Musings on education, techology, and life..
David Muir has posted many more good links about flickr in education. The links include an expansion on one of the examples I used in my Intro to Social Software Using Flickr– Beth Harris’ Art History class– with a pointer to Beth’s blog which does indeed have some marvelous art education videocasts. Highly recommended.
By an 11-11 tie, the Senate Commerce Committee failed to approve a Democrat-backed amendment that would have ensured all Internet traffic is treated the same no matter what its “source” or “destination” might be. A majority was needed for the amendment to succeed.
It just never ends. Another death blow has been struck to the ideas of equality and fairness…
Did you know you can access advanced settings for your browser’s flash player by surfing to the online Settings Manager? [via that other Chris]
If you are climbing Mt. Everest and leave a struggling climber under a rock to die so you can make the summit, not only should you expect no sympathy, you should be charged with negligent homicide.
George Lakoff on why Bush isn’t incompetent… rather the entire conservative agenda is a failure, and Liberals would be well-served to recognize that and not play into Bush’s “folksy” charms, but attack the agenda and its failures instead.
Lakoff’s prescription is correct, but his description is wrong. Yes, the Conservative agenda is a demonstrated failure (witness the horrible results every time they get their way), but that doesn’t mean George W. Bush is competent. He’s also wholly incompetent. That’s part of his “folksy charm” unfortunately.
How many things can Zeldman get wrong in a simple online transaction? Well, I paid for my flickr Pro extension with a credit card– as it very clearly states when you access the extension form “Visa/MC/AMEX/Discover OR PayPal”– guess that’s too abstruse for Zeldman. Strike One. Then he laments the “hidden” information about his inaccessible photos. Yeah, that information is hidden right in the FAQ with the amazingly cryptic title “What Happens to My Photos if My Pro Account Expires?” and about a dozen other places. Strike Two. I received multiple notices about my account nearing expiration, including a standing announcement at the top of my home page every time I logged in. Strike Three.
Strike Four in our hypothetical at-bat for composing a post that only reinforces how well Flickr’s policy worked (sure got his attention) while bemoaning that very fact… though I am tempted to call this one back because what would Zeldman’s site be without his constant complaining?
And it probably never will be, as the continued rise of folksonomy, informal metadata, and lightweight metadata structures demonstrates. Maintaining that because tagging and social software are popular means the world is ready for (or wants) a semantic web is like saying that because people try to make their clothes work together they are ready for a national uniform.