Category — General

Conference web site software.

Further to my post about a conference web site.  Thanks to Jeremy Hunsinger, I set up a good enough site in about 10 minutes.  Actually, the underlying code is pretty awesome and the HCI is very nicely done, especially on the back end.  My first impressions are very positive.  There is some tinkering I'd like to do around the edges, but for now that can wait.  Our professional development people are going to like this since it can support multiple conferences, although I have it running in single conference mode right now.

Given other pressures, the impending term and my currently comatose computer, this will work.  I'll put my perfectionism to one side.

By wccartd@wc.cc.va.us (David Carter-Tod). [Serious Instructional Technology]

glad he found it of use, the public knowledge project out of canada is where i sent him, it has sofware for journals and for conferences, much like the software i worked on at the cddc, but there is much less user intensive, and thus more friendly. i think that in general, i'll be using and extending there software.

Oligonomy Defined. Hannaford lays the groundwork for a new theoretical model of business economics — the oligonomy. It's a curious conundrum and I've never seen any of the free-market thinkers address this phenomenon of growth. Where does it lead, and what does it mean?

Oligonomy defined

The vocabulary of economists has no word to describe an increasingly common phenomenon. An oligopoly, as you know, is a market sector in which there are few sellers. An oligopsony is a market sector in which there are few buyers. But there are an increasing number of market sectors in which the same companies are both oligopolies and oligopsonies. This situation I propose to call an oligonomy.

As I see it, oligonomies are spreading in almost every market and market segment. Being both an oligopoly and an oligopsony is a very advantageous position. But it is also, for many companies, a necessary defensive move. [Oligopoly Watch]

[b.cognosco]

This sounds very much like the anti-market distinction that Braudel proposes and Delanda pursues in his papers.

Erpanet and Daedalus have launched the Erpanet ePr …. Erpanet and Daedalus have launched the Erpanet ePrints Service, an open-access repository for the cultural and scientific heritage community. [Open Access News]

This is great news for the digital preservation community. It will be interesting to watch the take up of this new technology.

Gamers Struggle to Preserve Past. Thousands still long to play video game classics like Joust and Tempest. Unfortunately, the originals are becoming harder to find. Some are actually in danger of being lost forever. And the industry isn't willing to help preserve them. By Suneel Ratan. [Wired News]

I loved Joust! [A blog doesn't need a clever name]

Its amazing. even in old atari games you can find a much broader variety of games types than you can today…. the mass market kills histories and traditions…..

Loads of comparative national stats. There are several sites available to let you compare your favourite nations to one another online. Each has its merits… [Blog.org]

This is will be a good resource for teaching students in my comparative class.

The Public Goods Problem. During a course on IP rights at SIGGRAPH, Bob Ellis (the org's public policy program chair) commented on how many people perceive music (or more specifically MP3s) as a “public good”. That is, once a musician creates a piece of… [Reality Panic]

Well, what the IGDA has, like DIGRA, and AoIR, and others is a free rider problem. The problem is when the cost of goods provided is considered relative to everything else, instead of comparative goods, people choose to only take what is given, a variation of free-riderism, instead of paying for the extended service. How do you get them to pay? good question…. I know i can't afford all the groups i should belong to.

Creativity Techniques Catalog. Ever been stumped with a difficult problem and looking for just the right tool or techique to break the impasse? Here's handy online catalog of creativity and systematic thinking tools with short, concise descriptions and helpful examples.

Creativity Techniques — At a New Address.
A while ago I posted a link to a comprehensive compendium of creativity tools and techniques. The original collector had abandoned it for some philosophical reason, but fortunately, the folks at mycoted (Creativity & Innovation in Science & Technology) have taken in the orphan, and sited it here. If you revisit the list, wander around the parent site a bit. They've got a equally interesting collection of puzzles there as well. [Frank Patrick's Focused Performance Blog]

[b.cognosco]

There are some neat toys here…..

Open Source Philosophies: 3 Takes.

tobias c. van Veen sent along:

The Architecture of Information: Open Source Software and Tactical Poststructuralist Anarchism

Raises some interesting parallels between the open source movement and various forms of poststructuralist thought. And then it stops, just as the questions get interesting. I assume (hope) there is more to come.

Brought to mind Manuel DeLanda's Open-Source A Movement in Search of a Philosophy, which raises a couple sharp questions, but never digs for any answers.

And finally, because not all anarchism is poststructuralist, its worth pointing to Eben Moglen's Anarchism Triumphant: Free Software and the Death of Copyright. As best as I can tell from his writings and some of his lectures I've sat in on Moglen subscribes to a hyperlogical view of anarchism, if the whole world thinks like programmers, we'd be in utopia. Super intelligent but quite strange all the same.

Bottom line, open source + philosophy = more exploration needed

[Abstract Dynamics]

Not just exploration, some strong theorization. I'm working on my dissertation on more of a social theory/political economy take, both are forms of philosophical or theoretical study. However, most of what i have seen is an attempt to either dislocate open source from context or to constextualize it…

Bridging the gap between research and practice of communities.

My colleagues are organising a workshop “Bridging the gap between research and practice of Communities of Practice“ during C&T Conference (19 September, Amsterdam). The plan is to bring together presentations of a researcher and a practitioner for each topic, so there are opportunities to contrast their approaches and discuss them. The topics are:

• Communities in a R&D environment
• Communities of commercial employees (btw on this topic - Knowledge management for front-line staff by James Robertson)
• Communities and learning

These are some of the challenges around communities in corporate KM context and the last one is about one of my KM&learning interest. Hope to be there, but not 100% sure yet.

More:

• workshop announcement at KnowledgeBoard (you can add comments there)
• workshop details at C&T web-site  and registration form (these are deep links without navigation, if you want proper menus start from C&T Conference site and look for Workshop G)

[Mathemagenic]

This looksl ike it will be a good workshop, if you are going to be in that area, check it out.

What the Wha? Bush Admits He Destroyed the Economy.

George W Bush: Yes. No, to answer the last part of your question. First of all, let me — just a quick history, recent history. The stock market started to decline in March of 2000. Then the first quarter of 2001 was a recession. And then we got attacked in 9/11. And then corporate scandals started to bubble up to the surface, which created a — a lack of confidence in the system. And then we had the drumbeat to war. Remember on our TV screens — I'm not suggesting which network did this — but it said, “March to War,” every day from last summer until the spring — “March to War, March to War.” That's not a very conducive environment for people to take risk, when they hear, “March to War” all the time.

Damn. you read it. He said it. Could it be he can't make the connection that his drive to war is what was producing that “not a very conducive environment for people to take risk”? And he lets his scapegoats in the media off the hook before even dropping the bomb. Whoa. I usually try and give the fool a little credit, he can't be as dumb as it seems if he got to the White House, inbreeding and all. But this is retarded. Can someone give him an IQ test so we can know the real answer once and for all?

[via Eschaton + original source]

[Abstract Dynamics]

I would also add that when he first took office he said repeatedly that the economy was failing, and nothing spurs growth than the president saying there isn't and won't be any. consumer confidence is a fickle beast, when someone who should know says things are in the pot, consumers listen and act.