Today, Campus Technology reports the release of Microsoft’s free software tools for helping researchers publish, preserve, and share data. The new utilities include an authoring add-in for Word 2007 for capturing document metadata; a Creative Commons add-in for Office 2007; an e-journal service for self-publishing of online-only journals; a research output repository platform; and a collaborative workspace for researchers.

Corporate vice president of Microsoft’s External Research Division, Tony Hey, asserts that “collecting and analyzing data, authoring, publishing, and preserving information are all essential components of the everyday work of researchers–with collaboration and search and discovery at the heart of the entire process. We’re supporting that scholarly communication lifecycle with free software tools to improve interoperability with existing tools used commonly by academics and scholars to better meet their research needs.”

In partnership with the British Library, a workspace will be hosted on Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007, providing researchers a way to collaborate throughout a project’s lifecycle, from seeking funding to searching and collecting information, as well as managing data, papers, and other research objects throughout the research process.

Be sure to visit Campus Technology for the full article, which discusses the key features of software in detail.

Last week The Unofficial Apple Weblog reported that Stanford University will be offering what appears to be a course in “iPhone Application Programming” this coming Fall semester.

TUAW also suggest that the active Non-Disclosure Agreement developers enter into when working on Apple’s SDK might have an interesting impact on the class. Apple’s NDA, for instance, disallows people from discussing specifics regarding the iPhone’s platform, making a class revolving around that exact premise challenging to say the least.

The course will likely be taught by one (or more) of the same Apple employees that teach a Cocoa Programming course on campus. Apple and Stanford have shared a close relationship; however, it is still uncertain whether or not that enables them to circumvent the NDA restriction.

For more, check out TUAW’s full article.

Yesterday, Jeffrey Young of The Wired Campus posted an article that discusses a recent patent application filed by an Apple employee, which details software that would capture video and slides from college lectures and automatically edit them into video podcasts.

The application, titled “Automatic Content Creation and Processing,” was originally discovered by AppleInsider. The name on the patent application is Bertrand Serlet, Apple’s senior vice president of software engineering. Young asserts that an Apple spokesman could not be reached for comment Monday, but the company is notoriously tight-lipped about products that are still in development.

Perhaps the most interesting feature described in the new patent application is the ability to determine automatically when to run video footage of the professor speaking and when to splice in images of lecture slides. As the patent application puts it, the software would determine “a time to switch the first and second streams from the event data.”

As Young suggests, many college officials are looking for easy ways to record large numbers of lectures and offer video or audio recordings to students. The obvious objective of this prospective application is to capture and distribute lecture podcasts without requiring professors or other staff members to perform time-consuming editing or file management.

Be sure to check out Young’s full article in Wired Campus.

Last week, the MASIE Learning Consortium released a new mobile learning paper that explores the impetus for the mLearning explosion, traces out the scope of its current impact and projects the future ubiquity of handheld learning devices.

Elliot Maise introduces the paper by suggesting that “we are at an inflection point for the use of mobile communication devices. The release of new devices and applications, including the new Apple iPhone 3G, highlights the rapidly expanding interest in handheld devices that are both phones and computing capable. Our mobile telephones are evolving into platforms for collaboration, knowledge access and performance support. The MASIE Center is convinced that one the next frontiers will be designing learning and performance applications that fit naturally into our hands, pockets, purses and lives. We invite the learning field to think “out of the box” and take an evidence-based approach to exploring these capabilities.”

Download a pdf of the paper at mlearningopedia.

Today, Open Culture reports that Google has launched the beta version of its new content initiative, Knol. For you staunch decriers of Wikipedia out there, this news could be potentially good and bad. Educators might think of Knol as a more credible resource than Wikipedia because it caters to the individual author/expert, not to the wisdom of crowds. Each encyclopedia entry is generally written, edited, and revised by one individual. However, Wikipedia’s collaborative approach is not being entirely abandoned; thus, modernist pedagogues might think of it as a slippery slope.

According to Open Culture, Google’s model leaves ample room for collaborative writing. It keeps open the possibility that multiple authors will write an encyclopedia entry. The initiative also allows for “moderated collaboration” — meaning that “any reader can make suggested edits to a knol which the author may then choose to accept, reject, or modify before these contributions become visible to the public.” Collaboration is built into Google’s model. It’s just not taken to an extreme conclusion.

This week, Desire2Learn—a web-based platform for the delivery of online teaching and learning—announced a new mobile application of its Desire2Learn Learning Environment. Desire2Learn 2GO uses Learning Environment 8.3 to provide access via Blackberry.

