ImaginativePRO Blog

HOW EMILY SUGIHARA, A FORMER J. CREW DESIGNER, LAUNCHED BAGGU BY LISTENING TO WHAT HER CUSTOMERS WANTED

“MOST OF THE BAGGU IDEAS COME FROM SOMEONE AT BAGGU GOING, ‘YOU KNOW WHAT I REALLY NEED?’ AND THEN JUST MAKING IT."

This spring, Emily Sugihara, the founder of the chic reusable bag company Baggu, took up surfing and bought a longboard, only to encounter a problem--how to get the thing from her car to the water?  She says,   

“My hand literally doesn’t go around the bottom of the board, and sometimes you have like a half mile to walk.  If I carried it on my head, it hurt, and my arms fell asleep from trying to carry it.”

Emily Sugihara (left) founder of Baggu with Ellen van der Laan (right) who joined Baggu as creative director in 2008

So Sugihara did what she often does when faced with a logistical challenge: She took to her sewing machine, creating a canvas sling that lets her carry the board over one shoulder. This month, Baggu will begin selling the surf sling--which can also be used to lug boxes, canvases, pictures, and a number of other hard-to-contain objects.  Sugihara says.  

“Most of the Baggu ideas come from someone at Baggu going, ‘You know what I really need?’ And then just making it.” 

In August, the boutique bag company Baggu will begin selling a surf sling (see above) that can also be used to lug boxes, canvases, pictures, and a number of other hard-to-contain objects. It was developed like many of Baggu’s products: “from someone at Baggu going, ‘You know what I really need?’ And then just making it,” founder Emily Sugihara says.

The personal process that led to the surf sling’s design is emblematic of how Baggu develops many of its products. It is this DIY creative spirit--combined with standard business skills--that shaped Baggu’s success. Since the company’s founding in 2007, Sugihara has prioritized aesthetics, utility, and sustainability in designing her bags, all while keeping an attentive eye on Baggu’s long-term growth. That focus has led to sacrifices, including Sugihara’s early decision to manufacture most Baggu bags in China, allowing the company to reach its desired price point. But her strategy has paid off; with the exception of 2009, the company has approximately doubled its sales and its staff each year.

Sugihara designed the first Baggu not just for aesthetics and functionality, but also for manufacturing. The bag’s simple design, a knockoff of the standard plastic bag, contains just one seam along the bottom and gussets that allow it to stand up when full.

Like the surf sling, the first Baggu bag began with a dilemma. In the winter of 2006, Sugihara, then a designer at J. Crew in New York, wanted to give some reusable shopping bags to her eco-conscious mother, Joan, who lives in Emily’s hometown of San Diego, as a Christmas present, but she couldn’t find any that were cute, well-made, and affordable. So she bought some fabric and took it home to her mother, a talented seamstress who taught her daughter to sew when she was girl. The pair began creating the bag they wanted but couldn’t find. As the design evolved, Sugihara and her mother mailed prototypes--about 100 in total--coast-to-coast through the spring of 2007.

The original story behind Baggu began in late 2006, when Sugihara, then still working as a designer at J. Crew, started making bags with her crafty mom Joan, who lived across the country. They mailed each other some 100 prototypes.

The bags were more than just a sewing project for Sugihara, a born entrepreneur who once sold watermelon-shaped erasers from the Oriental Trading catalog to her fourth-grade classmates, keeping track of her profits on Excel spreadsheets. As an undergraduate at the University of Michigan, she and her roommate, Yu Wang, started a company that sold white American Apparel T-shirts printed with any single word of the customer’s choosing. The shirts were a must-have item on campus through 2004, when Sugihara and Wang graduated and disbanded the company. The experience taught Sugihara the importance of building labor costs into pricing.  She says,  

“Once we got to the point where we had more demand for T-shirts than we could make ourselves, we couldn’t outsource it, because we couldn’t find anyone who would do it as cheap as we would.”

With that experience in mind, Sugihara designed the first Baggu not just for aesthetics and functionality, but also for manufacturing. The bag’s exceedingly simple design, a knockoff of the standard plastic bag, contains just one seam along the bottom and gussets that allow it to stand up when full. Another priority for Sugihara was to minimize waste, which is why each bag is made from a single piece of fabric and sold in a pouch cut from between the bag’s handles. The material she used--ripstop nylon, the stuff hot air balloons are made from--is infinitely recyclable, meaning it can be reprocessed again and again without breaking down. It’s also strong--the bags can hold up to 25 pounds.

Sugihara initially wanted to make the bags in the United States and explored several factory options around San Diego. She quickly realized that manufacturing locally would mean selling the nylon bags for upwards of $30, which did not fit into her vision of affordability.  Sugihara says,  

“It was very important to us to make it realistic to buy six [or more] of our bags, because that’s how many you need if you’re grocery shopping for a family.  At the same time, we didn’t want to make a bag that was so cheap that it wasn’t valued and became trash quickly.” 

Sugihara initially wanted to make the bags in the United States, but she soon realized that she would have to sell them for upwards of $30, so she settled on manufacturing the bags in China. The grocery bags now sell for $8 apiece.

She eventually settled on mass producing the bags in China, which allowed Baggu to sell the grocery bags for $8 apiece. The lower price, she reasoned, would mean Baggu could have a greater impact on people’s lifestyles and replace more plastic bag use. To ensure Baggu factories comply with ethical and environmental standards, Baggu has worked with several companies, including SGS, that monitor their conditions. Though she has received some criticism for basing most of Baggu’s production in China, Sugihara stands by the decision.  She says,  

“This system of manufacturing in China is already in place.  Hopefully we’re actually improving the situation there by keeping our factories to an ethical mode of production.”

