There are some people out there (I won't name names; they know who they are) who think that what people want in things like learning object repositories, digital rights management and other content exchanges are services. Such people should read this column, which describes how Feberal Express laboured under a similar delusion when it launched its ill-fated centralized fax service, ZapMail. The author is intent to draw the parallel with such things as Wi-Fi and Voice over IP (and is right to do so), but the application of the argument in education is evident. The providers of LCMS software, content packages and similar products look eye-to-eye at each other as the competition, but what they don't get is that their major competition comes not from each other but from their customers. Do you think Elsevier's content library is so different from ZapMail? Do you think Merlot is so different from ZapMail? Think again.
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