UBCWiki: SmallPiecesLooselyJoined/AboutSmallPieces

Colloboration via the net does not necessarilty require monolithic, expensive tool suites that aim to do everything under one umbrella. We will share and demonstrate the use of readily available, mostly free, discrete sets of “small” and “loosely joined” technologies - weblogs, wikis, instant messaging, audio/video chat. The loose joining means that how they are connected are not necessarily in the programming of the software, but the ways people can use them in a social context that is an environment of dynamic, changing relationships and connections, rather than the rigid, limited ones defined by computer code…

Alan Levine, Brian Lamb and D’Arcy Norman will be presenting a very interesting session at the NMC 2004 - New Media Consortium 2004 Summer Conference. They are looking for participation by others who will not be at the session. I will be taking part in a video chat session during the session.

I like the idea of encouraging and experimenting with the use of free/low cost and readily available technologies such as weblogs, wiki’s, and chat. I also like the philosophy behind this experimentation… Maybe they can add a tool such as Flickr to the mix.
More later…

I got a new phone this week, a Treo 600. Testing…

TheFeature :: VoIP goes Mobile

Here’s how the MG-3 works: first, you have to sign up for VoIP service with a company that resells i2 Telecom’s hardware and network access. You’ll get the MG-3, a little plastic box stuffed with microchips, which you plug into your broadband connection and existing phone line. Then, when you want to make a long distance call with your mobile, you just call your home number. The MG-3 will recognize the mobile’s number using Caller ID, and connect you to i2 Telecom’s VoIP network. You get a second dial tone, and you can make your overseas call. Want to talk to somebody in China? You’ll get charged 5 cents a minute. Cingular has been having a great time charging you $3.49 a minute for making the same call. (Wanna bet they’re screaming at their lawyers right now to cook up a way to kill this in court?) [by way of: Dan Gillmor's eJournal]

The Feature has an interesting article about a company that has developed a system for the use of VoIP by your mobile phone. Am thinking if something like this could be used in schools. In Portland, very few classrooms have telephone access. I know that our IT folks are looking at VoIP as one method of providing this to our teachers. Adding mobile phones to mix is interesting.

cogdogblog Alan Levine has made available a very nice RSS to Javascript tool for the displaying of RSS feeds in web pages. I am currently using Feedroll to display the RSS from out Lewis Elementary calendar. I plan to move to Alan’s tool when I get some time after school is out.

If you are curious about your neighbors political donations, a new Web site follows the money in your hometown, address by address. Not everyone is pleased. [NY Times Technology]

This is pretty amazing… Type in your zip code and see who in your neighborhood contributed to which candidates, and how much… or type in a name and see if that person contributed how much to which candidate…

But if you take my fairly high-tech, well supported (technology-wise) school as an example, it just ain’t going to happen here any time soon. Call it dancing with the girl you brought to the prom (or whatever that silly metaphor is,) but Linux on it’s surface just seems too “out there” when you’ve got something that works pretty well already, the resources to change are slim, and no one has any time to learn something new. [weblogged News]

Will’s latest post points to Tom Hoffman’s discussion of his installation of the SUSE Linux distribution. Will wonders outloud about the viability of the use of Linux in school environments. I think the key point here is…

But if you take my fairly high-tech, well supported (technology-wise) school as an example, it just ain’t going to happen here any time soon…

when you’ve got something that works pretty well already, the resources to change are slim, and no one has any time to learn something new.

Tom, and our mutual friend Ben, are working with very limited resources. Machines that will barely run Windows 98, let alone XP or Longhorn. Linux is a very viable and proven solution. The Linux Terminal Server Project is built from the ground up for use in the K-12 environment. For an excellent example of the use of Linux in a high school, see Paul Nelson’s work at Riverdale High School in Portland.

As for Will’s list of terms and acronyms that seems to be confusing his technicians? I’ll add to the list…

Blog
Feed
RSS
Radio
Manila
MoveableType
Blosoxm
Atom
Furling
and my favorite…
Moblogging

My new favorite fast food joint | A Whole Lotta Nothing
Matt Haughey, a recently arrived Oregonian, talks of Burgerville, a very unique Northwest fast food outlet. Not only is the food good and very unlike most fast food places, but their kids’ meals include things lilke garden tools and seeds instead of the standard plastic toy junk.