links for 2010-09-06

• Rebuilding Christchurch
  Sad news has just come to hand – the former NZ Express Co building, which is on the corner of Manchester and Hereford St, will be knocked down this afternoon. It is a 7-storey building that is registered as a category 1 building with the Historic Places Trust. When it was built, in 1906, it was the tallest office building in Christchurch. For me, this is when the earthquake is starting to hit home. This is a beautiful building, that shows the diversity of architecture in Christchurch. I can see this building from my apartment, and have often thought that I would liked to have lived there. Fortunately for me, I never managed that – as if I had been in there, I suspect that I would not have been allowed to get back in to get my things out. My thoughts go out to all the people who had offices in that building, and who have done in the past.
  (tags: earthquake newzealand)
• Design with Intent | Design with Intent toolkit 1.0 now online
  The intention is that the cards are useful at the idea generation stage of the design process, helping designers, clients and – perhaps most importantly – potential users themselves explore behaviour change concepts from a number of disciplines, and think about how they might relate to the problem at hand. Judging by the impact of earlier iterations, the cards could also be useful in stakeholder workshops, and design / technology / computer science education
  (tags: design ux inspiration usability cards)
• ELECTRONIC TEXTBOOKS
  This reference states that "The State of California requires publishers of K-12 instructional materials to provide the State with computer files or other electronic versions of each state-adopted literary title as well as the right to transcribe, reproduce, modify and distribute the material in formats for students with disabilities."
  (tags: ebooks accessibility)
• Media Grid : Open File Formats Technology Working Group (OFF.TWG) Charter
  The objectives of the Open File Formats Technology Group are:

  1. To define, evolve and maintain open, platform-neutral file format standards for representing educational content in Immersive Education platforms and environments, and
  2. To facilitate the use of those standards by participating in the development of specifications, conformance suites, technologies and reference applications based on these standards.

  (tags: secondlife open education communication format)

Filed under: delicious