"MIT has a programme that lets anyone watch hundreds of its lectures free online, even the co-founder of Microsoft, and it turned out Mr. Gates had become a fan of Prof Sadoway's solid state chemistry course." ... "He said to me, if you ever decide to take this off campus in the form of a start-up company, let me know, I'd be willing to put some money into it." <FT, Article: Batteries required by Pilita Clark, 12 November 2012, print edition>
This is an example of the worst possible outcome of opening up the "old" containerized form of educational content. But why being so modest about success? Or is it the fear of loosing ones identity in times when privacy invasion is the biggest knowledge industry on this planet?
After a refreshing talk yesterday the ITunesU saga got a new twist. The university has no clear regulation on who gets the kudos of the intellectual property it holds. But while private-public partnerships reign in the ivory tower the logos of the dispute is: How to pay for it all?
But this is not in the cards. In 2012, close to the Frank Zappa's birthday, the university's legal department issues concerns about Apple's terms of contract. Not because Apple is not clear, but because UM has a no policy. It does not regulate the performing rights and other copyright related rights. What is interesting is that non of these rights matter to the story told in the FT.
The proposal I send to the Leading in Learning programme got rejected on different grounds. It proposed to use the recorded lectures, post produce them and distribute them via ITunesU to all current student of UM and Alumni. Thus contributing to the interdisciplinary stance UM takes towards education in general. The resistance caused by the publication of the proposal is only matched by the irrelevance of it. Nothing that is taught within these walls can match the experience provided by services such as iTunesU. No single teaching unit taught at UM is not to be found in audiovisual format, including lecture notes, exam questions and in most cases a well connected community of youngsters who are passionate about it, on such platforms like ITunesU. Free of charge, on demand 24/7 selbstverstaendlich!
How is this possible? One reason is certainly open innovation. The internet is based on open source software from which MIT took over the idea to create Open Education. It is also a strategic component to assert its leadership position in the market. By creating disruptions (Does anyone remember the book Disruptive Innovations, Christensen's 2003 ?) in the market, such as opening up the content of education for free for everyone (by the way that's the same thing that Google does towards Apple), MIT creates a new arena and forces its competition to take a back seat.
Nothing is lost on this proposal but an important lesson learned. The UM has a legal gray zone it could bridge in the hope to get in touch with the emperors new clothing. But as time shows, those industries that have already digested the information revolution, suffered terrible from the resulting restructuring processes. Since the pace and scope of this revolution is far from reaching its limits it would be a benefit to start anticipating the effects before they happen.
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