Group items tagged

"Why a supposed German breakthrough in e-book DRM is just as dumb as the old e-book DRM By Cory Doctorow | Jul 06, 2013 " > The idea that copyright owners might convince a judge, or, worse, a > jury that because they found a copy of an e-book on the Pirate Bay > originally sold to me they can then hold me responsible or civilly > liable is almost certainly wrong, as a matter of law. At the very > least, it's a long shot and a stupid legal bet. After all, it's not > illegal to lose your computer. It's not illegal to have it stolen > or hacked. It's not illegal to throw away your computer or your > hard drive. In many places, it's not illegal to give away your > e-books, or to loan them. In some places, it's not illegal to sell > your e-books. > > So at best, this new "breakthrough" DRM scheme will be ineffective. > But worse, what makes anyone think this kind of implicit fear of > reprisal embedded within one's digital library is acceptable, or, > for that matter, preferable to old-school DRM?

"Una serie di interessanti video (in lingua inglese) ed una presentazione per aiutare gli sviluppatori a comprendere l'importanza di sottotitoli e trascrizioni."

"About NewOCR.com is a free online OCR (Optical Character Recognition) service, can analyze the text in any image file that you upload, and then convert the text from the image into text that you can easily edit on your computer Select your file File URL Recognition language Italian" e decine di altre lingue. Molto preciso e rapido, e c'è un'anteprima dove si può selezionare la parte che si vuol convertire in testo vero. Funziona con file online e con file caricati dal computer. Non c'è da crearsi un account.

Fantastico! Grazie Claude! Potresti aggiungere qualche altro tag, tipo converter, convertitore, tool (perché magari, per chi come me non ricorda mai l'acronimo OCR, pur sapendo di cosa si tratta, diventerà più facile ritrovare questo segnalibro in caso di bisogno). Grazie :-)

"Dopo molti annunci, è finalmente andata online "LIA, la vetrina di ebook accessibili pensati per le persone non vedenti e ipovedenti". Era legittimo chiedersi cosa fossero i libri italiani accessibili, poiché né la nazionalità italiana né "libro accessibile" fornivano un qualche indizio sulla natura di questi libri. Ora, dopo la messa in onda, regna lo stesso la confusione: non si riesce a capire in cosa consista il servizio LIA. A prima vista, il sito si presenta come un espositore di libri in formato epub, la cui unica differenza con i normali epub disponibili online in innumerevoli store sembra essere l'apposizione di una specie di certificazione di accessibilità denominata "bollino LIA". (...) Il testo della "certificazione" è perlomeno generico: (...) Questo eBook è certificato accessibile da LIA come? Con quali criteri? Chi sono i certificatori? Non è dato di saperlo. Così come sembrano piuttosto scontati i parametri di valutazione (...) D'accordo, il corretto uso degli elementi sicuramente aiuta la navigazione, ma siete sicuri che inserire dei titoli in ordine gerarchico sparso e casuale, basta che ci siano, sia utile a qualcuno? La "vetrina" sembrerebbe dedicata soltanto a questo: selezionare nella vastità degli epub disponibili sul mercato alcuni titoli scelti e valutati accessibili da qualcuno non si sa chi e come, e rimandare a store esterni per l'acquisto degli stessi. Sì, avete capito bene, bisogna usare due carrelli elettronici: prima quello del sito LIA, dove si selezionano i libri desiderati, e poi quello dello store esterno per effettuare l'acquisto vero e proprio. Siamo davvero sicuri che questo sia un aiuto per chi non ci vede o ha gravi problemi di vista? Non era già abbastanza complicato dover affrontare un carrello? No, due. Potrebbe essere complicato per chiunque, ma per chi utilizza uno screen reader lo è il doppio: effettua l'acquisto in un sito, poi deve anche essere in grado di continua

Ah: m'ero fermato a LIA e non avevo fatto caso si trattasse di un commento su! Conoscevo l'IWA (un anno mi pare ci sono stato iscritto, ai loro esordi), non questo loro impegno. Posso però dire che la legge Stanca è estremamente discutibile: sia per come ha "personalizzato" gli standard invece di applicarli sia per restrizioni di contorno ed obblighi in alcuni casi assurdi che ha imposto. Non so però quanto sia farina del loro sacco e quanto contributo politico. Comunque adesso vado e leggere cosa ne dice lui

