Very nice slideshare presentation
http://www.slideshare.net/mweller/bridging-the-gap-between-web-20-and-higher-education
With talks like this on the Web we will need conferences to offer some real additional value.
I'll be using this presentation in the OL653 course on higher education I'm about to teach.
Monday, February 25, 2008
Online/hybrid universities and Free! Why $0.00 Is the Future of Business
http://www.wired.com/techbiz/it/magazine/16-03/ff_free
Free! Why $0.00 Is the Future of Business
By Chris Anderson
The premise is that to cut through the clutter of advertising around online/hybrid programs for adults (see ubiquity of U of P in search engine and display ads) that we need to offer a compelling reason for potential students and potential student influencers to find us online. We can only do this if we “give away” something of value to them, in exchange for something of value to us (namely their contact info and potential to speak to them about our programs).
Things we could make “free” in higher education:
- Could we start a blog (a coaching blog) that focused on careers and skills/credentials necessary for people in middle-management to move to leadership positions? This is the group of people who are our natural student group…and maybe a blog like this (stocked with material from our courses, presentations etc.) would be both of value to the audience and serve as a connection to our programs. We could ask all faculty to be contributing authors…and to promote the blog in their various activities. The blog could live outside our pages – but be linked to the home page.
- Branded, creative-commons copyrighted materials of our faculty training and course development methodology. The more that QU / CPS can be seen as a leader in online/hybrid course design, faculty development etc. the better our chance of getting the attention of people in corporate universities and other learning types who both track this stuff and can influence people in their organizations. (A related idea is to offer free workshops on learning design methodology to corporate universities).
- Produce a book on Leadership and give away copies to potential students, corporate universities etc. How quickly could we produce a good quality book with each of our faculty writing a chapter on their specialty (correlated to our courses and program) within leadership? Give away as a an e-book.
- Faculty Breeze presentations that match to our courses and align with their subject matter expertise (these could be published on things like YouTube as well…goal is to get wider traction and currency).
Have we thought about moving our faculty collaborative space to a public area – say a Facebook Groups page? What would be the pros and cons of letting potential students interact with us in a forum such as Facebook?
We need to accept that what is valuable in what we do is the ability to give academic credit and bestow a University degree. The design and content of our courses are valuable to us – but not to the market – and we should be findings ways to “give away” as much of this as possible (which shows off our strengths!) – in order to connect with potential students and be able to talk to them about the advantages of getting their degrees with us (intimate classes, advanced technologies, high ROI etc. etc. etc.)
Free! Why $0.00 Is the Future of Business
By Chris Anderson
The premise is that to cut through the clutter of advertising around online/hybrid programs for adults (see ubiquity of U of P in search engine and display ads) that we need to offer a compelling reason for potential students and potential student influencers to find us online. We can only do this if we “give away” something of value to them, in exchange for something of value to us (namely their contact info and potential to speak to them about our programs).
Things we could make “free” in higher education:
- Could we start a blog (a coaching blog) that focused on careers and skills/credentials necessary for people in middle-management to move to leadership positions? This is the group of people who are our natural student group…and maybe a blog like this (stocked with material from our courses, presentations etc.) would be both of value to the audience and serve as a connection to our programs. We could ask all faculty to be contributing authors…and to promote the blog in their various activities. The blog could live outside our pages – but be linked to the home page.
- Branded, creative-commons copyrighted materials of our faculty training and course development methodology. The more that QU / CPS can be seen as a leader in online/hybrid course design, faculty development etc. the better our chance of getting the attention of people in corporate universities and other learning types who both track this stuff and can influence people in their organizations. (A related idea is to offer free workshops on learning design methodology to corporate universities).
- Produce a book on Leadership and give away copies to potential students, corporate universities etc. How quickly could we produce a good quality book with each of our faculty writing a chapter on their specialty (correlated to our courses and program) within leadership? Give away as a an e-book.
- Faculty Breeze presentations that match to our courses and align with their subject matter expertise (these could be published on things like YouTube as well…goal is to get wider traction and currency).
Have we thought about moving our faculty collaborative space to a public area – say a Facebook Groups page? What would be the pros and cons of letting potential students interact with us in a forum such as Facebook?
We need to accept that what is valuable in what we do is the ability to give academic credit and bestow a University degree. The design and content of our courses are valuable to us – but not to the market – and we should be findings ways to “give away” as much of this as possible (which shows off our strengths!) – in order to connect with potential students and be able to talk to them about the advantages of getting their degrees with us (intimate classes, advanced technologies, high ROI etc. etc. etc.)
