Will Technology or Budget Deficits Force Eductation in the U.S. to Change?

Education in the U.S. is a huge market and one that has been resistant, maybe even allergic, to most real change and innovation. For profit education is remaking the landscape in the U.S. but still faces some real credibility issues.

Traditional educators look on for profit firms with scorn and condescension. The reality is that technology and profits are going to force the traditional educational institutions to change. I doubt that the Ivy's will ever seriously change their primary model of providing an undergraduate education, but technology and the availability of information will make change inevitable for many other higher education institutions as they face enrollment challenges and budget constraints.

To say that google threatens the very existence of the top tier universities may be overstated. But it could make the middle and lower tier schools unrecognizable to us in 15 years. To survive, many will be forced to change dramatically. Some will focus exclusively on narrow areas of study. Others will slash their cost structure in order to compete. How far and how fast these changes hit higher education in the U.S. is still unclear. But as these institutions are forced to diversify revenue streams, the for profit and technology models start to look better and better.

There was an interesting panel discussion about education and entrepreneurs that was written up on ReadWriteWeb:

Founders of Kno, Khan Academy, NIXTY Debate Education and Entrepreneurship

"The speakers included Lisa Petrides, founder of the Institute for the Study of Knowledge Management and Education (ISKME), Osman Rashid, CEO and co-founder of Kno, Salman Khan, founder of Khan Academy, Glen Moriarty, CEO and co-founder of NIXTY and Philip Bronner, from Novak Biddle Venture Partners.

Undoubtedly, there are several factors which Petrides describes as "game changers" in education: information available freely everywhere, personalized learning, widespread access to the Internet. But with the obstacles in the education system, including its political and legal barriers, there's a sense that it is difficult for entrepreneurs to get a foothold - and get funding - for education technology.

Education is a Huge Market Now, but Will Open Content Change Things?

But Kno's Rashid argued there are huge opportunities. The annual market for education technology is $88 billion, and growing at a rate of 21.7% a year. The market for digital textbooks alone is $54 billion.

But as the panelists debated what constitutes "disruption" in education, both Khan and Moriarty argued that the future of much educational content was likely to be free and open. Khan Academy, for example, is in the process of becoming a "real free virtual school for the world." But the move to make content free shouldn't devalue the learning experience, and there are lots of opportunities to build analytics and management platforms.

Despite the emphasis on free content and opencourseware, venture capitalist Philip Bronner made it clear that investors are interested in startups working in this area - good news for education technology entrepreneurs"

See Also

• Build Your Ed-Tech Startup With Help from the Kauffman Foundation
• As Interest in Online Learning Grows, Udemy Lands $1 Million in Angel Funding
• 5 Ways Tech Startups Can Disrupt the Education System
• Ed-Tech Startup LearnBoost Takes Aim at Legacy Software Systems
• Using Social Games to Teach Kids Entrepreneurship

Apple TV.....what is it anyway?

Good post from Louis Gray on Apple TV. I have the first generation Apple TV. It is somewhat useful, but not very useful. Looks like next gen Apple TV is only marginally more useful, but still not very useful....

http://blog.louisgray.com/2010/10/new-apple-tv-extends-fragmentation.html

Friday, October 1, 2010

New Apple TV Extends Fragmentation, Cupertino Style

For all the noise around fragmentation in the world of Android, one would think the state of affairs on the other side of the technology aisle would be perfectly unified - with one operating system, one user environment, and one experience where all things play nice. But while it's not as often discussed, my plethora of Apple devices is increasingly fragmented. The newest culprit? The brand new Apple TV, which has an incredible form factor, and some surprises in terms of what's simply not there - making me have to remember what media plays on what devices, and what devices are capable of doing what.

Have a Social Media Presence? Have a Plan for Responding to Unhappy Customers?

HOW TO: Respond when Social Media Attacks Your Brand

This is a great story/post from Mashable. Social Media is such a powerful tool for companies to engage their customers and potential customers. But it is the attributes that make social media so powerful that pose the biggest risks to a company. Ad dollars don't matter when everyone has a voice and each individual is deciding to whom they are going to listen and trust. Think of it as customer service in a fish bowl. What if every unhappy constituent had an audience? Well, that is exactly what social media can become.

So companies have to be prepared for criticism because it will come. They need a plan of how to respond. They need to be sincere, human and understand the customer is always right. The Ritz Carlton doesn't try to convince an upset guest that they shouldn't be upset. In the same way, companies with social media presence should try to convince their customers they are wrong, incorrect or don't understand.

