Check out Uncle Phil's take on University Personalization

Kaplan University... and Uncle Phil... believe in university personalization.

I just saw this video on TV, then YouTube'd it and read the comments that people had left. Commenter TheUnderKing said, "It's a great message about the current system, and I was hoping that it was going to be from some kind of independent organization. I was excited when I saw it on television and then angered when the Kaplan logo came up. But now I'm just glad that someone is saying it, at least this commercial isn't annoying like the others, it's inspiring."

That pretty much summarizes my opinion of it. Kaplan is on to something, and no disrespect to Kaplan or anyone who takes their courses, but it's still Kaplan. The point of Kaplan is personalization. It's a great tool for people who can't do the standard university in the standard way. Kaplan has a bit of a stigma, and it's not really taken too seriously -- mostly people know them from pushy advertising (some bloggers even call it Krap-lan), not because someone they know has attended Kaplan.

So, this isn't so much about the university as a specific school but The University as a concept as a whole. People want the ability to tailor their learning to their needs. Kaplan supports this. Hopefully the rest of the collegiate world will soon support it, too.

Facebook is eating the Internet

Sorry that this post is so late.


In other news... FACEBOOK IS TAKING OVER THE INTERNET.

Now that that's out, Facebook is expanding its reign.. Take a look at their latest announcement.
It says how now, you can be on other previously unaffiliated websites (Pandora, CNN, etc) and look for the "Like" button. If you Like something, it's posted to your news feed.

Some might say, whatever, cool. But do you know what that means? That means that Facebook now can track your non-Book related activity (which they probably have been doing for a while). Fabulous -- as if Facebook needed MORE information about us.

Facebook is becoming the new Google.

#Hardwithoutshoes

We discussed the shoe project as one of the benefits of internets and charities... check out the latest on Twitter...

"#hardwithoutshoes is a popular topic on Twitter right now.


@TOMSshoes started this hashtag for One Day Without Shoes (April 8), to raise awareness of those who cannot afford shoes."

...Nice to see it's a trending topic and that the internet fantasy has expanded to a second medium.

If it ain't broke....

Sunstein says personalization narrows the internet horizons, and that too much personalization leads to lack of common experience. I think, perhaps, that people already vote. Look at the almighty Google. When they launched Google Buzz, I'm fairly certain they thought they could replicate and expand upon the idea of Twitter. Same with Google Wave and Facebook. They've dominated everything else -- Google over Yahoo!, Dogpile, and every other search engine. Gmail over Hotmail, Yahoo!, and AOL. It makes sense that they would think that way. They're generally the winners. But, then the people "vote". They cast their vote by joining or continuing their usage of the original site that Google was trying to replicate.  They continue their usage and don't use the new and "improved" site that Google was trying to make.

So, what's left for them to do? Sit back and let someone else prosper? Heck, no. Talk some smack then talk about buying them out. Obviously the mature thing to do. That's what Google did with YouTube.

You say "democracy",

I say "monopoly."