Baggu’s first shipment sold out quickly, thanks in part to a feature that ran in Teen Vogue before the bags were even available. Over the next few years, the company introduced new colors and styles, including cotton canvas back packs, tote bags, and pouches, as well as smaller and larger versions of the original bag--products that ranged in price between $7 and $34. It took some time before Sugihara, who initially viewed her bags chiefly as grocery store products, embraced them as fashion accessories.  Sugihara says.  

“At some point we were just banging our heads against the wall trying to get it into grocery stores while all this design and fashion interest was just falling into our laps.  Marketing the bags as a fashion object came a lot more naturally for us and seemed like a lot more fun.”

Baggu has collaborated with designers and stores--such as Caitlin Mociun, Shabd Aledander, and No. 6 Store--to create unique prints and materials.

Baggu’s first shipment sold out quickly, thanks in part to a feature that ran in Teen Vogue before the bags were even available.

In late 2011, Baggu released a line of higher-end leather products after it became clear that people were using the nylon and canvas bags as purses anyway. These were Baggu’s first products to be made in the States; the bags, which retail between $140 and $160, are manufactured in New York City from leather milled in Argentina. Sugihara plans to make the surf sling and future surf products in the United States too. The fact that Baggu orders these products in smaller quantities than its other bags makes local production cost effective.

Baggu is totally self-funded, which has helped pace its growth. Sugihara says.

  “When I was staying up all night shipping orders, I was like, ‘Oh, we need a warehouse.’  And then again, I was staying up all night writing customer emails, and I was like, ‘We need someone to help with customer service.’”

Sugihara’s childhood friend Ellen Van Der Laan designed Baggu’s logo and officially became creative director in 2008, when the company could afford to pay her. Today, Baggu consists of 11 employees in its office in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, plus Sugihara’s mom, who still designs for Baggu from California.

Sugihara has plans to release more surf and beach items in the future, but beyond that, the direction of new products really depends on the lives of the people at Baggu.  She says,

“As we all grow up and our lives change and we take on new interests, we’ll definitely come up with new ideas.”

COMMENTARY:   What Emily Sugihara has been able to accomplished should be commended.  I love profiling startups that started with very little other than an experienced and creative founder and a simple idea.  Sometimes the most simple ideas become the most successful.  Sugihara's use of recyclable materials like nylon used in hot air balloons and natural materials (100% cotton canvas) is a definite point of differentiation.  Although Baggu offers a limited number of individual items, each item comes in a broad range of bright regular and neon colors and interesting patterns.  Baggu offers tot bags, backbacks, daypacks, handbags, grocery bags, iPad pouches, and two new leather bags. Canvas and nylon items are washable.  Prices are very affordable.  Baggu products are available at wholesale prices for those wishing to carry Baggu's products, and can be customized with corporate logos.  I absolutely love what Emily Sugiharu has done.  Simplicity works.  

Here are a few of her products:

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Steve Jobs, former Apple CEO and co-founder, once said that it was a waste of time to ask customers what they want, because they don't know what they want.  Thank goodness that Emily did not heed his advice, but listened to her customers and designed products accordingly.   

Emily launched Baggu in 2007, just before the Great Recession hit.  Having consult6ed for clients during the Great Recession and after the banking and financial meltdown, this was a tough time for anyone to launch a business. Emily appears to have weathered the stone, and proven that it can be done, if you have what the customer wants, offer well designed and functional products, and at great prices. 

In October 2011, Anthem Magazine interviewed Emily Sugihara of Baggu and her creative director Ellen van der Laan.   You can read the interview by clicking the above link.

Courtesy of an article dated August 22, 2012 appearing in Fast Company Design 

WHY EX-HARVARD MED STUDENT IJAD MADISCH STARTED RESEARCHGATE, A SOCIAL NETWORK FOR SHARING OF SCIENTIFIC KNOWLEDGE

 

Tim Berners-Lee created the web as a better way of sharing academic research. But it soon morphed into something much, well, larger.

The irony, says Ijad Madisch, is that while reinventing so many other aspects of our life, the web never really overturned the world of academic publishing.   More than 30 years on, we’re still relying on old-fashioned peer-reviewed academic journals to share research among the world’s leading thinkers.

Ipad Madisch, founder of ResearchGate (Click Image To Enlarge)

But Madisch wants to change that.  In 2008, the former medical student and virology Ph.D. candidate founded a web service called ResearchGate, which seeks to replace peer-reviewed journals with a kind of Facebook for scientists.

It’s a way of bringing academics together online, but it’s also a means of instantly publishing research.  Yes, there are other sites that let you self-publish academic work — most notably Cornell University’s arXiv and the Public Library of Science — but ResearchGate goes further. Part of the aim is to share research even before it’s packaged into a formal paper — including “negative data” that may show that a particular thesis isn’t worth following.

Madisch says.

“There has to be a way for scientists to share negative data, so that we’re not just making the same mistakes again and again.  We spend so much time and money on experiments that we already know don’t work.”

Today, the service claims nearly 2 million registered users, and though it continues to battle the skepticism of researchers who still see traditional journals as the best way to share and validate research — not to mention build a career — it’s slowly winning over many of its most ardent critics.

Rafael Luque, a professor of organic chemistry at the University of Córdoba, who shares completed research papers as well as raw experiments and ideas says. 

“It’s a great thing — and I was surprised it’s a great thing.   At first, it looked like just another version of Facebook. I have nothing against Facebook. I just don’t have time for it.  But ResearchGate is different. It stimulates thought.”

Madisch grew up in Germany, where he studied medicine before coming to the States for an M.D.-Ph.D. program at Harvard. It was there he dreamed up the idea of ResearchGate.   He says.  

“I wanted to form teams of scientists all over the world.  And I wanted to go across disciplines.”

The idea was so attractive to him, he eventually decided to curtail his medical studies so he could spend more time developing it — a decision that raised the ire of his longtime adviser back in Germany.

Madisch remembers.

