Microlearning.org

... semantics, that is, but of course the discussion began with "blogging", because this is still the most important microcontent laboratory.

How could we get semantic structure (processable) out of wild and fuzzy microcontent? The "structured blogging" approach of Marc Canter et al. (as well as the microformats approach) finally is still based on some sort of forms. Of course a couple of "microlearning object templates" might be a good thing, but still we do need more:

" 'where we ought to be heading... towards 'styled blogging' where we can semantically create our documents on the fly...' In other words, just write what you would write, and have your system recognize ..." (Stephen Downes, quoting James Farmer, via Arnaud and self)

We need tools to help self-organizing meaning, like the blogosphere is already doing if you (somewhat cynically) reduce the "human agents" to functions of a matrix-like system. But in some sense they are.

... Arnaud Leene, godfather of Microcontent, has started a MicrocontentWiki. Brilliant! I will try to synchronize it with the MicroWiki which has not been updated, due to too much work mainly. But there surely will be new entries in December.

... from Joshua Porter, here.

"You can break down Web 2.0 customers into a fuzzy hierarchy:
1. Creators who create an “original” work. Examples include a reporter at the New York Times, a podcaster, a blogger who is writing original content, or the author of Harry Potter.
2. Linkers who annotate the work of Creators. Examples include a blogger who mostly links to other content or a del.icio.us user who publishes the RSS feed of his bookmarks.
3. Commenters who comment on the Creator’s and Linker’s work. Examples include anyone who writes a comment on a blog.
4. Surfers who consume the output of Creators, Linkers, and Commenters. Anytime you read someone’s blog, you are a Surfer."

Nivi VS 2.0 blog, via Nova Spivack. that's valuable, because it is simple (again: US-powerpoint-common-sense), but of course it is rather "roles", or functions, or "subject positions".

... Norm has begun to blog about "Microcontent Genres" in an edcucational context:

"Design and conceptualization of information and resources for the web, as well as the language use with them – all of these have all been registering a gradual 'shrinking' process ... "

Under these conditions new microcontent-based forms/genres of text/context are emerging. Norm will take a closer look at this in the near future.

... another important concept for the emerging microcontent-cosmos. Here is a fresh interview with Thomas Vanderwal, the man who in 2004 invented the equally important term "folksonomies" (look here in wikipedia) and just has started his own start-up. He seems to be concentrating very much on mobile applications and is the rare case of an europhile US-Web 2.0-activist: Here he praises the more open, more theory-grounded, less PC-obsessed European approach: a must-read (at least for us Europeans).
We really should invite him to our Microlearning2006 conference (Innsbruck, Austria; June 8-9) ...

... Bryan currently is posting a lot of interesting thoughts and links on audio-microcontent ("podcasting") and the ways to use them in an educational context. And over at his personal blog Infocult he has interesting remarks on the aesthetics of mobisodes, that is video-microcontent.

... is the latest buzzword. It stands for a new dynamic, microcontent-based Wireless Web that at the moment is developed not only by some avantgardists but also by Google, Yahoo, Rupert Murdoch's NewsCorp, Nokia and other big market players. From this other terms have been drived: Education 2.0, eLearning 2.0, Identity 2.0, and many more.

We will post some important links in the near future. Meanwhile look a the del.icio.us link collection of microlearning.org (right menu bar) and check the Web 2.0-related tags (keywords) there.