OpenOffice.org has released public beta 3.0, which includes native OS X support (previous betas required an X11 installation). The beta is intel only. It may be downloaded from the snapshots section.

I think I'm going to be able to attend this interactive fiction event at the Unversity of Maryland:

As part of our work on a project funded by the Library of Congress dedicated to Preserving Virtual Worlds (http://www.ndiipp.uiuc.edu/pca/), MITH will be hosting a table-read of the original version of ADVENTURE, recently recovered from backup tapes at Stanford University. We will read through the complete text of the game, and also (geeks that we are) have a look at its FORTRAN source code.

Today's Chronicle had an article on the Open Humanities Press. One of the board members is Stephen Greenblatt, who as MLA president wrote an influential letter on the coming crisis in scholarly publishing.

InsideHigherEd.com reports that the music industry is engaging in something akin to preemptive strikes. The article Mysterious Multiplication of Copyright Complaints takes a look at the speculative reasons behind increase in complaints lodged with a variety of colleges and universities, both big and small, despite no evidence of an increase in illegally shared files.

The new complaints seem to be resulting in an increased reluctance to pursue alleged violations. For instance,

Indiana officials are now discussing whether they should continue to respond to complaints from the recording industry with the same aggressiveness. It’s not that university leaders have suddenly decided that illegal behavior isn’t wrong; instead, they are beginning to question the legitimacy of the notices the Recording Industry Association of America sends accusing network users of illegally sharing music.

One commenter in the discussion noted that the investigative arm of the RIAA is now referred to as a "contractor" rather than investigator.

Starting tomorrow, I'm teaching an online writing class over our 6 week spring term. As the final project in the course, students will complete a team-based paper assignment. Given that the class is online, Google Docs seems a very effective tool for students. Rather than having to create instructions myself for using Google Docs, I was lucky enough to find this extensive set of video tutorials over at ExpertVillage, How to Use Google Documents. This will be a great resource for use in my face-to-face classes as well.

OK, so I admit that I am baiting Charlie with that title, but I would like to ask a few questions to get a sense of everyone's investment in open source vs. proprietary file formats. For those who haven't followed it, here's the backstory (as I understand it):

I blogged about this and so has Rebecca Moore Howard, but if you don't have Inside Higher Ed in your RSS reader, you may not know about Turnitin's offer to pay in order to get positive panels at the next CCCC. The article indicates negative response so far, no matter how much Turnitin wants a positive spin on their product. I think it shows some modicum of self-awareness that when interviewed for the article, the Turnitin spokesperson's reaction was to cover up the effort:

Povejsil’s first statement, upon being asked about the company’s offer to pay for some people to present at the meeting, was to ask that any coverage of the initiative be delayed. She said that the company was planning to expand the program to offer to pay for selected presentations accepted at a range of scholarly meetings, and that Turnitin.com only sent out the information now because of the approaching deadline for applying to present at 4C’s.

Oh my. Who's talkin' ethics now?

To all kairosnews-ers:

I'd like to offer an open content research-writing text that I have been putting online over the past few weeks. See if you have any use for any of it in your classes. It is a work in progress, and I am still working on the formatting of the chapters. If you like something that is not formatted the way you'd like, help yourself to it and modify the text as you wish.

The text is available at www.pz-writing.net/methods.

If you like to create videos for sharing on the Internet, then TubeMogul is definitely for you:

TubeMogul is a free service that provides a single point for deploying uploads to the top video sharing sites, and powerful analytics on who, what, and how videos are being viewed.

Do you love words? Of course you do, you're an English teacher! :) Well, anyway, I found Wordie today, a social network all about words:

Wordie lets you make lists of words and phrases. Words you love, words you hate, words on a given topic, whatever. Lists are visible to everyone but can be added to by just you, a group of friends, or anyone, as you wish.

Then, if you're feeling social, join the discussion. Wordies are friendly! Add citations and comments to words and lists. See who else has listed the same words.