“He said: 'Get this firlefanz out of your head,  Firlefanz means ‘shit of bird.’  So, he wanted me to get ‘this nonsense’ out of my head and focus on my academic career.'”

But back in the States, others believed in the idea, most notably Matt Cohler, a partner with big name VC firm Benchmark Capital.  Cohler says.  

“Despite the fact that this is what the world wide web was initially developed for, so many problems with academic research are still unsolved.   All these years later, there is still enormous waste and inefficiency.”

When the two first met to discuss the project, Cohler asked Madish what he saw as his ultimate goal for ResearchGate.   Madisch said.  

“To win the Nobel Prize.”

And apparently, this unexpectedly enormous ambition sealed the deal.

Madish eventually quit his medical studies altogether, and four years on, he says, ResearchGate spans more than 11,000 educational institutions across the globe, and it continues to grow at a steady clip.  Rafael Luque started an organic chemistry group on the site in 2008, and it has now grown to over 2,000 members.

Madisch has yet to win the Nobel Prize. But he has reached another major milestone that even he didn’t expect. About three months ago, the professor who called his idea “bird shit” signed up for ResearchGate. For years, Madisch and others at the company had used the professor’s name to set up dummy accounts on the service as a way of demonstrating how it worked. They assumed it was name that would otherwise never appear on site. But then it did.

COMMENTARY:    In a blog post dated February 14, 2012, I profiled ResearchGate, and was rather impressed with the idea of bringing the world's scientific into a social network for scientists. At that time, ResearchGate had only 1.4 million registered researchers, but that number has grown to nearly 2 million.  ResearchGate had only 352,100 registered researchers in the Medicine field, but today that number has ballooned to 427,550 with 7.9 million research papers.

A social networked central depository of scientific research papers is a splendid idea, which allows scientiests in numerous scientific fields to collaborate, compare research results and critique each other is very compelling.  This is the type of engagement that Facebook cannot generate.  True, peer-to-peer and one-to-many collaboration and engagement. In my opinion, ResearchGate definitely has the potential to become the next big thing in scientific research.  

ResearchGate definitely has the potential for monetization, a sort of LinkedIn for scientific researchers, if you will.   Colleges, universities, scientific institutions and associations, and corporations relying on scientific research can tap into this huge social warehouse of knowledge. All of this at a price, of course.   Companies can alo recruite the smartest and brightest, maybe even complete teams working on similar research of importance to that company.     

Courtesy of an article dated August 17, 2012 appearing in Wired

FACEBOOK'S TIMELINE, SPONSORED STORES AND OTHER OFFERINGS REQUIRES MARKETERS RETHINK STRATEGIES AND PAY FOR ADS

Facebook has formally launched its new search-ad offering, and is touting major upgrades to its iPhone and iPad applications. The changes will require brands to rethink their marketing strategies.

With every adjustment or alteration Facebook makes, marketers who rely on the platform must adapt as well, according to a new eMarketer report, “Facebook Marketing: Reaching Customers in a Changing Environment.”

Facebook has introduced several new marketing tools in the past year:

• Timeline format for brand pages.
• Sponsored Stories.
• Reach Generator.
• Other advertising offerings that incorporate regular posts. 
• Social media metrics that go beyond counting fans, incorporating reach, sharing and engagement into measurements.

Many of these updates improve on Facebook’s free tools. But marketers beware: Subtle changes behind the scenes mean brands will need to incorporate paid advertising in the mix if they want to get much traction using Facebook’s free services. This is critical for many marketers to understand, since 83% of all companies with at least 100 employees will use Facebook for marketing this year, eMarketer estimates. By 2014, that will rise to nearly nine in 10.

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As Facebook has rolled Timeline out to all brand pages, it has meant a de-emphasis on tabs, which used to let brands choose their own landing page for Facebook users. In addition, Facebook’s inclusion of ads in the newsfeed that seamlessly fit into organic content on the site are not solely an opportunity for paid media. In fact, in early 2012, during the Facebook Marketing Conference, the company said that when a brand posts an update to Facebook, only 16% of its fans actually see the content. This is largely due to Facebook’s Edgerank algorithm, which determines what status updates, posts and comments are shown on users’ newsfeeds. The algorithm chokes back the amount of brand content users see as a way to manage the increasing content being posted to Facebook. So, while getting more fans to comment and engage with the post will increase its reach, the easiest way to win higher visibility is now, of course, by paying to integrate posts into the feed.

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For marketers looking to keep their visibility and engagement high with Facebook users, the new ad formats require planning and integration between advertising and social media management teams.

Grady Burnett, vice president of global marketing solutions at Facebook said. 

“It’s starting with a good page post, a good strategy, and then figuring out how to amplify that and drive persuasion with it.  Paid and earned, when used together, perform best.”

---

The full report, “Facebook Marketing: Reaching Customers in a Changing Environment,” also answers these key questions:

• How are the changes to Facebook affecting marketers’ strategies for the social network?
• How are consumers responding to the new elements and the evolving marketing tactics on Facebook?
• As Facebook matures as a website, is its relationship with brands and marketers advancing or regressing?

This report is available to eMarketer corporate subscription clients only. Total Access clients, log in and view the report now.

COMMENTARY:   Unlike Facebook's Marketplace ads (the ads appearing in the right side of the page), infeed ads could alienate users because of the intrusive nature of those ads.   Although Facebook claims that paying for infeed ads increases user engagement, it has been conclusively shown that pressing the "Like" button or making a comment, does not necessarily translate into a buying decision on the part of the user.  Furthermore, placing ads directly into the newsfeed may increase the likelihood that users will eventually subconsciously blockout the ads in the same way that they have Marketplace ads.  In my opinion, in feed ads are still a work in process.  There will probably be a increase in "curiosity" clickthroughs, but afterall, they are just ads, and users consider ads intrusive to the overall enjoyment f their social media experience.  Many users view their Facebook pages as sacred and private social spaces, and ads are unwanted strangers.    

