<CONTENT /> v.4

Meanwhile, Laszlo, which is rooted in providing RIA software and solutions, and CounterPath Solutions, a Vancouver, British Columbia, provider of multimedia VOIP softphones and SIP (Session Initiation Protocol) applications, announced a strategic relationship to bring standards-based voice communications to Laszlo Webtop.The companies plan to join forces to build CMC (CounterPath Multimedia Communicator) WebPhone, a softphone that will play to Laszlo’s vision of one-click, universal communications by merging the voice application with Webtop’s existing browser-based Mail and Contacts applications. The companies demonstrated the CMC WebPhone at the AJAX World show, officials from both companies said.CMC WebPhone will be available for general release later this year, CounterPath officials said.

Laszlo Enhances its Webtop Application

Very nice.  Time to dust off the SIP version of Classcaster, to allow everyone to record podcasts directly from their PCs using the power of Asterisk.

Open Education Search - The Hewlett Foundation is working with ccLearn to develop a web search portal of open education resources.  And they are looking for material.  I wonder how 4,000 hours of law school class lectures and summaries would work?  I think we’re going to find out.

From the Open Education Search FAQ

What data are you gathering to enable web-scale open education search?

Most important: Site URLs

We are collecting top level URLs for sites hosting OERs. A well-known example would be http://ocw.mit.edu. A web-scale open education search should minimally index all pages under such a site URL.

Resource URLs

We are also collecting individual resource URLs, for example http://ocw.mit.edu/OcwWeb/Physics/8-01TFall-2004/CourseHome/.We are interested in individual resource URLs even where we have a siteURL for the resource’s host, as the resource URL may be annotated morespecifically.

Keyword annotations (also known as tags, labels, and subjects, among others)

Both types of URLs may be tagged (or whatever verb you prefer) with keywords. This is optional but desired.

How can I ensure that my OERs are included?

We have one mechanism at present: mass import. In the future we willalso support the import of new OERs via feeds and manual addition ofindividual URLs.

Mass Import

If you have lists of OERs or OER sites in any textualformat (that includes XML and XML dialects, such as OAI), we can importfrom these formats. Send the file(s) or URL(s) to Creative Commons CTONathan Yergler: nathan@creativecommons.org. An example would be a URL pointing to an OAI file. It is very likely in this example that we can use dc:subject values as tags.

Contacts

For purely technical questions, see Nathan Yergler above. For allother questions, contact ccLearn Executive Director Ahrash Bissell: ahrash@creativecommons.org.

technorati tags:Hewlett_Foundation, CreativeCommons, ccLearning, Classcaster, CALI

CommentPress is an open source theme for the WordPress blogging engine that allows readers to comment paragraph by paragraph in the margins of a text.

CommentPress

This remarkable Wordpress plugin is being developed by the Institute for the Future of the Book.  It adds a high level of interactivity and coinversation to Wordpress blogs by allow for comments at the paragraph level with the comments displayed in a floating window.  I think the implications for this in education are astounding.  Imagine providing a text that be readily commented on, paragraph by paragraph by students and teachers.

Blogged with Flock

The Quick Capture tool uses an Adobe Flash Player API to connect to the user’s webcam. The user must first grant the Flash Player permission to use the camera and microphone—and must do so every time—before using the service. Once the user grants permission, he or she must then select the type of connection being used for the video and microphone: DV, FireWire, or USB.

YouTube allows users to record directly to site

This is cool.  I wonder if we could replicate this on Classcaster?

technorati tags:youtube, video, flash, classcaster

Blogged with Flock

MAKE: Blog: HOW TO - Podcasting for educators - Everybody is looking for grant money to do this, but come on, it ain’t that expensive.  Classcaster is open source, and we recommend a sub $100 digital recorder that works just fine.  Quality is good enough and it is easy for teachers to use and students to listen to.

technorati tags:make, podcasting, classcaster

Blogged with Flock

To ‘cast or not to ‘cast. It seems to be a much hotter topic than it deserves to be these days. Here’s how it boils down. Are you producing media for the web: Yes/No. If you check the Yes box, why not create an RSS feed for it? If you check the No box, why aren’t you?

Peterson’s - a Nelnet Company–Syndication for Higher Ed » Podcasts Passe - Or were they ever “In”?

As usual, Dan asks a good question.  I left him this comment:

One year ago we launched a simple service for law school faculty to create podcasts of lectures and course summaries at www.classcaster.org. Now we have over 60 active bloggers and podcasters, more than 2500 hours of audio material, a lot of satisfied students. I think you need to look past the hype about podcasting and ask a basic question: is there value for the student in having this supplemental material? If the answer is yes, you can create an effective infrastructure for recording classes and summaries with less than $100 digital recorders and open source software. All the information on how we built Classcaster, including the software we used, is at http://www.classcaster.net/.

technorati tags:classcaster, cali, podcasting

Blogged with Flock

After fiddling with Classcaster for a year and a half, I’ve finally gotten around to launching Classcaster.net as a site for Classcaster developers and those interested in building their own Classcaster system. The site includes detailed instructions for putting Classcaster together, links to info about Classcaster and a forum to discuss the deployment and use of Classcaster.

Please note that this is not intended to be an end user support site, but rather a site for those interested in deploying their own Classcaster system or learning more about how Classcaster works.

So, if your interested in running your own blogging, podcasting empire, this is a good place to start.

Classcaster is a course blogging system that provides faculty, librarians, and staff with a new way to interact with students and communities. A Classcaster blog provides authors with tools for posting not only traditional blog articles but also tools for podcasting and sharing any documents and/or files with students and communities.

CALI’s implementation of Classcaster is here. It is a thriving blogging and podcasting network and community with over 50 active bloggers and almost 2000 hours of podcasts that cover a wide range of subjects taught in law schools across the country.

John Mayer and I will be giving a presentation on Classcaster at Educause on 10/11/06, so if you’re in Dallas, do drop by.