One of my semi-regular listens in my weekly podcast rotation is Douglas Rushkoff’s weekly show on WFMU, the Media Squat. Rushkoff describes it as “freeform, bottom-up, open-source radio dedicated to solving some of the problems engendered by our increasingly top-down, closed-source culture.” Typically the hour is an eclectic and mildly countercultural mix of monologues, profiles of grassroots activity (I think the concept of the learning party would fit in), interviews with people like Jonathan Letham, the Yes Men, or archives of talks (like Terence McKenna discussing Marshall McLuhan).

Rushkoff has gotten better at working the medium of radio since he started the show last spring, but one element that has not really taken hold is the “open source radio” piece. Despite weekly invitations from Rushkoff for the audience to submit audio and video work for the show or the website, there really hasn’t been much uptake. (I actually mulled submitting something in response to the disappointingly pedestrian Rebooting Education program. If anyone is interested in doing that, I’m open to ideas.) This resulted in something of a frustrated rant to open last week’s program, excerpted below:

MP3 link

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Two assertions are of particular interest to me:

1) Rushkoff describes his dissatisfaction with the framework of Creative Commons licenses, on the grounds that people can do what they like with his work without any communication with him. Ideally, he would like a choice with regards to prospective remixers: a) “yes, remix it, great idea, I approve”; or b) “yes, remix it, but I don’t like what you are doing with it and I want people to know that.” That’s an objection to CC that I had never heard before… that it forgoes potentially fruitful interactions between a creator and the downstream reusers of her/his work. Strikes me as a reasonable point, though the requirement of asking permission flies in the face of the ‘frictionless adaptability’ that is one of CC’s best selling points, not to mention a necessary condition to getting things done quickly.

2) He goes on to make a point we have heard elsewhere, though having it coming from a true believer like Rushkoff I find myself thinking on it with added attention. He suggests that open source efforts are hamstrung by the act of replication that is at the heart of its activity.  The best open source efforts essentially copy existing artifacts (so Linux mimics Unix, Wikipedia does Britannica, Firefox carries on the paradigm of the web browser). Open source communities do not really yield unique original output, and have trouble accommodating “individualized unique expressions.”

In effect, Rushkoff argues that open source culture is unlikely to do justice “the experience of a single complex consciousness over time” – and I’m having a hard time coming up with a clear counter-example. The various pieces here could stand some elaboration and definition, but if indeed this argument holds merit, we might be facing a thornier problem in moving toward a culture of reuse than I usually tend to think…

And of course, Open Access Week is not a UBC-only affair, it’s a genuinely global event. I hope you’ll consider taking some time to offer your support, maybe opening up your mind in the process.

Alas, I will not be at UBC next week, as I’m attending another openness related event in my favorite city. Please don’t hate me. OK, go ahead and hate me, but rest assured the karma train will be smacking me with some seriously intense payback soon enough…

Via the always-indispensable OLDaily, a pointer to the MobileEducator, described by Michael Fienen as “a framework that would allow anyone to get into mobile apps without the expensive cost of development and cumbersome integration processes that schools face now.” Fair enough, that’s enough for me to take a look.

Noted: that on the MobileEducator site it suggests it “has been developed with Admissions marketing in mind.”

Noted: a number of prominent social media projects on my campus that have been driven by Public Affairs and others with an interest in admissions marketing. A Place of Mind is one recent high profile example.

Not to suggest that the teaching and learning side isn’t doing anything in the mobile (or social media) space, but I’m not aware of an equivalent to MobileEducator for pedagogues. Maybe I’m overthinking this… a reasonably clean weblog installation has some nice mobile affordances. Even without specialized plugins.

I’m aware of some interesting work, but it all still seems well off from where mainstream efforts are happening.

Noted: The idealistic MIT Nextlab Initiative describes its mission as “Launching Mobile Ventures for the Next Billion Consumers.”

I’m afraid I’m simply throwing out points of conjecture without connecting them. But my recent lack of blogging output suggests that if I need to feel coherent on something before posting, I might as well close this space up…

Nothing more annoying than argument by anecdote…

I read a thread on Facebook where a young relative of mine posted a status message that a textbook he needed was sold out at the bookstore. A friend of his responded “why don’t you just download it?” To which the lad replied “you can do that?”, followed up a few minutes later with a new status message: “just saved $120 bucks on a calculus textbook – thank you IsoHunt!”…

Students torrenting textbooks is nothing new, but I thought this little episode was worth a Tweet. I got a lot more replies to this than normal (most of them privately), broken into two categories. From my younger peers, it was stuff like “it’s done all the time, the prices on textbooks are a rip-off”… and from people my own age it was “I didn’t know you could do that, got any tips?”

