Online Monopolies: Virtue or Vice
Session Date: April 13, 2009
The Session was organized by ADK and DAL
It featured a debate on the Value of Online Monopolies between Professor Jonathan Zittrain and special guest Peter Thiel with closing remarks provided by Professor Terry Fisher
Full Video of the session can be found here: Can Monopolies Save The Internet?
back to syllabus
Introduction: Technology + Incentives = High Quality Content
The premise of our session was that quality content can be created by the right technology and incentives irrespective of the content.
There are 6 main ingredients in this equation:
1) An interesting topic with two reasonable viewpoints
2) Two intelligent and articulate discussion leaders
3) An engaged classroom. 3 main sub-ingredients:
a) No Laptops
b) Name placards.
c) Required preparation with threat of "cold-calling". (Note: in our session, we did not have to resort to "cold-calling" because the class was engaged and prepared).
i) To execute on cold-calling, we suggest a random-name generator, which can be designed in Microsoft Excel with the following formula:
=VLOOKUP(RANDBETWEEN(StudentNum1,StudentNumN),StudentNum1:StudentNamesN,2); <--- This function then refers to a two column list. Column 1 = List of "StudentNums" from 1 to N, where N = Number of students. Column 2 = List of student names.
A link to an example of this random name-caller can be found here Random Name Generator
4) Live video streaming. (We recommend using: [www.ustream.tv UStream])
5) Live Twittering. We had 4 students "tweet" throughout the class to engage the outside audience. This yielded participation and comments in the Q+A period.
6) Course Format: 10 Minutes Introduction; 30 Minutes Debate; 40 Minutes Question & Answer; 10 Minutes Closing
Topic Online Monopolies: Virtue or Vice
The specific content of our class centered around the concept of Online Monopolies
Introduction
Old Outline
Prior to the class, students had access to this outline: The Internet, Industry and Investing. The original framework for the course discussion was broader, but in planning the course we realized that narrowing the discussion would be beneficial