0. Prolegomenon, or Why me?
Today is Bloomsday, the centrepiece of a weeklong festival in Dublin celebrating the day in 1904 on which the events of James Joyce’s novel Ulysses unfold, which is the day Joyce first formally went out with Nora Barnacle (the story is told in the enthralling movie Nora; other movies with 16 June references include The Producers and Before Sunrise). In the novel, all human life is there; and Eamon Fitzgerald’s Rainy Day is currently by far the best guide to the important things in life: democracy, football, and technology. Expect a Bloomsday post today (this is last year’s; update: this is this year’s). Just like Oh Brother, Where art Thou?, the novel loosely parallel’s Homer’s Odyssey, and this blogpost will very very loosely parallel Joyce’s Ulysses (or at least his chapter headings). Read the rest of this entry »

Last week, Trinity College Dublin became the first university in Ireland and one of the first in Europe to launch its own iTunes U site (press release | BBC | Irish Independent | Irish Times | Learning Tech | Lex Ferenda | Silicon Republic | Techno Culture | The Guardian). As Karlin argues, this is an excellent idea:

I think the availability of university content in this way has been one of the simply fantastic developments online — it’s giving university extension classes, and lifelong education opportunities, to anyone with a computer … I’ve watched the gradual increase in college content via iTunes with some delight and am off to go find some free ‘classes’ to attend incognito again.

But is it really such a good thing? Roger Clarke, guesting on the wonderful House of Commons blog writes:

The iTunes conditions appear to preclude the University from making material placed on iTunes U subject to an open content licence. It appears that the conditions apply not only to the version available through iTunes, but also to versions available through other channels … That would mean that anything that a university makes available through iTunes is locked-down and proprietised … Unless and until the iTunes U conditions are found to be different from what I fear (or they are changed), content-producers who want their materials to be openly available need to refuse permission for them to be made available through that channel.

As you don’t need a lawyer to tell you, the devil is always in the detail. I therefore look forward with great interest to finding out whether Roger’s fears are realised.

I’ve often wondered what my ultimate boss, John Hegarty, Provost of Trinity College Dublin, does all day. Now we mortals at the bottom of the academic ladder might actually find out what university presidents do all day. Ferdinand von Prondzynski, President of Dublin City University (DCU), has started a blog in which he promises to spill the beans on precisely this question. This is definitely a first for Ireland, and is ahead of the curve internationally. This is how he explains the big adventure on which he is embarked:

It is sometimes asked what value university Presidents add to the life and success of their institutions. I may not be the best person to suggest an answer, but in these notes I shall try to set out a little what in fact I do, from day to day, and how this may affect my own institution.

As a much more inconsequential university blogger, allow me to welcome Ferdinand to the wonderful world of blogging. I look forward very much to his comments and insights.