Transcripts For ALJAZAM Consider This 20131016

A lower rating costs the government more to borrow. California will have to release 9600 prisoners says a judge in the Supreme Court, because of overcrowding. Governor jerry brown argued that the state could not meet the goal. The Supreme Court rejected his request to change the court order of the deadline to fix the problem. Rescuers are struggling to reach patients in a collapsed problem after a 7. 2 magnitude earth quick in the philippines. Those are the headlines. Consider this is up next on al jazeera. You can always get the latest online aljazeera. Com. Al jazeera america. Introduces. America tonight. A fresh take on the stories that connect to you. Grounded. Real. Unconventional. An escape from the expected. Chances are you have a bunch of stuff in your house that was bought by amazon. Com. They sell everything from books and toys to high heel shoes even dog food. It passes 61 billion in 2012. As amazon has taken over the online marketplace it has left Massive Companies including circuit city, barnes noble and borders in the wake. The new book, the everything store, the age of amazon tracks the company and its founder. Bran stone i brad stone is the books author. A really fascinating book. I saw a quote that compares besos to henry form. He has transformed sales of everything in the same way that ford changed manufacturing in general. Is that a fair comparison . Yes, absolutely. Steve jobs being the other natural comparison. Its not just online shopping. He has changed way we read, the kindle, and with the Cloud Services theyre changing the Way Companies in Silicon Valley in particular, run their businesses on servers. He has done so much. He started with the books. He has gone to the toys and all these other things out there. Hes been getting in the supermarket, online you can buy your stuff and get it delivered to your house. But he alsopart of his focus has really been from a corporate standpoint on the consumer, focusing on Consumer Satisfaction rather than profits. How has he managed because the company has rarely turned a significant profit. It hasnt always worked. At the beginning. But its getting bigger and bigger. Investors love the land rush and expansion but then for five or six years amazon was just pummeled, and no one believed. Only jeff besos believing that ecommerce could work and they just stuck it out and now people believe in him so much theyre willing to tolerate some of these losses. Is it an important model for other people, this focus on Consumer Loyalty and growth rather than the quick quarterly profit . I think amazon gets away with it because people believe in the founder and the vision. But you know, lets also be clear. Their customer loyalty, the commerce focus is one thing, but theyre brutal. They take competitors, they behave somewhat ruthlessly. They drive prices down to the consternation of manufacturers. Weve seen that with walmart and weve seen what happens. Manufacturers go overseas. Great for customers but macroeconomic effects need to be considered. He has been tough in negotiations and really, its an interesting history of the company. We have a social media question. Lets go to hermela aragawi for that. Thanks, antonio. Viewer wants to know based on your research, what is it like to work with besos on a daytoday basis . No, a great question. Probably very similar to how it is working for bill gates during the prime of microsoft or steve jobs at apple. Its tough and hes demanding excellence and hes punishing people. I met him many years ago, could not have been a nicer guy. He has that famous silly laugh. And thats the persona that he has always portrayed when on jay leno or when you see him on the rare occasion thats agrees to do interviews. But behind closed doors hes a tough nut. I think he would have today, and its probably why amazon is the success that it is today. Hes not willing to accept mediocrity. Youre not always meeting with the ceo, but he has created a culture of this adversarial friction. Compared to most other companies of its size it has much quicker employee turnover than others. And its a very frugal business the way he runs it. He gives them some perks like you can bring your dog to work, but then employees have to pay for parking, and the desks are made out of almost recycled materials. And not fancy ones. And we think of amazon as a technology company, and it is, but thats actually more its retail side. If you look at walmart or read sam waltons biography that frugality is baked right in walmart. And i think besos plucked strands of different companies, and thats a trait that he took from walmart. There are a whole bunch of parallels of personal life and professional life between the two of them. Not only kind of creating Great Technology franchise, but you know, to what youre referring to on the personal side, steve jobs was adopted, and in my book i explored jeff besoss early history and found not only did he have a biological father who was not in his life, but that this person had a remarkable history, he was in in an unicycle troop, and i traced him down at a bike shop in phoenix, and didnt even know that his son had become a billionaire and was running this worldwide company. You did amazing leg work to find him, but you must have been completely shocked when you figured out that he didnt know who jeff besos was. The question is does this matter . How is this important to the amazon story . Besos is such an unique driven individual just like jobs and president obama or bill