e-Clippings 01.23.02

"Ours is a brand-new world of allatonceness. 'Time' has
ceased, 'space' has vanished. We now live in a global village...a
simultaneous happening."... "Electric circuitry profoundly involves
men with one another. Information pours upon us, instantaneously and
continuously. As soon as information is acquired, it is very rapidly
replaced by still newer information. Our electrically-configured
world has forced us to move from the habit of data classification to
the mode of pattern recognition. We can no longer build serially,
block-by-block, step-by- step, because instant communication insures
that all factors of the environment and of experience co-exist in a
state of active interplay."
Marshall McLuhan, The Medium is the Massage: An Inventory of Effects
p. 63
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Call for Proposals
18th Annual Conference on Distance Teaching and Learning
August 14-16, 2002: Monona Terrace Convention Center
Madison, Wisconsin
Session proposals are due online by January 31, 2002
www.uwex.edu/disted/conference
The Planning Committee of the 18th Annual Conference on Distance
Teaching and Learning invites you to submit a proposal to present an
information session, workshop, or online course showcase or to
facilitate a cracker-barrel discussion that relates to the field of
distance teaching and learning. All session proposals must be
submitted online on our conference website:
www.uwex.edu/disted/conference
Select the link for the type of presentation that you wish to propose
to find further information, topic areas, proposal instructions, and
submission forms.
NEW THIS YEAR-Online Course Showcase: This new proposal category is
an informal presentation and discussion area where attendees will
move from computer station to computer station to view different
online course demonstrations. Each presenter will have a computer
station and an Internet connection to provide a brief online "course
tour" that highlights key course features. Plan to join more than
1000 colleagues from around the world at this leading forum on
distance education and training. Practitioners, managers, and
researchers from education, business and industry, and government
agencies will come together to exchange information and explore new
developments at this 18th Annual Conference.
To receive a printed brochure, please call Kimary Peterson at 608-265-
4159 or email your request to distel@...
Janice Czyscon, Senior Editor, Department of Engineering Professional
Development University of Wisconsin-Madison, 432 North Lake Street,
Madison, WI 53706
phone: 608-262-2703 or 800-462-0876 fax: 608-263-3160
email: czyscon@... URL http://epdweb.engr.wisc.edu/
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This email is provided for information purposes only. Mention or
discussion of a product, company or person does not represent any
official endorsement or criticism of the same. All authors and
organizations retain complete copyright.
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NEWS

New Book by Critic of Distance Education Describes Privacy Threats
By JEFFREY R. YOUNG
http://chronicle.com/free/2002/01/2002011801u.htm

CIO Council to push technical standards: A CIO Council committee,
with help from several agencies involved in President Bush's e-
government agenda, plans to release a report soon recommending that
all divisions of the federal government use certain technical
standards as they build new computer systems and applications.
http://www.fcw.com/fcw/articles/2002/0121/pol-cio-01-21-02.asp

From CNET.com: Now that you've bought a spiffy flat-screen display
and the latest, greatest 2GHz desktop computer, that decrepit three-
year-old minitower and ancient CRT seem destined for the dumpster,
don't they? Here's a hint from us: Don't trash them.
http://www.cnet.com/techtrends/0-6014-8-8104840-1.html

Rumsfeld Rules
The defense secretary is a blast from the past who is the man of the
hour. By Jay Nordlinger From the December 31, 2001, issue of National
Review
http://www.nationalreview.com/flashback/flashback-
nordlinger012102.shtml

US Bancorp: LEARNING SERVICES UPDATE: In This Week's Learning
Services Update, e-Learning Companies decreased 12.0%; Knowledge
Infrastructure Companies decreased 16.6%; Training & Education
Companies decreased 3.4%
http://www.gotoanalysts.com/piperpublic/goto/learningservices.asp

FTC WANTS NATIONAL 'DO NOT CALL' LIST TO STOP TELEMARKETERS: (Source:
Computerworld) The U.S. Federal Trade Commission wants to create a
national "do not call" registry, making it illegal for telemarketers
to call anyone on that list.
http://click.idg.email-publisher.com/maaafWRaaQZHQa9nkbob/

DISTRIBUTED COMPUTING JOINS SEARCH FOR ANTHRAX CURE: (Source: PC
World.com) In your idle moments, your computer can now join the
search for a cure for anthrax.
http://click.idg.email-publisher.com/maaafWRaaQZHRa9nkbob/

PUT YOUR PC TO WORK FIGHTING ANTHRAX: Distributed computing project
uses the power of idle PCs to find a cure for deadly diseases.
http://www.pcworld.com/news/article/0,aid,80743,tk,dn012202X,00.asp

EFF TO ARGUE THAT MORPHEUS HAS LEGITIMATE USES: (Source: IDG.net)
MusicCity Networks, creator of the popular peer-to-peer file sharing
software Morpheus, was set to ask a Los Angeles district court
Tuesday to prevent a ban on the software, saying that it has
legitimate uses beyond its reputation as a nefarious copyright
infringement tool.
http://click.idg.email-publisher.com/maaafWRaaQZHSa9nkbob/

