Jon Udell: The iTunes U agenda: "I've had mixed feelings about itunes.stanford.edu from the moment I first saw it. When I raised concerns about Apple's approach -- which makes freely-available podcasts and their associated RSS feeds less accessible than they ought to be -- I took a lot of flak for saying so. A number of folks pointed out that Stanford is free to publish its own podcasts, and of course that's true. Just yesterday Dave Winer pointed out that Berkeley is offering a gaggle of them. It's not rocket science, after all. Just about anybody can figure out how to record an MP3 file, upload it somewhere, and maybe even provide an RSS feed with enclosure tags.
The issue here is not whether all university courses should be free. But when universities do choose to publish selected faculty lectures, talks by visiting speakers, or concerts, there are important reasons to make this material as accessible as it can be. Apple's iTunes U has a contrary agenda, and I'm not the only one who's noticed. "
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