DegreeInfo.com information

I was contacted about this site by an associate who pointed out a weakness in the site itself that I thought should be brought up. The site from the main page onwards does not specify what the purpose of DegreeInfo.com is or who is responsible for running it. I think it would be helpful to include an "About DegreeInfo.com" page available from the main page (and possibly all pages) with information about the purpose of this forum and information about the operators and their qualifications to operate this forum.

I looked and did not find this information anywhere but maybe it is there and I can't find it? Such information would be a minimum criteria for me if visiting any authorative web site or forum and I wanted to evaluate the site.

Just a thought,

Jim

 

Makes sense to me. Some informal comments, which do tend to run on, but this is, I think, an important and timely issue.

1. Ten Speed Press, a medium-sized Berkeley publisher (300 to 400 books in print) last year purchased the rights to the Bears' Guide books and the degree.net website from Pearson PLC, the multi-billion-dollar British publisher (Penguin, Prentice-Hall, Financial Times, hundreds more imprints).

2. There had long been a plan afoot to put a forum onto degree.net. When the alt.education.distance group was overrun by degree-mill operators, it seemed even more timely a need.

3. Ten Speed (which, incidentally, I have absolutely no connection with, other than that they publish some of my books) was working with Chip White to create such a forum.

4. It became clear during this process that Ten Speed was still trying to figure out what their involvement in this field was to be. (The Bears' Guide books probably represent less than 1% of what Ten Speed does -- which includes publishing What Color is Your Parachute (6 million copies sold), Laurel's Kitchen, and all of those wonderful food posters you see everywhere (tomatoes, mushrooms, hot sauces, whatever; see tenspeed.com).

5. When it became clear that Ten Speed would not be acting quickly, Chip decided, with my encouragement and enthusiasm, but not my involvement, to establish DegreeInfo. Three of the regular posters to alt.education.distance agreed to help with planning and moderating.

6. As anyone who has ever tried to do this sort of thing knows, there is a huge investment of time and energy to start and run a forum -- not to mention the out of pocket costs.

7. This forum is very much a work in progress, totally dependent on the donated labor of the three administrators. The bigger it gets, the less likely such an arrangement can continue.

8. It is possible that Chip and the others will find a way to make some money from this, and thus keep it going. It is possible that something could happen, still, with Ten Speed. It is possible that it could go away altogether. At least Chip controls this one, and would kill it rather than let it be taken over by the diploma mill operators (who do, apparently, continue to try to break in, using many different names).

9. And speaking of going away altogether, this out-of-the-way ninth paragraph seems as good a place as any to mention that my wife and I are leaving on a long trip in June: Our annual dance camp in the Sierras followed by more than a month of trekking in Mongolia, Tuva, and Siberia. No mail, no Email, no phones (although there is actually a cybercafe in Kyzyl). By our return in mid August, I hope to have decided how much (if at all) I miss all this degree and credentials stuff, and whether or not to leave it behind and move on to other things (such as the two cookbooks and one computer book for which I've been offered contracts). In any event, you'll have John Bear to kick around for about another four weeks.