If you haven't already done so, I recommend you read my blog post dated March 1, 2012 and April 25, 2012 for my commentary of Facebook's Timeline for Brands, and my blog post dated February 7, 2012,  June 8, 2012 and June 21, 2012 for my commentary of Facebook's Sponsored Stories.

Courtesy of an article dated August 24, 2012 appearing in eMarketer Blog

HOW MICROSOFT'S INNOVATIVE NEW TABLET ACCESSORIES GIVE ITS NEW ELEGANT SURFACE TABLET MORE POP AND EASE-OF-USE

Microsoft's new Surface Tablet comes with the "Wedge" mobile keyboard and touch mouse 

MICROSOFT'S INNOVATIVE APPROACH TO DESIGN AND ENGINEERING BUILT INTO ITS "WEDGE" MOBILE KEYBOARD AND TOUCH MOUSE GIVE ITS NEW SURFACE TABLET ADDED ZING WHILE PRESERVING ITS ELEGANCE, MINIMALISTIC DESIGN AND EASE-OF-USE 

When Microsoft showed off their Surface tablet a few months back, it wasn’t the OS, the battery life, or the touch screen that stole the show. It was a clever case that doubled as a keyboard. In retrospect, of course that case was a big deal; typing is the one important thing that you really can’t do well on a contemporary tablet. Microsoft recognized the platform’s chief design flaw and fixed it.

 

Mcrosoft's "Wedge" Mobile Keyboard folds and doubles as a stand for its new Surface Tablet (Click Images To Enlarge)

But this week, Microsoft revealed another keyboard (and mouse) solution for the Surface and other Windows 8 tablets. They’re called the “Wedge” Mobile Keyboard and Touch Mouse, and it’s an apt name, as the wedge is at the core of their design paradigm.

Mcrosoft's Touch Mouse for its new Surface Tablet (Click Images To Enlarge)

The keyboard is much like any compact Bluetooth keyboard you’ve seen. But where it differs is its folding case, which pivots to support the tablet like a monitor when the keyboard is in use. This simple piece of fabric ostensibly turns a Windows tablet into a PC.

The mouse is just as interesting. Also playing on the “wedge” idea, it combines a trackpad and a traditional mouse by placing a whole touch surface right on top of a standard mouse. It might be overkill--after all, one style of pointer control can usually do--but it’s an interesting bridge technology to support multitouch gestures for those who insist on using a standard mouse (or those who really need one for using Photoshop or Illustrator in their desktop-style incarnations). What you may not notice from the picture, however, is just how tiny this mouse is. It’s the smallest, lightest mouse Microsoft has ever made, and it will fit in your pocket.

More and more, Microsoft’s unique approach to tablets is playing out. While the iPad is the perfect couch computer, Microsoft is trying to make the Surface into the perfect mobile computer. Of course, that isn’t stopping Microsoft from selling multiple, confusing SKUs of their tablet software. And, however unrealistic it may be, we can always dream of a workhorse tablet that can get by without the keyboard, can’t we?

The Wedge keyboard and mouse will be available “in the coming weeks and months” for $80 and $70, respectively.

COMMENTARY:  In a blog post dated June 19, 2012, I commented on Microsoft's new Surface Tablet.  Here's Microsoft CEO Steven Ballmer presenting the new Surface tablet.

 

Courtesy of an article dated August 22, 2012 appearing in Fast Company Design

NEW SURVEY REVEALS HOW MARKETERS ARE USING SOCIAL MEDIA IN 2012, PLUS HUBSPOT'S REVEALING INFOGRAPHIC

SEOmoz CEO Rand Fishkin and HubSpot CTO Dharmesh Shah reveal the results from the SEOmoz annual industry survey on the state of SEO and internet marketing.

The survey specifically aimed to highlight the state of search engine optimization, internet marketing, and the marketing profession in 2012, and SEOmoz shared this exclusive data with us in order to reveal some key insights about social media usage.   So if you're wondering how marketers are leveraging social media for their businesses, Hubspot pulled together an infographic snapshot (see below) to feature some of results from the 6,491 SEOmoz survey respondents.  

The first statistic highlighted on our infographic reveals that 44.4% of survey respondents self-professed either “advanced” or “expert” level social media ability. This shows that marketers are feeling an increased sense of ability to tackle what was once thought of as a new and unknown technology.

To little surprise in the social media marketing world, Facebook and Twitter lead as the most popular social network. In fact, the social media lead generation team at HubSpot is a big advocate for these two networks!  What is surprising, however, is that Google+ emerges as the third most popular network. Google+ has historically been plagued with the "useless" label when it comes to generating social ROI, so one theory behind this ranking could be the high impact Google+ has on SEO.

While LinkedIn falls behind in fifth place, it turns out that 74.1% of marketers use LinkedIn for branding. I found this to be particularly interesting since LinkedIn Company Pages do not provide many options for branding. While they can update their status and add a company logo, marketers don't have the more advanced branding capabilities that they have on more visual networks such as Facebook or Pinterest. One theory behind this statistic could be branding via employees. LinkedIn is an excellent platform for showing off the wonderful talent your employees bring to your company.

Lastly, it turns out that 60.2% of marketers are looking for analysis options, as well as other analytics options, in their social media management tools. This comes as no surprise. When savvy social media marketers are communicating their messages online, they want to know exactly how those efforts are benefiting them by analyzing whether each social strategy is connecting to their end goal: revenue. Tools that report on social media analytics are becoming more and more in demand among marketers, which is exactly why the HubSpot team has worked so hard to provide reach metrics and CTR on all your social media messages, as well as ROI metrics like closed-loop reporting on leads and customers generated from social media, all within the HubSpot Social Media tool.