Non ha tutti i torti nelle sue critiche: effettivamente l'accessibilità del sito lascia molto a desiderare. La spiegazione però potrebbe esserci. Andando alla ricerca di chi ne fosse il proprietario (che non è specificato da nessuna parte sul sito!) scopro che si tratta di Ediser S.r.l. che - cercando - ha un sito sua che così la descrive: Ediser è la Società di servizi dell'AIE - Associazione Italiana Editori, fondata nel 2002 per l'erogazione di servizi rivolti alle case editrici, tra cui: - l'erogazione di corsi e seminari di formazione e aggiornamento per il personale che opera nella filiera editoriale e dei contenuti digitali o per persone che intendono avviare una casa editrice - la gestione dell'agenzia ISBN per l'area linguistica italiana, di cui è titolare l'AIE - la gestione dei diritti d'autore per la tutela dei diritti di riproduzione delle opere librarie e periodiche - l'organizzazione di fiere del libro attraverso la realizzazione "step by step" di stand collettivi e istituzionali - l'organizzazione di eventi legati al mondo dell'editoria - la gestione di progetti specifici di rilevanza nazionale e internazionale legati al mondo dell'editoria - il «Giornale della libreria»: il mensile professionale dell'editoria libraria e dell'industria dei contenuti editoriali italiana Inoltre LibriAccessibili.it - e più in generali il progetto LIA che ha un sito a parte chissà perchè... (progettolia.it) - è "Realizzato mediante il finanziamento del Ministero per i Beni e le Attività Culturali" come dice il disclaimer (obbligatorio per chi usi finanziamenti pubblici) accompagnato da loro del ministero definito "Partner di progetto". Insomma: sono gli editori che definiscono le condizioni per darsi il bollino e poi se lo danno... Ma pagato con i soldi che il Ministero non ha per salvare Pompei! Altro che bastoni e carote...

"Posted by Dario Taraborelli on August 2, 2012 Improving the quality of articles has long been one of the primary aims of contributors to Wikipedia, and is one of the Wikimedia movement's 2010-15 strategic priorities, but measuring it objectively has remained a challenge. In 2005, Nature famously reported that Wikipedia articles on scientific topics contained just four errors per article on average, compared to three errors per article in the online edition of Encyclopaedia Britannica. Britannica objected to the report, but Nature stood by it, and the report remains widely cited today. Since that time, however, there have been relatively few independent analyses of Wikipedia article quality, despite the enormous growth of the project. Wikipedia today counts more than 23 million articles across languages (more than 4 million articles in the English Wikipedia alone) compared to 3.7 million total articles in 2005; today it ranks 6th by overall traffic according to Alexa, while it ranked 37th in 2005. (...) The Wikimedia Foundation is announcing the release of a pilot study conducted by Epic, an e-learning consultancy, in partnership with Oxford University - "Assessing the Accuracy and Quality of Wikipedia Entries Compared to Popular Online Alternative Encyclopaedias: A Preliminary Comparative Study Across Disciplines in English, Spanish and Arabic." The study compared a sample of English Wikipedia articles to equivalent articles in Encyclopaedia Britannica, Spanish Wikipedia to Enciclonet, and Arabic Wikipedia to Mawsoah and Arab Encyclopaedia. 22 articles in the sample were blind-assessed by 2 to 3 native speaking academic experts each, both quantitatively and qualitatively. The small size of the sample does not allow us to generalize the results to Wikipedia as a whole. However, as a pilot primarily focused on methodology, the study offers new insights into the design of a protocol for expert assessment of encyclopedic contents. For our editor community a

