You know that I like OTH and TS, so this is the first site to go for reading in
case of free time and need for new ideas and approaches.
And the fact that number of your subscribers does not increase as rapidly as
your investors want is somehow a sign to me that the OTH content is keeping the
right track.
To increase the interest, maybe it is clever to offer potential OTH subscribers
some prizes to win.
Cocca-Cola cans and popcorn are not suitable, because of the academic content of
you journals. But what's about starting a "Ph.D. degree sweepstakes" campaign.
Headline will be something like:
Ph.D. degree sweepstake
Subscribe On The Horizon NOW! and you may win a Ph.D degree in University chosen
by you. Offer valid until products last or July 01,1998
Think this will increase the interest.. and most probably (in case of good
promotion) you will have chance to say that everybody are interested in OTH. ..
you see even Grade 2 students have subscribed.....
Cc: to our World Association for Online Educators list (Hi dear WAOE members, if
you have time please read the message below. Maybe we can do something here.
Although Prof Jim's journals do not speak only about online education, but
education in general, they are very worth of attention.)
Oh yes Jim, we have opened waoe own web pages http://www.waoe.org
Very fresh and full of mistakes, but it is at leats something.
Thanks for your time and sunshine,
Mihkel
James L. Morrison wrote:
> Several events have occurred that will affect the future of our enterprise.
> Jossey-Bass has withdrawn as a sponsor of the Horizon Web site as of June
> 1998 and Microsoft will not renew the contract for The Technology Source.
> The June issue will be the last issue we will produce.
>
> JB withdrew because subscriptions have not increased as they expected when
> we signed a contract two and a half years ago. Although we have OTH On-Line
> available, we are still working on the login/password problem for
> institutional subscribers. The institutional subscription has great
> potential for it allows everyone within an Internet domain to have access to
> OTH On-Line; thus a real bargain at $137. We have the capability of allowing
> everyone with the same IP address to enter the page without logging on. We
> are attempting to devise a procedure whereby individuals at an organization
> with an institutional online subscription can also logon from their homes
> through an ISP (which would not have the IP address of the organization). My
> hope is that the institutional online subscription catches on bigtime and
> that JB again becomes a sponsor.
>
> Microsoft will not renew our contract to produce The Technology Source
> because they want to restructure and refocus their higher education
> marketing page, and they want their editor to be in Redmond. They also want
> to reduce their substantive articles to two (I had been sending them five).
> I sense that they will focus their page more on Microsoft products and less
> on vision, case study, commentary, etc. I have a conference call late Friday
> afternoon to discuss whether or not they will continue as a sponsor of the
> Horizon Web site. I think that they will, but the amount will be
> substantially smaller. (We were getting $60,000 a year from this contract,
> but the funds were primarily for producing TS.)
>
> The Microsoft contract was important because I used their funds to employ a
> staff of some five students to design and expand the page, including the
> development of OTH On-Line (JB funds supported only one student). We have
> picked up another corporate sponsor, CBT Systems, a firm that produces
> interactive training courseware programs on technology tools. Unfortunately,
> the amount from CBT is not enough to maintain one student for more than a
> semester.
>
> I am considering developing another periodical on the Horizon site that
> would focus on integrating technology in education and requesting corporate
> sponsorship for the periodical. It would contain the same sections that we
> produced for Microsoft: vision (focusing on the future of integrating
> technology in education), case study (featuring how teachers are integrating
> technology in their instruction and how administrators are using new tools
> to enhance the efficiency and effectiveness of their organizations),
> commentary, featured products, and site of the month (you can see the draft
> mock-ups we produced for Microsoft at
> http://horizon.unc.edu/projects/TS/editor). We might add a "Letters to the
> Editor" section and a "From the Editor" section.
>
> The primary reason for considering developing another periodical is that
> technology is critical to the future of education, and a periodical focusing
> on its use would bring many more people to the Horizon Web site, which would
> give further exposure to OTH On-Line. Too, we have an effective apparatus
> set up to produce the periodical, and we already have the basis for several
> issues on our current mockup site. I have put out feelers to several
> corporations and two have indicated interest in supporting such an
> enterprise. If I am able to secure sufficient funding to keep at least three
> and possibly four students employed, I will probably go for it, and can
> therefore continue the development of the Web site and OTH On-Line. I say
> probably because the idea of chucking the entire enterprise and begin
> smelling roses has also occurred to me.:-)
>
> I do like the work, however, and want to make the Horizon site a valuable
> one for educational leaders.
>
> I need your help. Send me your suggestions for improvement of the Horizon
> Web site. If you have not done so, and if you are in an organization with a
> library, ask the library acquisitions folk to order an OTH institutional
> online subscription. If you have a relationship with someone in a
> corporation that would benefit from being associated with a new periodical
> on using technology in education, ask him or her to get in touch with me. If
> you are feeling particularly creative today, send me your nomination of a
> jazzy name for the periodical.
>
> I will keep you informed as developments occur.
>
> Jim
>
> --
> James L. Morrison morrison@unc.edu
> Professor of Educational Leadership CB 3500 Peabody Hall
> Microsoft Scholar The University of North
> Editor, On the Horizon Carolina at Chapel Hill
> http://horizon.unc.edu Chapel Hill, NC 27599-3500
> Editor, The Technology Source Phone: 919 962-2517
> http://www.microsoft.com/education/hed Fax: 919 962-1693
--
Mihkel Pilv
MIKSIKE
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Fax: 372 7/ 421 841
Email: info@miksike.ee
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