Newspapers are engaged in technological one-upmanship over "AstroTurf" — letters to the editor that look like authentic grass-roots responses from readers but are not. [New York Times: Technology]
H2O - About H2O Dave Winer points to an interesting discussion project at Harvard.... The H2O project is building an interlocking collection of communities based on the free creation and exchange of ideas. The recent development of the Internet has been overwhelmingly driven by commercial interests. Commercial websites must ultimately focus on making money. The founding premise of the H2O project is that the university world has something to add to the growth of the Internet that the commercial world cannot contribute. H2O aims to apply Internet technologies to the underlying aims of the academy -- the free creation and exchange of ideas and the communities formed around those ideas -- both within and beyond the confines of the traditional university setting. This site is a public host for kernel of H2O functionality -- anyone is welcome to use the services on this site, including hosting his own project. In addition, we have published all of the H2O code as free software under the GPL.
Now that the notion of presence is beginning to infuse our electronic communication, an inevitable next question is: presence where? Marc Eisenstadt, chief scientist at the Knowledge Media Institute of the Open University in the UK, wrote to show me a Jabber-based system called BuddySpace that locates presence indicators on maps. In the map shown here, Marc (top row, third photo from right) is present in the office, but idle. Martin Dzbor (bottom row, far right), KMI's
This looks very interesting. I like the example of coming into an office and seeing who is "in."
Brooklyn BloggEd Joe Luft is having his students use Movable Type to publish book reviews for other students... Great idea....
[O'Reilly Network Articles]I just downloaded the iPhoto update. From what I've been reading it sounds pretty good... Will take a look later today....
Alex at Slackerbit.ch has a new script available for Blogging by email securely with GnuPG and Movable Type:
To add some security to the script, it only posts entries that have a good GnuPG signature, and even then only if the fingerprint of the key used to sign is allowed to post. And signing emails with gpg is a snap with mutt.
By adding custom headers to the mail, you can even set the category of the entry and ping TrackBack URLs.The script takes the value of the X-MT-Category header, and if that matches the name of an existing category, this is set as the primary category for that entry.And pinging TrackBack URLs happens via the X-MT-Ping header. This header can appear multiple times, and each URL gets pinged.
The signing of blog entries is something Bill Kearney is thinking about today as well. Interesting stuff. [By way of...Ben Hammersley.com]
You can add pro-quality voiceovers to your digital imagery with just a few simple tools and Mac OS X. Derrick Story shows you how to easily record and edit QuickTime audio. [by way of...O'Reilly Network Articles]
Derrick Story always does a great job explaining the use of digital cameras with software such as iPhoto. This time he explains how to add voice overs to iPhoto projects.
OregonLive.com: Oregon Special Election News Elderly people, the disabled, state troopers, school teachers and others are bracing for state funding cuts after Oregon voters rejected an income tax increase. The proposed tax hike, which lawmakers said would have spared the state from having to make $310 million in cuts, was rejected Tuesday. The state already slashed $700 million from the budget last year, and lawmakers have failed in five special sessions to solve the state's budget crisis.
Portland Public Schools will now cut an additional 9 school days, in addition to the 15 they have already cut from the school year....
heraldtribune.com: Southwest Florida's Information Leader Library of Congress Starts Sound RegistryBy CARL HARTMANAssociated Press WriterClose your eyes and just listen.There's President Theodore Roosevelt denouncing corporate swindles. Robert Frost reading his poetry. Buffalo Bill Cody urging war with Spain over Cuba.They are joined by 2.5 million other voices - some famous, some not - and sounds - the huffing and puffing of a steam locomotive is one - preserved at the Library of Congress.On Monday, Librarian of Congress James Billington was announcing the first 50 sounds to be entered in a National Recording Registry. It seeks to ensure even greater protection for some of the most notable songs, speeches and other utterances.
[By way of...The Shifted Librarian]
oreilly.com -- Online Catalog: Content Syndication with RSS Ben Hammersley's book about RSS syndication will be published in March by O'Reilly. A sample chapter is available for download....
Tim LauerTeacher, Portland Public Schools, Portland, Oregon
This weblog is mainly a place for me to note and organize information I find relating to education and the use of technology in education. In addition it acts as a platform for discussion with others with similar interests.
In His Time of Dying The show's only guest would be Warren Zevon, the songwriter known for the twisted humor of songs like ''Lawyers, Guns and Money,'' ''Werewolves of London'' and ''Poor Poor Pitiful Me'' and for troubled love songs like ''Hasten Down the Wind'' and ''Accidentally Like a Martyr.'' Zevon, 56, is a dying man.
The server that hosts this weblog will be down for service beginning today at noon Pacific time... the outage should not be too long, but you never know...
J.D. Lasica on RSS news readers: Instead of the hunt and peck of Web surfing, you can download or buy a small program that turns your computer into a voracious media hub, letting you snag headlines and news updates as if you were commanding the anchor desk at CNN. [By way of: Ranchero.com]
"Hiptop Nation is a place where people share their experiences with the world while wandering around with these little Sidekick devices with cameras," said John Lester, a 35-year-old Boston resident and one of about 300 participants in Hiptop Nation . "It gives you a sense of connectedness because not only are people posting to the blog wirelessly but they're reading it wirelessly." [Smart Mobs]
I'm sitting in a meeting right now... thankfully there is wireless here... but if not... a Hiptop would be very nice...
The next front[ier] in the disruption of traditional media An article aimed at traditional media folks that explains RSS and syndication.... In a nutshell, RSS allows news sites, and bloggers, to syndicate their content. Each time a news site updates its headlines in an RSS format, or a blogger posts another comment to her online journal, that headline automatically appears on a number of sites.
[Chicago Uncommon Photography] A great photography site...
This photo was taken in San Francisco at The Golden Gate Park Visitor's Center.
Mrs. Stewart's Classroom News Today I had the great honor to work with Priscilla Stewart. Priscilla is a teacher at Buckman Elementary in Portland, Oregon. She is new to using weblogs, but after just a few minutes you could tell she understood the power of being able to easily publish information about her classroom for her students and their families.
We are using Movable Type to publish her classroom blog. After playing around with the features we began to discuss the use of the blogging tool by her students. This lead us to create another blog for her students to post daily classroom updates. Using the RSS feed from this blog, we employed a JavaScript to capture the RSS feed from the student blog and have it feed into her main classroom page, so those visiting the site can see her classroom information, and also see the most recent postings from her students.