"A blogger claiming to be "A Gay Girl in Damascus" attracted a lot of online attention. But when she was reported kidnapped, some journalists became suspicious. From Carvin's Storify of the incident: Around this time I received a Twitter direct message from @DannySeesIt, a Syrian I've known since the Egyptian revolution. He's given me permission to publish the text of his DM: "I'm asking about that today most of the day and I have some solid connection in the lesbian scene in Damascus. No one knows her." Danny's comment struck me as odd, especially based on all the people I knew who were vouching for her online. I replied to him: I have from a good source that she is indeed real. We'll see, though. (...) Andy Carvin ✔ @acarvin And we have a confession: Tom MacMaster is #Amina! http://bit.ly/lLIY83 9:17 PM - 12 Jun 2011 (...) Andy Carvin ✔ @acarvin If we could only calculate the sheer number of hours we spent this week on #Amina, each one of which was an hour spent not on Syria itself. 9:28 PM - 12 Jun 2011"

" About Get Involved Press Contact Donate Subscribe Global Voices is an international community of bloggers who report on blogs and citizen media from around the world. Learn why » Photos posts Photos Video posts Video Search Countries Topics Contributors Featured stories Italian Appeals Court Upholds Guilty Verdict in Historic Eternit Asbestos Case"

"By Harry Keller Editor, Science Education Despite plenty of nay-sayers, the textbook is dead. It just doesn't know it yet and continues on walking about as though alive. Textbooks have evolved considerably over the last fifty years and even somewhat in the previous fifty years. I even have one, A Text-Book of Physics, on my bookshelf beside me that was printed in 1891. It has some line drawings and no color. Its size is about 5"x8". Today, textbooks have lots of colorful images, plenty of side bars, and lots of engaging questions sprinkled about on their heavy-weight glossy paper stock. They also have tons of advice to teachers on how to use them effectively. They've gone about as far as they can go with paper as the medium. (...) You can learn faster and learn more than you think you can. Textbooks do not tap into our brains to realize that learning potential. New software that uses true active learning will. By so doing, it will eliminate textbooks of all forms, both printed and online, both passive and so-called interactive. Today, the textbook is a zombie. It's just waiting for that wooden stake or silver bullet to put it to a well-deserved rest."

Interessante la coincidenza con http://blog-micromega.blogautore.espresso.repubblica.it/2013/07/22/boscaino-guastavigna-libri-di-testo-digitali-un-ragionevole-stop/ , già bookmarkato qui da Francesco Vallotto.

Analisi decisamente più interessante rispetto alle precedenti (citate) perchè vola decisamente più alta evitando di impantanarsi sulla falsa questione del formato dei contenuti per ragionare piuttosto di metodo. Ho condiviso filosofia e conclusioni

A proposito dell'integrazione dei commenti Google+ a YouTube

"Le nuove funzioni introdotte per combattere i troll costringono ad usare Google+: si levano le polemiche, anche dai fondatori del Tubo Roma - Per scardinare l'anonimato dietro cui si nascondono i troll e spingere in questo modo al miglioramento della qualità dei commenti inseriti su YouTube, Google aveva deciso di vincolare gli interventi in risposta ai video caricati all'utilizzo di identità Google+ e di fornire agli autori del contenuto caricato un sistema di filtri basati su parole chiave che permetta di controllare in anticipo cosa viene scritto. Tuttavia ciò ha causato aspre critiche da parte di molti utenti che per il momento non sembrano apprezzare il cambiamento."

Vedi anche il link alla petizione contro quell'integrazione di G+ a YT e il video "My thoughts on Google+" embeddato.

"Here's the lastest video educator's are jacked about: [ http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=UFpe3Up9T_g ] I like much about this video. I like the message. I like the way it's shot. I like the girls. What I don't like is the perception that this is the girl's invention. It's not. These girls are likely no more into inventing and making than most girls their age. While I might be able to look past that, and I can, I don't like the perception that this is authentic as it suggests. Which raises the larger question of authentic student voice. I remember first being struck by this when this video came out about 6 years ago: [ http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=_A-ZVCjfWf8 ] It's an iteration of Michael Wesch video using college aged students. When I saw the k-12 version it just didn't sit well with me. The signs the students held seemed to be the language and ideas of adults. I had a hard time thinking any 5 year old would use the phrase "engage me". But still I thought the video had value but I never used them to share with others. (...) If you're still jacked about the little girls video, that's okay, show it to your young girls, encourage them to explore science but let's have enough awareness to know when we're being sold something. My point with this little wander through video is let's advocate for student voice but not fake ones. Our students do have a voice. Most of them are childlike, full of child like ideas and most aren't as eloquent as adults because they aren't adults. That's what we're supposed to be doing, helping them develop that voice. Yet we do have some that are ready for prime time and we should provide ways for them to share. I know some districts have had students keynote. I think that's great, as long as the core of their story is their own, not the districts or their teachers. I'd way rather listen to a student share a less polished message that was their ow

