MIA post

Gosh, it's been ages since I attended to my blog. I think my brain must have gone off to another planet for awhile.

There are some interesting developments in the metadata market space. Seth Goldstein and others have launched the first release of their Attention Recorder, based on the ATtention eXtension (ATX). ATX is a Firefox plugin that lets you record your own clickstreams and then selectively publish them to trusted websites. The Attention Trust is the social agenda part of this equation - to promote the view that users own their own metadata.

Elliott Masie manages somehow to be increasingly more relevant in the learning space. Recent posts have touched on nanolearning and video iPods.

IM Gets a Boost

This week saw some interesting announcements from the Instant Messaging space. My fascination with Zipit Messenger has awakened my interest in IM, especially protocols and interoperability issues.

Google launched their own IM client called Google Talk, which is very thin on features and just ho-hum for someone like me that uses this stuff every day. Skype on the other hand introduced an SDK for IM developers that will help them address interoperability problems and leverage the Skype platform. Intel announced collaboration with Skype to ensure that its upcoming Centrino mobile line takes full advantage of Skype's technology (especially VOIP).

"It’s important not to build a walled garden."
- Janus Friis, Skype

That's an interesting statement from a company in the Internet telephony business - shows they're paying attention to applications of IM and VOIP, as you'd expect. Most people I know think Skype is a company to watch. And most people I know are Googling less as they rely more heavily on RSS. If this was Wired (and it's not), then Skype would be Wired and Google would be Tired.

A Brief Intro to Podcasting

Worked with my boss Mahboob on a podcast, providing a brief intro on the evolution of podcasting. There is a small error in my remarks. I said "RSS stands for 'Really Simple Subscription'". Of course RSS stands for 'Really Simple Syndication' - I was trying to explain the subscription process and got carried away.

Mahboob's end of the conversation suffers from a slight technical flaw, an echo effect apparently due to my not wearing headphones while recording. Apologies.

[ammended 20050820]

Lack of Data for Proper Assessment

Can schools predict student success based only on 'exit exams'?

Consider the case of California, where passing scores in exit exams for basic math and English proficiency are now mandatory before a high school diploma can be issued. Exit exam requirements are intended to give employers, students, parents and the public assurance that a diploma signifies that students have the knowledge and skills to succeed after high school. The tests now in use measure proficiency at 8th grade level, which most students achieve even before entering high school.

Crunch time is coming for the first batch subject to this requirement. So far, about 90 percent of California's incoming seniors (the last year before graduation) have already passed at least one test. While the state knows that the remaining 10 percent still need to pass at least one of the critical exams, that don't have precise data. Says one article: "Because the state doesn't have individual student data, it can't precisely gauge how many students have passed both tests. Conversely, it can't tell how many of the seniors who haven't passed the English test are the same students who have failed the math test."

Thus the 10% figure understates the number of students who still must pass at least one portion of the exam to get a diploma - and they only have one year in which to achieve it. This lack of data is appalling, and highlights the need for continuous assessment in schools. Continuous assessment will provide better data to school administrators and will help teachers intervene earlier to help struggling students.

Statewide there is a wide disparity in pass rates by race and ethnicity, a phenomenon known in education circles as the 'achievement gap'. The biggest challenge for districts which have large immigrant populations, such as those in Southern California, will be helping English learners pass the test. Only 58 percent of incoming seniors who don't speak English fluently have passed the English test and only 70 percent have passed the math test.

Exit exams can identify whether students are minimally proficient, but by the time results are out - it's already too late. Also, the level of proficiency tested is that which students should have attained before entering high school, so the four years spent in high school classes are not optimally utilized.

California schools need to implement continuous assessment, not snapshots.

Is Radio Dead?

A lot of folks in the podcasting community suggest the death of radio is imminent. Among them is Steve Gillmor in his recent podcast "Broadband on the Run". Must be an allusion to McCartney's Band on the Run.

