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A New Model for Online Education

In an April 10 Wired News article, Kendra Mayfield reports the launch of a new high-end learning portal. A consortium of some of the most distinguished institutions in the English-speaking world has joined to create Fathom (www.fathom.com), a site intended to become "the premier knowledge portal on the Web." The venture--a for-profit partnership of Columbia University, the London School of Economics, Cambridge University Press, the New York Public Library, the British Library, and the Smithsonian Institution's National Museum of Natural History--is billed by its CEO as high-end "E2C" (Education to Consumer) e-commerce. Although products for sale will include courses and books, much of the site's content will consist of high-quality, peer-reviewed original content, available for free. Some of the content has never before been available to the public. Visit the site to experience its classy design and view the range of topics planned for inclusion. If you wish, you can register as a beta tester. I did; I couldn't resist.

Sun, 16 Apr 2000 22:48:53 -0700

Submitted by: Lois Ambash