March 27, 2000– Newsletter #73

Greetings, Weekend Silicon Warriors,

I wanted to tell you about a conversation I had with an IT
friend of mine who runs a server in California. He told me a
great story about the online theft of images. At least twice
a day, someone writes to me asking how to stop people from
stealing images from their Web pages. I always answer that
you can’t. One way or another, someone can grab the images.
In addition, at least once a week someone else writes
telling me of a new, revolutionary method of stopping
people from stealing images – a method that quickly turns
out to not work.

Well…this friend is going to house the pages and images from
an upcoming blockbuster movie (He asked me not to tell the name).
The movie company hired a software team to set up programming to
stop the theft of the images. The team came up with a type of
encryption. To view the pages, users would have to download a
plug-in that would decrypt the images. The plug-in also
disallowed screen capture and right click. According to the
software team, the images were safe.

My friend told his IT manager about the software and the
gauntlet was thrown down. The plug-in was 300 KB and took
around two minutes to download and install. The IT tech had
the images in less time.

Oh well. Like I say, the Web is no place to hide things.

Did you hear…

* A software company that makes porn-blocking software is
suing the people responsible for distributing software that
cracks the blocks. Microsystems Software, which sells the
popular Cyber Patrol, filed suit to block Eddy L. O. Jansson
and Matthew Skala from continuing to distribute their cphack
program. Jansson and Skala are proclaiming censorship as
their defense.

* Would you buy stock from Captain Kirk? William Shatner, the
face of Priceline.com, has filed with the Securities &
Exchange Commission to sell off 35,000 of the 125,000 shares
of stock he received in return for being spokesperson. It may
be a good deal for Priceline actually. Maybe people will buy
the stock for the Shatner connection rather than as an
investment. If Shatner signs each certificate, maybe more
will be framed and hung than will be cashed in.

* Yet another train wreck ’round Microsoft way. You may have
heard that Microsoft finally admitted that there were holes
in its IE and other server software products. Well, now one
of the patches they offered to plug the holes is backfiring.
Apparently the 128-bit encryption patch will erase older
version files and cause the software to lock out all users
(including the owner) after a restart. Oooops.

* Get your tickets online the next time you want to hit the
theatre. Three theatre companies (representing six chains)
have begun offering the service in larger markets.
Loews Cineplex Entertainment Corp., General Atlantic Partners,
and Accretive Technology Partners have invested tens of
millions hoping that people will go online to buy. They’ll
have some success, but I don’t believe the impact will be as
great until the people can also view the movies online. I
mean, you still have to go to the theatre to view the film,
right? Why buy the tix online?

Now onto today’s topic…

Last year I made a move from Pennsylvania to Louisiana to
take a tech position in a new communications department.
The reason for the move was that I was offered strong support
for putting classes online. I’m already teaching HTML online
and, in the fall, I’ll go online with my first communications
class.

The concept, from the start of putting classes online, was far
more academic than profit-oriented. Yes, online classes will
generate more money from students without lessening class
space, but that’s not the real reason. People’s lives are
hectic. Online classes have brought students to me who
couldn’t normally take a class with me. Online classes help
students who want to take two classes that meet at the same
time. If one is online, he or she can now take both. The
mother who works a job and raises two kids who couldn’t make
it to a 9:00AM class can now “go to school” at 10PM after her
kids have finally gone to sleep (I teach this student, by the
way).

One of the biggest concerns facing any professor who decides
to put a class online is making sure the online class has the
same academic rigor as the in-class version. Truth be told,
I make my online classes harder than my in-class versions.
Some of my students read this newsletter. They won’t like
hearing that…

The academic rigor of a class is very important outside the
school as well. If an employer believes that online classes
are easier than in-class versions, he or she might not be as
willing to hire someone who took the majority of their
classes online.

Now, I said all that to say all this: Microstrategy founder
Michael Saylor has created a bit of a whirlwind by announcing
that he is pledging $100 million towards an unnamed
“Ivy-League” cyber-university.

In his mind, anyone with a computer and a modem should be
able to receive an education…for free. I like it so far.

The concept is still in the development stage, but the idea
is that Saylor will grab the “best and the brightest”
professors in all areas of knowledge and have them lecture
in state-of-the-art cyber-studios and then broadcast that
signal over the Web. Not only over the Web, but Saylor will
also set up buildings where people can go to “take” the
classes. My guess is that there will be proctors and helpers
at these locations.

You could actually listen to a lecture on Web economics by
Bill Gates. You could hear a discussion of the Web’s
structure from Tim Berners-Lee. Michael Jordan could teach on
sports. Oprah could teach about broadcasting. You could hear
a lecture on Web design from…uh…some guy.

It’s a stunning idea. Lecturers would not be paid, but would
rather be asked to donate their time. I’d do it. Who wouldn’t?

I love the idea. I just wonder about actually calling it a
university. Here are a couple of concerns:

Are these really classes? If so, are these classes going to
be grouped together in such a way that a person who attended
some can proclaim they were taught enough of the basic
knowledge to have a degree bestowed upon them? The press
release suggests this is the case.

Will there be repeat classes? Can I take Web design in the
fall rather than this spring? Will the classes be more than
single lectures?

