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Coursera Commits 'Cultural Vandalism' As Old Platform Shuts (i-programmer.info)
Reader mikejuk writes: Coursera has announced that 30 June is the date when it will shut down the servers hosting courses that were the first, free, offerings on its platform. The new model isn't just a revised interface, it is also a new monetization model, and presumably the decision to throw out all the original free content, by shutting the platform, is motivated by greedy commercialism. You could say that the golden age of the MOOC (a course of study made available over the Internet without charge to a very large number of people) is over with the early enthusiastic pioneers doing it because they were passionate about their subject and teaching it being replaced by a bunch of "lets teach a course because it's good for my career and ego" with subjects being selected by what will sell.
Closing down the old platform is an unnecessary destruction of irreplaceable content. Coursera needs to rethink this policy that goes against everything it originally stood for. The courses affected are from the early days of the MOOC that are likely to be important in the history of their subject. The most relevant for us, but far from the only one, is Geoffrey Hinton's Neural Networks for Machine Learning which gave a "deep" insight into the way he thinks and how neural networks work.
Something has to be done to preserve this important record -- they don't have to turn off the servers just because they have a new platform.Dhawal Shah, founder of Class Central has written about ways one can download Coursera's courses before they're gone.
Closing down the old platform is an unnecessary destruction of irreplaceable content. Coursera needs to rethink this policy that goes against everything it originally stood for. The courses affected are from the early days of the MOOC that are likely to be important in the history of their subject. The most relevant for us, but far from the only one, is Geoffrey Hinton's Neural Networks for Machine Learning which gave a "deep" insight into the way he thinks and how neural networks work.
Something has to be done to preserve this important record -- they don't have to turn off the servers just because they have a new platform.Dhawal Shah, founder of Class Central has written about ways one can download Coursera's courses before they're gone.
No kidding. Taliban blowing up the Bamiyan Buddhas = Cultural Vandalism. ISIS in Palmyra = Cultural Vandalism. Company charging for services rendered so they do not go out of business = I dunno, a better business model than their older one? Its not cultural vandalism though.
Why not? The Buddhas were the Taliabans to destroy, right? Same with Palmyra. ISIS took it fair and square, so why shouldn't they be allowed to blow it up to their hearts content? You're not against private ownership and the rights to do as you see fit with what you own, right? Right?
I mean, it's a lot cheaper to provide a few servers, than it is to make sure that Palmyra doesn't fall over on its own accord. Upkeep ain't cheap you know, just keeping the looter and vandals away is a serious burden, so why should ISIS have to pay for that, when they clearly don't want it to begin with and have a new "business model"?
So it's rather simple really, and I don't see what all the whining is about.
Or maybe, just maybe, it's a tiny little bit more complicated than that...
(Warning: The above post may contain sarcasm...)
Stefan Axelsson