This is really interesting to see. With projects like this off the ground advanced material is made available for free to huge swathes of the globe who wouldn't previously have access.
Could internet teaching methods promote a global meritocracy (at least academically) which is truly fair?
I suppose the answer is not quite (e.g. all material is presumably English only, and only those relatively rich enough to be able to buy some internet time will benefit) but this idea could given time really develop those with potential but without opportunity at present.
I would love to see an extension to the scientific disciplines.
OtisAardvark writes "With the recent cancellation of Salon, this Salon story
discusses the creative ways fans are trying to save Salon. Specifically it talks about how grassroots organization through the internet has helped them to the point where they are discussing fan funded production of Salon."
Ever get the feeling that there are only 5 stories in the world?;-)
Microsoft Research is pumping hefty money and brainpower into automated translation.
For an example of the scale and progress of their projects, see here.
Its all part of their huge research drive into Natural Language Processing. They do world-class research and have some great innovations to their name. Perhaps the one which will prove most useful is MindNet.
Computational Linguistics is the BIG growth area, and it seems that Microsoft isn't going to miss the party.
IMHO this is an incredible phenomenon. For the first time in history, we have been able to access a huge subset of academic literature and data for the (fairly minimal) cost of an internet connection... Many university lecture course notes are completely available on the WWW. The internet could prove to be the single factor which contributes greatest towards equality of educational opportunity for all around the world. Will education will lead to (economic) salvation?
WWW content itself is organised very well (and can be ordered by relevance very well) using a "link" structure a la Google.
Maybe we can form an analogous iterative structure to internet infrastructure, with the importance of a particular section linked not only to its bandwidth but the importance of the the section its hubs link to. We can then prioritise new investment by triangulating new infrastructure in the most appropriate way.
I will admit I know next to nothing about networking on this scale; please feel free to shoot me down with technical and social reasons why this will fail. Just an idea (-:
Internet access and bandwidth are very vulnerable, but remember there are lots of copies of the DNS server records, and the actual content is extremely widespread and can easily be put online again given some time - in a genuine emergency situation internet access would only be a priority to those on the periphery anyway. Fine, we need more hubs and greater decentralisation, but lets not get carried away.
It's an obvious point to make but the games back in the day (text adventures etc) had such great gameplay that you could sit there for hours learning all the foibles tricks... people spent effort on making imaginative games which challenged your mind rather than your reflexes. Oh, for the good old days...
I might be an ignoramus, but I haven't heard of plane safety equipment (life jackets, oxygen masks) being successfully used in an emergency situation on a large commerical aircraft. As far as I can tell there is little "real world" experience to base safety procedures on (a good thing, it shows us that our planes are largely reliable). Nevertheless, emergency safety procedures haven't changed much in the last decade at least.
I agree that reliability of the plane as a whole is far more important in terms of R&D investment, but a real sustained focus on emergency procedures would be extremely welcome too.
Despite all the "rubbish" jokes here, environmental protection and awareness is to be applauded. A little effort (switching lightbulbs off when leaving rooms, putting scrap paper in a separate bin) can make a tangible difference.
Sorry for getting all philosophical, but I reckon that in general, we can (and should) argue for our rights; enforcing our responsibilities (in this case, to the environment) should be a matter for the conscience but is just as important.
Well done to the guy.
Surely this sort of thing is exactly what the US DOJ is avidly against - using overwhelming market share (in, say, office products) to gain overwhelming market share in other sectors (wysiwyg "electronic paper").
Hopefully the EU anti-competition measures will be more stringent than those in the US.
Slashdot Mirror
You have to give it to the guy; his timing is impeccable...
WMD politics WMD politics WMD politics WMD politics WMD politics WMD politics WMD politics WMD politics WMD politics WMD politics WMD politics WMD politics WMD politics WMD politics WMD politics WMD politics WMD politics WMD politics WMD politics WMD politics WMD politics WMD politics WMD politics WMD politics WMD politics WMD politics WMD politics WMD politics...
Sorry, couldn't resist (-;
Well my sense of humour is obviously overrated :(
They just have low karma...
Could internet teaching methods promote a global meritocracy (at least academically) which is truly fair?
I suppose the answer is not quite (e.g. all material is presumably English only, and only those relatively rich enough to be able to buy some internet time will benefit) but this idea could given time really develop those with potential but without opportunity at present.
I would love to see an extension to the scientific disciplines.
OtisAardvark writes "With the recent cancellation of Salon, this Salon story discusses the creative ways fans are trying to save Salon. Specifically it talks about how grassroots organization through the internet has helped them to the point where they are discussing fan funded production of Salon."
;-)
Ever get the feeling that there are only 5 stories in the world?
For an example of the scale and progress of their projects, see here.
Its all part of their huge research drive into Natural Language Processing. They do world-class research and have some great innovations to their name. Perhaps the one which will prove most useful is MindNet.
Computational Linguistics is the BIG growth area, and it seems that Microsoft isn't going to miss the party.
And what do you do for a living?
I'm a flying doctor...
IMHO this is an incredible phenomenon. For the first time in history, we have been able to access a huge subset of academic literature and data for the (fairly minimal) cost of an internet connection... Many university lecture course notes are completely available on the WWW. The internet could prove to be the single factor which contributes greatest towards equality of educational opportunity for all around the world. Will education will lead to (economic) salvation?
WWW content itself is organised very well (and can be ordered by relevance very well) using a "link" structure a la Google. Maybe we can form an analogous iterative structure to internet infrastructure, with the importance of a particular section linked not only to its bandwidth but the importance of the the section its hubs link to. We can then prioritise new investment by triangulating new infrastructure in the most appropriate way. I will admit I know next to nothing about networking on this scale; please feel free to shoot me down with technical and social reasons why this will fail. Just an idea (-:
Internet access and bandwidth are very vulnerable, but remember there are lots of copies of the DNS server records, and the actual content is extremely widespread and can easily be put online again given some time - in a genuine emergency situation internet access would only be a priority to those on the periphery anyway. Fine, we need more hubs and greater decentralisation, but lets not get carried away.
It's an obvious point to make but the games back in the day (text adventures etc) had such great gameplay that you could sit there for hours learning all the foibles tricks... people spent effort on making imaginative games which challenged your mind rather than your reflexes. Oh, for the good old days...
I agree that reliability of the plane as a whole is far more important in terms of R&D investment, but a real sustained focus on emergency procedures would be extremely welcome too.
I bet Australia lands up with Pluto (-:
Despite all the "rubbish" jokes here, environmental protection and awareness is to be applauded. A little effort (switching lightbulbs off when leaving rooms, putting scrap paper in a separate bin) can make a tangible difference. Sorry for getting all philosophical, but I reckon that in general, we can (and should) argue for our rights; enforcing our responsibilities (in this case, to the environment) should be a matter for the conscience but is just as important. Well done to the guy.
Surely this sort of thing is exactly what the US DOJ is avidly against - using overwhelming market share (in, say, office products) to gain overwhelming market share in other sectors (wysiwyg "electronic paper"). Hopefully the EU anti-competition measures will be more stringent than those in the US.
Could this FINALLY spell the end of the gameboy? Nokia has , especially in Europe, and together with Sega's talent for software, who knows???
Dude, your problems are worse than I thought!
Big-endians in Lilliput? Old Jonathan Swift had incredible foresight :-)
Do you REALLY want to see a picture of his sister, given his name is GoatSheepPig?
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Well, it made me laugh...
If you like stuff like this, try reading the disclaimer at the top of THIS Google Cache page... Even the great Google can get it wrong :-)