The seeds of revolt are planted, and again I think this is a huge opportunity for open educators. OpenEd 09 had some good sessions relevant to the topic, I’d refer you to the video (yes, every session at the conference was live-streamed and archived) for “Dispelling Myths about Open Textbooks”, “Free: Why Authors & Publishers are Giving Away Books” and “Living the Dream: Best Practices in OER Publication” (joint session), and a panel discussion on open textbooks.

When we decided to hold the Open Education Conference in downtown Vancouver, it was our hope we would take advantage of some of what the area had to offer. I’m especially excited to be partnering with the magnificent Vancouver Art Gallery (right next door to the OpenEd Robson Square location) on three special bonuses for our beloved conference delegates and volunteers.

First off, the much-anticipated but little-hyped full-day dialogue between Stephen Downes and David Wiley will be held in an old courtroom at the VAG August 11th, the day before the conference officially opens. I’ll be honest, I have only the dimmest idea what these two guys will be talking about, but I’m quite sure it will not be boring. We can only accommodate 40 attendees, so sign up now.

Second, we are pleased to present a special panel on “Expression, appropriation and the law” with screenings of clips from a variety of copyright-conflicted works, as well as a discussion led by Vancouver-based artists and policy experts. This session will be hosted at the VAG on the Thursday evening of the conference (August 13th), 7-9, and is open to the public with free admission.

Finally, I am am very pleased to say that your OpenEd Conference badge will get you one FREE pass to see the exhibits at the Gallery any time while the conference is running August 12-14. There are some amazing exhibitions coinciding with OpenEd 09, including Vermeer, Rembrandt and the Golden Age of Dutch Art. And as a Vancouverite I would urge you to check out the works of Emily Carr and Jack Shadbolt as well.

I should note that we can only offer the free Gallery pass to conference attendees who have pre-registered online. Pre-registration closes this Saturday, August 8th. Are you really going to miss out on this?

I was little surprised to find that yesterday was the hottest day ever recorded in Vancouver. In no small part because the record temperature rang in at only 33.8 degrees C (92.8 F): warm, no question, but a normal summer day where I grew up in Saskatoon.

It put me to mind of my first day flying to my new job in Hermosillo, Mexico eleven years ago. In a sense, a job that marked my introduction into the field of education technology. I boarded a plane on a pleasant July day in Vancouver, changing planes in Phoenix. I could feel an unfamiliar intense heat coming through the walls of the airport concourses of Sky Harbor, and I knew I had entered a wild new climactic experience. A couple hours later I landed in Hermosillo. I was at something of a low point back then, career-wise, so when this opportunity came my way I was determined to make the best of it. But when I felt that blast furnace hit my face walking out of the airport I went a little weak at the knees, wondering what the hell I had just done. The number I remember bandied about as the temperature high that day was 48.5 degrees (119.3 F). Which would mean, if this particular edit of Wikipedia is correct (other data in the entry indicate records as high as 55 degrees), that I arrived in Hermosillo as it was achieving its own record high. That was a revelatory drive into town, tires were exploding just from contact on the sticky asphalt.

The city doesn’t have the best set-up for its climate. The ubiquity of concrete and pavement just intensifies the sensation, and most houses are made of cinder-blocks, which means homes heat up like brick ovens and don’t really cool off at night. My first house had one loud but ineffective A/C rack in a back bedroom, so there really was no escaping the heat, all you could do was sit in a shady spot outside drinking Tecate cans served up in bags of crushed ice and feel your brain melt into the sand.

That all said, I have nothing but fond memories of Hermosillo, la ciudad de mas macho. Fun people, fantastic cheap carne asada taco stands seemingly on every corner, ranchera and banda music blaring loudly from cars, storefronts and houses. Every observation seemed charged with near-hallucinatory intensity. On a day like today, I even find myself wondering what 48 degrees would feel like…

An anecdote from Andre Malan’s must-read blog:

I am currently working at a software company as an intern, writing a program. Now of course, as anybody who has taken Software Engineering knows (don’t worry readers who are not in Computer Science, I promise I will not lose you), when you make software you have to provide different types of documentation about it. Things like, why you made it, how it works, how to use it, who is going to use it… all these things and many more have to be written down formally and saved somewhere in order for your software to live a long and happy life.

