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Stanford profs from DB & Machine Learning class are founding a company Coursera
- droithomme 15y agoDaphne Koller was not the DB professor, she was scheduled to teach a class starting this month, but has not taught any online classes yet. The DB teacher was Jennifer Widom, who is not part of the initiative described in the article.
- dhawalhs 15y agoOops...my bad. Daphne Koller is the instructor for the upcoming Probabilistic Graphical Models class http://www.pgm-class.org/ http://www.pgm-class.org/
- nchuhoai 15y agoI don't get why they would cooperate with the dude from the ML class
- nphrk 15y agoYou have some complaints about the ML class?
- ojbyrne 15y agoI found the course way too easy. This announcement makes me think they're going to get around this - not being part of Stanford means they don't have to worry about cannibalizing paying students. Maybe.
- w1kke 15y agoImho ML class was the best of the three. I am more interested in the application side of CS and Andrew Ng really nailed that aspect in my opinion.
- nchuhoai 15y agoSorry I meant to say wouldn't. I'm sure they could together create a bigger impact then seperate
- deleted 15y ago[deleted]
- kunj2aan 15y agoIt's surprising that they wouldn't collaborate with Sebastian Thrun (AI), who I think is also founding a company.
- _delirium 15y agoIn a previous HN thread (https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3500301 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3500301) some commenters suggest there's at least some minor bad blood between Coursera and Udacity as competing "Stanford profs turn online course into a startup" initiatives.
- codeonfire 15y agoIt's not surprising if you understand academic politics. If you go to many research presentations, you'll be amazed to see people openly deriding the presenter's work to their face. Collaboration is something valued by people who greatly depend on others. So it's normal for most people to think that collaboration is something that is desirable, and it is for the average person. If you are trying to be the world's leading expert in something that no one else understands, depending on others will be an avenue of attack for your detractors. It is far better for a very capable person to take on market forces rather than internal politics.
- sanderjd 15y agoAs a disclaimer: I don't claim to understand academic politics. Having said that, I think you need some sort of citation or at the very least a stronger argument to back up the statement that "collaboration is something valued by people who greatly depend on others". To a non-involved observer such as myself, what you're describing (in a positive tone?) just sounds petty and extremely unproductive for everyone involved, whether they're average or "very capable".
- codeonfire 15y agoIf one depends greatly on someone else to achieve things, then by definition they value collaboration. I assume we are still talking about academics because there could exist people who simply don't want to accomplish anything and therefore don't value collaboration. It's no secret either that people who are highly capable don't need collaboration except to meet societal and political expectations or to reduce their workload. Again, that follows from the definition of highly capable. What would be a far more interesting research topic would be to measure negative reaction to any notion that some people can work better alone and any correlations those sentiments might entail.
- wyuenho 15y agoAll I want to know is, will Andrew Ng still teach the ML class on Stanford or only on Coursera now? I haven't taken his new ML class yet but a large part of why I want to sign up for that class in the Spring quarter is because of him.
- denzil_correa 15y agoDelivering education is changing across the world. First, we hear about Sebastian Thrun. Now, Andrew Ng and Daphne Koller!
- denzil_correa 15y agoI don't see the funny side of downvoting comments here on HN. Pathetic!
- fooyc 15y agoThis is awesome. I guess this is why the 2012 ML class is delayed; I'm wondering if it will still happen :(
- technotony 15y agoNot just the ML course. I signed up for one on human computer interaction, high tech entrepreneurship and lean startup and they have all been delayed indefinitely. It's a pity as I did Sebastian Thun's AI course and it was great and I was looking forward to these others... so the consumer isn't always winning as these companies fight it out, I think they should just put the material out for free it would create many new startups!
- waterlesscloud 15y agoYeah, I'm starting to think none of them are going to happen now. This article seems to hint that the Stanford administration isn't all that gung ho about the whole thing. http://www.npr.org/blogs/alltechconsidered/2012/01/23/145645472/stanford-takes-online-schooling-to-the-next-academic-level http://www.npr.org/blogs/alltechconsidered/2012/01/23/145645...
- deleted 15y ago[deleted]
- frrp 15y agoCompetition is always good for the customers, so I really like it. I also expect O'Reilly Media to push harder in this direction, it's only natural...
- MaxGabriel 15y agoAre these companies (Coursera here, Udacity for Thrun) going to be non-profits like Khan Academy?
- _delirium 15y agoUdacity at least is a VC-backed, for-profit endeavor. They're listed in the portfolio of Charles River Ventures: http://www.crv.com/portfolio http://www.crv.com/portfolio
- unignorant 15y agoNo, both are for-profit. This caused a bit of a stir among their fellow academics.
- endtime 15y agoSeriously? At Stanford? Every professor other than Daphne (I believe) at the AI lab has worked for Google at some point and Stanford is the last place where CS profs look down upon starting companies.
- unignorant 15y agoStarting a company wasn't the issue. It's more that for-profit education has a bad reputation (think University of Phoenix). There was some initial concern/confusion.
- endtime 15y agoHow is Stanford not a for-profit institution? I'm not trying to be argumentative, I think I must just be missing some distinction.
- mikek 15y agoNon-profit organizations are registered as so to the IRS in the United States: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nonprofit_organization http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nonprofit_organization
- deleted 15y ago[deleted]
- johnwatson11218 15y agoJust curious ... what would people be willing to pay for the courses? Especially if it meant some kind of official recognition or certificate.
- benblodgett 15y agoThis is an interesting space, mit has their mitx program set to launch this spring as well. http://mitx.mit.edu http://mitx.mit.edu