Friday, February 15, 2008
Gapminder - the new visual display of quantitative information
Okay...how did I miss this technology
http://www.gapminder.org/video/gap-cast/
And these folks so completely?
This visual displays of quantitative information through the browser are amazing because:
http://www.gapminder.org/video/gap-cast/
And these folks so completely?
This visual displays of quantitative information through the browser are amazing because:
- They tell a story
- They make data come alive
- The stories they are telling are compelling - and enhanced by the data visualization.
Why does this matter for hybrid/online education? We need to figure out more compelling ways to give presentations...and allow our students to make online presentations.
Can this tool be combined with a rapid authoring, voice-over presentation tool. Can we turn this advance into an authoring tool?
Communications tools and my thoughts on the value propostion of where I teach
http://www.carf.org/content/carfmovie/index.html
The folks who made this are AngelVision – Impact Movie
http://www.angelvisiontech.com/impactmovie/impact5enter.php
http://www.angelvisiontech.com/
I could see the narrators being our students, faculty, leadership and administrators.
Seems to me that we need a way to tell our story – and text on screen simply is not effective (given our courses are so intimate and are built as much around our students voice as textual communication). We must appeal to the emotional as well as analytical side of potential students.
On our value proposition – I’ve been struggling with the right words…….and this is just my opinion:
I think what we do is: educate, coach, mentor, support and credential. Many IHE’s may do some of these things, but our structure, organization and mission allows us to accomplish all five.
We can educate because of our high standards, programs and courses designed to align with top regional employers and organizations, and a strongly prepared faculty working with the most advanced technologies in the context of small classes and project centered courses.
We can coach because our mission is to support adult working professionals in their goals to becomes leaders in their careers, because our courses are built around this goal, and because our courses are small enough that we can provide intimate one-on-one attention.
We can mentor because our CPS leadership and faculty are folks who are leaders in our fields, and the mission of the College and the University is to create the next generation of leaders to insure innovation and vitality for our regional employers and organizations.
We can support because as a small College within a larger University we are able to provide personal, one-on-one assistance and build personal relationships, while at the same time taking advantages of the resources, people, technology and opportunities only a larger and growing institution can provide. As a non-profit, all of the resources can be invested into supporting our students, improving our courses and programs, and supporting our mission to serve the needs of adult working professionals who are training to become tomorrows corporate, non-profit, and community leaders.
And we offer accreditation that demonstrates that our students have completed a rigorous course of study; one with measurable and transparent programmatic skills and learning objectives aligned to the strategic needs of the top regional employers and organizations.
A good story, or value proposition, combined with effective communication tools and methods of delivery (Web based) would not replace the need to form relationships and trust with the corporate/organizational payers (corporate universities, HR depts., etc. etc.), rather these attributes support and nourish these relationships.
Wednesday, February 13, 2008
Courses I'd like to teach
Many of these are based on books I've read and loved (mostly audio books from http://www.audible.com/
Part of me is looking to our courses to have a community to talk about the books - and I think these work very well with our focus on leadership for adult working professionals.
Here they go (note - these are just my ideas....and not at all courses that are approved or in the pipeline or anything - again just my ideas):
OL265: Working With You is Killing Me: Strategies for Dealing with
Difficult Colleagues, Workers and Bosses.
Central text will be the book Working With You is Killing Me: Freeing
Yourself from Emotional Traps at Work by Katherine Crowley.
OL270: Social Intelligence at Work: Exploring Effective Communication
and Management Strategies.
Central text Social Intelligence: Social Intelligence: The New Science
of Human Relationships by Daniel Goleman
OL275: Higher Education in Transformation: A Roadmap for Workers and
Consumers in the Academy.
This course would synthesize and make relevant to an undergrad audience
the work in the OL651/OL652/OL653 higher ed concentration.
OL280: The Changing American Workplace: Building Your Career in a
Shifting Employment Landscape.
Central text: The New American Workplace by James O'Toole, Edward E.
Lawler, and Susan R. Meisinger
OL285: Enterprise 2.0, Blogging and Wikis: Understanding and Utilizing
the New World of Business Technologies
This class would be the undergraduate version of my OL665 course.
OL290: Making Evidence with Arguments: Understanding and Applying
Analytical Research Skills for Business
This class would be the undergraduate version of OL663 course.
