Education Portals in the Net
Economy
Jay Visvanathan
Market Dev Mgr – Education Portals
Sun Microsystems Inc.
The $3 Trillion Market
"Education over the Internet is
going to be so big, it's going to
make E-mail usage look like a
rounding error”
John Chambers, CEO
Cisco Systems Inc.
Internet + Education = Money
53 million students
50 million parents
3.1 million teachers
15000 school districts
$360 Billion Market for K12
E for E-Schools
$900 million investment in
60 companies in Q1 2000
Education in a Knowledge
Economy

Four year degree

Forty-year degree

Learner Mobility

Distributed learning

One-size fits all

Tailored Programs

Geographic Institutions

Univ & Prof branding

Just-in-Case

Just-in-Time
Source: Merrill Lynch
Predictions for the Future
Continuous
real-time
The
.com
Economy
Massive
Scale
Integrate
d Stack
What Schools Need…
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Enable anytime, anywhere learning
Emphasis on core competencies
Easy to use computing model
Affordable access to technology
Zero administration at the school
Reliability and constant availability
New computing model for
schools…

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The portal integrates all applications
The browser is the only user interface needed
Content, applications and infrastructure are
outsourced to Service Providers
The network webtone is managed by IT
specialists
The infrastructure is accessible anywhere,
anytime!
What is a Portal?
The Portal Solution Can Be Broken
into Three Functional Components
Browser-Based,
User Customizable Interface
Aggregation of Information,
Applications, and Services
Portal Enabling Services
Portal Computing Model
Key Services
Targeted
Communities
Aggregated for...
Employee
Content
Communication
Supplier
Collaboration
Commerce
Partner
Customer Care
Customer
Service Providers are Creating the
Web Economy
Online
Services
Supply
Chain
Enterprise
Resource
Planning
Bandwidth
ISP
Portal
NSP
Customer
Management
CSP
FSP
ASP
Web
Marketing
IPP
Hosting
Outsourcing
Services
Web
Presence
Components of Education Portals
Content
Admin Lib Inst
Infrastructure
Portal
BROWSER
ASPs: Like Timeshare only Better
TIMESHARE
ASPs

Mainframe-centric

Web-centric

Leased lines

Network Centric


Purchase s/w
model
Office only access


Subscription s/w
model
Anywhere, anytime access
Evolving SP Business Model

As margins on basic access plummet,
SPs move up the food chain to hosting:
Extranets -> Intranets -> POP3 mail -> secure mail ->
VPNs -> VoIP -> voice mail
Web sites -> storefronts -> e-commerce -> biz collaboration
-> extended enterprise apps
Computing infrastructure -> systems infrastructure ->
application infrastructure -> Enterprise Application Integration

Future success requires scale and/or
solutions-oriented specialization.
Education Portals – State of the
Market
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Content is exploding
Partnerships are pervasive
Boundaries are blurring (work/learning/play)
Revenue models are immature
Standards are getting important
Adoption rate in universities greater than K-12
Service Provider Market
Predictions

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ASPs will move upstream to provide BPO
services
Fusion services will emerge (SI +Maintenance)
ISVs will become ASPs
ASP aggregators will emerge
ASPs will emerge in e-marketplaces
Education Portals: Examples
Education Portal Examples
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Campus Pipeline
Jones Knowledge
Time Cruiser
Blackboard
Scientific Learning
Banco Sanatander
Horizon.com
Tsinghua TongFang
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PowerSchool
EduPrise
Bibliotech
Atmark Learning
Beida Online
Ambow
FutureKids
Wharton
Wharton School:
Research Service Provider



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Aggregation of market
research information from
various sources
Access to a wide range of
functionality from data
access to complex financial
modeling
Existing C, Fortran or SAS
programs can run on WRDS
with little or no modification.
Anywhere, anytime access
via a browser
Home
School Banner Space
Classes
Clubs
Tasks
Calendar
Contacts
Messages
Customizable
Content
Personalized,
Current
Information
Horizon.com - Singapore

Content repurposing and distribution via service
provisioning

75 % of CD ROM market in Singapore

3-tier model to separate application, content and
administration

100 schools in the next year
Guidelines for
Developing
Education Portals
#1
Form Follows Function
#2
Ensure ease of use;
simple interface
#3
Plan for Scale
#4
Plan for non-stop use
#4
Customize for
Communities…
…Personalize for
Individuals
#5
Context is King
Scalable
Systems
Datacenter.com Mainframe-class
Servers
Java Technology
THE
Network
Is the computer
TM
Thin Clients
NFS
WebTone
Intelligent
Storage
Jini