Updated: 24/9/05; 10:38:46

David Davies' Radio Weblog

 Friday, January 3, 2003

ADL have released a report on the various technologies currently being employed to create repositories of learning objects (or data elements depending upon your terminology). The report is detailed and technical and naturally takes a SCORM-centred view but gives a fair introduction the current state of the art. Cutting to the chase, the risk assessment at the end suggest that lack of standards, vendor uncertainty over which technology to use, the lack of a sizable developer community and competing unique identifier systems are not helping. So no surprises there.

The repository projects reviewed are:

Posted 4:54:23 PM - comment []

From the BBC...

"A record-breaking number of text messages were sent in the UK on New Year's Eve.

An estimated 125 million messages were sent, more than two times the daily average, according to the Mobile Data Association (MDA).

Most of the messages were sent around midnight or shortly afterwards, as people rushed to wish friends and relatives a happy New Year."

The next big surge in SMS and in particular picture messaging is expected to be on Valentine's Day. Picture messaging has been slow to take off in the UK due in part to the slow uptake of expensive MMS handsets and high network costs. Poor service provider interoperability has also been a barrier, at least until recently. Maybe Valentine's Day will bring the start of the turnaround for picture messaging.

Posted 12:41:04 PM - comment []

An interesting piece by one of the BBC's resident bloggers, Bill Thompson. "The combination of easy web publishing with picture phones could mark a decisive shift in our approach to personal privacy, a shift that we may end up regretting."

Perhaps it's the proliferation of insidious photography and videography that's more threatening to our privacy rather than the threat from 3G phones. Often we are told that CCTV in the street and in shops is there to protect rather than spy on us. While to some extent that might be true (CCTV cameras may prevent crime), it may come as a surprise to some citizens of the UK that by engaging in the activity that makes us a democracy, namely voting for who we want to govern us, our private details are up for sale. How do we know that our visage isn't already being commodified in the same way? We know where you were and who you were with at 3pm last Wednesday and we have the pictures to prove it.

Posted 9:37:47 AM - comment []