Over the past week and a half, I've had several great conversations with former students... especially recent grads. By-and-large these students and I have kept up our friendships via social media.
@schickbob and I were talking about this today and came to the conclusion that -- in a way -- the future of education is bound up in the ways that we relate to our alumni via the social connections of the Net. Because the future of education isn't about the classroom; it's about the world. And your alumni are the bridge between the two.
With that in mind... if any old alums happen to be reading this, do get in touch. We need you now more than ever.
Showing posts with label social media. Show all posts
Showing posts with label social media. Show all posts
Monday, March 8, 2010
Tuesday, March 2, 2010
Perception Is Not Reality - About Sanjay Dalal
I would like to share with you a bit more about me, Sanjay Dalal, and give you some real facts...1. I am a simple & happy family man, father of two growing children in Irvine, and husband to my wife since 1993 (technically 1992 since we got married in the court). We all moved to Irvine in 2007 from Fremont, CA. I love Turtle Rock, Irvine, where we live. I love my children & wife, relatives, my community, my friends and God. I love peace, happiness and well being for all... For more on my story, go to my website: http://www.sanjaydalal.com
2. I am a software entrepreneur, deeply passionate about collaboration software for social networks. I spend more than 10 hours a day thinking, planning, marketing & growing my latest software launch... oGoing. What's going on? http://www.ogoing.com
Further, I only know about computer software and some computer hardware. I do not have any working or professional knowledge of anything else besides computer software, and that too, mainly collaboration software and services. I do like to teach my children different technologies & always ask them to be curious about the latest cool things including cultures & traditions of their friends & families... just like any parent would do.
Further, I only know about computer software and some computer hardware. I do not have any working or professional knowledge of anything else besides computer software, and that too, mainly collaboration software and services. I do like to teach my children different technologies & always ask them to be curious about the latest cool things including cultures & traditions of their friends & families... just like any parent would do.
3. I launched India Business Network last year (2009) to help grow awareness of Indian professionals & businesses, and also in turn, learn about social networking, and the platform on which India Business Network hosts (Ning). Today, India Business Network has about 4,000 global members. India Business Network is a registered non-profit organization. Go to: http://www.indiabiznet.com to learn more...
4. I have failed many times over as an entrepreneur, including my latest failure... Innovation Index Group that managed Innovation Index Fund in 2008. Innovation Index Fund is closed, and is only supporting remaining 4 investors (May 2010 update - my father is not an investor anymore). All 4 investors are U.S. based, and are all friends based in Orange County & Los Angeles Area (who I have met a few times, and know them on a first name basis). There are no foreign investors, no foreign interest, no partners from any foreign countries / cities such as Dubai, Middle East, Africa, Europe in Innovation Index Fund. I am always learning from the failures such as Innovation Index Group... it only prepares me better for my next startup. Case in point: oGoing :: What's oGoing on? (tm) http://www.ogoing.com
5. Show me the money... First, I was successful in Silicon Valley at two startups that allowed me to be an entrepreneur (from the money I made in Silicon Valley). But I also lost money in the stock market (like everybody else, but probably more than I would like). I make money by selling Business Innovation eBook, Apple Innovation Strategy, Innovation Bootcamp, Internet & Social Media marketing, web & mobile application consulting, and investing in stocks (I enjoy it). This keeps me occupied and very busy all day...
6. I love ABAOC (Asian Business Association of Orange County), and am quite grateful & proud to be a board member. I take this job seriously, and would do everything to make ABAOC shine... this is my commitment to the board. I also love TiE Southern California, Irvine Chamber of Commerce and Dean's Leadership Circle, Paul Merage School of Business, University of California.
7. I am looking for partners for oGoing - Enterprise Social Network... if you or someone you know would like to get on the ground floor of a hot new startup that will potentially be a $100 million plus business in five to ten years, this is your chance. Just ask me for a business plan or executive summary, and I would be happy to share it with you... email me: ceo at innovationmain dot com
I love community development & community service... hence, I am active with my daughter's Turtle Rock School PTA & School Site Council, Rotary Club of Newport-Irvine, and take time to volunteer & promote / donate to charities... I was a basketball coach three times for my son's teams, and an art master for my daughter's class.
In 2005, I found out I had Osteoporosis in my lumbar spine. I have been fighting it since, and have made good progress. I am doing much better now... I started a non-profit in 2007 to raise awareness of this: http://www.osteofoundation.org (you can also read my story there)
Hoping this would clear up any perceptions you may have about me... or not ;-)
Now, let's do some business!!
Sincere regards,
Sanjay Dalal, Entrepreneur
Social Media. Internet. Innovation.
Sanjay Dalal, Entrepreneur
Social Media. Internet. Innovation.
direct: 949-288-6880 (Receptionist: 7 am to 5 pm, M-F)
p.s.: I don't spam w. text, email, voicemail
Monday, January 25, 2010
As Twitter is to consumer, oGoing is to business
"I am excited to launch a new social media communications platform for business users who want to connect, communicate & collaborate with their co-workers, peers, teams, customers, partners & prospects now!" Sanjay Dalal, founder, oGoing. "oGoing provides a robust social networking platform for the Enterprise. As Twitter is to consumer, oGoing is to business"
If you are a business, you want to setup your own oGoing Enterprise Microblogging, Communications & Social Network now. When you setup your business profile on Twitter, Facebook or other social networks:
oGoing provides a social media communications & delivery platform for sharing information in real-time.
On oGoing, we setup oGoing for your own business with a unique website created just for your business, for example,"mybiz.ogoing.com". At your oGoing For Business website, only your business, your employees, your team members can share updates with each other, or share updates with your customers or partners - privately, or publicly!! It's your own oGoing portal where you can brand it, customize it, monitor it, and manage it... Imagine your sales leaders sharing updates with their team members, your marketing team sharing the latest news about your product launch, your CEO sharing the company vision & highlights, your customer service team hand-holding their customers, your business development team working hand-in-hand with your partners, and more. oGoing provides your own oGoing For Business portal to make all this happen...
