May 30, 2007
iTunes Opens a Special Section for Free Collegiate Content
It would take a miracle for Hubert Dreyfus’s hourlong lecture “What Is Existentialism?” to unseat Rihanna’s R&B tune “Umbrella” as the top seller on Apple’s iTunes music store. But Mr. Dreyfus, a professor of philosophy at the University of California at Berkeley, has scored a minor iTunes hit with the talk, one of 27 lecture-hall sessions recorded last year during his course on existentialism in literature and film.
Now, more professors may get a chance to follow Mr. Dreyfus’s lead. Today the iTunes store unveiled its new iTunes U portal, a spot on the site that will collect college lectures, commencement speeches, tours, sports highlights, and promotional material, all available at no cost.
Some of the content — like Mr. Dreyfus’s lecture series — has been publicly available on iTunes for some time. But that material had languished on colleges’ own sections of the iTunes store, which were not commonly viewed by off-campus iTunes users. “Certainly, if you were not on the campus, there’s no way you were finding this stuff,” said Eddy Cue, Apple’s vice president of iTunes, in an interview today.
The new portal should make it much easier for shoppers to happen upon collegiate content. The store’s home page now features a link to the special iTunes U section, and recordings offered through iTunes U now show up in search results.
For good measure, iTunes U has added college content that was previously not available to the public. As of today, 16 colleges — including longtime iTunes U users like Berkeley and Stanford University and more recent additions like Concordia Seminary and the Otis College of Art and Design — have contributed recordings to the online shop.
Mr. Cue said the new portal will help colleges reach broader audiences and provide something of value to their own alumni. “As an alumnus, when do you hear from a university? Usually when they’re asking you for money,” he said. “This is a way of having an online dialog with alumni that’s not just a one-way process.” —Brock Read
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This is an amazing way for Apple to hold onto its own loyal fanbase and disseminate knowledge at the same time. Capitalism and mutual interest at work!
— Matthew Hall May 31, 10:09 AM #
Has Professor Dreyfus been adequately compensated for his intellectual property contribution?
— Laura Dreesen May 31, 11:17 AM #
Re: compensation for Dr Dreyfus? Two points:
1. Why are you the watchdog for this gentleman’s contribution?
2. I wonder how Dr Dreyfus feels knowing that he has, for many, many years been applauded as a superb teacher and intellectual, and that he has positively influenced so many students?
Try not to worry so much about the affairs of others; you can presume fairness.
— Ted Smith May 31, 12:18 PM #
Re: compensation
I think the nub of the question comes down to: opt-in, or opt-out?
In other words, when Dr. Dreyfus (for example) agreed to have his lecture available in iTunesU, was the default assumption that it would (eventually) be freely available to the world, and he would have to make some special effort to change that default to restrict it to UCBerkeley students only, OR, was the default assumption that it would be only available to UCBerkeley students and the institution (UCB in this case) would have to make some special effort to change that default to make the content available to the world by securing Dr. Dreyfus’ permission (and perhaps offering compensation).
Whew; hope that made sense! Anyway, my guess is it’s the former. It seems more in keeping with the academic spirit, especially if the professor has tenure.
— John Miller May 31, 04:58 PM #
I applaud Apple for creating such innovative products. What better way for an academic to make a contribution to the field of education than through iTunes. This technology allows gifted educators the option to share their knowledge and insights with students on a national and international level. This is very exciting for students and those in the field of education.
— Tom Patelzick May 31, 06:12 PM #
While I’m not a big fan of closed systems — such as the tight bonding between iPod/iTunes — as long as this is a non-exclusive relationship (meaning that the content can exist elsewhere in not-so-closed-systems), then the overriding virtue is to meet the users where they are. If a lot of them are using iPods that are tied in some respect to iTunes, and iTunes U makes it easier to discover and use that content on an iPod, then this is a win-win situation. This doesn’t mean that iTunes U should be the only place the content appears; it should also appear on the open web in forms that allow non-iPod users to discover and retrieve the content.
— Peter Murray Jun 1, 10:40 AM #