Let’s say they are full, semester-long classes. The story I
read suggests there will be. How will the level of knowledge
retention in students be tested? Traditional tests and papers?
If so, who in the world is going to read them all? I’ll donate
my time to lecture. You’ll have to pay me to read 100,000
term papers.

There would be no interaction between students and teachers
except for emails. That’s not good. That’s been the main
complaint the three times I have taught online. I wasn’t
there to answer questions. Students were left to their own
devices at times. Many didn’t like that feeling.

On the legal side, what about intellectual property? I allow
my students to tape record my classes. Many professors do not.
They hate the thought of their lectures becoming public record.
We work pretty darn hard on these lectures. Giving the words
away might be a little more than what some professors can stand.

What about copyright? According to copyright law, as a
professor, I can make a copy of an article to put on reserve,
for one semester, for my students. What if I go online and
lecture to 100,000? Can I put it on reserve for all of them?
How about if I don’t worry about reserve? I’ll just display
the charts while lecturing. You can all visit me in the
poorhouse after my suit for copyright infringement is settled.

My main concern, as I stated before, is academic rigor. How
will students be tested? How will a professor know he or she
is imparting the knowledge correctly?

Let’s say you own a company and two people come in for the
same job. One has a degree from Yale and the other has a
degree from this online institution. (Yes, it’s a fair
comparison-Saylor said the education will be Ivy League level.)

Off the top of your head…who would you think is more
qualified? You may be fully and totally wrong in your
stereotypes, but you’d have them nonetheless.

I think this is a magnificent idea. I really do. I want to
see such a university set up and running. Many universities
are offering full degrees online right now. Seton Hall offers
a Master’s in Executive Communication and one in Healthcare
Administration online. William Howard Taft University has an
online catalog for their Independent Study degree programs in
the graduate schools of business, education and law. Indiana
Wesleyan University offers an MBA online. Of course, there are
many more. These are just a few that popped up in a quick
Yahoo search.

The concept of a university that only grants online degrees,
THAT’S FREE? Now that truly is a novel concept. I would like
to see such a thing come to light. I just have some problems
with the concept as it stands right now. I’ve read two stories
on the idea and discussed it with a couple of colleagues. We
agreed that the broad, unfocused curriculum probably wouldn’t
be academically rigorous enough. Yes, you would learn from the
best, but you would learn a grouping of topics apart from other
students. You wouldn’t gather a base of knowledge. I say that
because from what I read, the school will not be set up that
way.

Try this. Set the university up like a traditional institution.
Hire a base staff and accept students. The base staff would
teach the required recurring classes. Every student has to
have his or her basic English, math, and science courses. A
mixture of staff and invited lecturers would teach the upper
level courses. It would be inside the 300 and 400 level
courses that Saylor’s concept would come alive. That’s where
Stephen King would teach writing fiction, or Dan Rather
would teach journalism.

The key is to only allow a set number of students. Keep it
free. That’s the best part of the idea. But only allow a
certain number so that the class size is manageable to a
professor and his or her proctors. That way the students can
be tested. And they can have some interaction with the
professor.

Keep the idea of buildings around the country (and the world),
but stock those buildings with proctors. Grad students from
local universities would love to make a few extra bucks
helping that way (if their institution will allow it).

Basically, take the traditional university model and put a
computer between the professor and the students.

OK, before you write and tell me I am not a forward thinker
and how dare I close the doors after a certain number of
people, hear me out.

The idea won’t work as stated. It’s too broad. If all Saylor
wanted to do was to offer online lectures that anyone could
attend, then I wouldn’t have a lick of trouble with the idea,
but he doesn’t.

He wants to offer degrees. The open format would not allow
for enough perception of academic rigor for the granted degree
to be worth the paper it’s printed on. By setting the number
of students and hiring a staff that will offer the base
education, the degree would carry more weight.

Think about it. What if your school offered a mishmash of
topics that are offered simply because a lecturer was
available?

But what about allowing those who just want to sit in on the
lecture to do so? I think that’s fine. Those who take the
courses for fun should register just like anyone else-but
register as an audit. A record is kept of all who are
auditing in order to keep track of who is sitting in. They
may be future students.

This is a great idea, but it needs some tweaking. I do
believe education should be open to all, but that education
should be a good education. It should be an education that
is recognized as strong in knowledge and testing. Just
because you took a class from the head of GM doesn’t mean
you now know the car industry.

I hope this flies. I really do.

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

That’s that. The HTML Goodies Content Editor, Amita, has
informed me that the number of people now subscribed to
Goodies to Go! is over 150,000. Gosh. It stuns me when
I think about it.

Joe Burns, Ph.D.

And Remember: I mentioned Captain Kirk earlier in the
newsletter. Many people don’t know how truly scientific many
parts of the Star Trek TV series actually were. The writers
did a great deal of research to make sure they were at least
erring on the side of truth. Warp speed is an actual concept.
It means to travel the speed of light. Warp Two is not twice
the speed of light, but rather light speed squared. The
problem is that according to Einstein, that’s not possible
because e=mc^2. If something ever traveled at the speed of
light it would become pure energy. The debate rages…