Request your oGoing Enterprise Microblogging & Communications Social Network for a free trial for 60 days. Request your oGoing Enterprise.
oGoing is founded by Sanjay Dalal, serial entrepreneur & innovator, and a silicon valley veteran. oGoing Engineers have been working hard to bring oGoing to you (and are working round the clock to bring you oGoing)... Contact Us if you are interested in joining oGoing Team.
oGoing is the most innovative social + business networking service in the marketplace today for sending and sharing real-time updates with your co-workers anywhere in the world!
If you are a business, you want to setup your own oGoing Enterprise Microblogging, Communications & Social Network now. When you setup your business profile on Twitter, Facebook or other social networks:
- Your business has only one public profile accessible by everyone,
- You need to setup separate profiles for each employee (outside your control),
- You cannot have your employees & partners interact privately,
- You cannot control all your followers and followings,
- You cannot control and manage your own branding,
- You cannot send updates to specific people (select employees, partners or customers),
- You cannot create messages away from your competitor's eyes,
- You cannot monitor and manage access to all your employees,
- You cannot create one-to-one critical updates for your key customers or partners,
- You cannot restrict access for your own employees with a valid company email address,
- You cannot avoid spammers.
Would you want your business to operate under this public environment?
On oGoing, we setup oGoing for your own business or enterprise with a unique website created just for your business, for example,"mybiz.ogoing.com" which is secured, private & outside the public eyes. At your oGoing Enterprise network, only your business, your employees, your team members can share updates & messages with each other, and even communicate with your customers or partners - privately!! It's your own oGoing microblogging, communications & social network where you can brand it, customize it, monitor it, and manage it...
Imagine your sales leaders sharing updates with their team members, your marketing team sharing the latest news about your product launch, your CEO sharing the company vision & highlights with all employees (or a select few), your customer service team hand-holding their own customers, your business development team working hand-in-hand with your partners, and more. oGoing provides your own oGoing Enterprise platform to make all this happen...
Request your oGoing Enterprise Microblogging & Communications Social Network for a free trial for 60 days. Request your oGoing Enterprise.
oGoing - What's going on? Stay in touch. Join the conversation.
oGoing Features
On oGoing, we setup oGoing for your own business or enterprise with a unique website created just for your business, for example,"mybiz.ogoing.com" which is secured, private & outside the public eyes. At your oGoing Enterprise network, only your business, your employees, your team members can share updates & messages with each other, and even communicate with your customers or partners - privately!! It's your own oGoing microblogging, communications & social network where you can brand it, customize it, monitor it, and manage it...
Imagine your sales leaders sharing updates with their team members, your marketing team sharing the latest news about your product launch, your CEO sharing the company vision & highlights with all employees (or a select few), your customer service team hand-holding their own customers, your business development team working hand-in-hand with your partners, and more. oGoing provides your own oGoing Enterprise platform to make all this happen...
Request your oGoing Enterprise Microblogging & Communications Social Network for a free trial for 60 days. Request your oGoing Enterprise.
oGoing - What's going on? Stay in touch. Join the conversation.
oGoing Features
oGoing provides a social media communications & delivery platform for sharing information in real-time.If you already have a Twitter account, that's Great! On oGoing, you can share all your Twitter updates with your oGoing friends. oGoing has also launched Facebook integration, and APIs to allow for integrating oGoing with your business applications.
On oGoing, every user can setup their own unique profile beginning with user name, location, email, brief bio, website, photograph, and key information about your profession. Once you have setup your profile, you can then begin sharing updates with your followers - your co-workers, partners, customers & more. You can invite new co-workers to join oGoing as well.
But wait, there's more... On oGoing, you can setup multiple accounts with various user names, and link them together! Imagine a Sales executive setting up multiple accounts based on geography or vertical markets. Each account relates to specific sales teams working in their territories. This way, you can send updates to all your followers on all accounts at once, or choose which specific accounts to send updates to...
When you have that really long URL to share, and it takes up all the space in the update area... no more!! On oGoing, you can attach your URL separately (long or short), and it will appear on your update... and you still have all the space you need to write your update!!
oGoing even allows you to share the updates you love the most from your co-workers (or your own), and even share updates you like the most with your co-workers. You can easily track the most shared updates, most liked updates, and the most talked about updates...
On oGoing, you can immediately follow your followers automatically, and even send an automatic personalized message to your followers as they begin to follow you... besides, you can send direct messages to all your followers. Built-in messaging is a key feature of oGoing.
On oGoing, we setup oGoing for your own business with a unique website created just for your business, for example,"mybiz.ogoing.com". At your oGoing For Business website, only your business, your employees, your team members can share updates with each other, or share updates with your customers or partners - privately, or publicly!! It's your own oGoing portal where you can brand it, customize it, monitor it, and manage it... Imagine your sales leaders sharing updates with their team members, your marketing team sharing the latest news about your product launch, your CEO sharing the company vision & highlights, your customer service team hand-holding their customers, your business development team working hand-in-hand with your partners, and more. oGoing provides your own oGoing For Business portal to make all this happen...
Request your oGoing Enterprise Microblogging & Communications Social Network for a free trial for 60 days. Request your oGoing Enterprise.
oGoing Team
oGoing is founded by Sanjay Dalal, serial entrepreneur & innovator, and a silicon valley veteran. oGoing Engineers have been working hard to bring oGoing to you (and are working round the clock to bring you oGoing)... Contact Us if you are interested in joining oGoing Team.Sunday, December 20, 2009
oGoing is Live! Introducing oGoing : "Twitter for Enterprise"
"oGoing is Live! I am excited to launch a brand new social + business networking service for business users who want to connect, communicate & collaborate with their co-workers, peers, teams, customers, partners & prospects now!" Sanjay Dalal, founder, oGoing. "oGoing provides a robust social networking platform for the Enterprise."