Vedi anche il commento di Stephen Downes in http://www.downes.ca/cgi-bin/page.cgi?post=61423

"...Have you dealt with a systemic tech failure in a course? How did you manage it so students didn't suffer? Please share in the comments below."

Nell'articolo ma soprattutto nei commenti, racconti di problemi tecnologici - e di come son stati affrontati - in classe.

"...MOOCs are just the latest incarnation of bringing watered-down versions of culture, knowledge, and learning to a mass audience. What we see as the courses' flaws may well be their strengths, and they have the potential to carry those strengths to a broader audience than ever before. Problems arise only when we think of MOOCs as university courses rather than as learning for the masses. Yes, the vulgarians who run Coursera and Udacity deserve to be swept into the dustbin of history, and the fact that they seem not to have figured out how to profit from their enterprises suggests that they'll soon be hoist by their own capitalist petard. When they are, the real action can begin. As the history professor Jonathan Rees puts it, the fast-­approaching post-corporate-MOOC world "will almost certainly be a period of real pedagogical innovation conducted by people who are more interested in actual education than they are in becoming famous or just making a quick buck."..."

Giusto! Aspettiamo che l'azione inizi (e forse si può dire che è già iniziata! ;-) )

Non rinuncerei mai alla possibilità di usare i mezzi tecnologici per la diffusione della conoscenza, tuttavia è vero: non c'è nulla che possa sostituire la relazione didattica, nel senso di interazione significativa individuale.

"Prima frase non delimitata da e . Seconda frase non delimitata da e . Prima frase delimitata da e . Seconda frase delimitata da e . E ora: volete vedere il codice di questa pagina? Usate la combinazione Ctrl-u :-)"

Vedi http://iamarf.org/2013/11/29/vediamo-un-po-di-html-loptis/#comment-21943 per il contesto.

"Most people who take massive open online courses already hold a degree from a traditional institution, according to a new paper from the University of Pennsylvania. The paper is based on a survey of 34,779 students worldwide who took 24 courses offered by Penn professors on the Coursera platform. The findings-among the first from outside researchers, rather than MOOC providers-reinforce the truism that most people who take MOOCs are already well educated. The Penn researchers sent the survey to students who had registered for a MOOC and viewed at least one video lecture. More than 80 percent of the respondents had a two- or four-year degree, and 44 percent had some graduate education."

Ma vedi anche il commento di Stephen Downes http://www.downes.ca/cgi-bin/page.cgi?post=61414 : "Goodness gracious, the word "MOOCs" does not mean the same thing as "courses offered by Penn professors on the Coursera platform." The Chronicle can be so infuriating at times. Coursera very deliberately targeted an upmarket customer profile, so no wonder that's who they got"

"If you're interested in becoming a provider, sign up to receive an invitation code. You can only sign up as a provider if you are in Australia, Canada, Ireland, New Zealand, U.K., and the U.S. Once you sign up, we'll process your request. We're processing a lot of requests right now, but we'll try to get back to you as soon as we can."

"Are you curious about the Helpouts experience? Take a free test spin with a member of the Helpouts Team! You'll get a firsthand tour of the product and see just how easy it is to receive help over video chat. Schedule a time with one of our Helpouts Specialists, or see who is available now! Our team of knowledgeable specialists looks forward to showing you how it all works. If there is a long queue to join this Helpout, feel free to watch our intro video instead!"

