Month: March 2012

3:04 am on March 4, 2012 · free culture (25), open education (1)

Open Education Week – March 5-10 2012 – event links #freeculture #openeducationwk #oer

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Open Education week

Open Education weekThe OpenCourseWare Consortium has organized the first annual Open Education Week  which will happen this week March 5-10, 2012. Open Education Week is a global event that seeks to raise awareness about the benefits of free and open sharing in education, especially Open Educational Resources (OER). OER are high-quality, free and open educational materials that offer opportunities for people anywhere in the world to share, use and reuse.

The event will take place online and in different locations around the world, with opportunities to participate in webinars, discussions and live events. Projects and events will be featured from institutions and organizations from around the world, including: University of Cape Town, University of Michigan, Universidad Politecnica de Madrid, University of California, Irvine, Delft University of Technology, and Creative Commons. Participation is free and open to all.

For a  list of webinars and other events, visit http://www.openeducationweek.org/webinars/

 

 

5:46 am on March 3, 2012 · access (43), fiber (26), FTTx (1), report (14)

Report: Russia passing USA in #fiber

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iDate European Fiber report

Dave Burstein in Fast Net News – Russia Passing U.S. In “Fiber” – reports that Russia is on the cusp of passing the USA in terms of percentage of residences reached, either directly by fiber, or by some fiber+LAN system.

He says:

All in the name. Korea’s #1 in penetration if 100 megabits on copper from fiber to the basement is “fiber.” Japan is #1 if only fiber all the way to the apartment is considered. The U.S. is far behind in either case, with the larger countries of Europe – except Russia – even further behind. Nearly 60% of Korean homes subscribe to one or the other and over 40% of Japanese. So do 27% of Lithuanians.
Yes, Lithuania leads Europe. They, the Russians and other Eastern Europeans generally deliver broadband by fiber to the basement and copper to the apartment, Speeds are often 100 megabits; Russia often is near the top in average Internet speeds.
“Fiber” in the U.S. only reaches 8% of homes. The vast majority of U.S. fiber lines are Verizon, which has essentially stopped building. Russia is at the same level, expanding rapidly. China is only at 4%, although they are expanding at a rate of 10M a quarter.

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8:32 pm on March 2, 2012 · big data (9), data (9), journalism (4), yale (2)

@YaleISP Data Journalism Conference – next Fri 3/9 (free) #bigdata

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Yale ISP

Yale ISPThe production of news increasingly involves the processing, analysis, and presentation of data. Governments and other organizations have made more data publicly available, sometimes through extralegal means, while newsrooms have simultaneously been adding new tools and acquiring new expertise to manage this flow of information. This conference, hosted by the Information Society Project at Yale Law School, will bring together working journalists, computer scientists, and media researchers to examine new practices and challenges in the rapidly emerging field of data journalism. Panelists will explore the increasing use of data in journalism; the role that news organizations play in mediating, curating, and redacting data; and the interaction of new practices in data journalism with First Amendment and policy issues concerning freedom of information, open government, and privacy.

What: Data Journalism: New Tools and New Challenges for Accessing Information
When: March 9 from 9:30am – 3:30pm
Where: Room 122 at Yale Law School (poster)
Register (free): http://datajournalism030912.eventbrite.com

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