The Perils of Social Relevance
About two weeks ago I was leaving class when out of the corner of my eye I saw an interesting pamphlet hanging out of a kiosk. It was titled “Are you Socially Relevant?” It was a brochure for an informational meeting with USF students interested in IBM’s Lotusphere 2011. Ordinarily I frown on this kind of undefined “Social” spam, but since I liked IBM and would love to get an insider’s view of any new technology, I decided to attend.
It’s been a while since I’ve had to wear a shirt and tie. Working for a bank I had a closet full of shirts. Strangely, I couldn’t find any pants. The one pare I did find was about three inches too long. Time for a quick trip to dry cleaners for an emergency hem. A day later and $12.00 poorer, my shirts are pressed, my pants are reconditioned, and I’m off to class three hours early to register for Lotusphere and get some ‘intel.’
I don’t live anywhere near USF. Most students at USF including myself are commuters. To get from my front door to USF takes about 1 hour 22 minutes. Total round trip mileage is approximately 106 miles. You can imagine what a royal pain in the rear it is to get things done when you have to spend three hours and a hundred miles of your day just to sign a form or talk to someone in person for five minutes. I don’t like frivolous treks onto campus if they’re not absolutely necessary, but I’m aware we must do what we have to to get things done.
Arriving at the meeting, I can see the smiling faces of student advisers greeting students, as well as a friendly IBM representative. The venue is posh with framed canvases of USF deans hanging on the walls and contemporary chandeliers dangling over huge conference tables. The room is nice, real nice. It can reasonably hold about 40 persons. Satellite “kiddie” tables can expand this to about 50-55. About 60-70 students showed up so about 20 students had to stand in the back of the room. No biggie, we’re here for the information and to register for Lotusphere.
The coordinator guy was about ten minutes late. Apparently he was here an hour and a half early, but got lost after sipping espresso at Starbucks. He welcomed us and began his pitch about Lotus.
“How many of you have ever heard of Lotus software?” he asked.
Almost everyone raised their hand.
“How many of you have ever USED Lotus software?”
This was the awkward part. Out of about 70 students, maybe two raised their hands. Not to be discouraged, the coordinator salvage the situation by explaining this this response was expected. “This is why we think Lotusphere is so important.”
At this point it’s clear that IBM has a problem. It seems that though its software line has high awareness among college students, it has virtually zero penetration. This is not the best situation for a business whose senior software engineers are retiring in droves. It’s okay though, because we’re here to register for a conference that will exposed us to IBM’s latest and greatest software, hardware, We’re here to register for Lotusphere.
Books, how do they work?
It's that time of year again. Time for all the students to partake in the slaughtering of the lambs.
When I first started attending USF, the bookstore was administered by USF. It didn't look much different than it does today, sans all the B&N lubricant sprayed copiously all over the place. The student textbooks were in the basement. The coffee shop was upstairs. Students were buying earlier versions of the same books. The only difference was that text books didn't cost as much or more than matriculation.
What's wrong with this picture?
Here's an example of Academic Progress:
There are two books in these pictures. The book on the left is a Professional writing course book. Essentially it's a regurgitation of English Comp II, mixed with a little Sociology and a twist of business. Nothing to see here. It's basic- almost outdated information that is questionably relative in this modern e-conomy.
The book on the right is a graduate level tome on Water Treatment Systems. It's visually two and a half times the thickness, and contains vast expanses of differential equations, stereo chemistry, physics, and fluid dynamics. Flipping through the pages gave me flashbacks to my engineering core.
Beyond the size and informational density/scope of each book, there is one major difference between these books. Can you guess? I bet you can't. It's hard to see because its not in the picture. The reasoning is arguably financial. One book is highly specialized and will only be utilized by a handful of students. The other is broad and general and will be a required class for every single College of Business student. Literally hundreds of students every semester.
Having been a student that excelled at Microeconomics, I can with a high degree of confidence state that the laws of supply and demand are true and predictable. Unless, someone has a reason or incentive to mess with them. A book so specialized and unique that will sell only a dozen or so copies a semester, that is four inches thick, would be a low volume text. Hence it's cost would be greater compared to a more mass produced book of smaller stature. In my opinion significantly more resources are needed to produce the book on Water Treatment than a book on how to write a resume.
So what does this financial motivation look like? Let us stare the beast in the eye:
Big book: $175 NEW
Small Book: $195 NEW.
If you compare the two based on volume of information, degree of difficulty, number of pages, and scarcity, these prices are not possible. Unless the publisher or some other organization is subsidizing the cost of the Water Treatment text, someone is getting bent over.
