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FEATURE
"It occurred to me that you could harness the resources already developed and refine it and use it to project the unique atmosphere of the university onto the Internet," says Kirschner, who is now president and chief executive officer of Fathom. Fathom is not just a Web site for information, nor is it entirely a distance learning site. "It's a knowledge portal," says Michael Crow, the University's executive vice provost. It is a partnership among 13 leading cultural and educational institutions to contribute multimedia content about various subjects, from Duke Ellington to earthquakes. The site, which started previews in November, boasts a unique presentation where scholars, lifetime learners and the curious at large can go for organized resources on a broad range of topics. Users follow "knowledge trails" and tap into multimedia resources. Much of it is free for now, but along the way pitches are made to sell books and online courses, and eventually other things related to the topic being explored. "It's designed as a for-profit company with a mission: to serve the needs of consumers who want to learn, to project the character of the University, and to plow dollars back into the University to support its core mission of education and research," Kirschner says. In turn, Fathom may be a part of academic life by serving as a research tool on campuses. "It will be like real life - you can wander into a lecture or audit a course for free," Kirschner says. "For a more interactive exchange - faculty mediation, extended immersion in a subject - there will be course fees charged by the institution offering the service." The site's content is partially guided by an academic council, chaired by Provost Jonathan Cole '64, that oversees policy, alerts the editors to events and suggests things to add, but does not review each piece of content. When the site's organizers boast that Fathom is a site for "authenticated knowledge," they mean that the content has come from a reputable institution. The site includes texts in the form of speeches, articles and essays, as well as visual images, video and audio. A lecture on Duke Ellington at Columbia's Center for Jazz Studies is presented in full video form with the text rolling alongside the image, and is broken down into topics so users can click and jump to a part that interests them. This particular lecture was archived by Columbia's Center for New Media Teaching and Learning. Content also will be contributed by the projects of the Electronic Publishing Initiative at Columbia and Columbia faculty, who if they choose to participate will be compensated separately from their usual salary, Kirschner says. As the site matures, topic areas and content will be added continually. Users follow trails and click through stories within topic areas, rather than getting sent to other sites. "The site is a destination for knowledge, not a portal to other information on the Web," says David Wolff, Fathom's main content editor. Users can build their own digital briefcase of excerpts, articles, a video and other segments, and have it stored online for no charge. "If you read something in The New York Times about ecosystems and what happens in the life of a coral reef, that might trigger exploration on Fathom," Kirschner says. "Whereas in a newspaper you'd get a couple inches on that subject, on Fathom you'll get information direct from the researcher: photographs, charts, academic studies." Users are able to observe and participate in forums where experts probe a topic. The first one had Brooke Gladstone from NPR moderating a discussion, "The Internet: Anticipating the Unanticipated." Academics from SIPA, the Institute for Learning Technologies at Teachers College and the London School of Economics met for a videotaped roundtable at the New York Public Library. That spurred an online discussion by users moderated by a Fathom editor. In addition to online courses from a dozen universities including UCLA and the University of Washington, additional money will be made from e-commerce. Content pages link to related products and services such as books on the subject, CDs, videos and educational travel tours. These items are offered via partnerships with other companies, such as book vendors Baker and Taylor and Blackwell's. Following the example of reading about coral reefs, users will be directed to a book on ecosystems, a course on earth science, perhaps a travel package to the Biosphere led by a faculty member. "It's an e-commerce opportunity in the context of the free content," Kirschner says. The profits will be funneled back to Columbia and the other partner-shareholders. Columbia is the majority shareholder, providing Fathom's core funding, and is one of six founding partners, with Cambridge University Press, the British Library, the Smithsonian Institution's National Museum of Natural History, the New York Public Library and the London School of Economics and Political Science. Other partners that have been added include RAND, the American Film Institute, the University of Chicago, the University of Michigan, the Victoria and Albert Museum, the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution and the Science Museum. In addition to the partners, dozens of affiliates are planned that will provide content but will not be shareholders. "It's a very competitive environment," says Kevin Guthrie, president of JStor, a non-profit company that digitizes academic journals. "Fathom is not unique, but I think it has gotten out in front because it is institutionally collaborative. That's what is making people stand up and take notice. It's got those names." The project, with a staff of 28, is headquartered on one floor of a Fifth Avenue office building just south of the Empire State Building, having moved there after an incubation period on the Morningside Heights campus. It has satellite offices on the grounds of each of the major partners. "At the end of the day it is not a substitution for or competition for a residential, scholarly community," Kirschner says. "That will always be the best and most lasting way to learn. But for those who can't get to campus, it's a way to touch the beating heart of intellectual life."
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