OLDaily (Stephen Downes)
Monday, October 12
User-Driven UI
Brad Woods, Brad Woods Digital Garden, Oct 12, 2026 The is the approach I'm trying to take with CList: "With the capabilities of natural language processors, we can create a new approach to teaching UIs. User-driven UI. Instead of pushing features onto the user, the user pulls them in when needed. The software always…
downes.caWhy Leaving Academia Feels Like Withdrawal
Claudio Cinà, Inside Higher Ed | Higher Education News, Events and Jobs, Oct 12, 2026 "Many who succeed in academia become reliant on the recognition of its gatekeepers - tenure committees, journal editors, prize juries—until that recognition becomes the currency of existence." See also: qualifications and brain…
downes.caAcademic urban legends
Ole Bjørn Rekdal, Social Studies of Science, Oct 12, 2026 Via a Mastodon post from Alfie Kohn posted today I encountered this great 2014 article on how urban legends are perpetuated in academic writing. The article looks at the chain of commentary around the idea that spinach is a great source of iron (it isn't). You…
downes.caMedia helped create the crisis it finds itself in
Michał "rysiek" Woźniak, Songs on the Security of Networks, Oct 12, 2026 This article is much too long and has a but of a tone, but it is chock full of evidence to back up what it says, and what it says is important: the media itself is responsible for the near total control of the tech industry over its…
downes.caA Small Boat Facing New Horizons
Yaretzy Gabriela Calamaco Munguia, unitwin-unoe, Oct 12, 2026 This post from a primary school teacher and Master's student from the Benemérita Escuela Normal de Coahuila (BENC) in Mexico recounts her experience attending the UNESCO's Digital Learning Week 2026 in France. "It was not a feeling of smallness as a synonym…
downes.caTopSciNet Tools
DATAMETA LAB, TopSciNet, Oct 12, 2026 This looks like a really useful set of tools: "Free online tools with no signup: line counter, image resizer, compressor, PDF converter, QR generator, percentage calculator and more. Everything runs in your browser, so your files never leave your device." What's funny is that I…
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Wednesday, October 7
CList at FediForum
Slides and video of my session at FediForum - thanks Mark for being the only one to join me (we're not the cool kids :p ) which introduces CList and offers an alternative way to look at (and build) the open social web, The usual live demo glitches, but I think we made the point. I didn't actually show the slides, just…
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