K-Web News

Saturday, May 16, 2026 · by Karl

After a long quiet stretch, K-Web News is back — same place it always was, now hosted under our own roof.

The full archive from 2003 onward is below, untouched. New notes will land here as the work continues.

Hi,

k-web.org will remain online for archival purposes, but pls refer to our new Facebook page for updates:  https://www.facebook.com/pages/James-Burkes-Knowledge-Web/1636642569892667

Posted by Patrick McKercher

Hi,

James is "noodling away" (as he says), on the new book.  Graham has been doing yeoman's work assessing user interface options, and there's renewed interest in making a Magic style card game.  You can play with a mock-up of K-Web Mystery Tours here: http://webbrain.com/brainpage/brain/C6015FA0-82BF-F1FA-9D05-0EA9FD7F845E#-2763  We can configure colors, icons etc, so pls feel free to send feedback

Our hope is to do something similar from a database, but failing that, we may just have to crowdsource data entry, and/or have individual create comtent pages.  Lemme know if you'd like to help with that.

Posted by Patrick McKercher

Here's  audio of a new talk by James Burke:  Admiral Shovel and the Toilet Roll.  A number of people have separately proposed a Connections style card game, and are brainstorming about that.  let me know if you'd like to be involved.

Posted by Patrick McKercher

We have some interesting experiments in 3D navigation and are creating a team to develop a "Magic" style card game using historical content (let me know if you'd like details).  Thanks to Joe for an excellent new k-web biography of the poet W. Owen, tragically killed in WWI.

Posted by Patrick McKercher

The teacher videoconference prompted really interesting conversation, and I was struck again about the kind of inquiry, the depth and quality, even quite young students do when using k-web (cobbled together of online as well as physical manifestations such as paper and string, and card game by Chris Inhofe (see early posts).  A game developer is looking into taking that concept further.

Posted by Patrick McKercher

Teacher videoconference is this coming Saturday; still a few spots left. Interesting ceramic mural project based on a k-web "mystery tour." We're looking a for volunteer webmaster.

Posted by Patrick McKercher

James is working with Katy Borner at the University Indiana data visualization lab on a museum exhibit featuring the Knowledge Web. We're hiring someone to implement our GUI (http://sfbay.craigslist.org/sby/cpg/2889557930.html). As soon as next week, we'll be doing a videoconference with teachers to design a classroom to encourage k-web curriculum and thinking. Pls let me know if you'd like details on any of these at pmmckerc@ucsc.edu

Labels: GUI gig, teacher conference

Posted by Patrick McKercher

The new Mystery Tour video is done, thanks to Michael. have a look

Posted by Patrick McKercher

Happy New Year!

James is working on a short video illustrating Mystery Tours, and we've had some promising discussions on K-Web development. Stay tuned!

Posted by Patrick McKercher

James has been busy writing and doing talks at P&G and the Royal Institute (video coming soon) , but is now coming back to K-Web as his primary focus. We have had videoconferences in the last month or two with the education and programmer team (write me if you'd like an invite to the next one; sadly we could not archive them). We're also looking at making some short videos of K-web Mystery Tours.

Posted by Patrick McKercher

Science historian James Burke's K-web connects the unconnected

July 12, 2011 | Author: AAAS member -- Thomas J. Impelluso, Ph.D., San Diego State University


Science historian James Burke's Knowledge Web is an online database that allows users to explore the history and creation of ideas, connecting seemingly unrelated events, showing that all knowledge is somehow interrelated.

What do Normans riding in stirrups, Evangelista Torricelli's vacuum, and Alexander Graham Bell's telephone have in common? Ask science historian James Burke and he'll take you on a fascinating journey spanning the centuries that shows how the development of military technology helped develop modern day telecommunications.

Since the 1970s Burke has astounded and entertained audiences with his unique perspective on innovation via his TV series "Connections." In each episode he examines a particular event in history and traces the path of that event through a series of seemingly unrelated events to a fundamental and essential aspect of our modern world.

Today Burke is taking this view of technology, science, and social change digital. He's creating a searchable database called the Knowledge Web -- "an expedition in time, space, and technology to map the interior landscape of human thought and experience."

AAAS MemberCentral had the opportunity to talk with Burke about his latest project. Here are his comments.


AAASMC: What is the Knowledge Web suppose to do?