Courtesy of an article dated August 20, 2012 appearing in Hubspot Blog

TEACHING WITH TABLETS: ADOPTION OF TABLETS BY K-12 AND COLLEGE STUDENTS, AND THEIR LONGTERM EFFECTS

Young children, students K-12 and college students, have all embraced tablets like the Apple iPad, and for this reason more tablets are making their way into the classroom.  The following infographic designed by Online Universities.com explains graphically tablet adoption by demographics and how students and teachers are using tablets in their classrooms.  The most popular tablets, including the Apple iPad 2, Kindle Fire,  Asus Nexus7 and Intel Studybook are compared, and consumers were polled for their opinions regarding tablets, including some speculations surrounding smaller tablets like a rumored iPad Mini and Kindle Fire 2.  

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COMMENTARY:    

Tablet Adoption - K-12 Classrooms

Tablet computers appear to be having a transformative impact on K-12 classrooms across all grade levels. They certainly offer the promise of empowering students to achieve more and learn with ever-increasing enthusiasm.

It’s important to distinguish between the types of tablets in the market. There are “slate” tablets—like the Lenovo ThinkPad Tablet or the Apple iPad—and “convertible tablets” such as the ThinkPad X220t, which provide a combination of laptop and tablet features. In this post, I’m going to be focused on slate tablets.

Tablets have dynamic touch screens and, in some cases, digital pens. Slates in particular offer longer battery life than most PCs, they boot up faster and users enjoy an ever-growing number of applications. Most importantly, they provide extreme mobility. Their small size enables students to move between learning spaces without difficulty—whether those spaces are in school, at home or elsewhere.

Researchers agree.  According to the 2012 edition of Horizon Report (PDF), which looks at emerging technologies in K-12, published by the New Media Consortium. 

“In the past year, advances in tablets have captured the imagination of educators around the world. [Tablets] have come to be viewed as not just a new category of mobile devices, but indeed a new technology in its own right, one that blends features of laptops, smartphones and earlier tablet computers with always-connected Internet, and thousands of apps with which to personalize the experience.”

As an example, Forsyth County Schools in Georgia launched a Bring Your Own Technology program in 2010. Today, more than 80 percent of the district’s students use their own tablets and mobile devices to work on projects at school and at home. Their NOBLE Virtual World Project is a project born from this high adoption rate, and is designed to use mobility to facilitate great cooperation between students and with their teachers.

Interestingly, tablet computers appear to be delivering meaningful results for K-12 students of all ages, despite their relative newness to the market.

Frank Ganis, a general partner at the Gilfus Education Group, believes tablets work better for young children than desktop PCs or laptops.  He says, pointing out that students’ motor skills and mental facilities are not synchronized enough at early ages to permit effective typing.

“The reason tablets are so important, especially in the lower grades of K-6, is because if students at that age have to use a keyboard it interferes with their ability to absorb and retain information.  By removing the keyboard from the learning applications, the tablets are more effective than a laptop or a PC.”

Tablets are also proving valuable to older students. One recent study conducted by the Pearson Foundation, found that tablet ownership quadrupled among college-bound high school seniors in the past year with 17 percent now claiming ownership of one of the devices. In fact, 69 percent of high school seniors said they believed tablets would replace textbooks within the next five years.

Considering these trends, it’s not surprising that tablets would be central to the larger movement toward 1-to-1, mobile-based learning.

Adds the New Media Consortium report.

“People expect to be able to work, learn, and study whenever and wherever they want to.  Life in an increasingly busy world where learners must balance demands from home, work, school, and family poses a host of logistical challenges with which today’s ever more mobile students must cope.”

Tablets meet that growing demand for convenience and speed, the report suggests.  The report says.  

“A faster approach is often perceived as a better approach, and as such people want easy and timely access not only to the information on the network, but to their social networks that can help them to interpret it and maximize its value.  The implications for informal learning are profound, as are the notions of ‘just-in-time’ learning and ‘found’ learning, both ways of maximizing the impact of learning by ensuring it is timely and efficient.”

All that being said, we don’t think tablets will be replacement devices for a notebook or PC anytime soon. Tablets are typically more suited for content consumption than content creation. While students can create content on a tablet, they are better suited as a companion device to a PC. Tablets simply are not yet on par with a notebook when it comes to computer power, which limits their ability to create rich content.

What do you think? How are you using tablets — either slate or convertible — in your classrooms? We’ll be talking more about trends in mobility tools in upcoming posts and welcome your feedback.

Tablet Adoption - College Students

Tablet ownership among college students has more than tripled since 2011, according to survey results released Wednesday, March 14, 2012.  As students bring more tablets to college, IT leaders likely will be forced to change the way they provide services and interact with students.

Out of approximately 1,200 college students surveyed online in January 2012 by Harris Interactive, 25 percent have a tablet. Last year, that number was only 7 percent.

The survey, commissioned by the Pearson Foundation, dovetailed with an updated 2012 forecast for tablet production. On Tuesday, March 13, the International Data Corp. changed its forecast from 87.7 million units to 106.1 million units. This revision reflected strong Q4 results in the tablet market — partly due to the introduction of the Kindle Fire. 

Tablet adoption also is rising among the general U.S. population. Between mid-December and January, the percentage of adults who owned tablets jumped from 10 to 19 percent, according to the Pew Internet & American Life Research Project. In two post-holiday surveys of 2,000 people, 24 percent of tablet owners were 18 to 29 year olds.

The largest user base came from the 30- to 49 year-old range, at 27 percent. Combined, the surveys have a margin error of plus or minus 2.4 percentage points.

The 2012 NMC Horizon Report suggested that tablet adoption would become mainstream in the education space within a year or less.

In a world where students will own devices and universities won't, campuses need to figure out the role of their IT organization, said A. Michael Berman, a member of the 2012 Horizon Project Higher Education Advisory Board and the vice president for technology and communication at California State University Channel Islands.

