Posted: July 30th, 2008 | Author: Ron Bronson | Filed under: content development, Higher Ed, Ideas | Tags: keeping up with the joneses, usability | 3 Comments »
How much does what other institutions do influence the decision making process where you work? I mean, we know how much it can affect other industries like retail or other marketing intensive businesses like athletic shoes or cars.
But what about higher ed? I know we’re plugged in — or at least, try to be — to our target audiences, but what about to the competitors and reacting to what they’re doing. It’s one thing to put your name on a college’s mailing list to see their marketing materials, but is simply picking the “best” ideas off of other places. After all, why work harder when you can work smarter or implement an idea better than another place does.
What happens though, when an entire institutional strategy is based off of doing nothing but following the competition?
Posted: July 28th, 2008 | Author: Ron Bronson | Filed under: content development, Web 2.0 | Tags: Red Lasso, television, video | 3 Comments »
In response to the news that Red Lasso has shut down its TV video broadcast service, I ran into this article about the evolution of televised broadcast content:
On June 18, 1939, The New York Times ran an editorial about the evolving technology of communications. On the subject of the newly invented television and the threat it posed to the entrenched medium of radio, The Times said: “The problem with television is that people must sit and keep their eyes glued to the screen; the average American family hasn’t time for it… for this reason, if no other, television will never be a serious competitor.”
Fast-forward 70 years: “It should come as no surprise that video has exploded as a valuable content source on the Web,” says John Blossom, senior analyst and president of Shore Communications, Inc. “We’ve been staring at screens that have had at least as much resolution for image detail as a typical television for years.”