OL295: Microtrends and Your Career: Exploring the Changing U.S.
Landscape in Relation to Your Career
Central text: Microtrends: The Small Forces Behind Tomorrow's Big
Changes
OL300: The Elephant and the Dragon: The Impact of the Rise of India
and China on Your Career, Industry and Workplace.
Central text: The Elephant and the Dragon: The Rise of India and China
and What It Means for All of Us by Robyn Meredith
OL305: Your Strengths, Your Career: Steps for Achieving Outstanding
Performance.
Central text: Go Put Your Strengths to Work: 6 Powerful Steps to Achieve
Outstanding Performance by Marcus Buckingham
OL310: Corporate Responsibility and the Changing Economics of Business:
Building Your Career and Company in the Wal-Mart Economy.
Central text: The Wal-Mart Effect: How the World's Most Powerful Company
Really Works--and How It's Transforming the American Economy by Charles
Fishman
OL315: Google: What Search, Adwords, and Google Aps Means to Your
Career and Company
Central text: The Search: How Google and Its Rivals Rewrote the Rules of
Business and Transformed Our Culture by John Battelle
OL320: The Ape in the Corner Office: What Evolutionary Psychology
Teaches Us at Prospering at Work
Central text: The Ape in the Corner Office: How to Make Friends, Win
Fights and Work Smarter by Understanding Human Nature by Richard Conniff
OL325: Discover your Inner Economist: How Economic Thinking Can Help
Our Careers and Our Companies
Central text: Discover Your Inner Economist: Use Incentives to Fall in
Love, Survive Your Next Meeting, and Motivate Your Dentist by Tyler
Cowen
OL330: Navigating a Career in the Flat World: Connecting Economic
Globalization to Your Current and Future Job
Central Text: The World Is Flat: A Brief History of the Twenty-first
Century by Thomas L. Friedman
Part of me is looking to our courses to have a community to talk about the books - and I think these work very well with our focus on leadership for adult working professionals.
Here they go (note - these are just my ideas....and not at all courses that are approved or in the pipeline or anything - again just my ideas):
OL265: Working With You is Killing Me: Strategies for Dealing with
Difficult Colleagues, Workers and Bosses.
Central text will be the book Working With You is Killing Me: Freeing
Yourself from Emotional Traps at Work by Katherine Crowley.
OL270: Social Intelligence at Work: Exploring Effective Communication
and Management Strategies.
Central text Social Intelligence: Social Intelligence: The New Science
of Human Relationships by Daniel Goleman
OL275: Higher Education in Transformation: A Roadmap for Workers and
Consumers in the Academy.
This course would synthesize and make relevant to an undergrad audience
the work in the OL651/OL652/OL653 higher ed concentration.
OL280: The Changing American Workplace: Building Your Career in a
Shifting Employment Landscape.
Central text: The New American Workplace by James O'Toole, Edward E.
Lawler, and Susan R. Meisinger
OL285: Enterprise 2.0, Blogging and Wikis: Understanding and Utilizing
the New World of Business Technologies
This class would be the undergraduate version of my OL665 course.
OL290: Making Evidence with Arguments: Understanding and Applying
Analytical Research Skills for Business
This class would be the undergraduate version of OL663 course.
OL295: Microtrends and Your Career: Exploring the Changing U.S.
Landscape in Relation to Your Career
Central text: Microtrends: The Small Forces Behind Tomorrow's Big
Changes
OL300: The Elephant and the Dragon: The Impact of the Rise of India
and China on Your Career, Industry and Workplace.
Central text: The Elephant and the Dragon: The Rise of India and China
and What It Means for All of Us by Robyn Meredith
OL305: Your Strengths, Your Career: Steps for Achieving Outstanding
Performance.
Central text: Go Put Your Strengths to Work: 6 Powerful Steps to Achieve
Outstanding Performance by Marcus Buckingham
OL310: Corporate Responsibility and the Changing Economics of Business:
Building Your Career and Company in the Wal-Mart Economy.