Now, Software engineering (CPSC 310) is a class that in part teaches you how to write all of this essential documentation. I took this course with Meghan Allen, one of my favorite professors simply for the fact that she teaches like a human being and not an automaton. This is post is no reflection on her, just on the system that she is pushed into using by those above her . Anyway, in the course she would explain why this documentation was needed and how to do it. She would then provide us with careful examples of what it should look like. We were asked to use her examples as reference when creating our own documentation for our class project.

So far so good, pretty normal learning experience. But, we skip ahead to right now. My little program that I am writing for this big software company needs documentation. I remember why, but am very fuzzy on how. What to do? Of course, I can just go back to the example from class an… but wait. The examples were posted in Blackboard. I can’t see them anymore. They were a great resource… utterly useless as I have no way of applying it to a real life situation.

Andre is none too pleased, and it’s hard to blame him. But I’m not writing this post to bash anyone, in fact before I go on I’ll extend Andre’s generous account of Allen’s motives to the vast majority of the education professionals who use learning management systems. These people don’t set out to screw students, though at some point our inability to permit basic access should force us to ask some fundamental questions about the assumptions embedded in the technology we use. Not only is Andre denied access to materials that he has paid for when he’s out in the workforce, he (along with his fellow students, and instructors) is similarly prevented from making links, references and building upon other courses that he’s taken even when he is an active student.  At some point even the noblest motivations aren’t enough.

The point here is not to trash the proprietary CMS, but to point out a value proposition that is obvious, but one I don’t hear stated near often enough. An institution that embraces openness can tell its students, potential students and alumni that a real effort will be made to ensure access to the resources one encounters in courses. Usually, when the argument for sharing is made, the automatic rejoinder is that to make learning materials available is to surrender some kind of competitive advantage. “Look at MIT“, they say, “ever since they launched OpenCourseWare they are just another school, their once-esteemed reputation is in tatters.” But couldn’t an institution that gets ahead of its competitors be able to claim a genuine advantage over schools that don’t?

“But everyone else, even the students at other schools, will have access to the same resources!” I hear you say it. “Why buy the cow when you can get the milk for free?” Really, I hear you say that too. But these cliche-spewing voices in my head are not your concern. Note instead that Andre is able to quickly find comparable content online. And isn’t it obvious why he would still prefer the course materials? Anyone who has taken a good course from a good teacher is aware of the energy generated in the spaces between the human element and the subject matter. It’s why most of us need more than a library card to get an education. It’s why Andre wants to be able to apply something he learned from an excellent instructor in the manner that she contextualized it.

Wouldn’t the people charged with recruiting student for an institution be able to make a claim for superior practice? Wouldn’t they like to be able to claim that a real effort to use lower-cost open textbooks is made whenever possible? Call it fair value for the commitment required to get an education. Call it a recognition of the extraordinary economic challenges that students face. Call it basic respect. Call it kicking ass and taking names. But an embrace of openness need not be seen as an act of charity, but one of enlightened self-interest.

I wanted to spend some real time with the site before blogging about the Free Music Archive, and over that time my admiration for this project has continued to grow. The FMA describes itself thus:

The Free Music Archive is an interactive library of high-quality, legal audio downloads. The Free Music Archive is directed by WFMU, the most renowned freeform radio station in America. Radio has always offered the public free access to new music. The Free Music Archive is a continuation of that purpose, designed for the age of the internet.

Every mp3 you discover on The Free Music Archive is pre-cleared for certain types of uses that would otherwise be prohibited by copyright laws that were not designed for the digital era. Are you a podcaster looking for pod-safe audio? A radio or video producer searching for instrumental bed music that won’t put your audience to sleep? A remix artist looking for pre-cleared samples? Or are you simply looking for some new sounds to add to your next playlist? The Free Music Archive is a resource for all that and more, and unlike other websites, all of the audio has been hand-picked by established audio curators.