James Burke: The prime aim of the Knowledge-Web, or K-web for short, is to encourage students to take journeys through space and time to (hopefully) discover unexpected and cross-disciplinary connections. A typical short journey through the K-web might include:
Mozart (plagiarized) Beaumarchais (who financed) Jefferson (who in turn admired) Beccaria (a believer in) phrenology (who influenced) Follen (jailed by) ETA Hoffman (who was a role-model for) EA Poe (who in turn inspired) Rachmaninoff (who bankrolled) Sikorsky (who built the first) helicopter.

Taking such journeys helps the student recognize that no subject exists in isolation, and that all knowledge is somehow interrelated, and makes it easier to see the relevance of academic study to daily life. Most important of all it is hoped that use of the K-web will stimulate the realization that in the way we are all connected, no individual is irrelevant.

AAASMC: Describe how K-web works.

Burke: It is a dynamic, interactive construct made up of interconnected nodes. Each node represents a person or artifact or idea, or event in history. Nodes are split about equally between the humanities and the sciences.

In its present, very early iteration, the K-web contains about 2,400 nodes, each connected to other nodes that have relevance to it. Relevant nodes may be: key friends, colleagues, teachers, students, role models, family members, collaborators, detractors, artifacts, events, etc. The present 2,400 nodes are thus interconnected in a total of around 30,000 ways.
The main K-web graphic representation looks rather like a spiderweb, with the selected node at the center and connecting filaments radiating out to ‘connectees.’ These in turn are clustered around by different color-coded, smaller-scale secondary connections. Mousing over a node provides a pop-up one-line descriptor (e.g. ‘German physicist’). Mousing over a connecting filament produces a pop-up link identifier (e.g. ‘taught by,’ colleague of,’ etc.).
Double-clicking on a node-name produces a 1,000-word biographical text, which includes text hyperlinks to connected nodes. Clicking on the hyperlink takes the user to that node’s text and web. Texts also include vital stats and hyperlinks to graphic representations of relevant locations and timelines, as well as to visual (stills and video) and audio materials (where relevant). Planned are interactive audiovisual data (so that a user can, say, interact with a virtual representation of the subject).

The K-web interface is not yet finalized (the project urgently needs design help!) but will include:

• Nodes initially appear on a graphic of nested translucent spheres, each representing a century (modern world, on outer sphere, carrying modern-world artifacts, ideas, events, etc. These nodes may also act as ‘entry gateways’), and each sphere-surface carrying the spiderweb of nodes relevant to that century. Once a node is selected, the graphic switches from nested spheres to the two-dimensional spiderweb format.

• Nodes can be accessed at random from the spiderweb, or searching by name, keyword, nationality, language, location, date, general field, discipline, major work, education, etc. using drop-down menus or a taxonomy tree.

• Predetermined ten-jump ‘Mystery Tour’ journeys can be chosen.

• Journeys can be recorded and re-run if required; or e-mailed. There is a help avatar (me).

It is hoped that even the present, limited iteration contains enough potential journeys to exhaust the requirements of a full class of students for a semester.

AAASMC: Does the architectural design of K-web suggest a collective consciousness?

Burke: Throughout history to some extent there have been occasions when the same environmental problem (such as drought) has led unconnected (hunter-gather) communities to develop the same solution (agriculture). But I see this rather as an example of the way in which our brains are similarly wired so that they analyze similar problems and see similar solutions.
In more recent times, as various means of communication have been developed (and especially today’s Internet), it has become easier to be aware of what people are thinking and doing, even on a global scale.

However, if there is, indeed, a ‘collective consciousness,’ I see it mediated by technology. It is this technology-facilitated ‘connectedness’ which the K-web seeks to emulate, so as to give users practice in developing essential new ‘skills of interdependence’ for their own (and, it is to be hoped, for the collective) good.

AAASMC: Might the K-web reveal how a few well written ideas, properly communicated, can shake the foundation of institutions?

Burke: I suppose a few well-chosen ideas, well written and properly communicated, have always shaken institutions throughout history. Galileo’s remark about the moons of Jupiter circling the planet (‘eppur si muove’) questioned the Catholic church’s entire cosmology; news of the subatomic tracks seen in CTR Wilson’s cloud chamber upturned physics; Fibonacci’s document on double-entry bookkeeping revolutionized banking at a stroke; Martin Luther King’s ‘I have a dream’ shook American society to its foundations.

