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In fact, it isn't far from the total of all the students who have ever been there since the 19th Century.

Daphne Koller, co-founder of Coursera, says the expansion of online courses will raise difficult questions about what mainstream universities offer for such high fees.

if the content of university courses becomes freely available, what is it that students are paying for? Is it the interactions with staff? Or is it the time with other students? Is it something to put on a CV? "This is causing universities to rethink their value to students," says Professor Koller, who is from Stanford University's computer science department. The most prestigious universities are always going to have enough demand for places - but the emergence of high-quality online courses could be tougher for middle-ranking institutions. Why would you pay high fees to sit through a mediocre lecture, when you could go online and watch world experts at another university, even if it's in another country? "The universities in the middle will really have to think about their proposition," she says.

It's hard to break free of the mindset that treats communication as a control function. But many leaders find that ceding control over what employees say on company channels — on an intranet discussion forum, for example — means gaining a new way to tap into the talent, the insight, and the passion of their people. They also find that self-policing by employees works to keep such discussion from going off-track.