He claims that with just 2 days, he can set you up with your own Internet Business set to earn over $66,000 in eight months – and over $100,000 in a year.

The theory is based around the phenomenon of exponential growth, and there are numerous examples of people who have experienced it using effective viral marketing on The Internet.

Viral marketing, it seems, is key to the success of any Internet business. none of the big names online currently would be anything like as successful but for it.

So now, it seems, the whole world is trying to create  viral effects to grow their businesses with. Some are succeeding, but many more fail.

So what is it about The Freedom Class, and Tim Brocklehurst, that makes me think there could be something in learning about it this way?

Well, for one thing, the method of learning is intriguing. Tim is using something called “Action Learning” to conduct these classes. Action Learning is a way of learning something by ‘doing’ it.

On these classes, the participants will bring their own laptops and go through the process of uploading products for sale and giving them an affiliate back-end so that others can sell them too.

Then, they will be giving them a viral boost on the front-end using Tim’s own tried and tested viral software, MVS.

His users have had spectacular results with this membership site software. It brings together a wide array of tried and tested viral seeds, triggers and motivators to reach further and get more sign-ups than a normal site could on its own.

Another factor which is sure to help the success of participants, is the mastermind group formation.

Tim is issuing questionnaires to all participants from which a chart of their natural strengths and weaknesses can be drawn. He has identified 5 key skills which everyone possesses with varying degrees, but which are important for Internet Marketing success.

By partnering up with others on the course who have complementary skills, it seems reasonable to expect that useful teams will be made, which can work effectively and achieve more individually than they could on their own.

Overall, I like the sound of this course. For one thing, its good to see a recognised marketer getting out and showing us, rather than hiding behind the Internet. On the other hand, if you prefer to learn at home, then look out for The Freedom Class Home Action Pack once you have registered at the site.

For full details of dates and venues of The Freedom Classes go to this link:

Find out more about the Freedom Class

And, what has the Open Source Community done to increase that confidence in Open Source products?

For example, I failed to notice much difference between MS Office 2000 or MS Office 2003 and either Open Office or Star Office.

But, I might not notice much difference in driving a car with an automatic transmission and a stick shift, having drive multiple 100,000s of miles with each type of transmission.

As far as I know most of the functions of each program work in a similar fashion.

But, why should users have to care about these differences at all?

It is up to the Open Source developers to ensure that the user experience is seamless and positive. It is not Microsoft’s responsibility to adjust to the chaotic and “wild west” Open Source environment, but it is the Open Source community’s responsibility to set standards and bring development under control.

Of course, learning to use multiple products is beneficial.

Our students need to learn principles for technology use, so that they can adjust to changes in the technology.

For example, Microsoft Office for Vista™ is different, better in many ways; but there is a learning curve. Eventually, Open Source clone software will try to introduce the new features and they will take a stab at compatibility. But, they will be playing “catch up.”

In order for Open Source products to take the lion’s share of the software market, Open Source developers will have to “out inn ovate” Microsoft™.

But, how can this happen with the “free wheeling, uncontrolled, un centralized Open Source development community? Who will set standards? Who will bring disparate factions in line? Who will spend the Research and Development (R&D) dollars that are needed? Who can match Microsoft™’s R&D budget?

Several companies tried to beat Microsoft™. None did.

If multi-million dollar corporations can’t compete successfully, how can we expect that a legion of volunteers, doing their own thing, will somehow produce software innovation?

But, back to user confidence?

All it takes is one important document to have its formatting “trashed” (by either a Microsoft™ product or by the Open Source product, it doesn’t make any difference), and the Open Source product will be blamed.

Knowing this, it is up to the Open Source developers to ensure compatibility and absolute safety of user’s work. Anything less (the current state) puts Open Source at a “no-win” competitive disadvantage.

And, Open Source advocates must avoid the “use our products because we’re the good guys and Microsoft™ is evil” arguments.

This is as shortsighted and foolish as saying to the people of the world, “you must join our religion because we are the good guys.”

Another issue with the adoption of Open Source software is the lack of “Third Party Support” for the Open Source products.