But the idea that ‘great thoughts’ bring great change may be primarily a product of our millennial culture of scarcity, in which literate, informed people were a tiny minority, where innovation was rare and its effects slow, where might was right, and where only a very few could access the tools with which to bring change. As a result we came to refer to the self-expression of those ‘few-with-access’ individuals as ‘genius.’ But given the same access, others might well have equaled or surpassed them.

Technology is now beginning to give such access to all, and, thanks to the potential of nanotechnology, we may stand on the threshold of a new era of material and intellectual abundance. Every healthy brain on the planet will have soon the means globally to disseminate its thoughts.

Old-fashioned reductionists may sneer, but the coming drivers of change may no longer be the specialists, but rather the generalists, able to identify and map trends in research and discovery across all disciplines, and to see ways in which cross-pollination of ideas will bring ever faster rates of discovery and innovation. The first generation of such generalists may receive their first, school-years experience of what lies ahead of them from primitive systems like the K-web.\

AAASMC: Should the Nobel Prize in science still be going to one person in an era of interconnectedness?

Burke: Nobel should go ahead with what it does: recognizing great efforts and insights. Too much nonsense is talked about interconnectivity, as if we could do away, tomorrow, with the nuts and bolts of common- or-garden scientific hard work and discovery. We’re still a long way from turning science entirely over to software and machines.

However, I wonder if it might not be time to establish an extra, cross-discipline Nobel, for those who have the ability to see across the no-man's-land that lies between the disciplines, to predict the changing patterns and trends in discovery, and act as lookouts on the frontiers of knowledge, so as to prepare the rest of us to make intelligent choices about which innovations we want to embrace, and which avoid. Here again, tools like the K-web might offer very early training in that kind of thinking.

AAASMC:What role might sites like the K-web have on healing the rift between the arts and sciences?

Burke: I wonder if the so-called rift between the arts and the sciences is not just a product of the late eighteenth-century Romantic Movement, which for the first time spread the concept of individualism and of the artist as in some way ‘different,’ and promoted the idea that the arts were somehow separate from, and superior to the activities of everyday life.
It’s always easier to adopt stereotypes and cling to urban myths. We’ve hung on to this view of the arts and sciences well beyond its shelf life. My impression is that even as C.P. Snow was presenting his ‘Two Cultures’ paradigm back in 1959, it was already out of date.
Modern media, from radio to Internet, have done much to popularize, explain, and make accessible science and technology and to show their relevance to daily life. At the same time, the cult of celebrity, and pop culture in general, has helped to demystify the arts.
In this ‘unified’ environment, tools such as the K-web are perhaps useful in accelerating a process already well under way. Arts and sciences are just two sides of the same coin.

AAASMC: You are a great communicator. How can scientists improve how they communicate both with each other (and across disciplines) and with the public?

Burke: Thank you. I think younger scientists are already communicating their ideas to the general public much better than did the generation before them. This is a product of the times. We’re all doing it. For one thing, the general public are better educated and to a large extent, thanks to schools and the media, are already comfortable with much of the vocabulary of science and technology.

However this is only a first step. As information and communications technology bring a radical surge in the rate of innovation, the rising concern on the part of the public regarding the social consequences of its application will demand much greater real understanding of what’s going on in R&D well in advance of any public release of innovatory products.
However, it has become clear over the past few decades that the social institutions are incapable of satisfying such demand. In particular, with regard to such matters as climate change, genetically modified crops, stem-cell research, etc., there is a growing and urgent need to develop more efficient, more transparent, more democratic ways of working through these issues.

It would seem unwieldy to add a ‘Public Understanding of Science’ course to a science student’s already overburdened university years. Perhaps we might train a separate cadre of ‘interpreters,’ whose task it would be to act as lab-to-public go-betweens, who might also better brief our political representatives.

Though I don’t hold out much hope for the survival of that particular class, as the electronic media increasingly make the idea of a single representative, speaking for hundreds of thousands (sometimes millions) of people, seem more and more like an eighteenth-century answer to a twenty-first century problem. K-webs and their like might help us on the road towards developing better mechanisms for arriving at collective understanding and collective decision making about the kind of world we want to live in. A world, incidentally, almost entirely shaped by science.

Posted by Patrick McKercher

Work continues on the new user interface (Allan says we may have something to play with in the next few weeks). James is doing an interview with American Association for the Advancement of Science and working on his book. I'm working on a chapter looking at the six degree relations on the global warming "debate" in the US. Here's an interesting museum installation on the Bauhaus that resembles K-web concept.

