The Reverend is back from another trip slaying the [Montauk Monster](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Montauk_Monster). And he's back in fine form.
>Point is, the open web is not a convenience we need to evolve, it is a public good we need to preserve and foster. You cannot do that when it's all been accounted for and the gig is up— **if "open and free is an ideology" then isn't "closed and expensive" just as ideological as well—and shouldn't the two be in deep struggle on a larger stage**? Rather, what's happening, is the one is trying to subsume the other under cloud of night and terminological uncertainty. The LIS standard that's been announced makes systemwide integration easier perhaps, but **does it give people control over their identities and data**? Does it promote a sense of one's space and value on the web in real time? Does it deliver on the idea of a Personal Learning Network on the open web undergirded by syndication and community? These things are integral to teaching and learning on the web right now, and they have little, if anything, to do with an LMS, or so it seems to me.
Standards and interoperability specs only serve institutional needs, unless individuals are in control of their own data.
But I gag at the need to draw the PLN into the picture. Why does this mythical PLN have to be invoked whenever digital media is discussed? I don't recall the term used in a wider, anolog sense. The PLN doesn't really exist - we all learn from various and organically shifting sources, and contribute likewise. Defining a PLN is overly simplistic.
from *[Summer of Love: Domain Mapping « bavatuesdays](http://bavatuesdays.com/summer-of-love-domain-mapping/)*