La mia recenzione di questo "helpout sugli helpout": "Ronnie was very patient and gave very clear answers. As to whether people from other countries than Australia, Canada, Ireland, New Zealand, U.K., and the U.S. (see https://support.google.com/helpouts/answer/3164468?hl=en&ref_topic=14126 ) would be allowed to offer helpouts in future, he said this is planned. As to the difference between helpouts and hangouts, he explained that though helpouts are using the hangout platform, they are a different service. And when asked if helpout participants can use the live captioning app that can be used in hangouts (see https://hangout-captions.appspot.com/ ), he said no. When I asked why the "Introducing Helpouts by Google" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K-VFC9AQM1k video is uncaptioned, and the video embedded in the "Find out what it's like to get a Helpout!" https://helpouts.google.com/111421743141645456280/ls/b41c1faef6b76d0f page is not only uncaptioned, but also uncaptionable via e.g. streaming it to amara.org, because if you try to open it on youtube, you get to https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=picasacid , which says: "An error occurred during validation. This video does not exist. Sorry about that." he candidly said he couldn't answer and suggested using the feedback, which I'm doing. Same reply when I asked if Google planned to caption these videos. Sure, I would have preferred to get more hopeful answers to the questions about accessibility, but it was great to get candid ones, which can now be reported to the discussion lists of the Collaborative for Communication Access via Captioning - http://ccacaptioning.org/ . " No, è vero, Ronnie è stato bravissimo. Chissà quanti helpout si sarà sorbito quel giorno, e paffete arriva una che comincia a rompergli le scatole e il nuovo giocatolo Google, portandolo a riconoscere implicitamente che insomma, meglio gli hangout veri e propri..

Filmed Feb 2008 * Posted Mar 2008 * TED2008 "Neuroscientist and inventor Christopher deCharms demonstrates a new way to use fMRI to show brain activity -- thoughts, emotions, pain -- while it is happening. In other words, you can actually see how you feel. Christopher deCharms is working on a way to use fMRI scans to show brain activity -- in real time."

From http://www.stanford.edu/~efs/693b/TED1.html : "1. length: 4:00 2. overall speed (WPM): 182 3. vocabulary profile: 3K-94.3%; 5K-96.4%; 10K-97.9%; OL-3.2% 4. accent: US standard 5. comments: there is a reference at the beginning of shrinking a ship and injecting it into the bloodstream, see: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0060397/; http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0093260/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1. fMRI = functional magnetic resonance imaging--a way to view the brain in action. 6. Neuroscientist and inventor Christopher deCharms demonstrates a new way to use fMRI to show brain activity -- thoughts, emotions, pain -- while it is happening. In other words, you can actually see how you feel.

Filmed Feb 2004 * Posted Apr 2007 * TED2004 "Al Seckel, a cognitive neuroscientist, explores the perceptual illusions that fool our brains. Loads of eye tricks help him prove that not only are we easily fooled, we kind of like it. Cognitive neuroscientist Al Seckel explores how eye tricks can reveal the way the brain processes visual information -- or fails to do so. Among his other accomplishments: He co-created the Darwin Fish"

From http://www.stanford.edu/~efs/693b/TED1.html : "1. length: 14:30 2. overall speed (WPM): 117 3. vocabulary profile: 3K-92.3%; 5K-95%; 10K-96.6%; OL-3.2% 4. accent: US standard 5. comments: there are times when the speaker is quiet and the audience is viewing--actual speech rate is higher 6. Al Seckel, a cognitive neuroscientist, explores the perceptual illusions that fool our brains. Loads of eye tricks help him prove that not only are we easily fooled, we kind of like it."

Filmed Feb 2008 * Posted Mar 2008 * TED2008 "Jill Bolte Taylor got a research opportunity few brain scientists would wish for: She had a massive stroke, and watched as her brain functions -- motion, speech, self-awareness -- shut down one by one. An astonishing story. Brain researcher Jill Bolte Taylor studied her own stroke as it happened -- and has become a powerful voice for brain recovery"

From http://www.stanford.edu/~efs/693b/TED1.html : "1. length: 18:02 2. overall speed (WPM): 150 3. vocabulary profile: 3K-92.9%; 5K-95.3%; 10K-97.9%; OL-1.6% 4. accent: US standard 5. comments: very emotional story; key vocabulary = schizophrenic; stroke (of the brain) 6. Jill Bolte Taylor got a research opportunity few brain scientists would wish for: She had a massive stroke, and watched as her brain functions -- motion, speech, self-awareness -- shut down one by one. An astonishing story."