Posted by Patrick McKercher

Jim is still polishing the plans for a curriculum based on K-Web, and we have a few more volunteer programmers working on the new interface (more needed, especially with Flash).

Posted by Patrick McKercher

James is preparing for a talk at IBM, but he kindly took time to meet with the teachers working on K-Web in a live videoconference on Saturday. Usually i arrange to podcast these sessions, but did not this time because it was an informal brainstorming session. Now I'm sorry since it turned out to be such an interesting conversation (I'll write up my desperately scribbled notes soon). Jim W is creating a charter school proposal and curriculum based on K-Web, so we wanted to strategize with Chris I (see older posts) who has been doing amazing work with K-Web concepts with his Montessori elementary school students, some of whom are now attending college, so he's getting some sense of longitudinal effects. He observes he has moved from reductionism through constructivism to connectivism. His high school alumna are now getting patents on mosquito netting they developed with kids in Ghana, and they are publishing their results. really inspiring.

Labels: education

Posted by Patrick McKercher

James and our "crack engineer" Jim Z met with our new programmers to begin building the user interface based on Flash. If you have interest or expertise in GUI's, geo-spatial, JSON, Flash, pls let me know.

Posted by Patrick McKercher

We have just imported our data into Freebase, which will allow us to move forward with a user interface implementation. If you're technically minded, see See http://kwebbase.freebase.com/

Posted by Patrick McKercher

We had an online videoconference with James and programmers. You can view it here:
http://oufm.open.ac.uk/fm/e8fd52-1976. Meeting itself starts 30 min in.

Labels: Programmers meeting

Posted by Patrick McKercher

We're wrapping up our data restructuring and import into Freebase.com, and hope to have basic K-web features quite soon after all the heavy lifting in done. Let me know if you'd like to help.

Posted by Patrick McKercher

Here's a recent radio interview with James Burke in which he traces how he came to make Connections, and how it all led to K-Web. http://wfiu.org/profiles/science-historian-television-personality-james-burke/

Posted by Patrick McKercher

The Connections-style exhibit we worked on is on display at the Patent Office Museum in DC. Work on the new version of K-Web continues.

Posted by Patrick McKercher

Michael Callaghan has recently taken on the lead programmer position and will be producing a new beta based on emerging technology. Our plan is to have basic functionality available for the new school year in the Fall.

Posted by Patrick McKercher

Hi,

we are having a videoconference with JB and the programmers on Saturday and have found some new software that we think will make it possible to do some of the more advanced features much sooner. Stay tuned! IWe'll have vodeoconferences with the other teams once the basic system is ready to test. Let me know if you'd like an invite, and to which team (education, administration etc).

Posted by Patrick McKercher

Hi, we've had a couple productive videoconferences with James and the programmers, and have a plan on how to get the new beta version online (contact me if you'd like to help). Moreover, the initial feedback on a sizeable NSF grant is favorable, so fingers crossed. We need some volunteers to help input files, so if you're not into writing content or writing code, here's your chance! contact me at pat13@dslextreme.com. Best wishes for the new year!

Posted by Patrick McKercher

We had a great videoconference with James and the programmers (let me know if you'd like an invite to the next one, which will be a a couple weeks). As soon as the new system is up, we'll have some for educators and the content team as well. If you'd like to do content, but don't have time to write a biography, we need some people to write short descriptions of Connections clips. Contact pat13@dslextreme.com

Posted by Patrick McKercher

After some successful fund-raising (many thanks to you who sent funding and bought books on our website) , we are assessing our options and hope to have a very basic system online this Fall. If you'd like to work as a programmer or a tester, please email pat13@dslextreme.com.

Posted by Patrick McKercher

We're pretty much in fund-raising mode, since we can't really make progress on any front until we have the new system online. Big thanks to Lori Walters on the NSF grant. I'm raising funds to hire programmers by doing some consulting work with groups that are interested in building their own special purpose K-Webs. James is also working with museums. Any support or suggestions welcome pmmckerc@ucsc.edu

Posted by Patrick McKercher

James will be doing an online talk Thurs May 22 http://www.thebrain.com/#-139.

He's also working on a new book.

We're also working on a Connections themed exhibit for the US Patent Museum and the National Inventors' Hall of Fame

as well as an NSF grant project with the University of Central Florida, which is doing interesting 3D work.