Central text: The Wal-Mart Effect: How the World's Most Powerful Company
Really Works--and How It's Transforming the American Economy by Charles
Fishman
OL315: Google: What Search, Adwords, and Google Aps Means to Your
Career and Company
Central text: The Search: How Google and Its Rivals Rewrote the Rules of
Business and Transformed Our Culture by John Battelle
OL320: The Ape in the Corner Office: What Evolutionary Psychology
Teaches Us at Prospering at Work
Central text: The Ape in the Corner Office: How to Make Friends, Win
Fights and Work Smarter by Understanding Human Nature by Richard Conniff
OL325: Discover your Inner Economist: How Economic Thinking Can Help
Our Careers and Our Companies
Central text: Discover Your Inner Economist: Use Incentives to Fall in
Love, Survive Your Next Meeting, and Motivate Your Dentist by Tyler
Cowen
OL330: Navigating a Career in the Flat World: Connecting Economic
Globalization to Your Current and Future Job
Central Text: The World Is Flat: A Brief History of the Twenty-first
Century by Thomas L. Friedman
Reasons to be concerned about Blackboard
Good article today in the Chronicle on the Blackboard vs. Desire2Learn lawsuit http://chronicle.com/free/2008/02/1630n.htm
I'm in constant hope that a smarter, bigger company will buy Blackboard (like Google!) - and:
- Make it free
- Make it live in the Cloud
- Make it transparent, searchable etc. for those who opt-in
- Make it a community
Blackboard is way more valuable then it's revenues...as it has a foothold into the course process of IHE's. However, the lawsuit shows how culturally out-of-step the company is with it's market. Blackboard is in serious danger of being surpassed by cloud based and/or open source alternatives that are based on a learner centered (rather then faculty centric) model.
I'm in constant hope that a smarter, bigger company will buy Blackboard (like Google!) - and:
- Make it free
- Make it live in the Cloud
- Make it transparent, searchable etc. for those who opt-in
- Make it a community
Blackboard is way more valuable then it's revenues...as it has a foothold into the course process of IHE's. However, the lawsuit shows how culturally out-of-step the company is with it's market. Blackboard is in serious danger of being surpassed by cloud based and/or open source alternatives that are based on a learner centered (rather then faculty centric) model.
2008 Horizons Report
The 2008 Horizon report is definitely worth a read - and maybe even a discussion at your institution.
http://horizon.nmc.org/wiki/Main_Page
Would be interesting to correlate the trends discussed in the report with your divisions/departments learning goals - and then tools that match to the trends and learning goals. May expose some gaps in our current models, systems, expertise etc.
Here are the ideas I shared with my colleagues at Quinnipiac University Online and the College of Professional Studies based on the report:
For instance:
- I don't think we are doing anything with having our students create projects using video. This is despite the fact that cheap flash based video cameras are becoming ubiquitous. Could we think of a pilot course.....where we fund the purchase of $50 video cameras for students and have projects made with videos.
- Mobile...Are we developing expertise in having our content played on devices outside the browser? Can we come up with specific courses or projects where we can experiment with this...so we develop some expertise and learn pros and cons.
- Social: Our courses, faculty, and students remained siloed. How can we figure out how to increase exchange and visibility across these domains.
http://horizon.nmc.org/wiki/Main_Page
Would be interesting to correlate the trends discussed in the report with your divisions/departments learning goals - and then tools that match to the trends and learning goals. May expose some gaps in our current models, systems, expertise etc.
Here are the ideas I shared with my colleagues at Quinnipiac University Online and the College of Professional Studies based on the report:
For instance:
- I don't think we are doing anything with having our students create projects using video. This is despite the fact that cheap flash based video cameras are becoming ubiquitous. Could we think of a pilot course.....where we fund the purchase of $50 video cameras for students and have projects made with videos.
- Mobile...Are we developing expertise in having our content played on devices outside the browser? Can we come up with specific courses or projects where we can experiment with this...so we develop some expertise and learn pros and cons.
- Social: Our courses, faculty, and students remained siloed. How can we figure out how to increase exchange and visibility across these domains.
Monday, February 11, 2008
Who owns what link
Had to throw in a link to http://www.mydigimedia.com/WhoOwns.html
This chart of who own which Web 2.0 tool will be very useful in my Web 2.0 class.
This chart of who own which Web 2.0 tool will be very useful in my Web 2.0 class.
Microsoft and Yahoo - Who Wins
More news today about Yahoo holding out for more cash from MS
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB120273921745558817.html?mod=technology_main_whats_news
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/02/11/technology/11cnd-yahoo.html?ref=technology
So who would win and who would loose if (when...I think) this deal goes through?
