Wikipedia Begins Flagging Revisions

Wikipedia, the online encyclopedia anyone can write and edit, one of the top ten sites on the entire internet, the wonderfully useful if not fastidiously veracious repository of aggregate human knowledge, is becoming civilized.

There's a new sheriff in town, and his name is "Flagged Revisions."

Before the new content management system began governing changes, anyone could, in a manner of seconds, edit a Wikipedia article read by the entire world. The possibility of inaccurate or biased revisions has indeed sullied Wikipedia's reputation among academic purists. But with entries that are generally reliable and contain useful links to expand one's knowledge quest quickly and productively, Wikipedia has become the first stop for many amateur researchers and is now the "go to" site for those seeking basic information on topics and questions of general interest. (Following in Wikipedia's footsteps, even the venerable Encyclopedia Britannica has now begun experimenting with user-generated content.)

After malicious revisions to Wikipedia falsely announced the deaths of Senators Edward Kennedy and Robert Byrd, however, Wikipedia creator Jimmy Wales called for the swift introduction of Flagged Revisions to prevent such vandalism in the future.

New York Times technology writer Noam Chohen explains:

The new system, called Flagged Revisions, would mark a significant change in the anything-goes, anyone-can-edit-at-any-time ethos of Wikipedia, which in eight years of existence has become one of the top 10 sites on the Web and the de facto information source for the Internet-using public.

The idea in a nutshell is that only registered, reliable users would have the right to have their material immediately appear to the general public visiting Wikipedia. Other contributors would be able to edit articles, but their changes will be held back until one of these reliable users has signed off, or “flagged” the revisions. (Registered, reliable users would see the latest edit to an article, whether flagged or not.) 

Click here to read Cohen's entire article.

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10 Ways To Cut College Costs

The cost of college is showing no sign of leveling off, and already causes too many students and parents too many sleepless nights.

Bankrate.com recently offered readers "10 alternate ways to cut college costs" in an online article by Christina Couch.

Tips include getting college credit in high school (fewer college classes means smaller tuition bills), qualifying for free money, transferring from a (low cost) community college, or living in-state for a year to get the best tuition rates.

The article referenced above is an excellent place to start for those interested in cutting the cost of higher education (these days, that's nearly everyone).

Read it here.

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Copyright © 2006-present: Christopher R. Borland. All rights reserved.

No Child Left Behind – Except The Gifted Ones

I admire the liberal, egalitarian goal helping all America's children to achieve academic success. Unfortunately, in our zeal to leave no child behind, we may in fact be leaving the entire nation behind.

With our limited resources, common wisdom now dictates that the special needs of gifted students be sacrificed in order to provide for those of lower achieving kids. Programs and energies previously directed at nurturing the best and brightest in our schools have now all but dried up, blown away by the erratic and often irrational winds of political correctness.

Certainly our culture benefits by raising the floor, but doesn't it also benefit by raising the ceiling? Isn't it just as important to make sure that the next generation's great thinkers, planners, inventors, and creators in all fields be given the educational stimulation and support they need throughout their early academic careers to fully develop their special abilities? Is it not the extraordinary capabilities of these individuals at the far right end of the bell curve – when their exceptional talents are not allowed to atrophy as in our current educational environment – that create many or most of the breakthroughs powering the progress of nations? Do we not still need to rely on the promise of such breakthroughs in fields such as medicine, computer science, energy production, etc. if our country is to continue to remain a world leader?

From a recent Washington Post article by Joann DiGennaro:

The ugly secret is that our most talented students are falling through the cracks. Not one program of such major governmental agencies as the National Institutes of Health, the National Science Foundation or NASA specifically targets the top 5 percent of students who have demonstrated academic excellence and have the greatest potential for becoming our inventors, creators and groundbreaking scientists. An international assessment of math problem-solving skills of 15-year-olds in 2004, along with more recent studies, found that the United States had the fewest top performers and the largest percentage of low performers compared with other participating countries. By the time students reach 12th grade in math and science, they are near the bottom or dead last compared with international competition, according to the Education Department. These are the critical years for supporting students in science and math, for it is when they make career-determining decisions for college studies.