Posted by Patrick McKercher

Hi all,

James is writing K-Web biographies, thinking about the next book (which may be something of a departure) and keynoting at conferences. We're also in discussions with the Inventors Hall of Fame/US Patent Office Museum on a Connections exhibition. I'm working with TheBrain on the new beta, and will be writing grants over spring break between classes. Content, software and fund-raising help are badly needed if we are to make James' vision widely available to the world. Contact me if you help in any way

pmmckerc@ucsc.edu

Posted by Patrick McKercher

James Burke interviewed by Dan Carlin

Posted by Patrick McKercher

David Bridgewater in UK and Joseph Geller in CA are making good progress on importing 2000 files into TheBrain.com, but we can use more help with programming and content writing. We're also part of MediaGrid.org consortium which is creating free and powerful tools for educators to create rich online worlds (they just had a small confernce at Harvard in preparation for a larger on in January). We're also in discussion with the folks who created recreations of Cape Canaveral Mercury missions and the New York's World Fair.

Posted by Patrick McKercher

We've just gotten access to Google Earth's Pro software http://earth.google.com/index.html , so we're looking for folks to play with it to see how K-Web content could be used. Let me know if you're interested.

I've had a longtime interest in how we could use virtual reality immersive worlds with K-web too; if you'd like to get a sense of the potential, check out this MIT conference (videos of presentations) http://alwayson.goingon.com/permalink/post/15475

Posted by Patrick McKercher

The new book!

The Founding Fathers. Networked.

In AMERICAN CONNECTIONS: The Founding Fathers. Networked. (Simon & Schuster Trade Paperbacks; July 2007; $17.00), James Burke – best-selling writer, television host, and world-renowned authority on the history of technology and science – returns to the format of his perennially popular book, Connections. Exploring the interconnections between the men who signed the Declaration of Independence and a countless array of artists, writers, scientists, politicians, trendsetters and scoundrels who came after them, AMERICAN CONNECTIONS celebrates the “six degrees of separation” that make history both fascinating and relevant. With his trademark irreverent wit and astounding erudition, Burke employs a dazzling narrative legerdemain as he brings each of the fifty-six historical threads full-circle to a modern-day bearer of the Founding Father’s name.

Burke begins each chapter with a thumbnail sketch of the Declaration signer, often dispelling the notion that these iconic figures (many of them now virtually forgotten) were men of perfect principles. John Hancock, for instance, was an egomaniac whom nobody liked. Samuel Chase was “universally despised… a foul-mouthed rabble-rouser.” Carter Braxton’s complexion “reflected the glow of a good Madeira.” John Hart slept in a doghouse. Richard Stockton changed his mind, repudiating his signature and swearing allegiance to the king (albeit after being caught and imprisoned by the British).

After reintroducing these history-making men, Burke then takes readers on mini-tours through time. With numerous stops along the way, Benjamin Franklin’s connections take us from that remarkable American Renaissance man to “Owl and the Pussycat” poet Edward Lear, then onto early chain-bookstore pioneer W.H. Smith, Florence Nightingale, Frederick Law Olmsted, and Carl Zeiss. Thomas Jefferson leads to an Italian political philosopher named Cesare Beccaria, who first “measured” the meter, to James Smithson (he of the Smithsonian Institution), to the inventor of the kaleidoscope, the discovery of hay fever, an early proponent of anesthesia, and Albert Einstein. From John Adams, known in his day as “His Rotundity,” we meet teacher of the deaf Thomas Gallaudet, Sir Walter Scott, J.M.W. Turner, and Clementine Hozier (wife of Winston Churchill).

Posted by Patrick McKercher

We had a very productive software meeting online yesterday with JB and folks from Wales (by way of NZ) Canada and Scotland (we could call it the Commonwealth Club, but that name is taken). The Bay Area was also well represented, i hasten to add. Email me if you'd like to review the video ( I'm trying to find time to edit the video, but you can select and skip about even now).

I was playing around with a visual map of JB's work at http://www.1-900-870-6235.com/
by artist Ron Wild. I zoomed in a portion and realized it got me to WWW content, in this case JB Scientific American articles (all of some and the 1st part of other with link to rest) http://www.1-900-870-6235.com/Connections.html

No doubt there are other treasures to be found on the map as well.

