Moving to Open Source Software in Schools

If you do video with your students, where do you get the music that helps bring the moving images to life?

One place to start might be Project Zero at http://zero-project.gr/

One beautiful example is by Roberta Volpe, Sulla pelle umida which is an MP3 file. If you have a Flash player, a link click will start the 4 minute piece. Right click for saving options.

You can also see that the artists have paid attention to more than their music. The image below is the (reduced/cropped) cover art for the song.

All the songs at the site are released using the Creative Commons “by share-alike” license.

Go take a longer look and listen.

What other music resources do you recommend?

Big Buck Bunny is free! He has escaped being assigned to “The Vault” where so many of his type have been locked away behind the formidable firewalls of their corporate masters.

Enjoy this short celebration of his freedom to expression.
[Click that triangular arrowhead covering one of his handsome cheeks to start the show.]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=4-Ddumty4mk

Speak out. SOPA protests were a good beginning. It is time to tell the legislators of this planet that the copyright laws are not benefiting the citizens (unless their personhood is incorporated). Let copyright monopoly expire in time for our children to enjoy more of the work now trapped in “The Vault.”

(Updated)

EPUB or ePub, whichever way you capitalize it, is an open standard ebook format for publishing.

It is possible to lock it down with DRM (ugh!).

Still, the more companies that embrace common standards, the better.

Among those who have embraced ePub is Apple.

It is, therefore, disturbing to read that the new Apple iBooks 2.0 will attach proprietary elements to the ePub format. According to an article by Ed Bott:

Apple is deliberately sabotaging this format. The new iBooks 2.0 format adds CSS extensions that are not documented as part of the W3C standard. It uses a closed, proprietary Apple XML namespace. The experts I’ve consulted think it deliberately breaks the open standard.

Stephen J. Vaughn-Nichols also weighs in on the topic in his recent article.

Apple’s author end-user license agreement (EULA) seems to forbid you to sell any formatted book created with iBook Author except through Apple. In other words, Apple iBooks are a closed shop for publishers and author as well as for would-be users.

What’s your take on the issue?

• Wait and see
• I love Apple and its products (can do no wrong)
• Who cares, I use a Kindle (which has a different file format)
• I’m stuck. My school just bought umpty million iPads
• iPad, you’re gone. I’m buying a Nook (ePub format)