Certainly there is an emergent model for podsafe music. Information wants to be free. But I believe that (Steve's co-host) Doc Searls is right, namely that the traditional model for music distribution is not dead and there will be some level of co-existence for a long time. And I think Gillmor is wrong to play Hey Jude in the background of his podcast (unless perhaps he's engaged in review and commentary). And in the same vein, Adam Curry is wrong to play mash-ups as if they were podsafe. Neither is 'fair use', and neither escapes current copyright restrictions, since I and others are being invited to download the programmes.

Moreover, I think that Gillmor's programme suffers from the 'fog of war' he seems to be declaring on copyright owners and publishers. Namely, the programme falls short of clarifying why radio is in the throes of transformation, what drives this transformation, and how radio is being transformed.

Internet radio is nothing more or less than the delivery of radio programmes via TCP/IP. That delivery can be either live or on-demand. I listen to Virgin Music via Shoutcast live on my Treo phone and that's Internet radio. I listen to downloaded BBC programmes via iPodder or iTunes and that's Internet radio. I listen to BBC live via my Windows Media player (incidentally bypassing their custom HTML player) and that's Internet radio.

In copyright terms, what's different about how I listen is not the Internet versus free-to-air delivery, or the live versus on-demand aspect. It's the packetized streaming versus download aspect. Once 'radio' content is downloaded, any notion of being able to collect royalties on the basis of number of 'listeners' is lost. With this loss of control, copyright owners are naturally reticent to release music for download. And in many cases, they have confused packetized streaming with genuine downloads.

That describes why music copyright holders resist download services, and why most streaming services have only been permitted to offer talk radio and not music programmes. But with the advent of podcasting, a new force is unleashed, and that is the ability of the podcatchers to aggregate listeners in sufficient quantity that some musicians will prefer to go direct in order to build a following. Thus they release music outside the traditional distribution system, ie- podsafe music.

Podcasting creates a commons for the exchange of music between producers and listeners. But it is not a marketplace because there is no economic model - yet.

In the early days of open source software, it was said that open source had no economic model, but that is no longer true. Today, open source integrators charge customers for maintenance and support. In my view, podsafe is going to evolve in a similar manner to open source and other commons-based activities. Podsafe distribution will become the new 'airplay' and while not generating cash directly, will stimulate revenue for artists via subscription services, licensed compilation downloads and even CD sales. Adam Curry can fairly be described as a radio DJ for podsafe music.

Radio is not dead, it is being reborn in a new distribution environment. And this distribution environment is vastly richer than the staid traditional one, with tremendous potential for personal, educational and even corporate broadcasting.

Zipit Messenger Review

My Zipit Messenger arrived via a Target Store in Eugene Oregon (where my brother lives). It was well packed in a cardboard box with a bit of bubble pack, and there was no shipping damage. The unit itself was contained in a blister pack which was heat-sealed.

The ZM power button was easy enough to find and operate. The battery compartment is sealed with a screw, but the rechargeable battery is already installed and pre-charged. The unit has a status light to show that power is being switched on. After a few seconds the ZM logo appears on the screen and the word "Zipit" is spoken from a tiny speaker at the back of the unit.

I tested the unit in my office, which has a Wifi network. To say that ZM works right out of the box is almost an understatement. The unit immediately found two networks, mine and another nearby, and prompted me to log onto my own network. I did and was prompted to configure my IM accounts. I have an MSN and Yahoo account and configured both. The unit reported that the MSN account worked but failed for some reason to connect to the Yahoo account. Since most of my contacts are on MSN, and I don't use AOL, I left it at that.

The last step in this 'setup' was to customize my emoticons - I just left the default settings. But I did note that the emoticons are linked to six special and easily identified 'function' keys at the top of the keypad. This could be useful to create macro keys for multiple choice questions in a quiz application.

Then I was presented with my MSN buddy list and selected a colleague for my first chat using Zipit. It worked flawlessly and I was typing away just minutes after removing the ZM from its blister pack. The screen is a graphical grayscale display which is very legible. It is not backlit, but it's brightness is adjustable, and it would be fine in an office or classroom.

