Very interesting...

Those interested in OpenCourseWare will find Tom's post interesting. Coursefeed has hooked up Facebook and Blackboard together to provide students a way to collaborate even after the course is finished. Not surprisingly, the folks at Coursefeed are running into all sorts of privacy and proprietary issues. However, to me this is interesting for several reasons.

OpenCourseWare has none of these issues. We could set up learning environments around courses, and people could join if they wished, and leave when they want. We've wanted a social aspect to OCW for years, and this could be it.

The other interesting aspect to all of this is what happens when faculty realize they can put their content in OCW, and have all their learning tools in Facebook. Who needs an LMS when you have this setup? The natural next step seems to be to ditch the fee heavy, tech support heavy LMS, and move to what students are already using...

Webook...

My problem is that I'm an idea man. I come up with ideas, but am completely powerless to do anything with my ideas. I've been pining for years about how the publishing industry is behind the times, runs on a very closed model that is harmful to everybody but themselves, and that writing can be, and in many cases, should be, a collaborative effort.

"Why doesn't somebody create a web site where people can write collaboratively, share their books, and then vote on the best book to be published? Why can't royalties be shared among authors, editors, and those who give feedback?"

Well, enter Webook. Get it? Webook? Isn't that clever? It's like We-book (we write a book), and web-book (a book on the web), all at the same time. Ha ha, zany!

Anyway, if I had sat down and designed a site that met all of the things I've been whining about, Webook would be it. You can start a project, collaborate in an open or closed environment, work on other projects, or just give feedback. Projects are voted on, and Webook already has their first published book out. And their terms of service looks pretty decent.

I can understand that many authors, especially those who have already been published, might be a little bit leery. But let me take the risk for you. I've already signed up, and posted chapter one of a book I'm working on. If you'd like to give it a try, please feel free to drop in. Or maybe you have a book that is out of print, and not doing anything? Post it!

Now, let me say up front, you may go there and find a lot wrong with the site. There is a lot of content that is very rough. It's the first draft attempted by somebody who probably has no experience with writing. But what better way to learn than through a community of similarly struggling writers. Person A may know nothing about hooks, but can write a good scene description. Person B is a hook master, but struggles with descriptions. Put the two together and they start to learn and grow. Those familiar with fanfiction.net, know this is a healthy process, and one that should be encouraged.

So, if I've piqued your interest, sign up. And if you do, make sure to let me know, and add me as a friend.

And finally, let me leave you with a quote from the founder of Webook. One that I could not possibly agree with more.

"[Webook's] biggest challenge is to contribute to the evolution of the traditional publishing business, which is still dominated by a few large publishers who wield enormous control over the titles that reach the bookstores. While in the past decade the music, software, travel, financial, and other major sectors have shifted the power from the few to the many, publishing continues to function as an exclusive, traditional business."

I, for one, wish them good luck.

Reflections...

This was breakfast at my house...If you click on the picture, you'll get to see things up close. Just don't drool on your keyboard.

Quote of the day...

Dad is opening his hand-drawn birthday cards.

Dad: "Very nice! Is that a birthday cake?"

Boy # 4: "No, that is a monster eating a kids arm off. But it doesn't go down to his stomach, it goes up to his brain, ha ha!"

Dad: "Oh yeah...now I see it."

Difficult Questions...

This photo shoot kind of shook me up. It is at once beautiful and haunting.

Number 18 shows the resilience of youth. It warms the soul.
Number 20 shows the face of somebody who is beginning to learn just exactly how life is, but still clings to a bit of hope.
But it's number 8 I can't stop looking at. It's number 8 that breaks my heart, makes me think.

Part of me wants to say, "See? This is why we should buys stones made in a lab". So people aren't forced to toil away their childhood, scraping at the walls of a shaft, looking for stones that are sent to 'civilized countries' so we can look pretty.

But if we do that, there will be no more demand left for these stones. And where would the miners be then? How will they feed their children if their livelihood is taken away?

I think the thing that burns me up the most is that these people are the ones wasting and wearing out their lives, they are the ones losing their childhood, and working long hours to find the stones, only to have a bunch of middlemen make all the money. From the guy who sits behind the bars and buys the stones, to the guy that gets them to the 'western world', to the jeweler down the street who then charges hundreds of dollars more to 'make his cut'. That is the part that makes me sick, and I want no part of it.

I would love to buy one of these stones, and I would love to pay full price, but I want the money to go to the person, or more likely the family, that is doing the work.

Why, in this so called 'flat world', can I not do this?

Can you say iPhone killer?

Very, very cool. Particularly around minute 2:12.