tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22055982.post529161129759609882..comments2024-03-27T21:10:10.606-07:00Comments on eLearning Technology: Aggregation TypesTony Karrerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15408035995182843336noreply@blogger.comBlogger6125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22055982.post-34749741351189985882009-03-14T16:36:00.000-07:002009-03-14T16:36:00.000-07:00@Gary - curator is an apt description for much of ...@Gary - curator is an apt description for much of what I'm discussing. I think that there's more to the classic definition of curation for what Stephen does, but maybe not. Probably not that important to define.<BR/><BR/>@Tony H - thanks for pointing me to that presentation and the related stuff. My gut reaction (and I definitely need to think about this more) is that there's something different around a CSE type capability (Search Hub) and trying to create a destination that organizes on the topic (Topic Hub). But when I look at your description of a Search Hub, the only distinction seems to be how the resulting entity is organized.<BR/><BR/>I'm definitely going to have to go think about this some more. So, great comment.Tony Karrerhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15408035995182843336noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22055982.post-35629255623192925032009-03-14T08:47:00.000-07:002009-03-14T08:47:00.000-07:00I think that topic hubs also have a flipside as se...I think that topic hubs also have a flipside as search hubs (<A HREF="http://ouseful.open.ac.uk/blogarchive/010686.html" REL="nofollow">Search hubs and custom search</A>), and that there are in fact many "invisible" such hubs out there - such as OER courses that link out to other material on the web.<BR/><BR/>As it gets easier and easier to transclude content, links may soon start actually pulling content back into the page from the site you're linking out to, c.f. <A HREF="http://ysearchblog.com/2009/03/12/embed-videos-games-and-docs-with-searchmonkey-2/" REL="nofollow">Embed Videos, Games, and Docs the Easy Way with SearchMonkey</A>Tony Hirsthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07192476380420213082noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22055982.post-30409002869996210842009-03-06T14:54:00.000-08:002009-03-06T14:54:00.000-08:00Having co-edited OLDaily for a month while Stephen...Having co-edited OLDaily for a month while Stephen Downes was on holidays last summer, I got some insight into his methods (and have incorporated some of them into the Brandon Hall Research daily blog on corporate training, "Workplace Learning Today". <BR/><BR/>First, Stephen has a list of almost 400 blogs in his feedreader. This is his personally chosen list of blogs that he thinks is interesting. Each day he scans the list until he finds something interesting. He then copies the headline, the author, and makes a comment from his special perspective. When he has enough posts for the time he has alloted, he presses the publish button. <BR/><BR/>These procedures don't make Stephen a hub or an aggregator or an analyst - rather he is a selector and commentator. The term that I like for Stephen and the rest of us doing similar work is "curator". We are displaying exhibits of items that we think need to be displayed and that we think will be/should be of interest to our audience. <BR/><BR/>There is an artistic/creative feel to what Stephen is doing. It has a particular "voice", to use Bakhtin's term. When three of us co-edited OLDaily for a month, the voice changed. When you read my colleague Janet Clarey's blog it has a differnt voice than my blog, or the group blog that we write together with two other colleagues. <BR/><BR/>Authentic blogging is a creative act. Stephen is one of the best and I salute him. <BR/><BR/>Gary Woodill<BR/>Brandon Hall ResearchGary Woodillhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08086088954891064087noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22055982.post-91965686470107322622009-03-06T06:24:00.000-08:002009-03-06T06:24:00.000-08:00@John - great comment and you are right that a goo...@John - great comment and you are right that a good journalist will try to define what's important and why it's important without injecting opinion (which is very hard).<BR/><BR/>As you imply with your italics, understanding is likely a hard thing to define as it likely means something different to different people. But yes, the bottom line across all of this is help finding and making sense.<BR/><BR/>I think there's a spectrum here of "making sense of it" - finding, filtering, editorializing. Appreciate the help thinking through this.<BR/><BR/>@Addled - thanks for the comment.Tony Karrerhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15408035995182843336noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22055982.post-40350711448834168402009-03-06T01:29:00.000-08:002009-03-06T01:29:00.000-08:00I really agree that aggregation is extremely valua...I really agree that aggregation is extremely valuable to someone like me who has limited time to search for and read a variety of content on the internet. I found this post very detailed and useful for me to understand the concepts of aggregation and topic hubs. Thanks for sharing <BR/><BR/>SreyaSreya Duttahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01192430690556080322noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22055982.post-16336606375601108352009-03-05T08:03:00.000-08:002009-03-05T08:03:00.000-08:00Aggregation is a valuable service. I do think, how...Aggregation is a valuable service. I do think, however, that journalists often do something much more valuable than "mere" aggregation: they provide some analysis. They try to explain <EM>why</EM> something is important. (I am not talking per se about commentators, BTW, who share opinions about their content.) <BR/><BR/>I think people are much more willing to pay for help to <EM>understand</EM> a topic, than just for an aggregation of the information on the topic.<BR/><BR/>It can be argued, though, that most blogs are just that: analysis. That may be true. The point is that many (most?) people have no idea what to do with raw information.<BR/><BR/>You say "I've come to realize that there's a lot of very high quality content already out there. It's free. But there's friction finding it, organizing it and making sense of it."<BR/><BR/>and I think the last bit is the key: "making sense of it". Isn't that what makes someone a "guru", the ability to make sense of the morass of information about a topic?Johnhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07719394461984895842noreply@blogger.com