Using oGoing, you can update, reply and share with co-workers frequent answers to one question: "What's going on?" oGoing provides a social + business media platform wherein you and your co-workers talk about what's going on in their work, projects, deals and more...in real-time.
oGoing Features
Go to: http://www.ogoing.com to sign up and get started today, and join oGoing colleagues from all over the world, and begin sharing your updates now! oGoing provides a delivery platform for sharing information in real-time.
Just go here to request your oGoing For Business Portal for a free trial for 60 days - no strings attached.oGoing is founded by Sanjay Dalal, serial entrepreneur & innovator, and a silicon valley veteran. oGoing Engineers have been working hard to bring oGoing to you (and are still working as you read this)... Contact Us if you are interested in joining oGoing Team.
oGoing is the most innovative social + business networking service in the marketplace today for sending and sharing real-time updates with your co-workers worldwide now!
Using oGoing, you can update, reply and share with co-workers frequent answers to one question: "What's going on?" oGoing provides a social + business media platform wherein you and your co-workers talk about what's going on in their work, projects, deals and more...in real-time.
oGoing - What's going on? Stay in touch. Join the conversation.
oGoing Features
Go to: http://www.ogoing.com to sign up and get started today, and join oGoing colleagues from all over the world, and begin sharing your updates now! oGoing provides a delivery platform for sharing information in real-time.If you already have a Twitter account, that's Great! On oGoing, you can share all your Twitter updates with your oGoing friends.
But wait, there's more... On oGoing, you can setup multiple accounts with various user names, and link them together! This way, you can send updates to all your followers on all accounts at once, or choose which specific accounts to send updates to...Cool!!
When you have that really long URL to share, and it takes up all the space in the update area... no more!! On oGoing, you can attach your URL separately (long or short), and it will appear on your update... and you still have all the space you need to write your update!! Very cool!!
oGoing even allows you to share the updates you love the most from your co-workers (or your own), and even share updates you like the most with your co-workers. You can easily track the most shared updates, most liked updates, and the most talked about updates... Is that cool or what?
On oGoing, you can immediately follow your followers automatically, and send an automatic personalized message to your followers as they begin to follow you... how cool is that!!
oGoing For Business
oGoing is innovative and ready for your business!!
If you are a business, you want to setup your own oGoing Business Portal now. When you setup your business profile on Twitter or other social networks: You cannot control your followers, you cannot control your branding, you cannot keep some of your updates private, you cannot create programs away from your competitor's eyes, you cannot give access to all your employees, you cannot create one-to-one updates for your key customers or partners, you cannot avoid spammers. Would you want your business to operate under this environment?
On oGoing, we setup oGoing for your own business with a unique website created just for your business, for example,"mybiz.ogoing.com". At your oGoing For Business website, only your business, your employees, your team members can share updates with each other, or share updates with your customers or partners - privately, or publicly!! It's your own oGoing portal where you can brand it, customize it, monitor it, and manage it... Imagine your sales leaders sharing updates with their team members, your marketing team sharing the latest news about your product launch, your CEO sharing the company vision & highlights, your customer service team hand-holding their customers, your business development team working hand-in-hand with your partners, and more. oGoing provides your own oGoing For Business portal to make all this happen...Just go here to request your oGoing For Business Portal for a free trial for 60 days - no strings attached.
oGoing Team
oGoing is founded by Sanjay Dalal, serial entrepreneur & innovator, and a silicon valley veteran. oGoing Engineers have been working hard to bring oGoing to you (and are still working as you read this)... Contact Us if you are interested in joining oGoing Team.Wednesday, December 16, 2009
Launching oGoing - What's going on?
"If you like Twitter, you will love oGoing," Sanjay Dalal, founder, oGoing.
Go to: http://www.ogoing.com to sign up and get started today, and join oGoing friends from all over the world, and begin sharing your updates now!
oGoing is founded by Sanjay Dalal, serial entrepreneur & innovator, and a silicon valley veteran. oGoing Engineers have been working hard to bring oGoing to you (and are still working as you read this)... Contact Us if you are interested in joining oGoing Team.
oGoing is the most innovative social networking service in the marketplace today for sending updates to all your friends worldwide now!
You can find all your friends on Gmail, Yahoo, AOL, Facebook and Myspace when you join oGoing, and invite them to get started.
Using oGoing, you can keep in touch with your friends, family and co-workers with frequent answers to one question: "What's going on?" oGoing is a social media platform wherein you and your friends, family and co-workers talk about what's going on in their lives, work, family, fun things, anything at all...in real-time. oGoing - What's going on? Stay in touch. Join the conversation.
oGoing For Me
Go to: http://www.ogoing.com to sign up and get started today, and join oGoing friends from all over the world, and begin sharing your updates now!If you already have a Twitter account, that's Great! On oGoing, you can share all your Twitter updates with your oGoing friends.
But wait, there's more... On oGoing, you can setup multiple accounts with various user names, and link them together! This way, you can send updates to all your followers on all accounts at once, or choose which specific accounts to send updates to...Cool!!
When you have that really long URL to share, and it takes up all the space in the update area... no more!! On oGoing, you can attach your URL separately (long or short), and it will appear on your update... and you still have all the space you need to write your update!! Very cool!!
oGoing even allows you to share the updates you love the most from your friends (or your own), and even share updates you like the most with your friends. You can easily track the most shared updates, most liked updates, and the most talked about updates... Is that cool or what?