Posted by Patrick McKercher

Hi,

It's been a hectic "break" between quarters since i've been working on an NEH grant, as well as one for PBS, which entailed a trip to DC. We've having a videoconference for technical folks this Friday. More to follow for other teams when the new beta is up. I just got this email from Chris Imhof, a teacher in CO who's been doing great work on K-Web:

"...We also are going to a great Ben Franklin exhibit at the Denver History Museum in the next couple of weeks - so I'm breaking from the traditional worksheet and using the [K-web] card game as a way for students to work through the exhibit... I've been doing talks at a number of schools around Denver -- to indpendent and public schools who want to begin moving in the direction of capturing 21st century skills - the new buzz word - along with global education -- but I really have come to the conclusion that one of the biggest skills now is seeing or identifying innovation for the future. The k-web is the best place to teach student to see patterns in the past to wire them to see those hidden patterns in the
present.

Case in point - we went on a field trip to the National Renewable Energy Center in Golden a week ago - and I had 2 11-year-old girls arguing with a couple of federal scientists that the next big energy leap is going to be solar - not wind - based on a pattern they saw with steam and then with petroleum. It's a long story, but they saw the continued development of computer chip (silicon) with solar research along with material engineering -- the next big breakthrough in the next 20 years. We just completed our Sustainable Futures Fair (replaced science fair) where students do reasearch of current global problems, current work in the area and make predictions or imagine solutions for the next 20-50 years. Anyway thyese kids see us wearing solar collecting clothes and highways and parking lots as enormous solar collectors.

To get to the point -- this is where I can see the use for the Kweb -- that
answers the big "so what" - it hits a big skill needed in the future and is a tool that people will be using alongside many others in the classroom of the future -- hopefully in mine very soon. :)
Best regards, Chris

Posted by Patrick McKercher

Just had some useful meetings with Sun, Google Earth and Cisco, but the big news is we're a finalist for a million dollar grant from PBS, so I'll be going to DC in a week or so for that. JB is finishing up final details on the new book. The new Thebrain beta is up, and will be ready for use quite soon. We need some Java, XML and SQL expertise. Also looking for volunteers to play with Google Earth (no experience necessary). contact pmmckerc@ucsc.edu

Posted by Patrick McKercher

Burke's Day the Universe Changed has been posted as a streaming and downloadable podcast (though NOT by JB, as the page indicates). http://clickcaster.com/daytheuniversechanged
This series has been hard to find in the past.

A number of people have volunteered lately to work on the open source version of K-Web, and we are continuing to work on the TheBrain version as well. Java programmers and systems administrators in particular are needed.

JB has created a new list of objects, so content writers are needed too!

Posted by Patrick McKercher

We're making progress on TheBrain version of K-Web but could use more programming help. Email me if you'd like to help pmmckerc@ucsc.edu

A major hurdle that teachers need to cope with in using K-Web is the restrictions put on them, not to mention the pressure, of high-stakes testing. Here's a funny song about this not-terribly-amusing problem: http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=6705929

In true K-web spirit, it's by Tom Chapin, brother of Harry, a fine artist and great humanitarian. Their grandfather was Kenneth Burke, genius autodidact philosopher who reinvented the field of rhetoric in the last century (and my personal hero). Burke wrote for The Dial, founded by Margaret Fuller (chum of Emerson and Thoreau), whose descendent was Buckminster Fuller, another persoanl hero.

Posted by Patrick McKercher

Hi,

Working on an NSF grant and the new Thebrain.com beta. Here's a incredibly clever video some of Chris Imhof's 6th grades students made based on their work with K-Web http://www.ourmedia.org/node/266829

Posted by Patrick McKercher

Hi,

the big news is that we're partnering with Thebrain.com to do a more complete version of K-web. This will make it much easier to add content. We need programmers and testers, so let me know if you want to participate.

Ken Robinson recently did an interesting and entertaining talk http://www.ted.com/tedtalks/tedtalksplayer.cfm?key=ken_robinson&flashEnabled=1
James and I are reading his new book Out of Our Minds. It makes a strong argument for why the K-Web is so crucial, highly recommended. If you order it from the k-web store, you'll support the project.