For example, will the high-end mind mapping program automatically create presentations in the Open Source product, or, project plans in Open Source project software?

A third issue is that some software (such as Adobe Photoshop™, Adobe Dreamweaver™, Techsmith’s Camtasia™ Studio, Mindjet’s MindManager™ and Inspiration Software’s Inspiration™ do not have Linux versions.

How are users to develop confidence in Open Source solutions when Third Party add-in tools are unavailable? How are users to gain confidence in Open Source products when companies that clearly have the best products on the market in their category do not support an Open Source version of their product?

Open Source advocates seem to believe that price is the strongest motivator, and price (free) is mentioned as the sole marketing advantage. But, users actually want the best products that they can afford, because the best tools are less expensive and more cost effective in the long run.

No mechanic will place confidence in discount-store tools. Mechanics have enough sense to purchase the best tools that they can afford. Confidence, rather than price rules when people who depend on tools for their livelihood make choices.

Open Source folks need to focus upon the stellar quality, the compatibility and the reliability of the products that they advocate.

Anything less saps the Open Source Movement of the vitality that it needs in order to compete in the real-world marketplace.

Here is an outline that you can use to develop that plan.

Executive Summary

• Purpose

• Increase Student Learning
• Drive Instruction and Reform Education
• Streamline Teacher Productivity
• Provide Tools for Engaged, Hands-On, Project-Based Instruction
• Document Learning Progress for Each Student
• Provide Tools for Data-Driven Decisions Concerning Instruction
• Document Improved Teaching Performance from Each Teacher

• Increase Student Achievement
• Increase Test Scores
• Provide Learning Activities that Mirror the World of Work

• Collaborative
• Real-World Problem-Solving
• Decision-Making
• Project Team
• Real-World Issues
• Research and Report Writing
• Presentations

• Who are our “Clients”
• What are our “Clients’” needs?
• Education Case

• Benefits for Students
• Benefits for Teachers
• Benefits for the Learning Community

• Strategy
• Tactics
• Budgets
• Support

• Technical Support
• Professional Development
• Back End Programming

• Targets
• Development
• Action Items
• Management

• Data
• Case Studies
• Anecdotal Records
• Statistical Analysis
• Pre-/ Post & Control Group Experimental Designs

• What is our Message?

• Pros and Cons
• Educational Case for Open Source
• Best Practices
• Risks

• Parameters where Open Source is Viable

Marketing Plan Narrative
Table of Contents
Needs Assessment

• Historical Analysis

• Educational Case for Technology Integration
• Educational Case for Open Source Solutions
• Professional Development
• Back End Processing
• Infrastructure

• Boxes and Wires
• Network
• Software
• Services

• SIF Compliance

Educational Software Analysis

• Inspiration™
• Inspiredata™

• Apache
• MySQL
• Postgres SQL
• PHP
• STAR Office™
• Audacity™
• Compendium™
• Plone™
• Media Wiki™

• Open Office
• FreeMind
• Joomla, Mambo
• Moodle
• PMWiki

• Microsoft™

• MS Office™
• MS Publisher™
• MS Project™
• MS SQL

• iLife Suite™

• Photoshop(TM
• DreamWeaver™
• Acrobat™

• Return on Investment
• Grants
• Foundations
• Donations
• Private-Public Partnerships

• Benefits for Students
• Benefits for Teachers
• Benefits for the Learning Community
• Instructional Best Practices

• Politics
• NCLB

Solutions

• Goals and Objectives

• Instructional Objectives
• Instructional Targets
• Professional Development Objectives
• Professional Development Targets

• Instructional
• Promotion
• Distribution
• Support
• Financial
• Other

• Educational Focus
• Best Practices
• Case Studies
• Data Collection

• Actual Costs
• Performance Analysis
• Implementation Analysis

Implementation

• Design
• Development
• Installation
• Management
• Upkeep
• Evaluation

Discussion

• Pros and Cons of Open Source Solutions
• Independent Variables
• Data Gathering and Database Tracking of Student Improvements
• Data Gathering and Database Tracking of Teacher Improvements

Summary

• Benefits of Open Source
• Areas where Open Source is not Competitive

Conclusion

Check this link to Cisco™ System’s online presentation, BizWiseTV: Transforming Education for the 21^st Century and decide for yourself.

