In my role at TCO at the university I often think about how we can disrupt the norms and well.. make more bucks. Its a lot harder than it sounds really.
One of the biggest trends now in startups and venture capital, is this disruption of this educational market, and everything is up for grabs. Its folks thinking about doing education differently and if you think about it, universities are ripe for this kind of idea exploration. Its filled with legacy systems, methods and infrastructure, heck just pick a specific educational vertical and you can find a dozen or more startups targeting that space.
One hot topic these days are MOOCs, massive open online course platforms/communities. These are where most folks tend to spend their chatter, is online education disrupting everything. Personally, i think much of this is trending the same way web 2.0 did when it arrived once the scene in 2006ish, its just tons of experimentation. That leads to 100,000 ideas of which maybe 50 will sustain. MOOCs are part of that disruption. They may stay i dunno, too early to tell. There’s something about the physical that education will always have to its advantage. You need people, you need context, you need circumstance. But this is for another ramble.
My father was a professor at Ohio State for 5o years. Yes thats 50 years. I grew up walking around campus, sliding down the halls of Baker Systems, always in a bit of awe of the might and capability of the university. Some of that classical retro infrastructure from way back when is still here, savored past I guess and look man i’d kill for punchcard machine myself but.. I’m also of the mindset of disruption and big ideas and what can I do to help the university find new cash, new funds, new ways to making money so it can carry on. Thats the quest.
I saw this other day and and it was a big nod in my head…
Monetizing content we make for instruction is hugely obvious to me. Its likely in varied states of execution across campus. I’ve been at Ohio State for little under 2 years now but I know these earnings units exist, and likely there’s a few going after this angle. Question is can we help them, can we help accelerate them, and or how do we do it in a way that isn’t selling out.
From a purely intellectual property position, this is all content/ip the university makes and swims in, thus, it should be able to monetize. At TCO we’re exploring this as we get it, but a startup like this seems hugely obvious to to potential we’re standing on.
I often get the cold should on this notion of selling out, like we become tainted. No one likes to think we’re selling out yet we all need to really “sell” to survive I think. You’re either selling your position, your voice, your authority, your concept, you ideas, you figuring out how to monetize you is half of life’s mission these days. Instead of seeing that as blemish, we should see it as an opportunity.