Friendly" knowledge - usually abstract and confined to one discipline- and "Search Engine Constructed" knowledge, usually coming out of a problem situation. There is some connection with mode1 and mode2 but it seems there is no current claim for e-learning as potentially mode1. One problem is that many articles are still only available in journals that are not public. Google Scholar finds an increasing amount of stuff from conferences and university archives. For making connections between learning and quality, what can be found through Google is probably "good enough" and what cannot be found may be mainly intended for academics anyway.

Latest version of draft story for OhmyNews on Learning Technologies.

This will change over the week. Probably finalised at the weekend.

Please add comments if there is something you would like included.

I have had a mailing shot about a conference in Dublin in March, Computer Assisted Learning.

It seems to be about why technology has not been disruptive so far in education.

There is mention of 'informal learning' but it may be mostly about educational structures.

My guess is that if you include all forms of learning there has already been more disruption than is realised in academic research.

I had a look at Computers&Education in St Luke's library. Print journals make a break from the screen. There is an interesting article on 'Rethinking scaffolding in the information age'. More on this later.

The article was recieved 27 May 2004 and accepted on 24 Jan 2005. Claimed publication date April 2007 so not sure when it was actually available.

I wonder if Elsevier are aware of any 'disruption'.

I have done a draft story about Learning Technologies for OhmyNews

Not sure I have been clear enough about my intention. If there is not some comment about quality from a credible source I might not make it up exactly, but add a comment of my own. I think there is some basis to suggest the Learning Technologies show is moving towards quality but it may need some probing.

Please add comments here or get in touch if you would like to edit the text. It may end up in OhmyNews.

Back in the Easy Cafe on the way to Olympia. I almost forgot that I plan to do this year in reverse so far as online is concerned. So a quick Google has recreated some of the Online Information show through the IWR blog.

The first few items show a bit of a pattern.

There is now a UK version of Pubmed Central with technical support from the British Library, University of Manchester and the European Bioinformatics Institute.

A link to blogger Peter Suber reports a decision by libraries in Norway to just say no to Blackwell charges.

And Wolters Kluwer have decided to put their education publishing up for sale.

My guess is that some people in journal publishing may be close to deciding that the 'creative commons' sort of approach is reducing the chances for ample margins.

Search on 'BETT, open source' in Google News shows there is a debate on what sort of discount might make Vista sensible at some point.

More later.

I have been looking at the 'Technology Enhanced Learning' project that is now part of Teaching and Learning Research. They have started some seminars and two of them are available online.

My opinion is that 'learning' is an adequate word even if used casually without formal agreement on what it means. I think the web is now widely accepted so even adding an "e" serves no great purpose. coming up with the term "technology enhanced learning" seems to be making it more complicated just to invent a subject. I recently found a tape of a Douglas Adams talk on Radio 4 where he explains that "technology" is a word used about something that is not working yet. So electricity is not technology. Nor is the web a lot of the time.

The EU seems to be the source of this new term so I have looked on Google and found a Cordis page explaining a bit more.

"With the shift towards the knowledge society, the change of working conditions and the high-speed evolution of information and communication technologies, peoples' knowledge and skills need continuous up-dating. Learning, based on collaborative working, creativity, multidisciplinarity, adaptiveness, intercultural communication and problem solving, has taken on an important role in everyday life. The learning process is becoming pervasive, both for individuals and organisations, in formal education, in the professional context and as part of leisure activities. Learning should be accessible to every citizen, independent of age, education, social status and tailored to his/her individual needs.

To meet these social challenges is a leading issue of European research on the use of technology to support learning in the 6th EU Framework Programme for Research and Technological Development (2002-2006)."

Why not just accept that the web is part of this and stay with this as a description of 'learning'?

The seminars seem to be looking at research for designing learning environments. There is a lot happening on the web already, some of which can be described as informal learning. I think that engaging with the web in general could be a useful form of 'research'. There was mention on the video of 'the educational blogosphere' but I got the impression that the printed journals were the centre of the discussion and that 'technology enhanced learning' is on the way towards becoming another defined subject.

I have done a Google doc as a draft for next year. Thinking about online in reverse order makes more sense as it puts the digital print and then the bookfair after the online information.

