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"the company opened an "Amazon Education Wait List" earlier in the month. The new platform, "Amazon Inspire," would allow teachers to upload, manage, share, and discover resources in a similar fashion to the reviewing and purchasing systems already in existence through Amazon. Content will be searchable using assigned metadata tags organized by the federal Learning Registry, and will aid in an effort to collect data concerning how digital resources are created and used."

"Upload your script, choose some backgrounds, and magically created a professional-looking storyboard of your movie. Or the graphic novel version of your text-based anything. Amazon Studios released Storyteller today to allow writers and filmmakers to quickly, easily - and cheaply - storyboard their scripts. I've tried it, and while the service is still in beta, it's surprisingly good."

"A drone sits at the end of a conveyer belt, waiting to pick up a package - Bezos says 86 percent of Amazon's packages are under 5 pounds - and can carry them up to 10 miles from the fulfillment center. As soon as Amazon can work out the regulations and figure out how to prevent your packages from being dropped on your head from above, Bezos promised, there will be a fleet of shipping drones taking the sky."

What we saw today is what our classrooms will look like once iPads are far cheaper, once digital textbooks can be handed down as easily as physical ones, once teachers of every subject have several educational material options to choose among. For now though, it's important to remember that "new" and "different" always come at a premium. One that the vast majority of us can't afford.

"It is a conversation occurring on campuses across the country: If more and more students are buying and renting their course books online, why do they need a bookstore?"

Yes, you read that right. The Washington Post Company just announced that it has reached an agreement to sell the Washington Post newspaper to Amazon founder and CEO Jeff Bezos for $250 million.

Kindle Textbook Creator is designed to allow authors to use PDFs "easily prepare, publish and promote e-textbooks and other educational content for students to access on a broad range of devices," according to a news release. Once created, the resources can be uploaded to KDP for use by students anywhere in the world on Kindle Fire tablets, iOS and Android devices, Macs or PCs.

"We feel the pernicious practical effects of lengthy copyright terms every day. For example, a study last year of books on Amazon showed that books published after the critical public domain cut-off date of 1923 are available at a dramatically lower rate than books from even an entire century before. The result is a "missing 20th century" in the history of books."

"I think it is rather like a shared textbook, though I think the key distinction is you cannot give a textbook to a shared group of students and expect students to learn from it," Koller said. This creates some new ways for Coursera to bring in cash. Right now it is relying on charging for verified completion certificates and revenue from an Amazon.com affiliates program if users buy books suggested by professors.

This is for all of #udsnf, but definitely for Meg.

"Still, I'll agree with CNET editor Molly Wood when she observed that, "They missed the price point that would have crushed the competition." As far as I'm concerned, Apple may have the edge when it comes to product lore and sheer ubiquity, but for those deliberately seeking an affordable, portable in-between device, we're looking at a much more level playing field for smaller-size slates -- and an open door for future Android and Windows 8 tablets."

A course driven by 20 practical questions about wireless, web, and the Internet, about how products from companies like Apple, Google, Facebook, Netflix, Amazon, Ericsson, HP, Skype and AT&T work.

"Without Apple's orchestration of this conspiracy, it would not have succeeded as it did in the Spring of 2010," Cote wrote. "Apple and the Publisher Defendants shared one overarching interest-that there be no price competition at the retail level. Apple did not want to compete with Amazon (or any other ebook retailer) on price; and the Publisher Defendants wanted to end Amazon's $9.99 pricing and increase significantly the prevailing price point for ebooks. With a full appreciation of each other's interests, Apple and the Publisher Defendants agreed to work together to eliminate retail price competition in the ebook market and raise the price of ebooks above $9.99."

"As to the vision of the company, they say they are a "movie and TV series network." Note that they see themselves as a "network" -- will Netflix, YouTube, Amazon and the BBC become the new television networks? But, they are not just a network, they are a "TV series network." That is a testament to their success producing multi-episode series for Internet distribution. People like to watch TV without commercials. They also like watching two, three or maybe all the episodes in one sitting. They like watching TV on phones, tablets, PCs or television sets whenever they want to. "

See last paragraph in the "look insdie" paragraph -- it discusses the need to share ideas not horde them, that ideas want to connect and reach out

"The average cost for a textbook bundle in the report sample was $157, versus $134 for a new textbook from the college bookstore or $56 for a used textbook from Amazon. The report calculated that by switching from publisher textbooks to open educational resources from organizations like OpenStax, the 40 colleges in the sample could save students up to $13 million per semester for these 10 courses."

"The unusual approach is called a "holacracy." Developed by a former software entrepreneur, the idea is to replace the traditional corporate chain of command with a series of overlapping, self-governing "circles." In theory, this gives employees more of a voice in the way the company is run."