On oGoing, you can immediately follow your followers automatically, and send an automatic personalized message to your followers as they begin to follow you... how cool is that!!
oGoing For Business
oGoing is innovative and ready for your business!! Setup oGoing for your own business with a unique website created just for your business... At your oGoing For Business website, only your business, your employees, your team members can all share updates with each other, or share updates with your customers or partners - privately, or publicly!! It's your own oGoing where you can brand it, customize it, and manage it... Just go here to request your oGoing For Business portal for a free trial for 60 days - no strings attached. Request Business Portal
oGoing For Business has all the cool features of oGoing For Me, and then some!!
oGoing Team
oGoing is founded by Sanjay Dalal, serial entrepreneur & innovator, and a silicon valley veteran. oGoing Engineers have been working hard to bring oGoing to you (and are still working as you read this)... Contact Us if you are interested in joining oGoing Team.Sunday, December 6, 2009
Dealing with 'Friends': Using Multiple Feeds to Separate Personal and Professional
Kax has got questions about what to do when a student starts following your Twitter feed. Check out his post and the comment discussion that follows.
Personally, this hasn't been a problem for me.
I've got several Twitter, FB, Delicious, YouTube, etc... accounts. They are set up for a variety of both personal and professional uses (education PLN / music / family / and more). My high school students understand that while they are welcome to contact me through my professional 'classroom' feeds, I will refrain from accepting and/or block 'em from my personal feeds.
Seems like good rule of thumb in dealing with minors as well as a way to teach kids that there are different uses for different social media.
Personally, this hasn't been a problem for me.
I've got several Twitter, FB, Delicious, YouTube, etc... accounts. They are set up for a variety of both personal and professional uses (education PLN / music / family / and more). My high school students understand that while they are welcome to contact me through my professional 'classroom' feeds, I will refrain from accepting and/or block 'em from my personal feeds.
Seems like good rule of thumb in dealing with minors as well as a way to teach kids that there are different uses for different social media.
Tuesday, October 27, 2009
The Safety Net
Sorry to be coy (or weirdly hyperbolic) in my last post. 'Twas written in the heat of the moment.
Without going into detail, let's just say that I've got a student whose academic career may have been saved precisely because he was using social media.
This is so diametrically opposed to what all the naysayers told us back in the days of fear.
What's that you say? Your school's still afraid of social tech?
Well, I promise you things are changing.
This thing that came up yesterday was the third case I've heard of in the last three weeks from two different schools about the transparent nature of social tech saving a kid's hide.
I'm starting to think of the Net as a 'Safety Net'.
An example from a teacher at nearby school: student writes self-destructive comment on FB that two peers screenshot and send to guidance office. The student winds up getting help.
I remember the days when some folks were talking about disciplinary action for kids caught using social media. The days when we were afraid of what sorts of pictures our kids might post and what kinds of things they might say about us.
The days before we started to teach them digital health and the days before we started to expect them to uphold standards of digital citizenship.
What's that you say? Your school's not there yet?
Well, I promise you: it will be. Because it will have to be. We can't allow students to live in a digital world and fail to teach them how to treat one another in it.
Because social media is what you make it. It can be a place full of meanness and rants. Or it can be a place of community where our goal is to help one another out.
Judging by comparing my Twitter PLN to the posts that come through via some of the trending topics, it's obvious that the good and bad exist side-to-side. It's up to us as teachers to start tipping the scale in the direction of the good.
And we do that by teaching.
Because, fundamentally, the future starts in our classrooms.
Hate seeing offensive trash on the Net? Well, then teach your kids to treat one another with respect. Teach them that only weak souls trash the opinions of others whilst wearing the veil of anonymity.
I'm not completely naive. I'm a high school teacher; I've seen my fair share of what we might consider 'poor decisions' with regard to social tech. But I've also seen the good. And whether it's the case of my student getting the chance to get back on track and not ruin his hopes of going to college or that other student getting the help needed to deal with some serious issues, it was social media that worked as the conduit for the intervention.
After all, social media is just a reflection of us. If we are considerate and compassionate folks, then the social media landscape will be that much more compelling. Whereas if we deny it or walk away from it, the social media landscape will become far worse than YouTube's flame wars already portray it as.
Social media. It's what you make it. It can even be a safety net.
Without going into detail, let's just say that I've got a student whose academic career may have been saved precisely because he was using social media.
This is so diametrically opposed to what all the naysayers told us back in the days of fear.
What's that you say? Your school's still afraid of social tech?
Well, I promise you things are changing.
This thing that came up yesterday was the third case I've heard of in the last three weeks from two different schools about the transparent nature of social tech saving a kid's hide.
I'm starting to think of the Net as a 'Safety Net'.
An example from a teacher at nearby school: student writes self-destructive comment on FB that two peers screenshot and send to guidance office. The student winds up getting help.
I remember the days when some folks were talking about disciplinary action for kids caught using social media. The days when we were afraid of what sorts of pictures our kids might post and what kinds of things they might say about us.
The days before we started to teach them digital health and the days before we started to expect them to uphold standards of digital citizenship.
What's that you say? Your school's not there yet?
Well, I promise you: it will be. Because it will have to be. We can't allow students to live in a digital world and fail to teach them how to treat one another in it.
Because social media is what you make it. It can be a place full of meanness and rants. Or it can be a place of community where our goal is to help one another out.
Judging by comparing my Twitter PLN to the posts that come through via some of the trending topics, it's obvious that the good and bad exist side-to-side. It's up to us as teachers to start tipping the scale in the direction of the good.
And we do that by teaching.
Because, fundamentally, the future starts in our classrooms.
Hate seeing offensive trash on the Net? Well, then teach your kids to treat one another with respect. Teach them that only weak souls trash the opinions of others whilst wearing the veil of anonymity.
I'm not completely naive. I'm a high school teacher; I've seen my fair share of what we might consider 'poor decisions' with regard to social tech. But I've also seen the good. And whether it's the case of my student getting the chance to get back on track and not ruin his hopes of going to college or that other student getting the help needed to deal with some serious issues, it was social media that worked as the conduit for the intervention.
