Stanford, Apple love-in
p2p news view / p2pnet: Last October Stanford, one of America’s most prestigious universities, unashamedly admitted doing a deal which in effect turned the university into an Apple iTunes promotional outfit.
"Not only is it foisting iTunes, a hard-core commercial product, onto students, it’s bragging about it, even publicly linking its name to the product in a url," p2pnet posted. "And were that not enough, its alumni association will tout the ‘service’ during its annual reunion homecoming weekend …"
Now, "No need to pay the $31,200 tuition," says Forbes. "No need to live on campus. No need even to be a student.
"The nearly 500 tracks that constitute ‘Stanford on iTunes’ are available to anyone willing to spend the few minutes it takes to download them from the Internet.
"While a number of other universities are now using iTunes to distribute class-specific content to their students, including Duke University, Drexel University’s School of Education and the University of Michigan School of Dentistry, Stanford is the first to make a substantial amount of recorded university events available to the public at large."
Sharing courses online? Great idea.
But why didn’t Stanford, and Drexel et al, get other schools involved, working with them to develop a p2p application they could then have proudly and collaboratively distributed around the world?
Such a project would have provided invaluable hands-on experience for students, fascinating international link-ups, all kinds of ongoing media exposure and unbeatable opportunities for innovation, as well as potential ‘product’.
Instead, the university has agreed, and is actively promoting, a deal under which the only true winner is Apple.
JN
Also See:
posted – Sad day for Stanford U, October 21, 2005
Forbes – ‘Stanford On ITunes’ Is For Everybody, January 26, 2006