Link to the presentation:

Link to the Cisco™ 21st Century Education Presentation

At any rate, the presentation is slick and professional, uses data and testimonials, focuses upon educational outcomes rather than Cisco™ products, and addresses cost issues in a matter of fact way that shows that school districts can surmount this obstacle. (The presentation shows that what school districts need is vision, focus, commitment. Expertise and Open Source Solutions are the easy part.)

More importantly, This Cisco™ presentation provides a model for the kind of marketing materials that Open Source advocates could develop.

Our marketing presentations could include:

• Video that focuses upon benefits of Open Source Solutions for teachers and students
• “Why we must change education” insights from higher education experts
• A validation of how Open Source Solutions increased student achievement in their districts (by one or more school district superintendents)
• Video showing engaged students using Open Source Solutions at school and at home
• “How Open Source Solutions” drive improved instruction and teacher effectiveness
• Testimonials from Real Users
• A panel discussion of the challenges that were overcome by an early adopter districts (with members from various stakeholder groups, i.e., teacher, principal, counselor, IT Department leader, curriculum specialist, superintendent, etc.)
• “How Open Source fits in” by a high-ranking business executive
• Support from any of our Teachers’ Unions

There are many more options that will communicate the benefits of Open Source Solutions, but, this list could be the start of a productive brainstorming session.

And, maybe the videos could be produced and edited with Open Source software.

Of course, the key is to be able to show real student improvement data where the improvement is the direct result of projects and programs that relied on Open Source Solutions. (No “could be,” “if only,” or “we believe” here; but real-world, honest, matter-of fact, instructional delivery and student outcome results.)

But, Cisco™ has developed a presentation model that we can use as a template. So, check out this presentation.

You will have to register to view the presentation, and the presentation can be viewed by Windows™ Media Player of Real™ Player.

This presentation is worth the time that you invest in viewing it.

Check out the eSchoolNews article…

eSchool News Article

I think you have to give Microsoft(TM) credit for being a fierce and skilled competitor, whatever you think of Microsoft’s products.

Case in point, Microsoft’s Student Innovation Suite, part of

1. Microsoft™’s Unlimited Potential program, and
2. Microsoft™’s Partners in Learning program

Open Source can learn from these guys on many levels?

Take product naming…

Which makes more sense…

Moodle!, Joomla!, Plone, Mambo..

or,

Student Innovation Suite, Unlimited Potential, Partners in Learning?

Set these themes to music and what do you have? “Send in the Clowns” vs. “I Believe the Children are our Future.”

Lesson Learned: Open Source advocates needs to name our product packages appropriately, and ensure that it contains educational programs, with “catchy” educational names.

Another Microsoft(TM) end run: The offer to provide quality software for $3.00 to countries that provide home access to computers. Minimum purchase, 10,000 units.

The US Government is eligible, but our Department of Education is not smart enough to take Microsoft™ up on the offer. The Feds will leave the option of the states. (Higher priorities for our cash?)

But, look at the genius…

• The government needs to support computers at home
• The computers need to be new, not refurbished
• Once the computers are at home, children and the rest of their family will become familiar with (hooked on) Microsoft™’s products
• New computers will guarantee that users receive a positive (speedy) computing experience
• New computers will ensure that system setup is “click, click” operation
• The politicians will be able claim that they obtained a huge value for their citizens
• Bundled learning software, looks like this package is for kids, looks like the package supports education

Contrast to Open Source…

• Free (limited perceived value)
• Runs on old computers (Install on a system that is too old, less than satisfying experience)
• Limited or no bundled learning programs
• Difficult to install and configure with other software, looks like a package that only the “tech savvy” could love
• Programs don’t have the same look and feel
• No claim by politicians of snagging a huge value for their citizens (Open Source stuff is free, already, so what did the politician get for them?)
• No branding (Open Source has too many distros, each claiming to be the best at what they do. Who can the local politicians trust?)

