General
1986 Mac Plus vs 2007 AMD DualCore
This just goes to show: you can add all the features and complexity you want, but they won't necessarily make the user experience better.
General
Don't believe the Skype
So, 24 hours without Skype access later, and I still can't get on (although apparently some can). This has been an important lesson in single point of failure (which is one of the core reasons I'm always harping on about decentralised services). We use Skype pretty
General
OpenID is not the answer
To everything, at least. OpenID is a fantastic little protocol that lets a user log in with their username from another service. It means you can log into Explode with your AIM screen name; you can also log into Livejournal with your Explode profile URL. The OpenID client site shoots
Facebook adopts years-old technology: woot?
Dave Winer gushes about Facebook adding a handful of RSS feeds. I'm less enthralled, which is underlined by some of the quotes from commenters he points out: Jeff Sandquist says, "I suspect this will allow me to send my Facebook status updates to Twitter." Seriously, I
Languages
Misja has posted about the Elgg language contributions, which are impressive: 49 languages and counting! A big thank you goes to the Elgg open source community. I've also been remiss in not giving him a full welcome: Misja Hoebe was the latest addition to the full-time Curverider staff.
General
Curverider attracts investment
When Dave and I set up Curverider a couple of years ago, the response was lukewarm. Elgg, as an open source product, was supposed to be free, wasn't it? What was a commercial company doing with it? Did that mean it wasn't going to be open
General
On data sharing
Over on the DataSharingSummit board on Facebook, which I ironically can't show you because Facebook doesn't allow for public data sharing, Marc Canter asked what rights we think end users should have. I replied as follows: I think there's a serious danger of overthinking
General
Computer science without the maths
Computer Science Reconsidered: The Invocation Model of Process Expression is a very long title for a book that apparently argues that computer science is a discipline separate from mathematics, that requires its own theory of process expression. Although I haven't read the book, I agree; there are certainly
General
LEAP 2.0
I had an interesting call with Simon Grant earlier about the developing LEAP 2.0 specification for representation of ePortfolio data. An ePortfolio is an electronic portfolio of evidence and reflections that collectively represents your skills, accomplishments, and sometimes learning process. Elgg, when coupled with its presentation tool, is a
General
Why I'm sceptical about Second Life as an educational resource
These screenshots are a couple of years old, but I thought I'd share them. Posted without comment, except to say that this was a meeting of professionals. {{file:21296}} {{file:21298}}
General
Elgg is a finalist in the New Statesman New Media Awards
We're very proud to announce that Elgg is a finalist in the New Statesman New Media Awards 2007, in the Education category. The other finalists are Futurelab's Create-a-scape multimedia toolkit and the Open University's OpenLearn initiative - impressive company indeed! What makes this particularly
Facebook and data ownership
Over at the Curverider blog I've posted about Facebook and the implications of data control. This is particularly relevant for education, and I'd be interested in any thoughts the educational community would like to share on the subject. Does it matter? Do you care? Should you