After all, social media is just a reflection of us. If we are considerate and compassionate folks, then the social media landscape will be that much more compelling. Whereas if we deny it or walk away from it, the social media landscape will become far worse than YouTube's flame wars already portray it as.
Social media. It's what you make it. It can even be a safety net.
Saturday, October 24, 2009
4 STRATEGIC PRINCIPLES FOR EVERY DIGITAL PUBLISHER
As publishers move more and more content to the Internet, mobile services, and e-readers, these digital activities change the structures and processes of underlying business operations. Many publishers, however, pay insufficient attention to the implications of these changes and thus miss out on many benefits possible with digital operations.
This occurs because publishers become focused on issues of content delivery and uncritically accept the fundamental elements of the processes involving platforms and intermediaries. In order to gain the fullest future benefits from the digital environment, however, publishers needs to strategically consider and direct activities involving the users, advertisers, prices, and purposes of their new platforms.
In creating business arrangements with platform and service providers and intermediaries, 4 fundamental strategic principles should guide your actions:
1. Control your customer lists. The most important thing you do as a publisher is to create relationships with and experiences for your customers. It is crucial to ensure that your content distribution and retail systems do not separate you from those who read, view, or listen to your content. If you do not operate your distribution or pay systems, or don’t have strong influence over their operations, this important part of the customer experience falls outside your control and— worse—you never establish direct relationships with customers that allow you to get to know them better, to create stronger bonds, to use them to improve your products, or to up-sell services. If you must use intermediaries, ensure that you have full access and rights to use e-mail, mobile, and other addresses for all your content customers and that you have some influence over the look, feel, and content of the contacts that your service providers have with your customers.
2. Control advertising in your digital space. Users see advertising placed on your website, your mobile messages, and your e-reader content as part of your product and it affects the experience you deliver to them. It is not enough to control the size and placement of ads; you also need to control the dynamic functionality, types, and content of ads. The experience your product delivers is of little interest to outside providers of digitally delivered advertising, but it must be to you. You should control your own advertising inventory and maintain approval rights and—as with audiences—you should have the ability to make direct contact with advertising customers so you can add value by working with them to achieve greater effectiveness and provide better benefits across your content platforms.
3. Control your own pricing. Do not put yourself in the position of merely accepting the ad suppliers’ price and payment for advertising appearing in your digital product. The digital space and audience contact that you provide is the product and service being purchased and some contact is more valuable than others. Know how your value compares to that of competitors and set your prices according. Don’t be a price taker, be a price maker. Digital advertising will not grow to become an important part of your business if you let the most important decision of the revenue model reside in someone who does not care about your business.
4. Drive customers to platforms most beneficial to you. Digital media give you the opportunities to serve customers where and when they want to be served, but you need to use those opportunities to drive them to your financially most important product. Internet sites, e-readers, mobile applications, and social media are highly useful for contact and interaction, but not yet very effective for revenue generation. The best effects typically result from increasing use of your offline product or driving traffic to your most finally effective digital location. Make sure that all the distribution platforms you use are configured for easy movement to other digital platforms that benefit you most, even if they don’t directly benefit your service provider.
Digital publishing can only become successful if you get the business fundamentals correct by controlling the most important commercial aspects of the operation. The value configuration created by customer interfaces and partner networks must be arranged to work in your favor and strategic thinking needs to guide how you organize and direct those activities.
This occurs because publishers become focused on issues of content delivery and uncritically accept the fundamental elements of the processes involving platforms and intermediaries. In order to gain the fullest future benefits from the digital environment, however, publishers needs to strategically consider and direct activities involving the users, advertisers, prices, and purposes of their new platforms.
In creating business arrangements with platform and service providers and intermediaries, 4 fundamental strategic principles should guide your actions:
1. Control your customer lists. The most important thing you do as a publisher is to create relationships with and experiences for your customers. It is crucial to ensure that your content distribution and retail systems do not separate you from those who read, view, or listen to your content. If you do not operate your distribution or pay systems, or don’t have strong influence over their operations, this important part of the customer experience falls outside your control and— worse—you never establish direct relationships with customers that allow you to get to know them better, to create stronger bonds, to use them to improve your products, or to up-sell services. If you must use intermediaries, ensure that you have full access and rights to use e-mail, mobile, and other addresses for all your content customers and that you have some influence over the look, feel, and content of the contacts that your service providers have with your customers.
2. Control advertising in your digital space. Users see advertising placed on your website, your mobile messages, and your e-reader content as part of your product and it affects the experience you deliver to them. It is not enough to control the size and placement of ads; you also need to control the dynamic functionality, types, and content of ads. The experience your product delivers is of little interest to outside providers of digitally delivered advertising, but it must be to you. You should control your own advertising inventory and maintain approval rights and—as with audiences—you should have the ability to make direct contact with advertising customers so you can add value by working with them to achieve greater effectiveness and provide better benefits across your content platforms.
3. Control your own pricing. Do not put yourself in the position of merely accepting the ad suppliers’ price and payment for advertising appearing in your digital product. The digital space and audience contact that you provide is the product and service being purchased and some contact is more valuable than others. Know how your value compares to that of competitors and set your prices according. Don’t be a price taker, be a price maker. Digital advertising will not grow to become an important part of your business if you let the most important decision of the revenue model reside in someone who does not care about your business.
4. Drive customers to platforms most beneficial to you. Digital media give you the opportunities to serve customers where and when they want to be served, but you need to use those opportunities to drive them to your financially most important product. Internet sites, e-readers, mobile applications, and social media are highly useful for contact and interaction, but not yet very effective for revenue generation. The best effects typically result from increasing use of your offline product or driving traffic to your most finally effective digital location. Make sure that all the distribution platforms you use are configured for easy movement to other digital platforms that benefit you most, even if they don’t directly benefit your service provider.