Here is a crude analogy. All the jocks are posturing and arguing about who will get the next dance with the cheer leader. But without the jocks noticing, the rich guy comes in and makes the cheerleader an irresistible offer. The rich guy escorts the cheerleader to his limo while the jocks are still bumping chests and squabbling.

Guess what company the “rich guy”in the story represents.

But also guess what, the irresistible offer isn’t being made by Open Source advocates.

In fact, Open Source advocates should feel a bit depressed when they find themselves outmaneuvered like this.

Where is our creative response? How are we helping third-world children access computers at home? How are we building benefits for third-world politicians that they can point to as an accomplishment during their already illustrious careers? How are we developing computer literacy and spreading instructional programs around the world in a visible way, hooking future generations of potential new customers on our software?

I think that we should applaud Microsoft™ and study the pages of the Microsoft™ Marketing Machine playbook.

Let’s see how we can raise our Open Source advocates Solutions package to this level of marketing savvy. Can we build and market a package with such overwhelming educational benefits that politicians, school boards, superintendents are willing to provide new, take-home computers to needy children, just to obtain our package? Will our solutions package meet the test of politicians claiming credit and pandering to their constituents, spinning making “political hay” on from the educational value that our solutions provide?

This challenge is ours to win. Open Source can prevail if we focus on delivering an irresistible offer to teachers and students.

Here is one suggestion. Bilingual education is shortchanged, Hispanic students drop out of school at enormous (but marginally-counted) rates, and employers continue to exploit undocumented workers.

Could we provide a package where our software allows children to teach their parents English using take home computers placed in Barrio homes? Imagine the future benefits such a project would bring to our society. A project like this could mean the difference of whether the US is “English Only,” “Officially English and Spanish” or “Spanish Only” by the year 2107.

Any other suggestions for adding educational value to our Open Source Solutions?

Apple™ does a great job in marketing, and Open Source advocates can learn from the models that Apple™ uses.

In particular, “integration” is the lesson that Apple™ is now getting right.

Technology and Learning, May 2007, ran a Special Section article [underwritten by Apple™] that shows this insight in action…

Download the complete report at…

http:/apple.com/education/go/intel

Unfortunately, you have to register to receive the report, but the report’s quality makes the registration process worth the effort.

Apple™ Intel-based Mac computers…

• Provide a suite of integrated, free, digital literacy tools
• Run Windows™ and Mac™ OS X programs
• Allow school districts to keep running current software
• Focus on instructional goals

“When we saw that students wouldn’t have to work with a bunch of different programs to work with digital media, everyone realized that going with Apple [sic] was the right thing to do.”
Source:
Quote in the article from Cambridge, Nebraska Public Schools Superintendent, Ron Streit

And, did I mention that this integrated digital capacity blasts the main (though misguided) talking point for adopting Open Source software (i.e., It’s a free and cheap solution.) “out of the water.”

This entire, integrated suite of digital literacy software is “free.”

More importantly, the article demonstrates that Apple™ understands that the business of education is our students’ learning, and the article focuses upon actual uses of the technology in the curriculum.

In addition, Apple™ offers a full professional development package for their software suite that targets helping teachers drive the curriculum with a product that is easy enough to use that teachers can experience success with actual self-created teaching modules, literally overnight!

[Note: Of course, the teachers must be able to take the equipment home overnight, every night, for this to happen.]

Apple™’s integrated digital literacy package shows Open Source advocates just how we need to proceed as we develop our packages…

• Integrated packages, not a collection of disjoint programs or distros
• Instruction first, software second, operating system last
• Flexibility and multiple options are available, instead of a “one-size fits-all” solution
• The spirit of sharing means collaboration, brainstorming, and expanding ideas. The spirit of sharing also means presenting these ideas in multiple formats, presentations, sites, E-mail
  [Note: shouldn't Open Source projects start to focus on XML (in much the way that MS Office™ 2007 does) to maximize this capability and keep our product competitive, years into the future?]
• Teachers must have at home, the same solutions that they use at work
• A professional development package must accompany any product that we develop and distribute
• Co-operation with Windows™, in our case, promoting the Windows(TM) version of Open Source programs so that school districts can leverage their current technology investment

While Open Source advocates waste time discussing the merits of one distro vs. another; Apple™ has focused on the one essential, i.e., what teachers and students use technology for.