Campus Technology reports that Desire2Learn’s recent Fusion 2008 user conference in Memphis, TN, showcased mobile access to what Desire2Learn describes as “core Desire2Learn Learning Environment data and functionality.” The application includes features for collaboration, interaction, communication, access to course details and class lists, the ability to view and edit user data, support for connecting to multiple organizations, and viewing and editing grades.

The company has schedule several Webinars on mobile e-learning in the coming months.

WordPress for the iPhone debuted yesterday morning and it looks to be very convenient for writing and publishing quick posts on the go. Beyond casual blogging, iPhone Atlas suggests that the app offers far more to the discerning user who wants to use it as a very powerful publishing tool.

With WordPress for the iPhone, you can upload photos either from your existing library or snap quick shots with your phone’s camera. The app also enables you to save whatever you write on your phone, so you can work on dozens of posts at once, publishing at your discretion.

Unfortunately, the iPhone’s lack of copy/paste functionality prevents users from adding links to posts. iPhone Atlas also notes that drafts created on your computer won’t show up in your post queue on the iPhone app, meaning you won’t be able to start a post on your computer and finish it on the road. Ideally, future revisions will include better shortcuts for adding links and some support for fetching drafts from the cloud.

Ultimately, the app offers as many features as its competitor, TypePad, opening up mobile blogging to the millions of WordPress.com and WordPress.org users.

Yesterday, our friends at iPhone Atlas reported that the decryption of the iPhone OS 2.0 software/firmware package has led to speculation that Apple may add support for wireless printing to the iPhone and touch. An inspection of the iPhone OS 2.0 file structure reveals a directory named “Printers.” Currently the directory is empty, but it could be populated with drivers.

Wireless printing capability obviously poses tremendous benefits as well as complications for our implementation of the devices on university campuses.

Chris Deering, former Chairman and President of Sony Europe, Sony Computer Entertainment Europe and now Chairman of Handheld Learning, recently posted a very interesting article concerning the future of Apple’s new iPhone. Deering suggests that critics of the device, who have complained about the devices antenna size, voice mail and Bluetooth functionality, are missing the point: His list of reasons why gives us a compelling picture of the future:

1. “The terms TV and PC will sound as outdated as “8 Track” tape decks within 2-3 years. Everything will be capable of delivery over Internet Protocol (IP).”

2. “The ‘receiver device’ is as likely to be a wireless mobile device as a set top box. Personal files including purchase movies and all self generated photos, home video and text file folders will be stored remotely and accessed on demand to whatever screen or speaker, in home, on desk, on family room big screen, in car, in hand, that the user needs them to use. PC will no longer be a relevant term as all user interfaces will be interactive and capable of keyboard type input as well as voice recognition.”

3. “In this new generation, (Web 3.0) there will be ‘contextual transparency’. You will access the beginning of a video documentary on the breakfast table and then pick up where you left off when boarding the commuter train. The server will know and re purpose the content for screen size etc accordingly.

4. “The ‘server’ will also know WHERE everybody is at all times because 500mm plus mobile phones will have GPS modules in them by 2011. ‘Location Aware Servers’ will be the new frontier for targeting all kinds of adverts and helpful information.”

5. “Operating systems like Mac and Windows will give way to wireless based OS’ like Google’s Android, Nokia’s Symbian and Windows Mobile, but each of these solutions is struggling because they are ‘closed’ architecture and, to some extent, walled garden minded.” (more…)

A couple of months ago we posted on a jailbreak application for the iPhone and iPod touch called Twinkle. Twinkle has just debuted on the App Store and might give Twitterrific a run for it’s money with the ability to location-base your tweets.

Critics say Twinkle is better than the mobile version of Twitter, better than Hahlo, and better than MobileTwitter. It supports photos with your tweets, taken right from the iPhone camera, as well as geolocation. There is also a “Near Me” section that will show you other Twitter users in your area.

While Twitterrific seems to have more precise locating abilities, Twinkle uses the location-based tweeting in interesting ways. For instance, you can see tweets originating within a certain mileage range from your location. Twinkle also allows you to easily view your direct messages.

If you’re unfamiliar with Twitter or are bored with reading tutorials, B.E.T.A. Daily has put together a handy collection of videos that demonstrate various uses of Twitter.

Perhaps the best new of all is that Twinkle for iPhone and iPod touch is absolutely free.