If You Can’t Beat’em, Buy’em

One of the largest satellite TV providers, DirecTv is reported to have offered $1 billion to purchase Hulu. This is a classic example of a company covering its bets as they observe that the way we consumers watch TV continues to change.  For many of us, using cable or satellite to watch our favorite programs is becoming a thing of the past.  Hulu, Netflix and Amazon.com now offer just about any current show on demand and the HD picture is able to be displayed easily on the large flat screen in your family room.  It is no wonder that paying that monthly bill to the cable or satellite company for hundreds of channels we don’t watch is being questioned. 

A look at the catalog of offerings by Hulu Plus or Netflix Online will show hundreds of network programs available when you want to watch.  Not only can you watch the latest episode of your favorite primetime soap, you can go back and watch all the episodes, even those from a previous season.  Programs long gone from the big networks or from even the more esoteric cable channels are available on line.  Remember Rocky and Bullwinkle, or the original Star Trek from the late sixties?  They are all available for your viewing pleasure. And the price is just 8 bucks a month.

                                                                                                                      

To make a fair price comparison you need to factor in that to use Hulu or Netflix you must have a high speed Internet connection and that, of course, will cost about $40 to $60 per month.  But with most cases, switching from cable will save money.

Cutting the cable cord will also make getting live sporting events and late breaking news a bit harder to get.  Many have rediscovered over-the-air TV as a good solution.  Unless you live far removed from a large city, a modest antenna and new digital TV will pull in more local stations than ever before.  It is not uncommon for viewers in our area to receive 30 or more different channels over the air.

The recent offer to buy Hulu by DirecTv, from a partnership made up of News Corp, Disney and Comcast, will be interesting to watch.  All three of the current owners have more than a passing interest and financial investment in how we watch and pay for TV.  As they say in the business, “Stay Tuned.”

Venus Fly Trap Sale Just For You

While the topic of information and privacy has been dominating the news lately, it certainly should not come as a big surprise that our digitally interconnected world, while replete with many valuable and useful devices and services, also has a significant downside when it comes to privacy.    Unfortunately, in order to function in this world, it is almost impossible to completely disconnect and refrain from sharing personal information on these networks.  Our medical information, our banking and taxes details, even what brand of cornflakes we buy are all regularly and systematically stored and analyzed by machines.

If you would like to see first hand how quickly this information can be processed, distributed (read sold) and used to communicate with you (read sell you) some product or service, I have a simple project you might like to try.  

First, think of a topic about which you have no interest.  The more arcane the better but it can be as simple as buying a new car.  Begin by spending a few minutes on Google or another search engine using your chosen topic.  The more sites you go to the better.  Next, go to Amazon.com and search for books, videos, and products that relate to your topic.  You don’t need to buy anything.  Also, if you use gmail or yahoo or any other free email service, send someone an email with the bogus topic included in the text.  You can send the email to yourself.  It makes no difference.

Repeat a few times and wait.  Sooner than you might think, i.e. a matter of days, when you sign on to Facebook or Weather.com or any website that carries ads, you will begin to see ads that relate to your specific topic. Click on one or two of these ads.  You need not purchase anything.  In a week or so you will more customized ads about your bogus topic than you will ever care to view.  

The more arcane the topic you choose the more apparent the targeting will be.  Most sites have generic ads for cars and soap, few will have ads for the care and feeding of Venus Fly Traps.

While the results of this test will be sobering and scary for some, it is not meant to scare you but only to serve as a reminder to all that the information we share is retained, distilled and shared.  Remember that the next time you swipe that supermarket card or give a clerk your email address so your receipt can be emailed to you the savings or convenience comes with a cost.

What ... No Football Team?

With high school commencements still fresh in their minds, many graduates are now looking forward to college. There has been a lot of discussion in the media lately about the rising cost of a college education and whether it is still a good investment. Already many students coming out of high school are choosing to enroll in community or technical colleges which are significantly less expensive than large universities. After completing two years and satisfying most of the required core courses the students move on to the larger traditional campuses with broader course offerings to complete a degree program.

There is another option for these traditional students as well as for those already in the workforce looking to get a degree or advanced certification. This option has been gaining a lot of attention and according to many pundits, might well change the process and economics of higher education forever.

Called MOOCs (Massive Online Open Courses), these courses are delivered using the web or other online technologies to very large groups of students. They are highly interactive and employ traditional course materials like readings, videos and lectures. They encourage interactive user forums that help build a community for the students, professors, and TAs. The latter is important since students can participate from anywhere on earth that has internet access.

Other than using new technology, you might ask what makes a MOOC different from the correspondence course delivered by snail mail in the 1950s or the much hyped and often less than effective distance learning of ten years ago.

Perhaps most significant is the quality. Some of the most prestigious colleges and universities are embracing MOOCs. For example, Harvard, MIT, UC Berkeley and the University of Queensland in Australia are part of a consortium developing and distributing courses. Closer to home you can find several MOOCs offered by UC. The course options are often as broad as can be found in any leading university’s traditional catalog.

Rather than having a lowly adjunct professor to lead the class, you will find some of the nation’s top professors in their field providing high quality lectures and coursework. Content can range from a Harvard Law School course on Copyright Law to a “The Plays of Shakespeare” offered by New York University.

There is no one economic model for MOOCs. Some schools charge tuition comparable to traditional courses while others are absolutely free. Some are free to take and charge only if you want certification after you complete the course and pass the exam.

Obviously the free model will not be sustainable but many education professionals predict that MOOCs will help to bring down the cost of higher education and allow greater participation by individuals who are left out of post-secondary opportunities due to work schedule or economics or both.