Posted by Patrick McKercher

Here's a compelling video presentation of an Open Source Virtual Reality software project by Alan Kay called Open Croquet. It includes making objects and physics engine to make simulation. It has the potential to radically change education.

http://am.mediasite.com/am/viewer/Viewer.aspx?layoutPrefix=LayoutLargeVideo&layoutOffset=Skins/Clean&width=881&height=648&peid=172f6de5-135b-4ba0-9207-ac6d383812c9&pid=fc503ef3-4a4e-44a6-b289-c915d8bf7bd3&pvid=502&mode=Default&shouldResize=false&playerType=WM64Lite

Posted by Patrick McKercher

Well, it seems like video on the WWW is finally happening in a big way, which has huge potential for enriching K-Web multimedia. We'll be adding more video to our index soon http://k-web.org/public_html/video.htm , but I just ran across an interview with one of our advisors, Jaron Lanier . One of the greatest satisfactions of working on K-Wweb is meeting amazing people like Jaron. You can view it here http://globetrotter.berkeley.edu/people5/Lanier/lanier-con0.html though I recommend the BBC version of Realplayer which has less problematic software http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio/audiohelp_install.shtml

Thanks to Becky, and to Laurie and Kerry at Conboy and Associates for our new website!

Posted by Patrick McKercher

I've just finished two events with teachers, both gratifying as usual. You can replay our videoconference with JB at http://flash.kmi.open.ac.uk:8080/fm/fmm.php?pwd=9ccfcf-4891

The session starts 48 minutes in, and you can view by person. Chris Imhof had some really interesting onservations based on his use of K-Web. You may also want to view chat to see the questions.

Posted by Patrick McKercher

James is finishing the new American book and will soon be ready to spend more time on K-web. We're working with TheBrain.com to do a new beta with much more functionality (for example, search and we may even do a experimental "sandbox" version in which users can add content). I'm also working on posting video, including those made by Chris Imhof and his students, as well as ReConnections (excerpt at http://ourmedia.org/ia/details/JamesBurkeReConnectionsexerpt )

I have added the Virtual Reality sequence from ReConn to our video overview. YouTube cut the resolution to poor quality, so I'll repost elsewhere, but if you have limited bandwidth it's still a good option http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bWxHC_8yBrc

We;ll have an onlime meeting with JB soon; let me know if you'd like an invite. pmmckerc@ucsc.edu

Posted by Patrick McKercher

I was at JavaOne last week, hanging out with the Looking Glass team. What's most interesting there is that Go Monkey is using their software as the basis of a Minority Report like interface you control with gestures. Using that to view K-Web in 3D a dome display or CAVE would be amazing. You can get info on LG and a link to the Go Monkey video at https://lg3d-core.dev.java.net/

Posted by Patrick McKercher

We've just had our first videoconference using Flashmeeting.com and it worked great. You can Replay 2/11 General meeting http://flash.kmi.open.ac.uk:8080/fm/memo.php?pwd=161f58-3151 if you missed it (the first half hour is chatting and getting used to the interface).

Jim Zaun, Crack Engineer (his official title bestowed by JB) blew us all away yet again with this: http://www.zaun.com/kweb/Node_Space_04.html
Click and drag! I thought at first it was a static image (which itself would have been impressive), but no! Use a scroll wheel on a mouse to get the full zoom in effect! Small file, no download, only Flash 7 needed.

I just attended a really interesting C5 conference at Berkeley which was very encouraging in terms of Opencroquet.org overcoming some technical challenges that have made VR difficult for education. I also presented K-Web to an enthusiatic group in Austin Texas . In addition we have productive talks going on with TheBrain.com, Looking Glass and FastSearch. Watch here for details on those.

Posted by Patrick McKercher

The December meeting in San Jose was very energizing. Chris Imhof (see early posting below) showed us some really amazing results he's having with elementary school students making K-Webs (students who have graduated even come back to visit their work and use it in current projects). Alex Patillo, who wrote a Master's thesis on using K-Web also discussed success that at-risk high school students are having with K-Web. Jim Zaun showed Looking Glass and a new Flash demo of K-Web. We also had a very productive meeting at Sun Microsystem hosted by Kevin Roebuck, which included Sun and folks from Stanford and Berkeley. James also had a number of meetings related to various media projects. For those who could not join us, we'll schedule an online meetings in the next few weeks. Stay tuned!

Posted by Patrick McKercher

James is just finishing a number of speaking engagements, most recently in Ontario Canada, as well as working on the new book. He'll be in Northern California at the end of November early December; schedule http://www.speakerseries.net/dates.htm.

We'll have teaqm meeting, open to everyone, Saturday December 3, in San Jose.

I've just finished putting together a proposal with a group from Oregon Public Broadcasting for a PBS grant (20 million total available) to investigate how to use digital technology as well as television to teach history better.

I'll be teaching a teacher's workshop for teachers in San Jose in December, and have just proposed a new lifelong learner course that will center on American visionaries like Doug Engelbart and Buckminster Fuller, using K-Web to investigate such folks.