GATES'S E-MAIL: HOW IT MARKS THE END OF INNOCENCE: Bill has made it
so. Security is Job No. 1. His commandment marks a bittersweet
moment: Though the age of idealism in personal computing has come to
a close, a new one has dawned--defined by the realization that we
must protect computers and those who depend on them.
http://cgi.zdnet.com/slink?/adeskb/adt0118/2840272

European Business Skills Training Defies Slowdown to Reach $13
Billion by 2006 - eLearning gains Share, says IDC. AMSTERDAM, January
21, 2002 - Despite the temporary economic slowdown, the European
business skills training market is rising at a five-year compound
annual growth rate (CAGR) of 14.9% and will reach $13 billion in
revenue in 2006, according to IDC research. By 2005, IDC estimates
that over 27% of business skills training content will be provided
via elearning, representing a CAGR of 108.2% over a five-year period.

From: Tech Update: Standards are more important to vendors than to
users Anne Thomas Manes, CTO and Tech Update reader, responded to
my "Standards can put you in control" in no uncertain terms: "From a
small software vendor's point of view, standards are critical.
[Standards] are more important to us than they are to users." Manes
considers J2EE a standard. What about SOAP, WSDL, and UDDI? "The
fact that these specifications aren't 'official' standards doesn't
stop me from using them – or building products around them."
http://techupdate.zdnet.com/techupdate/stories/main/0,14179,2840133,00
.html

Converge Magazine: CAVE OF DREAMS: SIMULATIONS IN HIGHER EDUCATION
Actually, Plato spent a lot of time trying to get people to cast off
the illusory shadow world and look toward the real light of
knowledge. Now armed with a great deal of knowledge and
techknowledge, the minions of the millennium have turned on their
heels and are eagerly descending back into caverns of light and
shadow as we spend hundreds of hours playing Myst, Nintendo,
Tranquility and scores of other game environments. Simulations are
upon us.
http://www.convergemag.com/magazine/story.phtml?id=3030000000004181

Videophone Gets a Booster Shot (Unwired News 2:00 a.m. PST)
When CNBC's Jim Bruton transmitted a 256-kbps video signal last
week from the jungles of the Philippines on an Inmarsat phone, it
represented a 100 percent increase over the previous standard. By
David Spark.
http://www.wired.com/news/wireless/0,1382,49790,00.html?tw=wn20020118

Internet Week: E-LEARNING STARS TO MERGE: In one of the most
significant E-learning acquisitions to date, online training-content
supplier SmartForce plc will acquire Centra Software Inc., a maker of
Web-based collaboration software, in an all-stock transaction worth
$284 million.The acquisition will allow SmartForce, already a major E-
learning player in terms of IT training content and services, to
increase its share of the infrastructure market, thanks to CentraOne,
a popular suite of online collaboration and live E-learning
applications.
http://www.internetweek.com/story/INW20020117S0004

Loo to Head Sylvan's Asian Operations: January 18, 2002: Founding
member of NextEd charged with growing company's presence in Asian
higher education.
http://dc.internet.com/people/article/0,,2141_957731,00.html

Grokdotcom: WHY COPYWRITING ONLINE IS DIFFERENT
You're doing your online thing, writing copy you think is
captisuasive, but I'm seeing a heck of a lot of stuff that reads like
this: "The blankety-blank is the true essence of a high-performance
blankety-blank, delivering sizzling blankety-blank in an absolutely
refined way. It's a paradigm shift with profound implications for
blankety-blank." Trouble is, your online visitors are 'speaking' very
differently. Try this eye-opening exercise: Find a product or service
that has user newsgroups, message boards or list-serves and compare
how that company talks (pay a call on its website) to how its
customers talk.
http://www.grokdotcom.com/networds.htm


TRENDS SECTION

Gorilla warfare: Big names from outside the training world are lining
up to become the 800-pound gorilla in the e-learning market. Who will
emerge with the biggest bunch of bananas? David Raths
http://209.11.43.230/onlinelearning/magazine/article_display.jsp?
vnu_content_id=1237070

Designer of Free Course-Management Software Asks, What Makes a Good
Web Site? By JEFFREY R. YOUNG
http://chronicle.com/free/2002/01/2002012101u.htm

Shazaam! Kazaa Shuts Down (MP3 Rocks the Web 2:00 a.m. PST): The
Kazaa file-trading application is off the market. The company
distributing the software pulled the plug while it contends with
copyright infringement lawsuits. By Brad King.
http://www.wired.com/news/mp3/0,1285,49831,00.html?tw=wn20020118

