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I'm writing this post under the intoxicating influence of Kevin Kelly's "What Technology Wants". Blame Kelly for any hyperbole.

(Are you also ridiculously influenced by whatever book you are currently reading? Why is it that books exert such gravity, so much more than visual media?)

Are you an angel investor focusing on the educational space? A higher ed venture capitalist? A hedge fund manager, investment banker, or investment guru obsessed with education? (Do these people exist?) Do you work for an innovation factory such as Applied Minds or Intellectual Ventures? (Are these folks readers of IHE?)

The next great fortune will come from education.

  • The next great information company will be an educational company.
  • The next Google or the next Facebook will be an educational company.
  • The next great innovation will be a business model that can bring education to scale.

The ingredients are all in place. Education is part of the information ecosystem. Just as the entertainment and communications industries have been transformed by the Internet and high-powered, low-cost computing devices, the education sector will also be transformed.

The economic progress and rapid urbanization of the emerging world, (think of the B.R.I.C.I.'s of Brazil, Russia, India, China, and Indonesia as representative), will create a demand for educational services never before witnessed. The people of the emerging world will demand quality education and credentialing, and will look towards the private sector and technological platforms to satisfy this demand (as incumbent legacy institutions will prove inadequate in supply, quality, and costs). The real action in higher ed over the next 30 years will be in the emerging world. That is where the educational fortunes will be made.

Are you investing in education?

Are you investing in educational delivery platforms, systems, partnerships, and technologies aimed at the emerging world?

Are you starting an educational company with ambitions as big as the opportunity?

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