You (me, us, the consumer): WINNER. The Yahoo brand combined with Microsoft big iron and adult management will give some competition to Google. This buyout would push Yahoo branded cloud services - particularly storage - but also online apps etc. Probably more content in search. Maybe some good mobile devices in the future. This would spur Google - we would win.
Goolge: LOOSER. For reasons mentioned above. MS money, management, and hardware combined with Yahoo branding and users (from Yahoo mail, Yahoo personals, etc. etc.) would push Google to innovate in its core competencies and grow it's businesses.
Yahoo: WINNER. Mostly because Yahoo is a decent service, a great brand, and no real hopes of making the real money (or at least the money MS is throwing at it). Yahoo is much more valuable as a brand then a company - or as a brand attached to company that has real way to make real money. If Yahoo is so stupid that they screw this up (and I think they are just trying to extract a better price...and will be successful)...then Yahoo will whither. A 40 billion offer today will quickly seem very high if Yahoo is finds itself going it alone - as again the model for making money with Yahoo is not good in the free economy.
Microsoft: WINNER AND LOOSER. Is this equivocating? Sort of. Yahoo is not worth $40 billion...but may be worth $40 billion (or $48 billion or whatever) to a company playing with monopoly money, who can't brand, and is in real danger of becoming irrelevant in the software as a service era. Overpriced yes. But overpriced with your money (and mine..and everyone else who has a Windows machine and uses Office). If Yahoo keeps being stubborn, then I'd hold to around my price (maybe make an honest 10 percent offer) - and wait to next year or the year after as Yahoo shares tank.
Universities: No idea. Not sure it matters to us. I sort of wish that Microsoft would focus in a real way on the higher ed. vertical. I wish as I posted yesterday that MS would focus on hardware...building a cheap $200 Win/Vista laptop. I wish MS would use it's ransom money and make content deals so we could have good search and real deep video on mobile devices (Zune could be good if MS made long term bets with rich content deals in music and video etc..).
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB120273921745558817.html?mod=technology_main_whats_news
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/02/11/technology/11cnd-yahoo.html?ref=technology
So who would win and who would loose if (when...I think) this deal goes through?
You (me, us, the consumer): WINNER. The Yahoo brand combined with Microsoft big iron and adult management will give some competition to Google. This buyout would push Yahoo branded cloud services - particularly storage - but also online apps etc. Probably more content in search. Maybe some good mobile devices in the future. This would spur Google - we would win.
Goolge: LOOSER. For reasons mentioned above. MS money, management, and hardware combined with Yahoo branding and users (from Yahoo mail, Yahoo personals, etc. etc.) would push Google to innovate in its core competencies and grow it's businesses.
Yahoo: WINNER. Mostly because Yahoo is a decent service, a great brand, and no real hopes of making the real money (or at least the money MS is throwing at it). Yahoo is much more valuable as a brand then a company - or as a brand attached to company that has real way to make real money. If Yahoo is so stupid that they screw this up (and I think they are just trying to extract a better price...and will be successful)...then Yahoo will whither. A 40 billion offer today will quickly seem very high if Yahoo is finds itself going it alone - as again the model for making money with Yahoo is not good in the free economy.
Microsoft: WINNER AND LOOSER. Is this equivocating? Sort of. Yahoo is not worth $40 billion...but may be worth $40 billion (or $48 billion or whatever) to a company playing with monopoly money, who can't brand, and is in real danger of becoming irrelevant in the software as a service era. Overpriced yes. But overpriced with your money (and mine..and everyone else who has a Windows machine and uses Office). If Yahoo keeps being stubborn, then I'd hold to around my price (maybe make an honest 10 percent offer) - and wait to next year or the year after as Yahoo shares tank.
Universities: No idea. Not sure it matters to us. I sort of wish that Microsoft would focus in a real way on the higher ed. vertical. I wish as I posted yesterday that MS would focus on hardware...building a cheap $200 Win/Vista laptop. I wish MS would use it's ransom money and make content deals so we could have good search and real deep video on mobile devices (Zune could be good if MS made long term bets with rich content deals in music and video etc..).
The death of flixn
Flixn, the webcam video blog creator, is about to die. http://flixn.com/notice.html So sad.
I've made extensive use of flixn in my Blackoard online courses. Students record quick video summaries or thoughts or whatever, and post the link to the course. Flixn allowed us to easily go beyond text-on-the-screen typing, adding a personal touch, voice, a face - and rapid authoring. Video blogging allowed both students and faculty to be on an equal level, as we could all author and post the links to Blackboard.