Digital publishing can only become successful if you get the business fundamentals correct by controlling the most important commercial aspects of the operation. The value configuration created by customer interfaces and partner networks must be arranged to work in your favor and strategic thinking needs to guide how you organize and direct those activities.
Wednesday, September 23, 2009
Did you know 4.0 - The changing media landscape
This video is an update to the original Shift Happens video, and includes facts and stats on the changing media landscape. It was developed by XPLANE, The Economist, Karl Fisch, Scott McLeod and Laura Bestler.
More videos:
Wednesday, September 16, 2009
USC Marshall Webinars on Business Models
These webinars are excerpted from USC and RUIs New Media Management certificate. Terrible sound quality but some interesting examples and Q&A sessions.
Media and Entertainment: Ad-Based Business Models
Media and Entertainment: Subscription-Based Business Models
Media and Entertainment: Purchase-Based Business Models
Media and Entertainment: Monetizing Social Media
See also:
Sunday, September 6, 2009
The Future of Content & Telecoms: Flat Rate Content Bundles and Social Media (Gerd Leonhard @ eComm 2009)
In this presentation from the eComm Conference in San Francisco Gerd Leonhard, a media futurist, author, and entrepreneur discuss the content industry and the use of user data as payment. "In exchange for value we surrender data. I get free music, free videos, free tv-shows, maybe even free software, because I give my data to be sold or given or leased to somebody else." This data Gerd argues creates pictures of people that create enormous value that will pay for the whole process. "One dollar a week, per user, of the internet in the US, will be enough to earn the music industry more money than they make with everything else. One dollar a week. And that is not even me paying the dollar, that is just me saying I'll be part of it, somebody else can pay the dollar"
"The filters for content might even make more money than the content itself"
"The fight for control was a fight for distribution"
"The fight for attention is a fight for trust"
The slides can be found here.
Wednesday, September 2, 2009
From the PLN: Teachers Speaking out on Social Media
A number of readers wrote back concerning our recent discussion of PLNs and social tech for professional development.
Reader Shaken writes:
Reader Mel writes:
Another reader commented on the changing nature of teaching itself in light of social media. Here's a particularly prescient selection from a well considered argument.
Reader Seth writes:
Reader Shaken writes:
I'm a new teacher (just into my second year) and have found the three months using a PLN of more value than my entire time at Uni. To have the knowledge, expertise, experience, ideas and thoughts of innovative educators at my fingertips is incredible. I am learning so quickly and have now found myself teaching my colleagues.
Reader Mel writes:
I'm currently trying to change my PLN behaviour.
For years I've been a lurker. I've read edublogs, been on Ning and been following my twitter feed. Now I'm attempting to be apart of the voice out there and I think what you're saying here is a big part of that but in reverse.
I've been following others but not giving of myself and is that fair either, no. I have something to contribute to help the network work better. Also, by doing so the network is making more of an impact on me.
Another reader commented on the changing nature of teaching itself in light of social media. Here's a particularly prescient selection from a well considered argument.
Reader Seth writes:
But there's another level to all of this that is worth thinking about: educating teachers to educate their students in public exposes the foibles of the students (directly) and of the teacher (at least indirectly, and sometimes directly) to public scrutiny. It's scary business. It requires some very real confidence in yourself as a person and as a teacher to be able to not know something in public -- or to correct a mistake in public.
For many teachers faced with social media, I think this is part of the very real threat that they feel: they are turning their classrooms open to (potentially judgmental) strangers -- and ceding centerstage, and ceasing to be the expert, but instead being a learner with their students.
It's big stuff, and technology is a symptom, and not the disease. In almost every case where we talk about technological issues, what we're getting at are fundamental questions of pedagogy and philosophy. The technology just exposes some of these more-buried issues.
Tuesday, July 28, 2009
Social Technology in Education Lesson Plan Wiki
Seeking teachers to submit content to the new Social Technology in Education Lesson Plan Wiki!
There are so many fresh approaches being taken to the integration of social and participatory media in education, I thought it would be a useful thing to have a practitioner-created resource full of lesson plans demonstrating the best practices in social tech enhanced teaching.
Feel free to submit content and ideas. It's a wiki... you can't mess it up. Experiment, mash it up, get some thoughts out there, and let's put together a nice free and collaborative resource.
There are so many fresh approaches being taken to the integration of social and participatory media in education, I thought it would be a useful thing to have a practitioner-created resource full of lesson plans demonstrating the best practices in social tech enhanced teaching.
Feel free to submit content and ideas. It's a wiki... you can't mess it up. Experiment, mash it up, get some thoughts out there, and let's put together a nice free and collaborative resource.
Saturday, July 25, 2009
Social Technology and Education Conference: Aug 14th
Will be headed to Massachusetts in August for the 'Social Technology and Education' one day conference at Harvard. Looking forward to it as I haven't been back up in the Boston area in a few years and have some dear friends to catch up with.
Here's a link to the conference info site and here's a blurb explaining what's going on:
I plan to be presenting a short workshop on using Twitter in the classroom. It will cover using Twitter and several Tweet apps to create personalized collaborative reference bibliographies, using Twitter in real-time mentoring, and using Twitter as an assessment tool in the classroom.
Here's a link to the conference info site and here's a blurb explaining what's going on:
This conference is a free one-day event where attendees can learn about how social technologies can be used to create and support communities of learning. Anyone who works in education or is interested in learning more about these technologies, and how they can be used in high schools, colleges, and universities. Students can also attend if they want to listen or be on a panel talking about social tools.
I plan to be presenting a short workshop on using Twitter in the classroom. It will cover using Twitter and several Tweet apps to create personalized collaborative reference bibliographies, using Twitter in real-time mentoring, and using Twitter as an assessment tool in the classroom.