I’ve been disappointed by most other ‘open music’ sites for various reasons, some having to do with the difficulty in using text search to quickly find sounds. It reminds me of the old line (with many reputed sources) that writing about music is like dancing about architecture. And the FMA does not offer a quick fix to that dilemma. But the other problem has been the generally uneven quality of open source music. The FMA deals with that problem beautifully.

First off, this is not a site of user-generated content. It is a curated site, with content submitted not only by the mighty WFMU, but a host of other cool sources. So while the music on the FMA is wildly eclectic, and not for all tastes, it is generally pretty good. I can select a genre of music I like — say, Krautrock — toggle for “interestingness”, and hit the “play page” button. The music quality is more than listenable, and if I don’t like a song I can skip it, and if I do like it (and I’m logged in) I can quickly ’star’ an item, essentially bookmarking it for future reference.

The curation is further enhanced by the ‘blogs’ that each user on the site gets, including some of the key curators. Write-ups by WFMU DJs like Lou Ziegler (who turned me onto this) put flesh on the bones. A lot of my interactions with the FMA start to feel like WFMU-to-go, an incredible repository of hipness I can take with me and reuse as I wish… Most of the music is relatively obscure, but there is a strong and growing trend of ‘name’ artists providing sampler tracks and in-studio live versions of their material. Hopefully that will continue.

The site interaction design is pretty good, worth a look by anyone who is interested in the idea of sharing and distributing open content. You can treat the FMA as a socially networked streaming service, or as a repository of free tunes. If you are logged in the site tracks what you have listened to, and it is easy to assemble sharable playlists based on recent listens or favorited songs. I also like that you can immediately download a track (usually in very good 320 kbps format) even without creating a login. Here’s the first playlist I created, which is a mixed bag, but gives a good idea of the diversity of sounds to be found.

There is a certain urgency to the project. The FMA was conceived in the wake of some disturbing and threatening attempts to strangle web radio in the cradle, efforts that are ongoing:

It’s damn easy to view the FREE MUSIC Archive as just that, an already large (and continusously growing) library of free (as in “free beer”) and awesome music downloads. However, a recent flurry of activity and articles concerning copy-left and Web 2.0, file-sharing court cases, and the ever-present performance royalty debate, has reminded me of why I got involved in the FMA in the first place, and it has just as much to do with viewing this archive as a bastion of free (as in “free speech”) cultural interaction.

Part of the FMA’s explicit mission is to re-imagine/design the function of traditional radio for the digital era by continuing to allow the public free access to new music. Internet radio, and now your local AM/FM station, may benefit greatly from a resource like this, as the government continues to debate over how the public accesses (or “consumes,” depending on how you view it) culture, and who owes what to whom.

And yes, the FMA was conceived and pushed into existence largely due to the efforts of a keynote speaker at this year’s Open Education Conference, WFMU station manager Ken Freedman. What do I have to do to convince to come to Van Rock City next month?

Just a quick note that today is the last day to snag the ridiculously cheap early rate for this year’s Open Education Conference, August 12-14th in Van Rock City. If you have not already, I urge you to take a gander at the program we have lined up – I can’t imagine anything that could speak more powerfully to why this is a must-attend event… This is a once-in-a-lifetime chance to spend some time with many of the most accomplished and dynamic people in the field, in a relatively intimate and informal environment.

As the planning of this sucker progresses, I am also excited how this event will play out in downtown Vancouver at a time of year which usually showcases this gorgeous and energetic city at its very best. As I mentioned earlier, the conference BBQ the evening of Wednesday August 12th will be taking place at Second Beach in Stanley Park. And while I cannot announce the details just yet, we have laid the groundwork for an event the evening of Thursday August 13th that will be a lot of stimulating fun, set to take place at the Vancouver Art Gallery (next door to the conference site). As an aside, the VAG will be exhibiting Vermeer, Rembrandt and the Golden Age of Dutch Art (and more) while the conference is on.

But to tap a metaphor I know a little too well, it’s last call for happy hour today. Register now!

This plugin is basically an improved version of the built-in text widget. It allows you to display some arbitrary text or HTML on your site – but instead of showing it everywhere on your site, it allows you to limit its display to certain section(s) of your site, including fine-grained per-page control. This plugin features an easy-to-use widget interface and there is no coding involved (check out the screenshots).

OK, let’s check out those screenshots:

Looks handy indeed. And it seems that there’s more of this rich chocolatey goodness on the way. Kudos to all involved!