Posted by Patrick McKercher

Looking Glass

Jim Zaun, James Burke and Patrick McKercher used Looking Glass, Sun's new 3D desktop browser to create the first complex nested globe (there's a mockup of nested globes in Activeworlds Education Universe, which has the virtue of being connected to immersive 3D worlds to explore , which can't be done in Looking Glass, but Jim actually had to work with matematicians at the Univ of Arizona to generate the globes).

We demo'd this at the big international Java conference in San Francisco on Weds.


You can see a crude video of an early version here: http://scylla.cse.ucsc.edu:8080/05-06-16.mpg
The nested globes looked fantastic on Sharp's 3D laptop
We'll post a more refined version of the video soon.

Looking Glass also has a new scheduler program that might be a fun approach for k-web timeline:
http://k-www.mickey.ai.kyutech.ac.jp/cosmo/index_e.html#screenshot

Google is also announcing some amazing tools that will big huge boosts in realizing James' vision of k-web. One is Google Earth, which allows you to fly aroind the world and even see 3D buildings (i have just seen my house from space (not 3d) and flown over paris, thru the grand canyon (i could see rapids and rocks!) and Yosemite (not quite so much deatil, but falls are there, and hiking trails). just amazing! http://earth.google.com/index.html you will need a game card to run this.
Google is also hosting video, which givesd us great potential as well. https://upload.video.google.com/

let's get going!

Posted by Patrick McKercher

Quick update: ReConnections was uploaded to the satellite yesterday for national distribution (check with your local community broadcast station for dates/ times). We've launched into the demo for Looking Glass which will bre shown at the international conference for java programmers, JavaOne, at the end of June. James is working on a new book (no hints!). We're putting together an on-line course for teachers who want t6o use K-Web. Chris Imhof, a Montessori teacher in Colorado, sent a great video of his students building their own Knowledge Web physically (paper and string) as well as virtual. text and images: http://k-web.org/imhof.htm

Posted by Patrick McKercher

Hi,

been busy of late with California Social Studies conference with Willie and Alex Patillo, as well as our online Town Hall meeting, both of which very well. At the online meeting, we decided to work on a game concept to help new users understand how to use the K-Web interface, building community around the PBS broadcast, creating lesson plans, fundraising and creating other visual materials to help people understand the overall capabilities of the K-Web system. You can see everyone's written input (and even add your own to the discussion) by logging into Groupmindexpress.com: http://gme.groupmindexpress.com/k-web/index.php3?object_id=c7745762c7917a09b94039b4523afb94 If you log in from main page, our site is k-web (case sensitive, Open the Feb. Mtg folder). The guest login is guest and the password is guest. If you want, you can add your name to the end of your entries. You can also hear a recording of the conference call until 03/27/2005 by following these steps:

1. To access the conference specified above, click on the link below or paste the entire URL into your browser: http://www2.readycall.com/moderator/presentation/Playback?id=693bec1c-8817-11d9-9923-00d0b7c50dff.rpm
2. At the prompt, enter your name and email address
3. Click "Submit". The playback will begin. You can safely skip the first and last ten minutes.

As always, your suggestions and questions are welcome.

Posted by Patrick McKercher

Hi,

been busy of late with California Social Studies conference with Willie and Alex Patillo, as well as our online Town Hall meeting, both of which very well. At the online meeting, we decided to work on a game concept to help new users understand how to use the K-Web interface, building community around the PBS broadcast, creating lesson plans, fundraising and creating other visual materials to help people understand the overall capabilities of the K-Web system. You can see everyone's written input (and even add your own to the discussion) by logging into Groupmindexpress.com: http://gme.groupmindexpress.com/k-web/index.php3?object_id=c7745762c7917a09b94039b4523afb94 If you log in from main page, our site is k-web (case sensitive, Open the Feb. Mtg folder). The guest login is guest and the password is guest. If you want, you can add your name to the end of your entries. You can also hear a recording of the conference call until 03/27/2005 by following these steps:

1. To access the conference specified above, click on the link below or paste the entire URL into your browser: http://www2.readycall.com/moderator/presentation/Playback?id=693bec1c-8817-11d9-9923-00d0b7c50dff.rpm

2. At the prompt, enter your name and email address

3. Click "Submit". The playback will begin. You can safely skip the first and last ten minutes. As always, your suggestions and questions are welcome.

Posted by Patrick McKercher