Written by: Dan Maas
3/1/2009 

For a while now, I've been using MIT's posting of their class lectures online and freely available as an example of a trend I see in information: it is self-service and free.  In speaking with colleagues, I have often been asked about the impact this has on our organizations and our society.  Another example would be the Rocky Mountain News going under this week and the Tuscon paper going down the week before.  In a recent blog post, I debated with a great contributor (thanks Ava) who was worried about the loss of newspapers and the quality reporting, photography and other information services they provided.  She worried that a migration to blogs would mean that the quality of our news would deterioriate into amatuer commentary and grainy cell-phone photography.

I disagree that this is the direction and the consequence.  What is a blog entry?  It is a news article that enables people to comment back.  It is the newspaper shifting from a dissemination service to an interactive news service.  The news agencies that get that and switch their business model to blogs and web (selling advertsiing space not in tons of paper inserts, but clickable banners on blogs) will be the ones that survive.

But back to MIT... giving away their lectures seems like they are giving away their core business, right?  The amazing knowledge discussed and explained in their courses is what makes MIT so special, right?

Wrong.

What MIT has realized is that the diploma from their school is not a reflection of the knowledge the graduate has experienced, but rather is a reflection of the quality of the student's work.  Sure, you can listen to an MIT professor, but can you get that professor to acknowledge you as having mastered that knowledge?  That's what MIT's core business is all about.  So giving away information like posting their lectures online is actually a marketing and brand-awareness move that has no negative cost to the organization.  By giving their lectures away, schools and private citizens alike will use these recordings and become even more convinced of MIT's expertise.  And confidence makes the MIT brand have its value which justifies their tuition which powers their business model.

So educational or membership organization who have always maintained control over their information accessible only as a function of membership need to rethink the business model... if we don't, the Rocky Mountain News' future may become ours...

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Location: Blogs Dan Maas, Ed.D. Chief Information Officer

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