Thursday, July 23, 2009
New Research on the Social Media Attitudes of Teachers
So you wanted some new research on the attitudes of teachers towards social media?
Well, here you go; courtesy of IssueLab, WGBH Educational Foundation, the National Science Foundation, and Education Development Center's Center for Children and Technology.
IssueLab, by the way, is my new favorite thing on the Internets. I have just signed up as a Lab Rat.
Well, here you go; courtesy of IssueLab, WGBH Educational Foundation, the National Science Foundation, and Education Development Center's Center for Children and Technology.
IssueLab, by the way, is my new favorite thing on the Internets. I have just signed up as a Lab Rat.
Thursday, July 16, 2009
From the Archives: Social Media and Cheating
Originally posted April 30, 2009
Reader MagistraM writes:
I would say that social media actually may present us with a new post-cheating paradigm. I liken it to students in an oil painting class: barring having someone else do it for you, you just "can't" cheat on an oil painting.
Because of the transparency of Web 2.0, cheating in the traditional forms -- plagiarism, copying, cribnotes -- is severely limited in a practical sense. Because of the individuality and personalization of assessment and creation via Web 2.0, cheating itself becomes a rather uninteresting option.
Students tend to cheat out of a mix of boredom and procrastination; cheating is a manifestation of a lack of motivation to be authentic -- whether we're talking about the total slacker who cut-and-pastes from Encarta, or the 'sophisticated' cheater who tries to juke the SAT.
Unauthentic assessment will produce cheaters.
And what is unauthentic assessment? I'd define it as assessment that fails in its structural makeup to address the realities of society -- both at a local and global level.
Now, I'm no spring chicken. I know there are kids who will try to cheat their way around anything. I've caught a few in my own classes. But, if the teacher is using the tools available to engage the students rather than just to talk 'at' them, the teacher has got a much better shot of fostering the type of community in the classroom where cheating will not be tolerated among the students themselves. Web 2.0, by its very nature is a medium that requires you to give of yourself to get anything in return. And that's the sort of thing that a good teacher can tap into both to encourage authentic engagement as well as to foster a spirit of classroom-wide local goodwill. Combined, cheating becomes a much less cool option.
Reader MagistraM writes:
I love how you have placed the responsibility for learning so clearly on your students. A common concern about using digital tools for classwork and assessments is that the students will be "cheating". This lesson demonstrates how the social tools facilitate every student's learning - and demands each student to contribute.
I would say that social media actually may present us with a new post-cheating paradigm. I liken it to students in an oil painting class: barring having someone else do it for you, you just "can't" cheat on an oil painting.
Because of the transparency of Web 2.0, cheating in the traditional forms -- plagiarism, copying, cribnotes -- is severely limited in a practical sense. Because of the individuality and personalization of assessment and creation via Web 2.0, cheating itself becomes a rather uninteresting option.
Students tend to cheat out of a mix of boredom and procrastination; cheating is a manifestation of a lack of motivation to be authentic -- whether we're talking about the total slacker who cut-and-pastes from Encarta, or the 'sophisticated' cheater who tries to juke the SAT.
Unauthentic assessment will produce cheaters.
And what is unauthentic assessment? I'd define it as assessment that fails in its structural makeup to address the realities of society -- both at a local and global level.
Now, I'm no spring chicken. I know there are kids who will try to cheat their way around anything. I've caught a few in my own classes. But, if the teacher is using the tools available to engage the students rather than just to talk 'at' them, the teacher has got a much better shot of fostering the type of community in the classroom where cheating will not be tolerated among the students themselves. Web 2.0, by its very nature is a medium that requires you to give of yourself to get anything in return. And that's the sort of thing that a good teacher can tap into both to encourage authentic engagement as well as to foster a spirit of classroom-wide local goodwill. Combined, cheating becomes a much less cool option.
Friday, June 26, 2009
Does Arne Get It?
Digital Education reports on a new report released by US Dept of Ed which suggests that 'blended learning' is more effective than strictly face-to-face or strictly online learning.
Despite the fact that, as Dig Ed notes, little to none of the research looked specifically at K-12 learning, I'm willing to barter that the gist of it is right. 'Blended' or 'Hybrid' learning merging digital and f2f has been my go-to for the last two years and I couldn't imagine running a successful paperless classroom any other way.
But that's not the end of the story.
Because also in the article hangs a bit of low-lying fruit in the form of a response to the report by Arne Duncan:
Problem is: it doesn't seem like the Secretary of Education has any clue what he's talking about.
Teachers don't need to incorporate 'digital content' into anything. You don't teach 'digital content' in a paperless English class; you teach 'English language and literature content' via digital alternatives to paper. You don't teach 'digital content' in a paperless art history class; you teach the content of art history via digital means.
Via the integration of technology, students learn vital networking, communication, and participatory media skills; but this isn't the content of the course.
If anything, in a fully integrated Web 2.0 classroom, it is the students who are creating 'digital content'.
Furthermore, 'open-source' learning doesn't require any management system. You don't need to spend any money on a management system. Nor do you need to spend any money on textbooks. Rather, just spend your money on smart teachers who are savvy enough to know how to put together the content of an authentic course by compiling open-source materials, creating engaged and vigorous lesson plans, and integrating a sophisticated use of social media tools.
Get it?
[Add 6:40PM - My original title for this post was 'Is Arne Duncan a Luddite?' but I decided to pull that. Because Arne obviously is not a Luddite. It's not that he doesn't like or dislike technology. It's that he doesn't understand what's going on. He just doesn't get it. -- Shelly]
Despite the fact that, as Dig Ed notes, little to none of the research looked specifically at K-12 learning, I'm willing to barter that the gist of it is right. 'Blended' or 'Hybrid' learning merging digital and f2f has been my go-to for the last two years and I couldn't imagine running a successful paperless classroom any other way.
