CONVERGE - The September/October 2002 issue of Converge magazine lists its
picks for the "Shapers of the Future 2002" - "...today's leaders and innovators who
have dreamed and accomplished mighty things in technology and education." Each
person's profile also includes email and web links. The complete article is available
online at:
http://www.convergemag.com/magazine/story.phtml?id=3030000000022198
Subscription information is available at: http://www.convergemag.com/subscribe/
(CIT INFOBITS no 51, ISSN 1521-9275, Sept 02)

DISTANCE LEARNING AT THE TIPPING POINT - Research firm Eduventures,
Inc., has released a new study entitled "Distance Learning at the Tipping Point: Critical
Success Factors to Growing Fully Online Distance Learning Programs." According
to the report:
- The distance learning market for fully online degree programs is growing at a rate
of 40% annually;
- More than 350,000 students are enrolled in fully online degree-granting programs,
which generated $1.75 billion in tuition revenues for institutions in 2001/2002.
- A key to institutional success is the comprehensive integration of direct and
indirect services in support of online programs. The report provides an overview
of key trends in the distance learning market and looks at success factors of fully
online degree programs at Bismarck State College, the University of Wyoming,
and Strayer University.
For complete information: http://www.eduventures.com (E-News from UCEA, Oct 02)

CONTENT AT YOUR FINGERTIPS: BETTER WAYS TO CLASSIFY AND TAG -
This book by Michael P. Voelker discusses the problem of infoglut. As the amount of
electronic information grows, so does the need to locate relevant information quickly
and accurately. But without structure and organization, users waste time (and therefore
money) trying to find content they need. Valuable content assets may not be retrieved
on time or at all. Enter taxonomy, the structure of topics and subtopics that comprises
a virtual filing cabinet in which content can be sorted. Placing content into a topic
"bucket" requires no special technology at its most basic level; anyone who's chosen
a specific subfolder in which to save a file has done as much. But this fully manual
approach becomes impractical and potentially inaccurate as the volume of information
increases. It also doesn't necessarily allow for searchable retrieval of content, something
that the application of metadata to content does.

There are two schools of thought as to when metadata should be applied to content (in
a process known as meta tagging). The first school advocates applying tags at creation,
a theory that, not surprisingly, many vendors in the content management and taxonomy
software vendor community support. The second school calls for categorization of
content at the search end using various algorithms that analyze content for meaning.
These algorithms aren't dependent upon metadata applied to the content along the
creation path. This method, again not surprisingly, is championed by categorization
and search vendors. Complete information can be found at:
http://www.transformmag.com/db_area/archs/2002/10/tfm0210f1.shtml