This will make more sense later.

The Information Today blog has a lot of photos and pretty full coverage.

Commenting on the keynote, Michelle Manafy writes

"I won't go into a lengthy analysis of my first impression of this sprawling and dislocated show (uh, right now I mean physically as the show is so far from the floor--but we'll see if I can draw larger inferences from this comment later). Anyhow, first take from the keynote: something we’ve been saying at EContent for a while now… content is not just that which is produced proactively AS content. This is too narrow a view and will limit the success of any organization. All organizations must view content as, in large part, a byproduct of doing actual work. Keynoter Thomas Stewart from the Harvard Business Review, sees three types of “knowledge”: instilled (yielding smarter products), distilled (knowledge turned into a product), and black box knowledge services (we know a lot about what we do and can help you do it too). I’d extend it to content, quite happily: knowledge collected as a byproduct of your employees’ work or better, as a byproduct of how your customers use your product, services, or even content can help you work better and offer them more."

So knowledge is in the context of work, or at least some form of activity. I'm not sure if the academics at the show accept this, but it makes sense for me.

This report from CMS Wire shows connections with Web 2

Found through Google News

The Information World Review blog is covering the main points from the conference. See previous post for link.

I have added a comment to a general post so I now know the first official blogger. I am not sure if the IWR blog will cover the free seminars tomorrow on social software, blogs etc.

More later. I have got as far as Easy Internet Cafe on High Street Kensington. So next post may be from the actual show.

Online Information this week. I am still in Exeter but plan to be there Wed and Thur.

I have done a draft article for OhmyNews.

Please add comments here if you have something to add to the draft. You may be quoted in an eventual story. Deadline over the weekend.

The November e.learning age includes an article by Donald Hunter suggesting that education is struggling to keep pace with student expectations about technology and presentation. Mobiles are assumed and Google is familiar. "Simply put, today's students learn differently to previous generations. They have come to expect information to be presented in timely, dynamic and entertaining forms."....."deep down we expect students to learn the way we did"..."what this adds up to is a paradigm gulf that separates students from the learning experience."

This is confirming the idea that I should just take a look at what is happening, rather than worry too much about the theory behind a design. I have so far more or less ignored the conferencing features in Acrobat 8. I still think the JDF for print is worth continuing with but I have written in the IPEX 2002 blog about imagining some time travel to move the world of print on towards 2008. More on this later. it may make sense eventually.

So I hope to spend the next few months observing what happens with forms of collaboration such as Breeze or now Acrobat Connect. It is not yet available outside the US. It seems to me to combine featurea available elsewhere. The whiteboard idea, videoconferencing and internet chat or phone are all available and have been for a while. I still prefer text but this is probably dated so is due for reconsideration.

There are some reports coming out about the Web 2.0 conference in San Francisco. I am struck by this photo of Eric Schmidt, CEO of Google, by JD Lasica from Ourmedia. He looks the part for a solid business event. Last year Tim O'Reilley in a suit was not quite as convincing.

I am not sure how Google will be seen during the Online Information event in London. A couple of years back there was some resistance to Google winning an award. There is still some opposition from publishers to the idea of scanning books. But it is clear that Google is viable so there is a base of people working with them even if that is not an overlap with the entire Online Information world.

Recent posts in other blogs connect with learning.

In IPEX 2002 I have noted that the availability of Acrobat 8 is a defining moment for me in that I realise what I like about all the previous versions. The addition of Flash through Breeze or Connect is not really what I am expecting and I don't yet see it as engaging. Making the server support for collaboration in PDF avaiable at a price more people could consider would to my mind be more of a welcome change. The effect though is that I realise I am now ok with online documents as PDF replacing print. The PDF design on screen is familiar froma paper experience. Breeze and Flash are moving us into video and animation. I am slowly getting used to this and am not at all convinced that it helps collaboration.

Also on wifi Exeter I have come to think that wi-fi is not contributing to festivals in real space and time so mucgh as extending the normal web outside of space and time. Not sure how this works as learning but the effect of video on YouTube and Google appears to work as souvenir and promotion of future events. More on this later, maybe linked back here as learning.