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Selexyz offers free downloadable study books - August 22 2007
Bookstore Selexyz, active in the major Dutch student cities, together with the
Danish publisher Ventus, are now offering 41 study books free of charge on their
website for download and printing. The aim is that this number will increase in the future.
The offer is currenty limited to the list of books that is made available by
Ventus and mainly consists out of backgroundbooks in fields of economy, math and
physics. The books are financed by ads on the readingpages within the books.
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SURF offers institutes free Fedora repository
which can be used to join in LOREnet - August 15 2007
The Fedora service is scheduled to reach completion by the end of September
this year. With this, until 9/1/2008, the institutes will have a free repository
that is capable of processing articles, papers and learning objects, which can
then be used to join in existing services such as HBO-Kennisbank and LOREnet or
in other future joint services. The institutes will be receive support for the
implementation by demonstration and instruction classes and communication within
the SURFshare community.
After 9/1/2008, the costs for the repository will come for own account or
another provider can be chosen. The provisional non binding estimated costs for
the Fedora service at APS amounts to a maximum of 8000 Euro for the
combined institutes.
APS is developing a Fedora repository service in which articles, papers and
learning objects can be stored, each with their own metadata standard in LOM
or DC+ or derivatives. Main point is that each objecttype will be given its
own metadata format. By means of an OAI-PMH interface these objects can then
be made available for external applications. The repository will be made a
available to the higher education institutes by user interfaces in which every
institute will receive its own envirement with:
- User interface to upload articles, papers and learning object with their
associated metadata
- User management; creation of users
- Metadata standards and dictionaries (VDEX)
- Themes matching the house style of the Higher Education Institute
- OAI-PMH interface
For more information, please contact Martin Feijen
or Kasja Weenink.
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Extraction and metadata generation of Blackboard content - July 11 2007
SURFfoundation is currently enroled in a pilot to examine where the extraction and
(partial) automatic metadata generation of learning objects from Blackboard is feasable.
Based on the Exploration of Automatic Metadata Processes - Verkenning Automatische
Metadataprocessen (VAMP) project from the Digital University we're currently working with
a tool developed for this project called Blackboard Crawler (BBC) by Wim van der Vegt.
This tool is able to access Blackboard through the front end system and search the available
courses on downloadable objects such as Microsoft Word, Excel, Powerpoint, Adobe PDF, WMV and
MPEG files after which these are being downloaded by the BBC. The Simple Automic metadata
generation Interface (SAmgI), an application developed by the Catholic University of Leuven,
then generates the metadata for these objects.
With support of the CU of Leuven we're currently examining the possibility of implementing
the latest version of SAmgI to assess whether this new version gives any significant results
compared to the version that was originally implemented in the BBC.
At this point the Technical University of Delft and the University of Maastricht are providing
us with a Blackboard envirement where we can conduct this pilot in. The expectations are that
the VU Univeristy of Amsterdam will join in on this pilot as well.
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info@lorenet.nl e-mail address available again - July 11 2007
For reason still unknown to us, the global information address
info@lorenet.nl was
unavailable for a period of time. E-mails sent to this address were returned undeliverable.
As of today the e-mail address info@lorenet.nl
is available again.
We apologize for the inconvenience.
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Regional and Higher Education in Fedora pilot - July 6 2007
A number of Regional and Higher educational institutes are using the SURFnet/Kennisnet
Fedora pilot onderwijsrepository.nl which is being harvested to LOREnet.
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Community site on the move - July 6 2007
This week we have made a start in transfering all data for the community site from
Community Zero to its new location at SURFgroups. We are currently in the process of
finishing up on this. Registered users on Community Zero will receive an invitation by
e-mail when this is completed.
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Possible new content - July 6 2007
There are ongoing talks with multiple parties about new content that is to be
made available via LOREnet. Details will follow.
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New functionality - July 6 2007
In the past few weeks there has been done a lot of work in adding functionality
to LOREnet.
Done together with CQ2 there is now support for the use of Creative Commons,
together with the CZP crosswalk to IEEE-LOM, a crosswalkmechanism has been
implemented in order to translate multiple metadataformats into the IEEE-LOM
standard and finally a mechanism based on rules has been added to provide for
normalization of harvested metadata.
On the outside new things have been added in the form of an RSS-feed, a login
function with the possibility of a personal profile and a rating and social
tagging system with a tag cloud. Furthermore a Sharable Content Object Reference
Model (SCORM) content preview function has been implemented and we now also
comply with the Search/Retrieve Web service (SRW) standard and the
Search/Retrieve via URL (SRU) protocol.
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Project documents online - July 6 2007
Under the
Project Documents
link on the
How does LOREnet work
page you can find various documents about the LOREnet architecture and guidelines,
Creative Commonsand IEEE-LOM.
Please note that at this point the documents are only offered in Dutch.
