Friday, August 19, 2016

Is Google Positioned to become the Dominant Education Platform?

Interesting article from The Clayton Christensen Institute reflecting on the transition underway in Education from Apple and Microsoft to the open technologies provided by Google:
And yes, Google’s suite of office tools lacks the raw functionality of Microsoft Office’s suite, but Google has taken advantage of two key dynamics. First, most users are overserved by Microsoft Office. Most don’t take advantage of at least 98 percent of the functionality in Word, Excel, or PowerPoint, for example. Google’s office tools get the basic functionality right, enable new features like collaboration—which is custom made for the Web, and keep getting better with more and more functionality. Second, Google’s apps are free for educators, whereas Microsoft makes you pay. Faced with the decision, it’s become increasingly a no brainer for educators to opt for Google. If trends continue, a whole generation of children may never know what PowerPoint is.
....
What would be great to see is Microsoft move away from just focusing on the content creation marketplace of its traditional Office suite and instead leverage its acquisition of LinkedIn and Lynda.com to do three things: support competency-based learning—through badges, portfolios, and rich profiles for all students; invest in building students’ social capital—a key determinant of life success that education typically ignores—in a deliberate way; and, through both of these efforts, help students discover and cultivate their true passions.

Thursday, August 18, 2016

Wiley the publisher acquires Atypon the technology provider

If, like me, you are working in the software for publishers space then this acquisition by Wiley of Atypon is a big deal.   Consolidation in the space - which is dominated by Atypon and Highwire - has been on the cards for a number of years; however, I wouldn't necessarily consider this a consolidation of providers.  Wiley certainly will be making use of the Atypon technical expertise to build out their new Wiley content platform but I would also expect Atypon to continue to be a strong and aggressive competitor in the space.  Atypon and Wiley will also want to ensure they protect (and add to) the current Atypon client roster and are probably likely to build a 'chinese wall' between Atypon and Wiley.  They will do this to make sure the Atypon customers remain despite some degree of competition between Wiley and some of the Atypon customers.

Over the coming months it will be interesting to see how the other vendors in the market react to this news.

Here is the press release:

Wiley Signs Definitive Agreement to Acquire Atypon

John Wiley & Sons, Inc., a global provider of knowledge and knowledge-enabled services that improve outcomes in research, professional practice and education, announced today it has signed a definitive agreement to acquire Atypon, a Silicon Valley-based publishing-software company, for $120 million in cash. Atypon (www.atypon.com) is a trusted technology partner that enables scholarly societies and publishers to deliver, host, enhance, market and manage their content on the web. The transaction is expected to close October 1, 2016.
Atypon is privately held and headquartered in Santa Clara, CA, with approximately 260 employees in the U.S. and EMEA. The company provides Literatum, an innovative platform that primarily serves the large scientific, technical, medical and scholarly industry. This sophisticated software gives publishers direct control over how their content is displayed, promoted and monetized on the web. The company generated over $31 million in calendar year 2015 revenue.
Atypon’s valued customers include some of the largest and most prestigious names in the industry. Literatum hosts nearly 9,000 journals, 13 million journal articles and more than 1,800 publication web sites for over 1,500 societies and publishers, accounting for a third of the world’s English-language scholarly journal articles.
Atypon will be managed as a separate business unit while benefiting from the financial stability and continuity of Wiley’s 209-year-old organization. The data and plans from each of Atypon’s clients will remain sequestered and behind firewalls. Clients use Atypon as their core journal-delivery platform or as a way to supplement end-user engagement. Wiley will itself become an Atypon customer.
“Wiley is committed to enabling the success of our customers and partners to advance research, discovery and learning,” said Mark Allin, President and CEO of Wiley. “Atypon offers an outstanding set of publishing solutions that can help industry participants like Wiley drive the discovery of research. We will ensure Atypon’s flexible platform continues to fully support the research community and industry partners so they may better serve their own customers.”
Georgios Papadopoulos, Atypon’s founder and CEO, will continue to lead the business and will report to Mr. Allin. He said: “We have worked hard with our partners to build the industry’s premier publishing platform and support the needs of the research community. Atypon is delivering solid growth and marked its most successful year in 2015, nearly doubling its staff in two years. With Wiley’s commitment we are very excited about the many opportunities to accelerate the expansion of Atypon’s service offerings strengthening the fabric of scholarly communications, expanding access, readership, and utilization, lowering operating costs, enabling organizations to create and expand offerings and products on their own, and building value for all stakeholders.”

Thursday, August 11, 2016

PND Flipboard Magazine New Issue: Am.Lawyer Magazine Reset, Apple's Long Term Strategy + More

CJR on American Lawyer Magazine's new strategy
E&P on digital strategies driving the media industry
AdAge on how Nike changed marketing
Fastcompany on Apple's long term strategy
+ More.

View my Flipboard Magazine.


Link: https://flipboard.com/@mpcairns/personanondata---the-magazine-t8knolg6y?utm_campaign=widgets&utm_medium=web&utm_source=magazine_widget