My complaints are that the keys are a bit klunky and to edit mistakes you need to backspace over earlier typing - there is no cursor. This of course is just a function of the software, not a hardware limitation. The keyboard might be a bit easier for big thumbs if the left and right portions were separated by a middle gap. But the display is very legible, the prompts are clearly stated, and the QWERTY keyboard layout is familiar enough for instant use. I can type at about the same speed as on my Treo 650, which has a marvelous keypad.

The keypad also includes a big ZM key in the center, which is used to bring up the buddy list while communicating. There are some other special keys, including a menu key (for configuration changes) and a pair of 'next' and 'previous' keys, which can be used to toggle two or more chat sessions. There is a directional cursor key (one single key which functions like a joystick), which is used to scroll messages in a chat session. Numeric keys, punctuation and closing a chat session required prefixing my key press with an 'Alt' keystroke - which may be conceptually challenging for small children, but is natural enough for anyone who's used a mobile phone or computer.

The clamshell cover nicely latches closed, and the unit goes into a low-power sleep mode. In this state the device is rugged enough to toss around and small enough to fit in your pocket, backpack or even a small purse. The ZM is lighter than my phone, and I eventually carried it around the whole first day without noticing the weight. While the battery appears to last for hours, I didn't test that. The unit is powered down by depressing the power button and holding it for a second or two.

The physical form factor is excellent in several respects. The unit sits firmly on a tabletop while you peck at the keys. You can easily type single-handed while doing other tasks, such as talking on the phone, or perhaps while taking written notes in a meeting or in a classroom session. The power button is nicely recessed so that the unit cannot accidentally be turned on or off. The clamshell lid latches securely closed.

I was particularly pleased with the power setup. The ZM comes with a miniature charger that supports both 120 and 240 volts - it's fully internationalized. There is a headphone jack on the back of the ZM, but there were no headphones supplied with my unit. Other than the chirpy "Zipit" welcome message, I did not really encounter any audio features.

The internal Wifi antenna seems to be very powerful. I was able to sync to more than a dozen networks while driving around in a taxi - sometimes getting 3 signals at one time. Of course, I could not log into most networks.

In summary, Zipit Messenger is rugged, contains a powerful Wifi antenna, has a well-designed and internationalized power supply, a very legible graphical screen display, and a workable keyboard including user-definable macro keys.

Rockin Radio

Truly awesome - Cruise Box sings "I heard it on a Podcast" (some profanity). All credit to Adam Curry for highlighting this excellent bit of podsafe music. I suspect this song will become an anthem - much like "I want my MTV" was in the 80s.

You want it, you got, just download it and pod it! Tell the FCC to stick it, the revolution's on!

Zipit Messenger - Quiz Handset for Classrooms?

In my relentless search for a portable handheld device that supports WiFi and can be used to deliver quizzes in the classroom, I found a real gem.

It's the Zipit Messenger, developed by Aeronix. It has a variety of Instant Messaging capabilities and runs on Linux. It includes an 802.11b WiFi radio, 16-color greyscale LCD with QVGA (320x240) resolution, and a thumb keyboard with rubber buttons. Also included is a stereo DAC (digital audio converter) connected to a speaker and headphone jack. Internal battery lasts 3+ hours, and a tiny external AC charger is provided.

Not the perfect form factor for classrooms, but it retails for only US$ 99. Just imagine how cheap they'd be in quantity. Wow!

Needless to say, I bought one. When it arrives, I'll post my review. In the meantime, a favorable review from another user of the product is available.

Always On Streams a Heady Mix

Stanford University this week hosted the Always On™ conference, a confab of technical, political and VC interests. AlwaysOn's proclaimed goal is "to keep its global members in front of the most powerful players in technology, media and entertainment in an innovative blogging and social networking environment."

The live and delayed webcasts are notable not only for their content - the speakers discuss current trends in politics, media and technology (a heady mix) - they are notable for their presentation format. The video feeds include slides, online chat, and viewer polls on each speaker's persuasiveness.

For anyone who doubts that we're in the age of Web 2.0, this is a webcast to check out.