The formula for success is simple…

• Technology – transparent and invisible
• Operating system – transparent and invisible
• Ease of Use – So easy that the topic never comes up
• Integration – Learn one and you’ve learned them all
• Curriculum and Instructional Content – The only area of education that should draw attention to itself is the content of the curriculum and the skills needed to perform while engaging in that content

So, Open Source advocates can study Apple™’s playbook as we develop our package. This process is labeled “Competitive Intelligence” by the business world. And, like Microsoft™, Apple™ can teach our Open Source community how to focus upon the essentials of education, how to ensure that everything we offer is integrated, and how to make ease of use our mantra.

So, when will Apple™ build a real Open Source operating system, say “Mac OS Once (Spanish for XI),” that will run on any, off-the-shelf computer?

Gates Says, “We Will Crush Google”

Bill Gates recently announced that they will crush Google, much like they did Netscape, by integrating their competing components, in this case search, into their operating system. By integrating enterprise search deeply into Windows Vista, Office 2007, Outlook 2007 and SharePoint 2007 and the rest of the Windows platform and also emerging web services from Microsoft, it will allow users to search intranets [sic], the internet [sic], their pc’s [sic], the network and more from a common user interface, Windows.

Microsoft’s multifaceted search platform, which includes Vista Search, Sharepoint Enterprise Search, Windows Live Search and an enhanced web search, cannot be matched by rivals because it harnesses other Windows services such as Workflow and BI.

He hopes this will allow users to act on the data, not just find it. He said they were “digging the ditch” with their new Windows Vista platform, and that software will no longer just run inside a company, but can run outside of the company and you can connect to it with software as a service, or SaaS.

And to give you some idea as to the scale of their ambitions he stated that they will be investing $6 billion in 2007 on search, web services and hosted services.

Source:

http://adcenterblackbook.com/preview/bookset.htm

Commentary:

Even though Open Source advocates seem to dislike Microsoft(TM)’s lust for making money by delivering what customers are willing to pay for, we can learn from this “Marketing Machine.”

Here is the wisdom that Open Source advocates for schools missed, i.e., users want…

• An integrated solution, not a bunch of separate (even if free) tools
• Instant access to all relevant information from a unified interface
• Information access that is “one-click” easy
• An interface that helps them “act on data, not just find it”
• Workflow and “Instructional Intelligence-based” solutions

I don’t know if Microsoft(TM) will out compete and beat Google(TM) at the search game. However, Microsoft(TM) is spending 267% more on research this year than was spent for a year’s worth of eRate discounts for the entire country.

Open Source advocates can profit by paying attention.

We can also focus on competing in the education space because Microsoft(TM) will be moving on with the Vista(TM)/ Office 2007(TM) focus, while most school districts failed to plan for, budget for and manage upgrade paths for this new set of tools.

Open Source advocates probably have a year (because school district planning cycles are so long) to develop a competitive package based upon:

• Standardizing Open Source Tools
• Integrating the Open Source Tools Interface
• Developing the database connectors that could streamline access to school district resources, i.e., databases, tools, documents, etc.

Since we understand what users want, we can build a strategic path to providing that success experience with an Open Source solution. We have maybe a year to deliver on a viable alternative to Windows(TM)’s unified approach, otherwise, school districts will “go with the flow” and follow user demands.

If there were ever a clear reason for Open Source advocates to focus upon end user solutions instead of cheaper budget commitments for school district executive managers, this excerpt is it.

SOS SIG has the resources, in our partnership with ACCD, to get this integration job done.

Are we going to just rail at Microsoft(TM), or are we going to get the job (of building an easy to use, instructionally-targeted package of tools) done?