THERE IS NOTHING WRONG HERE

I have been working on the edtechleaders.ning.com social network the last couple of days. It has been fun customizing it. I would like it to be a place the educators from the Web 2.0 workshop can continue the conversation during and after the workshop is finished. When the Web 2.0 group begins the podcasting session I wanted to have some examples of successful edtech podcasts. The Moodle does not really have a good way to do that, so I created a new tabbed page for Podcasts and then found a podcatcher to embed into the new page. I am very proud of myself for solving the problem.

Just in case you did not know. Edublogs has made it much easier for teachers to create student accounts and/or blogs. I wish they had installed this feature before I spent a day creating 45 student accounts, anyway it looks very easy.

If you have not read Chris Anderson’s article in Wired titled “Why $0.00 is the Future of Business” you should. His article helped me understand why so many Web 2.0 applications seem to be free. I understand how Google makes money, but how is WordPress and Edublogs, which I am using right now, making any money? Chris has broken this economic model down to six categories. Anderson’s thesis is that because the actual cost of transistors (0.000001 cents for each in Intel’s quad-core), storage (off the self terabite for $300, or 0.0000000003 cents/bite), and an over stock of fiber optics makes these cheap enough not to figure into the cost of producing applications or content. I rewateched Anderson’s TED talk in 2004 where he introduced the idea of the long tail, which I did not really understand untill now.

1. Freemium - the subscription model for web software and services. A “basic” version of a service or software is offered and the 99% who get this version is supported by the 1% who purchase the “pro” version. I am using a free older version of Camtais, the company is betting that some of use will want to upgrade and purchase the newest version.
2. Advertising - one of the oldest means of generating revenue. The most famous is Googles pay-per-click ads, and there are all the banner ads and pop-ups. With digital technology, companies can gather data that allows them to more directly target an audience and thereby spend money more wisely.
3. Cross-Subsidies - this is the loss leader mode. Buy one get one free. Make up in volume what you loose on the cost of promotion. Some musicians are now allowing fans to down load free music as publicity for a concert tour, or grow a fan base who will purchase future CD’s.
4. Zero Marginal Cost - when information distribution cost is so low that the economics of scale make it virtually free. People have been have been downloading music for free dispite the best efforts of the music industry. Some musicians have accepted the fact and are now giving away music to tap into the model above, Cross-Subsidies. E-books, articles, magazines publishing costs are approaching zero and digital makes it even easier to share.
5. Labor Exchange - you help me I help you. Google is giving away $144 million in 411 services to build a data base that they figure will be worth $2.5 billion by 2012. By using their service now you are helping them build that database. Digg and Amazon have rating services create value by either improving services or creating information they can sell.
6. Gift Economy - making money is not the motivation for all web content generators. The open source movement is interested in building well designed applications and seeing other use them. Wikipedia uses labor exchange, you add content and get to see your work used by other. Freecycle is like a giant yard sale, except no money is exchanged. The value is in trading ideas and goods.

I know you have wanted to learn how to do something with a computer application; found an instructional video and then been disappointed because it went so fast you had to watch it 4 times to lean how to use the application. Or, the sound quality was so bad you could not understand most of it. Or, the images were blurry, small, or had nothing to do with the audio.

I was looking for an instructional video about how to setup student accounts on Edublogs using Google. I did find 3 videos on YouTube, but they were so poorly done I could not use them. So I decided to do it myself. This gave me a good excuse to try out VoiceThread, which I have been wanting to do for a couple of months.

I use the Print Screen function, which is on everyone keyboard (and most people don’t know how useful it is). I then wrote a script and practiced it. Next, I up loaded the image files to VoiceThread. Once I had them in the order I wanted, I started recording the audio. It took a couple of tries to get the timing correct, but once I had the general idea of how to configure VoiceThread it went well. Take a look for yourself.

If you have been following the presidential primaries at all, you must have noticed the enthusiasm for Barack Obama. He has exceed most political “expert” expectations and has a real chance to become the next president. Even from a distance there is a feeling of excitement about Obama’s messages of hope, change and Yes We Can. Our friend Noreen worked for Obama in the New Mexico primary and when he visited there, Noreen reported that she had not felt that kind of energy about a politician in a long time, since the Kennedy brothers.

To get a sense of the power of Obama’s message watch this video. After you have watched it go to www.yeswecansong.com and read about how Will.i.am came to make the video.

In an article in Sunday’s New York Times Frank Rich writes about the how the Republican Party of old white men is out of step with the rest of the country. The conservative press have been waiting in the shadows for a chance to pounce on Obama. They think that by painting Obama with the plagiarism brush they will bring him down. No one outside of academia cares about who took lines from a speech. By the way the lines are from a speech by his friend Deval Patrick, governor of Massachusetts.

Obama is offering HOPE and a true since of we are all in this together, something the powers that be don’t understand and can’t offer.