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TOP STORIES FOR WEDNESDAY, MARCH 02, 2005 EDUCAUSE Launches Blog Service iPods Debut at Drexel Researchers Offer Planet Naming Rights Eolas Case Set to Go Around Again EDUCAUSE LAUNCHES BLOG SERVICE EDUCAUSE has launched the EDUCAUSE Community Blog Service, a pilot project to create a new, vibrant medium for professional information sharing in the higher education IT community. The blogs represent a growing number of voices in this community, and postings span a wide range of topics, including cybersecurity, teaching and learning, and open source software. Postings are categorized by taxonomy term and by blogger and can be browsed on the EDUCAUSE Web site or received through an RSS syndicated feed. EDUCAUSE, 2 March 2005 http://www.educause.edu/blogs/ IPODS DEBUT AT DREXEL Students entering the School of Education at Drexel University this fall will receive iPods as part of a program to explore and evaluate the educational potential of the devices. Duke University launched a similar program last fall, distributing iPods to all 1,650 of its incoming freshmen. The program at Drexel, however, is much smaller in scope, with about 30 students expected to enter the School of Education in the fall. Some have criticized such programs as gimmicks that are unlikely to produce valuable educational results, and officials involved in the programs acknowledge the risk that students will simply use the devices to listen to music. Drexel officials said part of the university's program is to solicit feedback from students about how the devices could be put to good use educationally. Students will receive microphones to record interviews and other meetings, and the university will request that the students use the iPods to create "audio Web logs" during a required semester of off-campus work. Drexel will also experiment with podcasting, a process in which iPod owners can download audio files, such as news announcements or lectures from professors, and listen to them at their convenience. Chronicle of Higher Education, 2 March 2005 http://chronicle.com/free/2005/03/2005030203n.htm RESEARCHERS OFFER PLANET NAMING RIGHTS Researchers hoping to locate unknown planets outside the solar system have launched a project to encourage computer users to donate unused processing power on their computers to analyze telescope data. Participants in the PlanetQuest Collaboratory whose computers discern variations in the data that indicate the existence of a planet will be allowed to name it. The project is led by David Gutelius, visiting scholar at Stanford University, and Laurance Doyle, an astrophysicist with the SETI Institute in California. The PlanetQuest project is not unlike the [EMAIL PROTECTED] project, sponsored by the University of California at Berkeley, which uses donated computing power to search for extraterrestrial intelligence. Gutelius and Doyle hope to raise enough money for their project to build as many as 10 telescopes around the world dedicated to searching for unknown planets. Gutelius said start-up costs could reach $20 million, with annual operating costs running about $10 million, money he hopes can be raised from private investors as well as from subscriptions to premium content and revenue from ads on the site. Wired News, 2 March 2005 http://news.com.com/2100-1032_3-5596500.html EOLAS CASE SET TO GO AROUND AGAIN Both sides claimed partial victory from an appeals court ruling in the patent infringement case between Microsoft and the University of California (UC). The case focuses on technology patented by Mike Doyle, a researcher at the university, which has been incorporated into most Web browsers, including Microsoft's Internet Explorer (IE). Eolas Technologies, a company that was spun off of the university and which holds a patent on the technology, has claimed patent infringement by Microsoft. A lower court found for Eolas and awarded it $565 million in damages, but an appeals court this week sent the case back to a lower court to be tried again. The appeals court ruled that Viola, a browser written before UC applied for its patent, should have been considered by the jury. If Viola is determined to be "prior art," UC's patent could be invalidated. Microsoft has also argued that Doyle misled the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, a charge that the appeals court decision brings back to the table. In UC's favor, the appeals court said the patent, if valid, covers a wider range of applications than attorneys for Microsoft had argued. The court also upheld the finding that copies of IE shipped abroad would be covered by a U.S. patent and would be considered in determining damages if the patent is upheld. CNET, 2 March 2005 http://news.com.com/2100-1032_3-5596500.html ***************************************************** EDUPAGE INFORMATION To subscribe, unsubscribe, change your settings, or access the Edupage archive, visit http://www.educause.edu/Edupage/639 Or, you can subscribe or unsubscribe by sending e-mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED] To SUBSCRIBE, in the body of the message type: SUBSCRIBE Edupage YourFirstName YourLastName To UNSUBSCRIBE, in the body of the message type: SIGNOFF Edupage If you have subscription problems, send e-mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED] ***************************************************** OTHER EDUCAUSE RESOURCES The EDUCAUSE Resource Center is a repository for information concerning use and management of IT in higher education. To access resources including articles, books, conference sessions, contracts, effective practices, plans, policies, position descriptions, and blog content, go to http://www.educause.edu/resources ***************************************************** CONFERENCES For information on all EDUCAUSE learning and networking opportunities, see http://www.educause.edu/31 ***************************************************** COPYRIGHT Edupage copyright (c) 2005, EDUCAUSE
