All posts by James Clay

Removing computers from the classroom

July 21, 2009 James Clay 3 Comments

Is this the right thing to do? What do you think?

jisc

Libraries of the future

July 20, 2009 James Clay Leave a comment

So what is the Library of the future, JISC have been having that discussion.

“To move from the present library to what is required in the future will be an immense challenge. JISC will use the outcomes from the debate to guide institutions in how to plan their futures.”

Watch the video.

stuff

Infringement of Copyright

July 18, 2009 James Clay Leave a comment

I have in the past delivered a fair few workshops on Copyright for JISC Collections, at ALT-C and across the country.

One question I am sometimes asked is “how easy is it to get caught” and “what will they do”. Most cases I know of which involve FE have been settled way before it gets to the court (or the press); however now and again cases involving copyright infringement do come to court.

This case is interesting because of the defendent, well they should know better, and the accusation that they ignored the concerns of the company involved.

FTS said it raised its copyright concerns with West Yorkshire Police in late 2006, but that the force and Hirst went on to repeat the alleged infringement in a 2007 update to their software, dubbed OLiVE. The package was made commercially available.

The issue with infringement of copyright is that the law is complex and surrounded by myths, so it is easy for any educaition provider and the staff who work there to at some point infringe copyright. They may do so accidently, they may do so thinking that they are okay too, or in extreme cases deliberatly infringe copyright. An institution needs to consider how it will react to any concerns that arrive at their door over cases of infringement of copyright. The key thing that you shouldn’t do, is ignore it and hope it will go away.

iphone, twitter, video

Upload video to Twitter from your iPhone

July 17, 2009 James Clay 1 Comment

Since using the iPhone I have been using it (via Twitterfon) to upload images to Twitter using Twitpic. So what about video? Well the iPhone 3G doesn’t do video, though the new iPhone 3GS does.

Of course I don’t have the iPhone 3GS, but if I did I would probably upload video. I already upload video to Twitter using Shozu from my Nokia N95 though this does not work with Shozu on the iPhone, which only uploads photographs.

TwitVid allows you to upload video from your iPhone 3GS to Twitter. So what with Twitpic, Tweetmic and now TwtiVid you can upload images, audio and video to Twitter – though of course you can still do the 140 characters of text.

via Macworld

altc2009, jisc

QR Coding

July 16, 2009 James Clay 5 Comments

Today I was in Bristol for a meeting about QR Codes as part of a JISC LTIG project being run by the University of Bath.

We discussed lots of different uses of QR Codes, barriers to use of the codes and ideas for the future.

After lunch we visited an exhibition in Bristol city centre which makes use of QR Codes, whilst there I shot some video and made this short film.

Watch out for QR Codes at ALT-C this year.

e-book, kindle

Kindle coming to the UK

July 16, 2009 James Clay 1 Comment

According to a report on the Mobile Today website, Amazon’s e-Book reader, the Kindle is coming to the UK.

Amazon is close to finalising a launch date for its ‘Kindle’ electronic book reader in the UK and is in advanced negotiations with a mobile operator for an MVNO, Mobile understands.

The online retail giant has made a major play for ebooks to protect the business against the likes of Apple and Google disrupting the traditional book market.

Amazon is understood to have outsourced all aspects of manufacturing for the Kindle in the UK to Qualcomm, including securing ‘connectivity’ with
a mobile operator in the UK.

I have mentioned before that I have used Sony’s e-Book Reader and that I would have preferred the Kindle. Well soon it looks like I might be able to make that choice.

m-learning

m-Leaning, enabling accessibility

July 14, 2009 James Clay 4 Comments

Back in April I delivered the morning keynote at the RSC Eastern Mobile Learning Event, Dave Foord provided the closing keynote. I have finally managed to find the time to edit, encode and upload the video to the blog.

sony

Sony enter the netbook market

July 13, 2009 James Clay 2 Comments

Sony have entered the netbook market with their new W Series.

vaiowseries

Sony are not new to making small laptops, I had the really nice SRX41P back when I worked for the Western Colleges Consortium, and currently have been playing with the P series.

However one thing you could always say about Sony VAIO small laptops was though they were small in size, they were big in price. The SRX41P was nearly £2000, whilst current small models are nearly as expensive.

However the W series is going to be much cheaper, currently $500 in the US, UK pricing has yet to be announced, but I would guess it would be in the £400 mark.

It’s not a netbook that is going to be a real powerhouse. Running Windows XP, 1GB of RAM and a 160GB HDD it’s no different to a lot of netbooks in the market. It has a 10.1″ screen with a 16:9 aspect ratio.

As well as the ubiquitous Sony Memory Stick Duo slot there is also (like the P series) a SD card slot. Alas like a lot of netbooks it only has a two hour battery life.

It doesn’t look a lot different to other netbooks (well except you can get it in pink) but Sony is a brand that a lot of people trust and therefore I expect it might sell quite well to people who like Sony stuff, get the feeling that they may be disappointed.

Does make you wonder though if Apple will now take the plunge and enter the netbook market?

gloucestershire college, podcast