In general, universities are anticipating two major changes: End-users will own devices. And tablets will be so inexpensive and common that students won't need to search for and process information at computer labs. 

Berman said.  

"The idea that you would go somewhere to use something that you don't have — to do those kinds of activities — is really going to be obsolete." 

In a few more years, instructors likely will expect students to bring tablets, smartphones and other devices to class. Because tablets should become cheaper, more college students should be able to pay for them.

Berman said.  

"The biggest impact will be on teaching and learning because most of us have operated from the premise that computing power is scarce, so you have to go somewhere to get it."

But the shift to tablets also presents challenges, such as distributing software and other tools, and managing security.

Berman said.  

"I think that it's easy to see what the general trend is, but it's really hard to understand the implications." 

While it's too early to tell what these changes mean, IT leaders know they're coming and that they should try to figure them out as best as they can.

How Apple Plans To Dominate The Education Market

In a blog post dated January 20, 2012, I told you how Apple plans to dominate the educational market with the iPad and eBooks instead of hardcover textbooks, and apps targeting the teacher.  

At a New York press conference in late January 2012, Apple announced three products that aim to get students and teachers to use the iPad's touch-screen interface to read, write, plan classes and communicate with each other.  

• iBooks Author - A free app that lets anyone create a digital, interactive textbook.  In a demo at the event, an Apple employee created an e-book with the app in about five minutes, according to live blogs.
• iTunes U - Special free software that lets teachers plan their curriculum and communicate with their students over the iPad.   iTunes U will "allow anyone, anywhere, at any time to take courses for free.  
• iBooks 2 - A free app and a new online textbook store that will feature digital e-books for schools.  Apple said it is partnering with several major textbook companies -- including Pearson, McGraw-Hill and Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, who will make e-books for the store, according to Fortune.

Some Concerns About Tablets

I personally believe that the adoption of tablets by K-12 children and students are a great idea whose time has come.  However, not all socio-economic households and schools can afford a tablets, mobile apps and access to WIFI for their school-aged children.   For this reason, I am afraid that many families and classrooms will be left behind as tablet technology becomes mainstream.   Only higher income households and schools scoring high on standardized tests will be able to afford these new technologies.  

My other concerns are privacy issues and proper supervision of students as they gain access to the Internet.  Teacher and parental supervision are paramount for all age groups to insure that they are not being exposed to improper online content.  Teachers and parents must make sure that tablets are being used responsibly by their children and students, and that these devices are being used for educational activities, not just for playing games and online entertainment.   

We won't know the affect tablets and computers will have on the quality of education.  Goals must be established and educators must make sure that tablets and other mobile teaching devices are producing higher test scores and grades. 

Courtesy of an article dated August 21, 2012 appearing in OnlineUniversities.com and an article dated March 14, 2012 appearing in Converge Magazine and an article dated May 30, 2012 appearing in K12 Education Technology

EARLY FACEBOOK INVESTORS PETER THIEL, MICROSOFT AND ACCEL PARTNERS DUMP MAJORITY OF THEIR SHARES AFTER END OF LOCKUP PERIOD

Facebook Inc (NASDAQ:FB) director Peter Thiel and Accel Partners, two of the earliest investors of the social network giant decided to sell the majority of their shares after the lock-up period expired last week.

Peter Thiel, Facebook's first angel investor.  Thiel invested $500,000 and that stock at one time was worth well over $1 billion.  Thiel sold all his shares when the first lockup period ended on August 17, 2012

Based on Thiel’s regulatory filing, he sold more than 20 million shares of Facebook Inc (NASDAQ:FB), for a total of approximately $396 million at a price range of $19.27 to $20.69 per share, to different entities including Founder’s Fund Management LLC, Rivendell One LLC, and Lembas LLC. Before the expiration of the lock-up, Thiel converted 9.3 million of his Class B shares into Class A shares, a signal that he was preparing to sell a large chunk of his shares in the company. During the Facebook IPO, Thiel sold 16.8 million shares.

Research firm Stifel Nicolaus cited a report from the Associated Press that Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) sold approximately 6.6 million shares of Facebook Inc (NASDAQ:FB). The research firm said the software giant invested a total of $240 million in the social network giant in 2007. The company already recovered its investment after selling 20 percent of its shares during the IPO for almost $250 million. Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) still owns 26 million shares of Facebook Inc (NASDAQ:FB) and has no plans of selling the rest of its stakes in the future.

Accel Partners distributed 57.8 million shares to its limited partners, based on its regulatory filing. It is not clear whether its partners sold or kept their holdings in the social network giant. The venture fund held 135.7 million Class A shares and 7.9 million Class B shares after the IPO.

Marc Andreesen, one of the members of Facebook’s board of directors, also submitted a regulatory filing, showing that he received more than 6.5 million shares distributed by Greylock Partners, which holds 29 million Class B shares following the social network giant’s IPO.

The total number of Facebook shares freed from lock-up last week was 271 million. Additionally, 1.2 billion shares will be available for sale in the market during the expiration of the second lock-up period in November.

Facebook investors are uncertain of the company’s capability to generate advertising revenues. During the second quarter, the social networking giant posted

 a $157 million loss. Since its IPO, the company’s stock value keeps going downward. The company’s shares went as low as $18.75 per share on Monday. The company’s stock is trading at around $19.92 per share on Tuesday morning, August 21.

COMMENTARY:   I don't feel sorry for any of these punkasses.  They were very early investors so they made out big time when Facebook's lockup period ended.  You can bet that Accel Partners' limited partners cashed their Facebook shares quicker than you can say Zuck.  

