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A quick reminder for myself. There is more to metadata than can be described in XML syntax. XML is just text. Text isn’t always the best way of describing something.

Metadata != XML
Metadata > XML

I’m hoping in the next version of the software-formerly-known-as-CAREO that we can get away from this “XML Metadata is the centre of the universe” philosophy. King has demonstrated some freaking amazing things he’s planning to do with metadata/searching/discovery, some of which have nothing to do with text. Hence, they have nothing to do with XML…

Here’s a quick link to a discussion of PHP vs. Java. Sure, that’s much like a discussion of Coke vs. Pepsi, or Mr. T vs. Hulk Hogan, but some interesting points are raised. Note, though, that Raible is a hard-core Java guy, but many of the comments come from hard-core PHP folks.

David Wiley talks about something called the “Reusability Paradox” of learning objects. It’s one of the fundamental issues in dealing with learning objects, and basically boils down to this (grossly oversimplified Coles Notes version of Wiley’s paper):

Not rocket surgery, but it’s a tough problem to solve. The exciting thing (for me, anyway) about some of the projects we’re getting involved with at the Learning Commons, is that we’re finally starting to attempt to address this fundamental paradox. How can you have learning objects that are usable and reusable? We’re looking at ways to assemble content from lesser bits, building context along the way. We’re looking at dynamic assemblies of learning objects with varying degrees of contextualization, where the assembly itself provides the context to make it usable in a particular setting, while letting the lesser components of the thing remain reusable in other contexts…

Stay tuned, folks. This is going to be a fun ride!

I just whipped up a brain-dead simple bookmarklet to check Technorati’s link cosmos for the currently viewed web page. Just drag the link below into your bookmarks or toolbar or whatever, and whenever you click it, you should get the Technorati report on who’s linking to that page.

Technorati This

No warrantee, express nor implied. Use at your own risk. If it nukes your system, you should be using a better OS, and it’s not my fault…

UPDATE: It turns out that RTFM applies to me as well… Technorati already offers a version of a bookmarklet that does the exact same thing… Doh. Oh, well… My intension was good, even if I apparently can’t read… Here’s the official script.

Well, you’re probably not, but if you know someone who is, they might be thankful for this page, containing what appears to be a pretty comprehensive list of RSS readers for a whole lotta platforms.

From the Intranet Journal: a handy tip list for how/who to best generate and manage a requirements specification for a project.

Just a reminder to anyone who is interested in teaching/learning in a higher-ed setting, that the Teaching Reflections 2003 Conference is taking place August 20-21 here at the University of Calgary (conducted by the Learning Commons, no less!)

More info here and no, I did not design those web pages.

I just noticed this. I have no idea how long it’s been available. Wired.com now has RSS feeds for any search query.

Just copy the “RSS” link from any search results page and subscribe to your heart’s content. Sound familiar?

I’ve been using MacJournal for some time now, and have been quite happy using it as my outboard brain (for accounts, registrations, code snippets…) but it started barfing on me over the last couple of weeks – new entries not saved, etc… I know… MacJournal is open source (well, the source is available, anyway), so why don’t I just fix it myself? I’ve got enough of my own code to manage without taking on an unrelated project. That, and I’m getting lazy in my approaching middle age.

As a result, I’ve been looking for another solution to hold any kind of data that may not belong in a weblog (which acts as my online brain). Enter DEVONthink Personal Edition. I’m trying it out, and it seems quite cool. The only real improvement I can think of would be concept mapping to show the relations between items in the database.

It does have a cool “similar items” thingy that seems to do a decent job of finding items somewhat related to the currently selected item. Could be cool. I’ll update if anything exciting happens with DEVONthink.

UPDATE: Got my registration for DEVONthink today. Rock on. Also talked to their feedback/support folks. Apparently they are aware that concept mapping of items in the database would be cool, but it’s lower on the list. If that’s important, send them some feedback…

Handy page on integrating RSS feeds into JSP pages…

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