*This one drives me crazy but I include it for discussion!
First Monday: OBJECT LESSONS: TOWARDS AN EDUCATIONAL THEORY OF
TECHNOLOGY Looking more closely, we see a difference more of degree
than of kind between an integrated learning system's use of large,
elaborate databases to provide step-by-step programmed instruction
and up-to-date, "on-demand" individual assessment, and an online E-
learning environment that provides instructors with powerful and
integrated 'learning and content management' tools designed in order
to engender mindful collaborative learners. While the former is more
obviously a totally routinized, content-corrupt, pedagogy-corrupt
system to promote and enforce learner compliance to a fully
preprogrammed curricular delivery system, the latter's fundamental
structures are themselves built entirely from traditional school-
knowledge resources, such as textbook knowledge and related 'machine-
scorable quiz databanks' and their activity-systems are no less
categorically pre-scripted.
http://www.firstmonday.org/issues/issue7_1/castell/index.html

Businessweek: THE POWER OF SMART DESIGN: In a nation where most
people still can't program their VCRs, the key is imposing discipline
on designers and technologists who pride themselves on their quirky
style or technological prowess -- without, of course, quashing
creativity. At IDEO, that means following a well-defined process that
includes a heavy emphasis on teamwork, brainstorming, and prototyping.
http://www.businessweek.com/technology/content/jan2002/tc2002014_1222.
htm

FIVE THOUGHTS ABOUT LEADERSHIP: Larry Weber, author of a new book
about how to provoke change, isn't interested in the team concept as
much as he is in a charismatic, multifaceted leader who seeks out
uncharted territory. Darwinmag.com spoke to him about why leaders
should be provocateurs.
http://click.idg.email-publisher.com/maaafRZaaQYOba9ndSPb/

It's becoming common knowledge that e-learning is achieving
inconsistent results. Some e-learners thrive on the increased
flexibility and control that the medium provides; others wallow in
isolation, struggling to make a start. In this article, Clive
Shepherd examines the notion that some people are more suited to e-
learning than others, while not discarding the idea that e-learning
could be developed to become a medium for the masses.
http://www.fastrak-consulting.co.uk/tactix/Features/elearner.htm

"Let Slip The Blogs of War": When we look back on the early boom days
of blogging and its newborn cousin, "war blogging," will we reflect
positively on its contributions to the War On Terrorism and attacks
on mainstream media? Or will we look with a more critical eye
to their dependence upon that very same mainstream media?
Tim Cavanaugh cries, "Let Slip the Blogs of War!"
http://ojr.usc.edu/content/story.cfm?request=683


EMERGING TECH SECTION

SAMSUNG LAUNCHES WIRELESS HAND PC NEXIO S150. Samsung Electronics has
launched its Wireless Hand PC NEXiO S150 – the first in a series
of Wireless Hand PCs that has just been launched in Korea. The
NEXiO S150 is based on the WinCE platform which... 01/19/02 (Article
indexed) Telephone IP News 02/01/02
http://cma.zdnet.com/texis/TIB/pdisplay.html?docid=81868980

RAISE OUR TECHNOLOGICAL IQ, RESEARCHERS SAY: Researchers find we're
not as savvy as we think--and suggest how to improve our
technological literacy.
http://www.pcworld.com/news/article/0,aid,80606,tk,dn011802X,00.asp

Big Drive Bargains: Our predictions on density and cost are coming
true. We couldn't be happier.
http://extreme.ziffdavis.com/cgi-bin10/flo?y=eN6m0DPscz0FBc0eFR0Ae


SECURITY SECTION

Philips moves to put 'poison' label on protected audio CDs: Not CDs
at all, sniffs company...
http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/54/23736.html


HUMOR AND MISC. SECTION

This whole thing was a travesty!
Distributed computing case ends with probation: BOFH put through
hell for installing screensaver:
http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/4/23737.html

Criminal Charges Settled In Distributed-Computing Case
By Steven Bonisteel, Newsbytes: DECATUR, GEORGIA, U.S.A.,
17 Jan 2002, 5:05 PM CST
http://www.newsbytes.com/news/02/173751.html

FreeMcOwen.com
http://www.freemcowen.com/

Art Now: Beyond the Healing (U.S. vs. Them 2:00 a.m. PST): A new
website chronicles artists' responses to the Sept. 11 attacks. 'We
wanted to go beyond the idea of art as healing and look at works that
deal with foreign policy and media images,' says Art Now's website
coordinator. By Kendra Mayfield.
http://www.wired.com/news/conflict/0,2100,49617,00.html?tw=wn20020118

Cow Used in Man-Made Spider Web (Technology 2:00 a.m. PST): Unable
to teach spiders to create silk on demand, researchers turn to the
genes of mammals. The U.S. Army hopes to emerge with flexible body
armor that, like a spider web, can stop a bee at 20 mph. Or something
like that. Charles Mandel reports from Canada.
http://www.wired.com/news/technology/0,1282,49828,00.html?
tw=wn20020118

The Sky Is Falling? No Sweat (Technology 2:00 a.m. PST): The
asteroids that whizzed by Earth this week didn't faze a NASA
scientist whose job it is to track these things. But that doesn't
mean people aren't asking the inevitable question, what if? By Farhad
Manjoo.
http://www.wired.com/news/technology/0,1282,49837,00.html?
tw=wn20020118
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