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First meeting LOREnet Reviewgroup - December 7 2006
The LOREnet Reviewgroep have been brought together for the first time.
The goal of this group is to coordinate the development of services
in the educational field. In coordinating services with the people for
whom we are developing LOREnet we are achieving maximal harmony within
the field.
The Reviewgroep consists out of fourteen teachers from within the higher
educational fields and will be meeting for a total of three times. Between
these meeting we will ask them to assess presentations and other things.
The first meeting was about the familiarisation of the members with LOREnet
and vice versa. The results of this first meeting will be announced shortly.
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Presentation 'Nicking allowed' online - December 7 2006
The presentation 'Nicking allowed' shown on the SURF Educationdays has been
put up for download. Please note the presentation is in Dutch.
Download the Presentation.
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Flyer LOREnet online - November 20 2006
The LOREnet flyer has been brought up for download. Download the flyer to promote
LOREnet within your institution. A printed version of the flyer is also available by
sending an e-mail.
Download the Flyer.
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Large amount of interest in 'nicking' on SURF Educationdays
- November 16 2006
There has been shown a lot of interest in 'nicking' during the SURF Educationdays.
Yesterday project manager Martin Feijen has done a presentation about LOREnet at
the SURF Educationdays (link in dutch).
The presentation titled 'Nicking allowed' has proven to be a major success to
an extend that extra chair had to be brought in to accomodate for everybody.
Martin Feijen explained about LOREnet, it's state and it's vision. The audience
listened captivated and reponded optimtimistic about LOREnet's potential.
The presentation ended with a demonstration of lorenet.nl
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Projectprogress - October 18 2006
Recently there has been defined which services LOREnet will be offering
in the future. The need for services that will lead to the an increase of
relevant educational resources is something the strikes the most attention.
From within the educational perspective the emphasis lays on: "As simple as possible,
being able to retrieve as many educational resources as possible. Only then people
will start sending these resources.
Besides services, a number of key targets have been recognized of which the direction
is pointing towards scale enlargement. These targets are placed in the domains:
health, ecomony, justice and de points of attention: video and case simulations.
Examples of case simulations in the LUMC collection on LOREnet.nl.
For these key targets we're currectly we're charting known initiatives with the purpose
of connecting them to LOREnet.
In a few weeks phase 2 of the project placed into action. We're currently working on the
outlines and plans for this. For the planned scale enlargement we already have got a number
of candidate partners but there is always room for more.
For more informtion: info@lorenet.nl.
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Communication - October 10 2006
A start has been made with communiction around LOREnet on a larger scale. We have
made a flyer to be used within your institution available via
info@lorenet.nl
Soon this flyer will also be up for download at LOREnet.nl. We have also participated
in the EduCause trip as a project where we have placed LOREnet under the attention of
the participants.
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More than 800 visitors in September - October 2 2006
LOREnet.nl has brought more than 800 unique visitors in Sepember. This is a fine
result for a demonstrator. The majority of the vistors, around 60%, are from
The Netherlands. The remaining 40% are mainly coming from Europe.
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Automatic metadata generation - September 20 2006
The Digital University (DU) is working on the project "Automatic Metadata
Generation". The contents of the project are equal to the name, namely: the
automatic generation of metadata.
The project is based on a tool developed by the Catholic University of Leuven.
At this point, the tool is "Leuven-specific". The projectgroup Automatic Metadata
Generation will be editing the tool so it will be aplicable to a wider scale of
educational institutions.
When this tool is developed, LOREnet will offer this as a service to participating
institions.
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Start LOREnet 2 - June 19 2006
As of today, LOREnet 2 has started. We will be working hard to realize a successful
result. And what is a better way of starting a new project than presenting a new look
for the portal?
We have taken a look at the most important functionalities of other repository
initiatives and mixed these to get a unique LOREnet look and feel. We are looking
forward to work on thesecond phase of this project.
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Start LOREnet 2 postponed - March 27 2006
During a meeting last Thursday it became clear that the deadline of April 1 couldn’t
be met. The cause of the delay lies in preparation time of the project and the harmonisation
with the field. Both take more time in account than we had expected.
The new launch date is June 1 2006.
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Pimp my LOREnet - 3 maart 2006
Nowadays, everybody is familiar with the term ‘Pimp My’ in the media.If you’re not familiar
with the term: it is television programme of MTV in which they turn something old in something new.
Pimp my Room turns a bedroom into a palace. Pimp my Ride turns an old car into a super ride.
Pimp my LOREnet turns a dull portal into a modern, contemporary website which promotes the use of
LOREnet and stimulates the donation of content.
To get a good result we have taken a good look at the other repository
initiatives. We have decided to use the following elements in LOREnet:
The logo stays the same: the trusty
graduation_hat,
but then somewhat modified.
We will keep you posted.
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