“Cohen’s eight person start-up [Coursekit] is just one of hundreds of start-ups choosing New York City’s ‘Silicon Alley’ over its older California cousin.Total technology employment in New York City increased 28 percent from 2005 to 2010, and now accounts for more than 90,000 workers at more than 7,100 high tech establishments, according to the New York City government Economic Development Corporation (NYCEDC). Overall private sector employment in New York rose 3.4 percent during the same period.”—
Tech Start-Ups Choosing New York City Over Silicon Valley (CNBC)
I love this city.
Anthony Shadid, a New York Times Reporter, Dies in Syria
Powerful.
Anthony Shadid, a gifted newspaper correspondent whose graceful dispatches for both The New York Times and The Washington Post covered nearly two decades of Middle East conflict and turmoil, died, apparently of an asthma attack, on Thursday while on a reporting assignment in eastern Syria. Tyler Hicks, a Times photographer who was with Mr. Shadid, carried his body across the border to Turkey.
The World's First True Global Class
NYU Stern professor Aswath Damodaran is teaching his courses to the world this semester. These are the first true classes taught at scale because there’s an actual community being created. We’re totally psyched. From his blog:
I am running an experiment this semester with the classes that I am teaching at the Stern School of Business: Corporate Finance, a first-year MBA class, and Valuation, an elective. I have taught these classes for more than 25 years now and have tried to make the material and the lectures available to the rest of the world, but I have never formally tracked those taking these classes online. In fact, if you were not an MBA student in the class, taking the class online would have required you to forage through my website for materials and keep track of what’s going on. And I would have no idea that you even were taking the class… So, I want to change that..
Last semester, I used a company called Coursekit to package and organize my class and was impressed with their clean look and responsiveness to my requests. This semester, which starts in a few days, I have created a Coursekit page for each class that is focused on just online students. I will use this page to deliver content (lecture notes, handouts and assignments that those who are in my physical class get), webcasts of lectures (though not in real time, but the links should show up about an hour after the actual class ends ) and even the exams (you can take them and grade them yourself). The site also has a social media component, where you can start or join discussion topics, which I hope will provide the element of interaction that is missing when you do an online course. When you do get to the home page for Coursekit, you will notice my mugshot in the entry way. I promise you that I have zero financial interest in the company but I really want to see it succeed, because I think the education business needs to be shaken up.
The first session for both classes is on Monday, January 30. If you want to take these classes online, here is what you need to do:
What is it? This is my “big picture” class about how financial principles govern how a business should be run. It looks at everything that a business does, through the lens of finance, and classifies them into investment, financing and dividend decisions.
Who can use it? I am biased but I think that everyone can use a corporate finance class: entrepreneurs starting new businesses, managers at established businesses and investors valuing these businesses.
What is it? This is a valuation class and it is about valuing any type of business: private or public, large or small and across markets. My focus is on providing the tools that will allow you to create your solution to valuation challenges, since new ones keep popping up.
Who can use it? While investors interested in valuing companies may be the obvious target, I teach the class more generally to be useful (I hope) to managers running the businesses and those who are just curious about value.
He’s teaching Corporate Finance and Valuation. You can join from their respective pages.
We’re extremely excited about this. Professor Damodaran is one of the world’s best business professors, and now anyone, anywhere can take his courses. It’s a kind of surreal experience because it actually feels like a class but the people are continents away.
I’ve known Aswath for a few months and he’s been a superb partner in thinking about the future of education. He’s a guy who lives to teach and wants to do his part in shaking up the system.
This marks a big step forward towards our vision of building the global learning network.
- Joe
Of Coursekit!
The rumors are true. I’m the Creative Director at Coursekit and we’re going to change education. Expect more from me on this and all the topics surrounding it soon. That, however, can wait.
What can’t wait is this: our already impressive team needs more of the very best design and engineering talent around. It will be the most fun you’ve ever had disrupting a major industry, I’d wager. Spread the word, share this link.
Coursekit Blog: Welcome Aaron and Katie!
Today, I’m absolutely delighted to welcome two amazing new designers to our team.Aaron Carámbula and Katie Koch hail from different parts of the design world, but together will form the base of an insanely talented design team.
So excited to work with them.
I started a new tumblr called Pixels and Aestheticism. It’s a running collection visuals that I like.
(via pixelsandaestheticism)
“ Books are the treasured wealth of the world and the fit inheritance of generations and nations.”
NYTimes: Coursekit Raises $5 Million to Reinvent the Classroom
The next chapter!
Great article about our newest financing. We’re thrilled to have our new partners on board.
From our press release:
“We have networks for our personal and business lives, but there is no education network. That is Coursekit’s mission: to be the fundamental platform for learning,” said Ted Maidenberg of The Social+Capital Partnership. “We have seen first hand with Facebook and LivingSocial what young, ambitious entrepreneurs are able to create and we see many of the same attributes in Joe and his team.”
One of the Most Creative Addresses on Earth
I recently took the team to watch a documentary about the Eameses, the story of a design powerhouse that shaped culture and form in mid-century America.
I left the theatre convinced of the magic of putting insanely talented people together in the same room.
The Eames office on 901 Washingtion Blvd. in Venice Beach, CA was “one of the most creative addresses on earth,” recited the narrator. “Dozens of gifted young designers cut their teeth within the walls of the studio.”
Out of it came brilliant, iconic furniture designs, products, films, and artwork.
In 2012, I want to make 70 Lafayette Street, our address, one of the most creative addresses on earth.
At Coursekit we’re building a platform for learning, experimenting, and ideation of all sorts: from chemistry to typography to music to computer science, people around the world are using Coursekit to turn their classes into learning communities.
That’s where breakthrough ideas come from. At Coursekit, our job is to showcase them.
The team did a great job on these. Make sure sure to hover over the bubbles.
Check out our new Coursekit Student Experience site!
(and instructors get one too, of course)