Technical Conferences to Go Online as Podcasts

TechPodCasts.com, the top technical audio podcast resource worldwide, announced today a first of its kind sponsorship deal with GotoMeeting.com, a leading provider of Web-based access, support and collaboration services. The result will be that many major technical conferences, initially in the US, will be available as podcasts.

Unfettered Journalism in Singapore

We've experienced an interesting lesson on press freedom in Singapore this week. Our largest local charity, the National Kidney Foundation, brought a suit against our national news organization, Singapore Press Holdings. The issue in question was an article written by local journalist Susan Long on alleged 'gold plated' toilet fixtures in the NKF's executive toilet.

Sadly, and as is often the case in Singapore, the NKF dragged Susan Long and SPH into court on a libel charge. Twice before NKF had brought similar suits against other individuals when they alleged that the NKF CEO flew first class and stayed in luxury hotels - and won settlements both times. But this time the outcome was different. NKF withdrew its suit after 2 days of court testimony revealed that the CEO was paid US$ 1m over 3 years, that he did travel first class, and yes, the toilet fixtures were indeed gold plated.

The public outrage was such that close to 40,000 Singaporeans signed an online petition calling for the CEO's resignation, and thousands cancelled their donation pledges. The CEO, his entire Board of Directors and even the patron, wife of our former Prime Minister, were all forced to resign.

The resignation of the NKF CEO, its Board and Patron brings the current saga to an appropriate close. And our current Prime Minister has spoken of the renewal that is already underway. People seem willing to put their mistrust behind them.

But this was an unusual event in Singapore - which is often criticized for lack of press freedom. In exposing the lack of transparency at NKF, journalist Susan Long has done the public a great service. Susan stuck her neck out on an issue that landed two others into court in the past, despite being correct in their assertions. And she jeapordized her editorial management and the SPH organization. Indeed, they too were dragged into court.

Fortunately, Susan was backed by strong management including her supervising editor, and an organization willing to go to court to stand up for editorial integrity. This willingness of the SPH editorial team to defend its own independence is worthy of applause.

Yesterday, as it happens, was the 160th anniversary of the Straits Times. I would judge this week's events an appropriate 'coming out' for SPH as a national news organization.

Asiapods - Let the Podcasts Begin

My company is in the preliminary stages of introducing a regular podcast on Contemporary Issues in Asian Business. The show will be a forum moderated by my CEO Mahboob Mahmood. Here's the first podcast.

Elliot Masie Promotes 'Velocity of Learning'

Elliot Masie (a pioneer in the field of instructional technology) has begun webcasting and podcasting in the runup to his Learning2005 conference, and in his first programme he talks about the 'Velocity of Learning'.

I agree with his premise that success in learning is based on the velocity of performance improvement. His first webcast focuses on improving eLearning production & design velocity. This is good (and certainly relevant to my organization). But in a blended environment, speed to competency depends critically on the classroom experience. In my view, the missing element is meaningful metrics from the classroom experience - how can you measure velocity without metrics?

Too much of today's instructional technology budget is devoted to putting PCs on desktops in multimedia labs, serving learners. Too little is spent on technology which facilitates instruction and which aids instructors. The solution?

Classroom handsets - the folks at eInstruction are exactly right in providing classroom handsets to close the loop between the instuctor and the learner. But 1st generation classroom handset solutions like eInstruction fall short in 3 critical respects:

• they are too primitive to do a good enough job so that consistent and accurate metrics can be accumulated
  
• they do not support standards and do not interoperate with other systems
  
• they offer no backend database to aggregate performance metrics across programmes, classrooms, instructors and learners
  

Better systems are no doubt coming to classrooms. If you have some thoughts on this, I would welcome the opportunity to exchange ideas on this topic. Send me an email.

[edited 20050716]

Open Source LMS Products Worth Reviewing

Yesterday, ATutor 1.5 began shipping. This is the first release to have full support for SCORM 1.2 LMS-RTE3, with additional SCORM 2004 support coming in a future release. Lack of SCORM runtime support has in the past been the principle objection against our using an open source LMS.