The blade must be strong, but the cutting edge must also be sharp in order for a tool to be truly useful. Sacrificing one necessary outcome for the sake of another is a foolish strategy, one that's bound to fail.

We as a nation should be willing (eager, in fact) to invest the resources necessary to accomplish the twin goals of leaving no child behind and holding no genius back.

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Starting Salaries For The Multi-lingual Exceed $100K

I'm the father of a teenager, and I often wonder how to advise my daughter about her future.

As the 20th century fades away, what can we expect of the era that will replace it? How best to play her cards as an American student at this point in time? What ought to be the emphasis of her education? Which careers should she investigate, and what specific skills must she acquire, in order to be best positioned to profit personally and professionally in the coming decades?

Of course, no one really knows. But it seems fairly certain that being multi-lingual is going to be hugely beneficial to any American professional or would be world-citizen in the first half of the 21st century. The trend toward the globalization of economies and the "mashing" of cultures is accelerating and expanding exponentially, as the internet continues to transform international commerce and communication. The end of the "age of English" may in fact be at hand. As new economic and political realities challenge the hegemony of English speaking nations, which languages are poised for ascendancy? Aside from obligatory Spanish, which foreign languages are likely to most greatly benefit Americans of the future? Mandarin? Hindi? Japanese? Russian? German?

Two "sleepers" worth considering are Indonesian and Arabic.

I've chosen to mention Indonesian not just because I'm married to an Indonesian national and speak some Indonesian myself, but because Indonesia is the world's most populous Muslim nation and the fourth most populous nation overall, and is fast becoming "China's China" (the country to which China now outsources much of its own manufacturing). A country rich in natural resources (an OPEC member, etc.), Indonesia is set to become the next big economic player on the world stage, if only a way could be found to overcome the rampant, systemic corruption that so discourages foreign investment there.

Arabic, however, has more immediate drawing power. Those fluent in Standard Arabic can now attract starting salaries well above $100,000 per year, following the recent explosion in demand for Arabic translators. An article last year in Newsweek highlighted this hot new college course of study:

"'Once upon a time, studying Arabic would have placed a student squarely in the "What are you gonna do with that?" camp. But enrollment in U.S. college Arabic courses grew 92 percent between 1998 and 2002—and, spurred by 9/11 and the Iraq war, has probably doubled since then,' says Gerald Lampe, president of the American Association of Teachers of Arabic.

... Nawar Saddi, 23, received daily calls after posting his résumé on Monster.com. "Last year I was getting offers of $130,000," he says. "This year it's $180,000."

Wow!!

Read the entire article here.

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Copyright © 2006-present: Christopher R. Borland. All rights reserved.

The Stanford Laptop Orchestra

The personal computer has transformed the world of music.

Just as iTunes transformed the commercial music industry, new hardware and software tools have fundamentally changed the way in which university music departments teach the art of musical composition and performance.

The Stanford Laptop Orchestra (SLOrK ) is a bold experiment by Stanford researcher/programmer Ge Wang that combines the flexibility of Apple MacBook laptops, multi-channel speaker arrays made out of Ikea salad bowls, creative computer programming, and visionary imagination into an intriguing mix that makes for some pretty interesting sounds.

Paul Craft writes in the Stanford Daily:

The set-up is relatively simple. Members of the SLOrk operate black Apple Macbooks, which are connected via a series of cables to a spherical speaker system and control box for volume, among other things. Depending on the piece being played, the set up can include a joystick and other accessories.

The laptops themselves are, as the group’s title suggests, the heart of Wang’s vision. Ensemble members — the “musicians” — use a variety of different programs and configurations to create a variety of different sounds, ranging from a human-like voice to percussion to the ambient noises of a casino. SLOrK relies on a coding language that Professor Wang developed while at Princeton known simply as “CHUcK.” The language is made specifically for music and sound use, prototyping an instrument in a matter of minutes. “The computer itself is not an instrument. We have to craft it into one,” Wang said.

Read the rest of Craft's article here.

An interesting posting in the Pro section of the Apple site further details SLOrk's innovative joining of laptop and audio technology.

For video articles on SLOrk, and to hear the orchestra live in concert, click here and here.

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Copyright © 2006-present: Christopher R. Borland. All rights reserved.