Posted 7:49 PM by George Siemens
Unplugged U via Kairosnews
Quote: Josh McHugh joins the wireless revolution at Dartmouth, where today's campus life is the prototype of tomorrow's network society...The network is subtly but profoundly altering teaching techniques, social interaction, study habits, and personal security.

Posted 7:33 PM by George Siemens
NYTimes.com Tests Paid Content Sales, Here's What They Learned
Quote: Together these equaled just over a million in sales in 2000. These numbers made the business team begin to wonder if they could turn slices of the Times' extensive library into even more
easy-win digital products.
Deputy General Manager & Director of Operations Stephen Newman says, "We knew we had a tremendous asset in our archives, and we knew we could monetize that archive.""
Comment: Is there a revenue model for online content? NYTimes experimented with selling crosswords, archives, editor's picks, topics in-depth, and "Times Talks" (featuring celebrities). This article seems to allude to it...or at least suggests that NYTimes is on to something. None of it seems to be pure "content"...it's value injected content. It is worth noting that a lesson learned relates to "excellent customer service" and the experience of the user...

Posted 7:21 PM by George Siemens
Advice for Predicting Market Demand: Don't Be Too Sure
Quote: "Truly smart people fingered video-on-demand as a big market. But they didn't imagine it would come about in this helter-skelter, every-consumer-for-himself fashion.
In so doing, they taught us all a lesson. The prophets of video-on-demand overlooked something about "demand" -- namely, whose demand it really is. You don't create demand; you obey it. You can lead demand to water, but you can't make it drink."
Comment: Very interesting perspective on how predictions come "true"...just not in the way that most expect. This concept has strong implications for elearning. We may be focusing on the right concepts - but we need to be careful to not make the concept the final focus - we need disorganized progress. Elearning predictions (end of courses, personalized, student-centered, interactive, engaging, etc) may all materialize - just by a very different path than we are trying to create.