My colleague Imran points out that open source LMS products Moodle and Claroline both also support SCORM 1.3 with betas for SCORM 2004 available. For companies like ours, which focus on content, it is time to review the open source market for LMS products.

As a start, we need to take a fresh look at SCORM.

Does Life Imitate Art?

I had posted some 7/7 reflections, but I decided to take them down. I prefer to return back to my main topic - learning communications.

Sincere condolences to the victims, their families, friends and loved ones.

Learning About Africa

No matter how many times I see and hear the story about poverty, hunger and AIDS in Africa, there are still so many things to learn. So it was with Live Aid in '85, Nelson Mandela's 46644 Aids Benefit in '03, and this weekend's Live8 concert. For me the most moving moment of Geldof's megashow was when Madonna performed on stage in London with Birhan Woldu, an Ethiopian whose life was saved by Live Aid in 1985.

'Live8 - The Long Walk to Justice' is about the impact of ordinary people on 8 elected leaders that run the institutions of world government. It is also about how technology can fuse the voice of millions into a coherent macro message. The largest ever TV audience; The busiest website in the world; The largest ever online petition; The largest ever text petition; The largest ever response to a TV show. If you missed it, check out the video online.

And sign the petition - join Bill Gates (and 30m others) in sending a strong message to the G8 Summit.

Audio Feeds from Gnomedex

Here are a few of the interesting talks from Gnomedex:

- Dave Winer Keynote (MP3 download, thanks Techpodcasts.com)
- Microsoft RSS Announcement (MP3)
- Gillmor Gang Podcast (MP3 download, Steve Gillmor with Dave Winer, Adam Curry, Dean Hachamovitch, Doug Kay, and Dan Gillmor)
- Adam Curry DSC-200 Podcast (WMV streaming video coverage!, thanks to Lockergnome blogger Matt Hartley, also available as MP3 from Curry.com)

Also, here's the Microsoft press release that explains what their new RSS strategy is all about. A blog has been created to track Microsoft's RSS extensions. The Channel 9 Site, an unofficial channel for MS developers, has a Wiki on Longhorn RSS.

And, if you want to get a touchy feely sense about what made Gnomedex the tech event of the year, read Frank Barnako's review on Investors.com.

[updated 20050702]

Earth Shook at Gnomedex

Well, California was shaking last week (from numerous earthquakes). But the podcast world shook at Gnomedex in Seattle this past weekend. For one thing, Microsoft announced that RSS is going to be built into IE 7 and future versions of its operating systems, starting with the long-awaited Longhorn release. In fact, IE 7 was shown for the first time at Gnomedex.

A couple other things happened while I was away in California. The US Supreme Court decided a landmark case on file sharing, siding with MGM against Grokster and Streamcast. I certainly applaud protection of intellectual property, and I see the decision as fairly rational behaviour that will give entertainment companies more confidence to embrace digital media distribution. It's certainly not the end of P2P, although companies like Bit Torrent may end up in court, required to show that piracy is not their intent. I think it's going to increase the number of bands producing podsafe music.

The other thing that happened is that Apple iTunes v4.9 began shipping. This version supports podcast subscriptions. Disney, ESPN and ABC News are listed among thousands of content providers. Apple can probably be relieved at the outcome of the Grokster case - they will face less competition from P2P.

The subscription model of content access looks to be on a very fast growth curve.

Open Source is a Business Process

Free software is highly visible, but it is in fact only one example of a much broader social-economic phenomenon. Yochai Benkler suggests that what we are seeing is the broad and deep emergence of a new, third mode of production in the digitally networked environment. He calls this mode "commons-based peer-production," to distinguish it from the property- and contract-based models of firms and markets. Its central characteristic is that groups of individuals successfully collaborate on large-scale projects following a diverse cluster of motivational drives and social signals, rather than either market prices or managerial commands.

Recommended to me by Simon Phipps.

Stay Hungry, Stay Foolish

I'm still floating on air after a few days together with Steve Wozniak, Simon Phipps, Steve Gillmor and Mike Hawley. And they were all talking about Steve Jobs' Commencement Address at Stanford on 14 June. The transcript is worth reading.