The last one there is probably the biggest trap for companies and marketers. "If our customers only understood" or "The customer doesn't understand" are dangerous phrases. IT may be true that the customer doesn't understand. But that is your challenge that theirs, assuming you want them as a customer.

Cool Story -- Where the Startups Are, By Zip Code

Cool story in ReadWriteWeb this week about looking at where startups have the greatest density.


Where the Startups Are, By Zip Code

As part of our "Never Mind the Valley" series here, we often feature communities outside the Silicon Valley that have become thriving centers for entrepreneurship. We've profiled cities like Boston, Montreal, and Austin.

Sometimes we notice there's a flurry of startup activity in a particular location that warrants coverage, and sometimes we're pitched stories about these locations. (And you should feel free to pitch us as to why your city should be featured, particularly if you're outside the U.S.) But as great as these sources for stories are, neither offer any sort of scientific method for pointing to the cities that are the best locations for startups.

In a blog post yesterday, VC Brad Feld wrote about the "entrepreneurial density" of Boulder, a city often noted as being a startup hotbed. He writes,

"Entrepreneurial density isn't just the "number of entrepreneurs per capita", but it's the "number of people that work at entrepreneurial companies per capita." It gets even bigger when you include students and calculate the "(number of people that work at entrepreneurial companies + the number of students) per capita. As ED = ((entrepreneurial_emps + students) / adults) approaches 1, you get complete entrepreneurial saturation. I'm going to guess that Boulder's Entrepreneurial Density using this equation is somewhere between 0.50 and 0.75, but this is just a guess. I'm curious if anyone out there has a real way to calculate this."

Responding to the challenge is Pete Warden, who has used Crunchbase and US Census data to provide an answer.

According to Warden's figures, the top zip codes for money raised per person are:

CA 94104 - $629m total - $1,681,925 per person
CA 94304 - $2,822m total - $1,656,031 per person
CA 94105 - $972m total - $472,540 per person
MA 02142 - $1,013m total - $448,833 per person
IL 60606 - $739m total - $439,744 per person

And the top zip codes for company per person are:

CA 94104 - 87 companies - 0.233 per person
CA 94105 - 173 companies - 0.084 per person
CA 95113 - 24 companies - 0.044 per person
MA 02142 - 73 companies - 0.032 per person
MA 02210 - 19 companies - 0.032 per person

Using his OpenHeatMap tool, there are, of course, maps of the information. And Warden has open-sourced the code and the data so that others can work with it.

Warden admits that it's a "crude approach," but nevertheless, it's interesting to see how the numbers may or may not patch our perceptions of entrepreneurial hot spots.

Foursquare for the Real World? ShopAlerts Debuts Geo-Fenced Mobile Promotions

Foursquare for the Real World? ShopAlerts Debuts Geo-Fenced Mobile Promotions

Excellent story today on ReadWriteWeb about mobile coupons and promotions. Obviously, this is where the market is going even if consumers aren't there yet. It will take some real consumer benefit to jump start adoption. Retailers need to figure out how much is worth to them to have customers opted-in to a mobile promotion service and then offer them the best possible offer out of the gate. That may help speed adoption.

As a marketer, it gives you the chance we have all talk about....putting your best offer in front of the consumer at the moment of consideration.

Is Four square too complicated or are text based coupons not sexy enough? My guess is that customers will self select and they will be meaningfully different customers....

I am surprised it has taken the providers this long to get to this point, but here we are.

News Flash: Friends are the most trusted source of info

So the beauty of social marketing from a marketers perspective is this:

"Real-world friends most trusted online source"

If someone endorses your product on Facebook, in an authentic (read as not planted by the company) way, friends notice. It may not be enough to get them to buy your product without additional research, but you have suddenly entered the consideration set.

Most companies and institutions are not really sure how to handle this aspect of their marketing mix because, well, it isn't THEIRS, really. But we should start to think of it as part of the mix we need to influence, encourage, nurture, and reward.

There have been plenty of reports of companies monitoring Twitter to try and understand what people are saying about their company or product. It has mostly been as a defensive measure from what I have seen -- marketers hoping that influencers on Twitter don't poison the well.

Friends have always been the most trusted source for products and services. Social media just makes those voices louder and the ripples larger. So the srategy for companies? Keep wowing your customers and they will keep telling their friends....some on facebook, some at the salon or the little league game.

A Useful Map of the Social Media World

If you are looking for good resources, CMO.com is fairly good. They aggregate content so it is an efficient place to get marketing articles and news.

I found this map of the social media landscape there. I thought it was helpful. Share me