sustainable scholarship keynote - david pakman - will the internet unbundle higher education too?
TRANSCRIPT
Tech-enabled Disruption
Where are we now?
Real-time
Social is Everywhere
Brands adapting to social - The Rising Consumer Voice
From Pages to People
Appification
• Mobile content consumption overtaking PC/larger screens!
• Atomic unit of content getting smaller!
• Content is on-demand, on my device, on my terms.
The internet is a global community, overwhelmingly so
What’s Coming?
Edge Manufacturing
Mass Customization
Sensor Proliferation
Context-Aware Devices and Applications
Guided knowledge available to all
What has happened to analog incumbents as they attempt to make the digital transition?
Unbundling
• Bundles artificially raise total dollar spend in a market !
• Internet reduces content to its least-frictional atomic unit, challenging traditional bundlers.!
• Digital markets are smaller than analog markets!
• Challenges cost structure of incumbents — innovators dilemma surfaces
Effects of Unbundling
• Is it content or distribution? !
• Is it bundled content that will unbundle?
So, What Is Higher Ed?
Many Bundles in Higher Ed
• Services!
• Research + Teaching!
• Curriculum bundling towards a major/degree!
• Scholarly journals
• As the forces of unbundling take aim at these traditional packages, there is always a loser.!
• Businesses built on the assumption of bundle economics have a very hard time finding an economic model to support their legacy cost structure
• Predominantly aggregation and distribution?!
• In an unbundled world, distribution changes!
• Content discovery shifting to users/social!
• How best serve host organization’s mission?
Libraries
• Ultimately, where is their greatest value?!
• Aggregation?!
• Editorial selection?!
• Marketing?!
• Conferring authority?!
• New aggregators are the social platforms, not the publishers!
• The internet was built to route around congestion. Artificial scarcity looks like congestion.!
• Can they deliver world-class experiences to meet consumer expectations?
Publishers
• The internet allows users to be publishers: bi-directional.!
• In academia, the user is often the contributor!
• For major topics, distribution/marketing is helpful!
• For niche topics, the scholars are connected
Observations
• !
• Today, societies are the curators and anoint the reviewer!
• Online, we see Influencers conferring authority by distributing their content !
• Can an online community endow credibility on scholarly research?
Authority
• Watch user behavior!
• Incumbents are suing (Aereo and broadcasters, NYTimes and Business Insider)!
• Upstarts are gaining users, routing around incumbents
• Some education will unbundle!
• Physical attendance not a requirement for a complete education!
• Traditional publishers will experience unbundling!
• Fundamental changes to role of library - are they the trusted broker of data?!
• Peer communities will bestow authority on creators
Reasonable Predictions?