Flixn would be a natural Blackboard's Building Blocks http://www.blackboard.com/extend/b2/ - As what would be great is a way to record and post video blog entries directly in Blackboard. At Quinnipiac, we use the blogging building block from learning objects http://www.learningobjects.com/ - and I could easily see a deal where video blogging became an embedded feature.
Not sure what flixn's plan are......(I've talked to them some about the opportunities in higher ed).....obviously I think it is unfortunate and a real waste that they are giving up on their public facing site.
Is Twango gone also? Where should we turn? YouTube has a feature...but it seems awfully slow. Ideas? This is a great educational tool. Points out - in my mind at least - how behind the times we are with our CMS tools.
I've made extensive use of flixn in my Blackoard online courses. Students record quick video summaries or thoughts or whatever, and post the link to the course. Flixn allowed us to easily go beyond text-on-the-screen typing, adding a personal touch, voice, a face - and rapid authoring. Video blogging allowed both students and faculty to be on an equal level, as we could all author and post the links to Blackboard.
Flixn would be a natural Blackboard's Building Blocks http://www.blackboard.com/extend/b2/ - As what would be great is a way to record and post video blog entries directly in Blackboard. At Quinnipiac, we use the blogging building block from learning objects http://www.learningobjects.com/ - and I could easily see a deal where video blogging became an embedded feature.
Not sure what flixn's plan are......(I've talked to them some about the opportunities in higher ed).....obviously I think it is unfortunate and a real waste that they are giving up on their public facing site.
Is Twango gone also? Where should we turn? YouTube has a feature...but it seems awfully slow. Ideas? This is a great educational tool. Points out - in my mind at least - how behind the times we are with our CMS tools.
Sunday, February 10, 2008
Microsofts Dumb Yahoo Plans - What MS Should Be Doing
News today that Yahoo is playing hard to get with Microsoft - http://www.nytimes.com/2008/02/10/business/10yahoo.html?ref=technology - holding out for more money. They will surely get the money - and Microsoft will get Yahoo - but does any of this make sense?
I don't have much hope that the folks at Microsoft will reverse course. Tech is littered with stupid acquisitions....Ebay buying Skype, AOL buying Netscape etc. etc. MS is trying to take a short-cut to relevancy by buying a search portal that is quickly becoming irrelevant. Yahoo could disappear today and I wouldn't really care. Yahoo is very very lucky that they will be getting Microsoft's money - as this is really the only way the brand can be saved.
What should Microsoft be doing instead? (As the company needs to do something as it's core OS becomes less relevant and software moves to a free service).
1. Build the Windows Laptop. Or more precisely, the $200 Windows laptop. In my house we will never buy another Windows machine as they simply suck compared to Mac's. But we may buy an EEE-PC
Why....because the EEE PC is cheap and small. If MS wants to make it's OS relevant, and it's productivity software utilized outside of slow moving and too rich corporations and institutions (ie the rest of us) then they need to couple hardware with software. Give away the PC to get us using Vista, Office and the online services. Make the OS actually work well by controlling the hardware and integrating the software. Go low-end because this market huge, will get wealthier, and should get hooked on MS services.
MS has done pretty well with hardware (X Box) etc.......so there is some expertise. A good $200 Vista machine would make a splash...and pave the way to a real $100 dollar laptop that could help change the world while insuring that Windows has a future in the 21st century.
2. Buy Newspapers! Lots of newspapers. Newspapers are seen as low growth dogs now. Values are good. They make money. Microsoft should distribute some of its ill-gotten monopoly rents by making some honest investments in content. With $40 billion or so dollars MS could put together a truly compelling slate of papers - national, regional, local - tie it together with MS software and services....etc. etc. Oh yeah..I should say print - buy magazines also. This idea leads into my last idea.
3. Build a "Kindle" killer - e-book reader. But not really for e-books. But for newspapers, magazines and yes - video! The Kindle sucks because it is ugly - but also because Amazon has not figured out the real business model. The real business model is to aggregate content by interest. I would pay $100 a year to read on a good portable device all the tech and higher ed news from around the country (including blogs).....I want my news in topics I want in a reader that makes it easy to read. If Microsoft owned content (and even if they don't take suggestion #2 they should still do this)...then any portable news reading device could be that much more compelling. And the market needs this slab, this thing - that can do text nicely and play video and be a thing for consuming content. Computers are for creating content. We need something good for consuming content....with a form factor like the Sony Reader but that can push all content including text, video, audio etc. etc.