Courtesy of an article dated August 21, 2012 appearing in ValueWalk 

APPLE GENERATED MORE REVENUE FROM ITS iPHONE IN FISCAL Q1 2012 THAN MICROSOFT'S TOTAL REVENUE FOR THE SAME QUARTER

Apple’s (NASDAQ:AAPL) stock is soaring ahead of the company’s sixth-generation iPhone launch, and while its market capitalization is now well over double that of rival Microsoft (NYSE:MSFT), Forbes on Sunday pulled an interesting snippet from a recent Vanity Fair piece.  In the first calendar quarter of 2012, Apple’s revenue of $39.2 billion more than doubled Microsoft’s $17.41 billion in sales.  The far more impressive stat, as the site noted, is that Apple took in $22.7 billion during the March quarter just from iPhone sales — meaning a single Apple product was responsible for 30% more revenue than Microsoft’s entire business in the same quarter. Apple’s “iPhone 5” is expected to launch next month and analysts are tripping over themselves to find new ways to call it the biggest product launch in Apple history. It will be interesting to revisit this revenue comparison after the holiday quarter, when Apple will launch the new iPhone and Microsoft will finally release its next-generation Windows 8 operating system.

COMMENTARY:    If you haven't already done so, please checkout my blog post dated January 25, 2012 for a detailed commentary on Apple's fiscal Q1 2012 earnings report and my blog post dated October 4, 2011 for a detailed commentary Apple's unveiling of the new iPhone 4S.

I can hardly wait to see the iPhone 5 when it is unveiled in next month, as well as Microsoft's Windows 8 phone.  Checkout my blog post June 6, 2012 for a detailed commentary on Microsoft's new Windows 8 phones scheduled to be released in September 2012 (or thereabouts). In a blog post dated June 19, 2012, I commented on the unveiling of Microsoft's new 10.6-inch Surface Tablet running the new Microsoft OS 8.   Microsft's new tablet received rave reviews for its beautiful design innovation.  It's mosaic Windows 8 operating sytem is a work of art, and could become a game-changer and makes Apple's OS X look pale by comparison.  If the new Windows 8 phones are anywhere as good as the Surface Tablet is, it could become an iPhone-killer and inject new life into Microsoft, which has been slow in entering the smartphone and tablet markets.  

Courtesy of an article dated August 20, 2012 appearing in BGR

FACEBOOK SHARES FALL TO NEW LOW PRICE OF $19.87 AS FIRST LOCKUP PERIOD ENDS, NUMEROUS FACEBOOK INSIDERS CASHOUT

Facebook Inc. FB -6.27% shares sank 6.3% to a record low on Thursday, August 16, 2012, falling below $20 a share on a day when some early investors were allowed to unload their stakes, adding further pressure on the beaten-down stock.

Rules expired Thursday that had restricted some early investors from selling down their stakes after Facebook's initial public offering. More than 271 million Facebook shares became eligible for sale Thursday, though holders could also choose to keep some, or all, of their stakes. Any additional shares would add to the 421 million already in circulation.

Click Image To View Interactive Graph

Facebook declined $1.33 to $19.87 on the Nasdaq Stock Market at 4 p.m. Thursday, after hitting a record intraday low of $19.69.

The prior closing low of $20.04 was hit Aug. 2.

Upward of 141 million shares had traded by 3:30 p.m. New York time, more than triple the stock's daily average over the past 30 days, according to the WSJ Market Data Group. That was greater than the full-day activity in all but two sessions: the first two days Facebook was public and the day after it reported second-quarter results in July.

Evercore Partners analyst Ken Sena said.

"It's basically supply and demand.  You have a lot of supply of shares coming to market, so even to those who feel that the stock is priced attractively at these levels, there's no reason to step in and buy."

Mr. Sena said.  

"There's a lot uncertainty to try and say what's the right price to reflect the amount of supply that's going to come to the market, because it's something that's going to continue to trickle out.  So it's something that could create a prolonged overhang on the shares."

A Facebook spokeswoman declined to comment on the stock activity.

The stock that became eligible for sale Thursday was just the first of some two billion shares tied up in what are known as lockup agreements, which prevent selling by investors who bought stakes in Facebook before the May 18 IPO.

Banks underwriting companies' public debuts often require selling shareholders to keep a portion of their stakes at first, to reassure investors their interests will remain aligned with those early backers' interests, and to bolster the stock price through scarcity.

Facebook has detailed in regulatory filings when such agreements expire. The biggest lockup expiration, freeing more than one billion shares, is set for Nov. 14. The last lockup expires next May.

Thursday's decline raised questions about the ability of Facebook's shares to hold up as more shares come to market, as the lockup expirations have been well-telegraphed.

The decline extended Facebook's plunge from its $38 IPO price.

Also weighing on shares in recent weeks: In late July, Facebook said it swung to a loss in the second quarter as revenue growth slowed and costs rose.

Meanwhile, technology shares in the broader market rose, with tech stocks in the Standard & Poor's 500-stock index advancing more than any other sector. Overall, major benchmarks traded higher.

As trading volume in Facebook stock surged, so, too, did its volume in the options market, as traders closed out bearish positions for hefty profits.

Investors who set up bets earlier in the week that the stock would fall were walking away Thursday with as much as double what they paid for the positions. The sharp decline in the stock's price made bearish options more valuable.

Options traders are even more bearish about the pending November lockup expiration, when 1.32 billion more shares become free to trade. Nearly two-thirds of options bets expiring in the weeks after that expiration are concentrated in bearish contracts.

 

COMMENTARY:   When companies go public, as Facebook did in May, company insiders and early investors can typically sell only a fraction of their shares, which are then traded freely on the stock market. The rest of their holdings are restricted from sale during a "lockup" period, which usually expires six months after the IPO.

After the lockup ends, the number of shares in the market can multiply several times over, often causing prices to fall.

Facebook chose to spread its lockup periods over a year. The first expiration caused the number of the company's publicly traded shares to balloon by 64% to 692 million.  