But that's not the end of the story.
Because also in the article hangs a bit of low-lying fruit in the form of a response to the report by Arne Duncan:
“This new report reinforces that effective teachers need to incorporate digital content into everyday classes and consider open-source learning management systems, which have proven cost effective in school districts and colleges nationwide.”
Problem is: it doesn't seem like the Secretary of Education has any clue what he's talking about.
Teachers don't need to incorporate 'digital content' into anything. You don't teach 'digital content' in a paperless English class; you teach 'English language and literature content' via digital alternatives to paper. You don't teach 'digital content' in a paperless art history class; you teach the content of art history via digital means.
Via the integration of technology, students learn vital networking, communication, and participatory media skills; but this isn't the content of the course.
If anything, in a fully integrated Web 2.0 classroom, it is the students who are creating 'digital content'.
Furthermore, 'open-source' learning doesn't require any management system. You don't need to spend any money on a management system. Nor do you need to spend any money on textbooks. Rather, just spend your money on smart teachers who are savvy enough to know how to put together the content of an authentic course by compiling open-source materials, creating engaged and vigorous lesson plans, and integrating a sophisticated use of social media tools.
Get it?
[Add 6:40PM - My original title for this post was 'Is Arne Duncan a Luddite?' but I decided to pull that. Because Arne obviously is not a Luddite. It's not that he doesn't like or dislike technology. It's that he doesn't understand what's going on. He just doesn't get it. -- Shelly]
Thursday, June 25, 2009
Social Media and Digital Portfolios for College Admissions
With regard to turning in digital portfolios as a part of college admissions, a reader asks:
The portfolios I am describing are actually the product of four years of the student's classroom and coursework engagement with social media integrated across the high school curriculum.
In other words, the portfolio would consist of the student's four-year blog -- which among other things would include blog post editions of all graded writing and daily work in all disciplines -- as well as the student's social bookmarks, videos and other multi-media, and a variety of participatory media projects that would demonstrate creativity, task determination, and intellectual aptitude in ways that SATs and exam scores just can't.
The validity of the portfolio can easily be weighed up against four years worth of work. In other words, the portfolio would not represent some sort of 'capstone' project, but rather would be an honest reflection of four years of formative development.
Because the majority of the work represented by this portfolio will have been completed within the context of classwork and learning and because the tools used in creating the portfolio are authentic Web 2.0 public tools, there is little threat to the 'rigging' of the portfolio by the student -- time stamps, cross-Web intertextuality, and just plain ongoing teacher assessment of the student's involvement in the daily creation and documentation of a learning portfolio contribute to the authenticity.
I'm not talking about students submitting their MySpace pages to college admissions. I'm talking about students submitting portfolios which demonstrate readiness for college by representing four years of the full application of integrated social media tools in the day-to-day coursework of the student.
How do college admissions officers know the authenticity and validity of these "digital" portfolios. How do I know who the work is from?
The portfolios I am describing are actually the product of four years of the student's classroom and coursework engagement with social media integrated across the high school curriculum.
In other words, the portfolio would consist of the student's four-year blog -- which among other things would include blog post editions of all graded writing and daily work in all disciplines -- as well as the student's social bookmarks, videos and other multi-media, and a variety of participatory media projects that would demonstrate creativity, task determination, and intellectual aptitude in ways that SATs and exam scores just can't.
The validity of the portfolio can easily be weighed up against four years worth of work. In other words, the portfolio would not represent some sort of 'capstone' project, but rather would be an honest reflection of four years of formative development.
Because the majority of the work represented by this portfolio will have been completed within the context of classwork and learning and because the tools used in creating the portfolio are authentic Web 2.0 public tools, there is little threat to the 'rigging' of the portfolio by the student -- time stamps, cross-Web intertextuality, and just plain ongoing teacher assessment of the student's involvement in the daily creation and documentation of a learning portfolio contribute to the authenticity.
I'm not talking about students submitting their MySpace pages to college admissions. I'm talking about students submitting portfolios which demonstrate readiness for college by representing four years of the full application of integrated social media tools in the day-to-day coursework of the student.
Reminder: This Week's Friday Chat Topic -- Professional Development for Educators: What's Social Media Got to Do With It?
The Friday Chat -- 1PM EST -- June 26th
Professional Development for Educators: What's Social Media Got to Do With It?
We'll be talking about the (nearly) 101 ways in which social media provides for more meaningful professional development for teachers and ultimately what that means for our students and the the classroom experience.
The Friday Chat: Hosted by TeachPaperless every Friday at http://todaysmeet.com/teachpaperless
Professional Development for Educators: What's Social Media Got to Do With It?
We'll be talking about the (nearly) 101 ways in which social media provides for more meaningful professional development for teachers and ultimately what that means for our students and the the classroom experience.
The Friday Chat: Hosted by TeachPaperless every Friday at http://todaysmeet.com/teachpaperless
Monday, June 22, 2009
This Week's Friday Chat - Professional Development for Educators: What's Social Media Got to Do With It?
By special request, this week's Friday Chat will be on the topic:
Professional Development for Educators: What's Social Media Got to Do With It?
We'll be talking about the (nearly) 101 ways in which social media provides for more meaningful professional development for teachers and ultimately what that means for our students and the the classroom experience.
The Friday Chat: Hosted by TeachPaperless every Friday at http://todaysmeet.com/teachpaperless
Professional Development for Educators: What's Social Media Got to Do With It?
We'll be talking about the (nearly) 101 ways in which social media provides for more meaningful professional development for teachers and ultimately what that means for our students and the the classroom experience.
The Friday Chat: Hosted by TeachPaperless every Friday at http://todaysmeet.com/teachpaperless
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