Does this mean that MS should raise the white flag to Google on search? Yes and no. Yes in the browser. But the browser will be less important as mobile devices becoming more important. Win Search on phones - or on the slab content reader I want. Win search when embeded with other devices and applications. Win search by owning content and then being able to give good content (MS should be buying as many video libraries as they possibly can).
In the end this will not happen as I think that MS is basically out-of-touch and slow. The smartest buy this year was Amazon buying Audible (and yes...coming out with the Kindle...which will get better - even if it sucks ugly and is dumb in content now)....
I don't have much hope that the folks at Microsoft will reverse course. Tech is littered with stupid acquisitions....Ebay buying Skype, AOL buying Netscape etc. etc. MS is trying to take a short-cut to relevancy by buying a search portal that is quickly becoming irrelevant. Yahoo could disappear today and I wouldn't really care. Yahoo is very very lucky that they will be getting Microsoft's money - as this is really the only way the brand can be saved.
What should Microsoft be doing instead? (As the company needs to do something as it's core OS becomes less relevant and software moves to a free service).
1. Build the Windows Laptop. Or more precisely, the $200 Windows laptop. In my house we will never buy another Windows machine as they simply suck compared to Mac's. But we may buy an EEE-PC
Why....because the EEE PC is cheap and small. If MS wants to make it's OS relevant, and it's productivity software utilized outside of slow moving and too rich corporations and institutions (ie the rest of us) then they need to couple hardware with software. Give away the PC to get us using Vista, Office and the online services. Make the OS actually work well by controlling the hardware and integrating the software. Go low-end because this market huge, will get wealthier, and should get hooked on MS services.
MS has done pretty well with hardware (X Box) etc.......so there is some expertise. A good $200 Vista machine would make a splash...and pave the way to a real $100 dollar laptop that could help change the world while insuring that Windows has a future in the 21st century.
2. Buy Newspapers! Lots of newspapers. Newspapers are seen as low growth dogs now. Values are good. They make money. Microsoft should distribute some of its ill-gotten monopoly rents by making some honest investments in content. With $40 billion or so dollars MS could put together a truly compelling slate of papers - national, regional, local - tie it together with MS software and services....etc. etc. Oh yeah..I should say print - buy magazines also. This idea leads into my last idea.
3. Build a "Kindle" killer - e-book reader. But not really for e-books. But for newspapers, magazines and yes - video! The Kindle sucks because it is ugly - but also because Amazon has not figured out the real business model. The real business model is to aggregate content by interest. I would pay $100 a year to read on a good portable device all the tech and higher ed news from around the country (including blogs).....I want my news in topics I want in a reader that makes it easy to read. If Microsoft owned content (and even if they don't take suggestion #2 they should still do this)...then any portable news reading device could be that much more compelling. And the market needs this slab, this thing - that can do text nicely and play video and be a thing for consuming content. Computers are for creating content. We need something good for consuming content....with a form factor like the Sony Reader but that can push all content including text, video, audio etc. etc.
Does this mean that MS should raise the white flag to Google on search? Yes and no. Yes in the browser. But the browser will be less important as mobile devices becoming more important. Win Search on phones - or on the slab content reader I want. Win search when embeded with other devices and applications. Win search by owning content and then being able to give good content (MS should be buying as many video libraries as they possibly can).
In the end this will not happen as I think that MS is basically out-of-touch and slow. The smartest buy this year was Amazon buying Audible (and yes...coming out with the Kindle...which will get better - even if it sucks ugly and is dumb in content now)....
Friday, February 08, 2008
Blackboard
The Blackboard model for course management systems in higher ed needs to change.
- Blackboard closes and hides the educational content and exchange. The future is an open and transparent (linkable) exchange http://www.okiproject.org/
- Blackboard is fundamentally built on the model of a professor centric delivery. Learning is about knowledge construction, and the technology most support student authoring and exchange.
- Free will dominate the new economy. Blackboard is expensive. Google should purchase Blackboard, make it free (what a cheap and perfect way to get users into the Google ecosystem), and do all the hosting on the Google OS (getting colleges out of the business of being server shops and back into what we know - doing education).
- Web 2.0 tools are already supplanting the internal, tightly controlled model that Blackboard represents. Can I use Google Aps - or publish to YouTube with Keynote?
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