Behind the trend: supply and demand. Until Thursday, August 16, 2012, only about 421 million shares of Facebook were freely traded. When the last Facebook lockup expires next May, there will be 2.14 billion shares floating in the market.

Here's a complete schedule of the Facebook (and Zynga's) lockup periods.

Click Image To Enlarge

It really gets scary with Facebook's next lockup period expiration date of October 15, 2012, when another 243 million shares are allowed to be sold by insiders and early investors.   Then on November 14, 2012, a total of 1.323 million shares are allowed to be sold by insiders and early investors.   If Facebook's share price continues to plummet due to poor earnings reports or insiders decide to bailout between now and mid-October 2012, the result could be catastrophic for Facebook shareholders.

Insiders and early investors are unlikely to sell all those shares at once, but many who have waited years to realize their gains will be quick to cash out at least some of their stake, says Daniel Bradley, a finance professor at the University of South Florida who has studied IPOs.

He says while nothing that some sellers simply might be diversifying.  

"If you have a significant amount of insider selling, it says something about what they believe the fundamental value [of the company] is." 

It also is a bad sign if institutional investors, such as mutual funds and market makers, sell large blocks of shares before the lockup expiration, says Nikhil Varaiya, a finance professor at San Diego State University. That is because institutional investors are usually more knowledgeable about companies they sell than small investors, he says.

Prof. Varaiya found that the more big trades a company sees in its first days of trading, the worse the shares perform after the lockup expires. The effect hurts performance for up to three years after the IPO, and isn't diminished even if other investors make big purchases to offset the sales, he says.

That could spell trouble for Facebook. In June, mutual funds run by Fidelity Investments sold 1.9 million shares of the company, according to monthly portfolio disclosures.

Big investors, including Fidelity, have also already unloaded thousands of shares of Splunk, whose lockup expires in October.

I don't feel sorry for Facebook's major insiers and early investors.  They did pretty well during the IPO when Facebook shares sold at between $38 and $45 per share.   During the IPO, Facebook insiders and early investors cashed-out to the tune of a staggering $10 billion, including (courtesy of Henry Blodget, still doing penance): 

• Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg: $1.14 billion. 
• Accel Partners: $2.1 billion. 
• Peter Thiel: $638 million. 
• DST Global: $1.7 billion. 
• Goldman Sachs: $923 million. 
• Mail.ru Group: $745 million. 
• Tiger Global: $722 million. 

Most of these early investors still own Facebook stock, so their holdings have declined, like all shareholders. But the cold-hard cash they made by selling shares in the IPO has no doubt salved the distress caused by the stock’s plunge.   In a blog post dated May 21, 2012, I provided a detailed list of these insiders, early investors and a few lucky stiffs.

Through all of this volatility, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg has remained silent.  In fact, Facebook representatives have refused to comment on its share price.   As of this writing, Facebook shares hit a new low of $19.04, with nearly 100 million shares exchanging hands.  It's entirely possible that by the end of trading, that Facebook shares could dip below $19.00 a share. This is quite possible because many of them have shorted.  This tells you that they believe Facebook could sink even lower.  

UPDATE:  Does not appear that Facebook's stock price slide has slowed dow, today, August 17, 2012, the price dropped another $0.82 or -$4.13% to end trading at $19.05, and hit a new low.   In after-hours trading, Facebook shares were down another $0.03 to end at $19.02.  Earlier I thought that the price could dip below $19.00, so that is really cutting it close.  Let's see what happens on Monday, August 20, 2012.

Courtesy of an article dated August 16, 2012 appearing in The Wall Street Journal Online an article dated August 13, 2012 appearing in Time Magazine and an article dated August 17, 2012 appearing in The Wall Street Journal and an article dated August 16, 2012 appearing in ValueWalk

WHAT IS YOUR STATE DOING TO PREVENT THE SEVERELY MENTALLY ILL FROM BUYING GUNS?

In the wake of the recent mass shootings, reasonable people have been asking whether their state is doing everything it can to prevent people with severe mental illness from getting guns.

Unfortunately, according to latest data from the FBI, the answer right now is clearly: “No.”

When someone tries to buy a gun from a licensed dealer, they have to undergo a
background check.

However, most states have failed to submit millions of mental health records into the national do-not-sell gun database – making these gun checks alarmingly incomplete.

Every missing record is another tragedy waiting to happen.

And what’s worse, leaders at the state and national levels have not told us how they
plan on closing these fatal gaps.

Find out the risk level in your state – and then share the following map with friends and family so they can take action too. 

Click Image To View an Interactive Map, then click on your State

COMMENTARY:    If you click on the dark maroon colored states, you will find that some of them do little or nothing to screen gun applications for individuals with mental illnesses.  Many of the individuals involved in mass killings by firearms had histories of mental illness.  This includes the infamous Cho Seung-Hui, a Korean student who killed 34 students and teachers and wounded countless more at Virginia Tech and James Holmes, the University of Colorado medical school dropout who shot and killed numerous moviegoers in Aurora, Colorado.  

If you are concerned as I am about how easy it is to obtain a gun if you have a mental illness, violent history or previous felony conviction, then fill out the short questionnaire next to your state.  This will bring this matter to the attention of POTUS Barack Obama, ex-governor Willard Romney and your own State governor.  Pass the link of the map to your friends who feel the same way.   

NOTE:  I am NOT against gun ownership, or legislation to prevent you from owning a gun, but I am for tougher gun registration legislation and preventing the sale of guns to individuals with violent pasts, mental illnesses and felony convictions.  The right to bear arms is protected by the U.S. Constitution.  However, many states (marooned-colored states) have very liberal gun ownership laws.  Some states like Kentucky, don't even require gun ownership registration at all.      

Courtesy of an infographic titled "Demand A Plan To End Gun Violence" prepared by DemandAPlan.org