Search Engine Ranking Factors

Immer wieder interessant: “This article contains a large list of the factors that can influence a web document’s rank at the major search engines (Yahoo!, MSN, Google & AskJeeves) for a particular term or phrase. Although it is impossible to say for certain which of these items affects which search engine or how important the factors are individually, I’ve created an estimated ranking importance scale as indicated by the following symbols …”

e-learning 2.0 - how Web technologies are shaping education

“Much has been written on Read/WriteWeb (and elsewhere) about the effect that web technologies are having on commerce, media, and business in general. But outside of the ‘edublogosphere’, there’s been little coverage of the impact it is having on education. Teachers are starting to explore the potential of blogs, media-sharing services and other social software - which, although not designed specifically for e-learning, can be used to empower students and create exciting new learning …”

The promise of open-source innovation

In their new book, Mavericks at Work: Why the Most Original Minds in Business Win, authors William C. Taylor and Polly LaBarre offer some fascinating perspectives and case histories on the topic of open-source innovation.

What is open-source innovation? Its central idea is that companies will succeed at innovation in the 21st century by attracting ideas from the brightest minds anywhere, not just within the organization’s four walls. Open-source software, where thousands of programmers collaborate to write software that is arguably better than any one company could have developed on its own, is a great example of it in action.

Alexander vs. Wikipedia

Am 11. September startet die TU Graz einen Feldversuch mit ihrem neuen System Alexander. Die Forscher wollen mit diesem System lexikalische mit journalistischen Quellen und User-Beiträgen verknüpfen und einen neuen Typ von Informationsportal schaffen.

Vorerst soll der Testbetrieb von Alexander nur Abonnenten der Tageszeitung “Die Presse” zugänglich sein. Der “Presse”-Mutterkonzern Styria sponsert seit Jänner 2005 an der TU Graz eine Professur für “zukunftsweisende Medien”.

Aktuelle Artikel aus der Tageszeitung bilden zusammen mit den Lexikondaten von Co-Sponsor Brockhaus die professionelle Grundlage für die Grazer Online-”Wissensgemeinschaft”.

Futurezone.ORF.at sprach mit Hermann Maurer vom Institut für Informationssysteme und Computer Medien [IICM], unter dessen Ägide Alexander entstand … weiter gehts im Originaltext (siehe Link) …

Copycan statt Copywar

Ein neues Konzept will die Produzenten von geistigem Eigentum jenseits von großen Verwertungsgesellschaften unterstützen.

Bei [extern] Copycan handelt es sich um einen Dienst zur Veröffentlichung digitaler Inhalte, die von den Produzenten unter eine [extern] freie Lizenz gestellt und zum Verkauf angeboten werden können. So kann ein Autor, der sein Buch unter Copycan veröffentlichen möchte, auf die Webseite eine Leseprobe stellen, sowie den Verkaufspreis und die Nummer eines Treuhandkontos angeben. Dort kann jeder, der sich für das Buch interessiert, einen Betrag seiner Wahl überweisen. Sobald die eingezahlten Beträge den vom Autor geforderten Verkaufspreis erreicht haben, bekommt er das Geld und das Buch ist für alle frei verfügbar.

The business environment of informal learning

learning is not some new option to toy with. Rather, it’s a response to a new world of business, a new contract with workers, a new definition of knowledge, and an incredible philosophy and technological conglomerate known as the internet. Here’s a view from a non-training silo.

“I’m fascinated by Enterprise 2.0. It’s what has kept my life going for the past five years as I’ve learned to get out of the way of a control IT environment and start creating environments that enable people to work collaboratively,” says J.P. Rangaswami, former global CIO at investment bank Dresdner Kleinwort in London, in this interview with Optimize magazine …

Auch die vom Spiegel …

Podcasts über Podcasts, heute: Der SPIEGEL. “… Warum nur lesen, wenn man auch hören kann? SPIEGEL ONLINE berichtet ab sofort per Podcast aus der großen weiten Welt: Zum Auftakt die älteste dauerhaft bewohnte Stadt des Erdballs - Damaskus. Zum Anhören genügt ein Mausklick”

Nano-Learning: Miniaturization of Design

Sechs Monate alter Artikel von Elliot Masie, still going strong: ” …I am a nano-learner. What does that mean? Each day, I learn several things in small chunks. Really small chunks. A 90-second conversation with an expert triggers a huge “a-ha.” A few moments concentrating on learning how something works leads to a new micro-skill. What’s more, I am not that unusual. Most people acquire most of their knowledge in smaller pieces …”

YouTube Launches YouTube Colleges

This seems like a small addition to YouTube’s growing feature set, but it could be huge: YouTube has just launched a new feature, Colleges on YouTube, which provides closed communities for students, staff, and alumni of US colleges and universities. Just like Facebook, users must have a valid .edu address to participate, although existing users can change their email address. The service currently serves 30 major US colleges and universities, with many more coming soon. Members have access to private video “pools”, which could include party videos and clips from college sports games.

Wikis in Education

‘Inventing the World Wide Web involved my growing realization that there was a power in arranging ideas in an unconstrained, weblike way… The Web arose as the answer to an open challenge, through the swirling together of influences, ideas, and realizations from many sides, until… a new concept jelled. It was a process of accretion, not the linear solving of one well-defined problem after another.’ — Tim Berners-Lee / Weaving the Web: The Original Design and Ultimate Destiny of the World Wide Web.