clinton, you wonder does the absence or disappearance of the biological father. He had a great adopted father. Yeah, but somewhere in the stew of this unique individual that definitely had an impact. I know the biological father then wrote him, and that he wrote back. Do you know whether he has any interest in meeting his biological dad . I actually dont know. I would assume lots go back to the steve job story where at the end of his life he didnt have much of an interest in meeting his biological father. He had a great father, and wasnt interested in making that connection. I hope it will be a happy outcome. As we say, he has revolutionized the way he ha we purchase things. He has bought the Washington Post. I think he has a better chance than anybody because number one, of course, he has the resources. He paid 250 million for the paper. And his net worth is immense and thats a relative drop in the bucket. He has got this longterm orientation, and a willingness to try a lot of new things and experiment probably graceful ly sunset some businesses and start news ones. If i was the reporter at Washington Post i would feel pretty good instead of living in the age of decline were going to try new things and experimenting and you have an own who are is willing to stay in it for the long term. And talking about new businesses, you mentioned that he spoke in his peach in high school in miami about his interest in space, now he has a Rocket Company. Yes, surprisingly, wes running a Rocket Company called blue origin. How do you run all these businesses. Youre talking about a Rocket Company and then selling shoes. Thats one of the things that he does incredibly well, disperse his time across all these businesses. I describe it in the book as a serious of chest boards all of them in are a way that he can play the best of them. And hes described as being extremely bright his whole life. You interviewed him a bunch of times. The last time you interviewed him when you mentioned you were going to write a book about him, and about amazon. He wasnt that thrilled. I saw him two weeks ago when he was introducing, he was launching the new kindle fire tablet, and we had not really spoken before then. Look, almost like every retail ceo he doesnt want to share his perspective because thats the Competitive Edge but he saw the inevitability because amazon is changing the way we live in this kind of account being written. He was rooting for the book. Even though he wasnt really interviewed for the book, he allowedhe opened a lot of doors for you. It wasnt as if this wasnt a totally unauthorized thing. He just felt it was too early to be speaking which is revealing. 75 billion in sales this year and he believes its too early. It shows that he has walmart scale ambitions for amazon. How much trouble would you be in if you wrote about amazon and it doesnt end up be a best seller. I think it would be presumptuous that customers are interested in reading about the company. Its a challenge to get anyone to read a book, but so far im humbled by the response. We hope it is a best seller on amazon and that besos will talk more with you in the future after he reads it. The book is jeff besos andthe everything store, jeff besos and the age of amazon. Coming up on consider this, how are online classes giving people more people a shot at education . And streets in america are covered with street art but does the graffiti on inside story, we bring together unexpected voices closest to the story, invite hardhitting debate and desenting views and always explore issues relevant to you. vo Al Jazeera America we understand that every news story begins and ends with people. The efforts are focused on rescuing stranded residents. vo we pursue that story beyond the headline, past the spokesperson, to the streets. Thousands of riot Police Deployed across the capitol. vo we put all of our Global Resources behind every story. It is a scene of utter devastation. vo and follow it no matter where it leads, all the way to you. Al jazeera america. Take a new look at news. A revolution in Online Education is happening quickly as massive online open courses known as mooks have become increasingly popular on campus and off. The wisdom of sitting in a lecture hall as opposed to attending a virtual classroom is losing. Some are strong proponents of a free Online Education system available to everyone. Its a revolutionary idea that not everyone is on board now. Joining me now to discuss this is edward rock, professor of business law at the university of pennsylvania and director of open course initiatives. Hes in our studio in philadelphia. And francisco dow, he joins us from los angeles. Thank you for being with us. Edward, i want to start with you, university of pennsylvania is partnering with one of these top mooks, and its called cosera. And they put all these courses online. Heres the site. Were showing it right now, and there are 4 Million People signed up on it since it started 2012. These are free classes all over the world, but you dont really get college credit. How does it work and how does it make sense . So, it makes sense in two ways. First, the external piece, our mission is the creation and dissemination of knowledge. The internet has made it possible in a way never possibly before to share our Teaching Resources with the world. At the same time, the materials were preparing for cosera are going to revolutionize the way we teach on campus. It already has begun to do so. Our calculous course which we put on cosera is forming the backbone of some of our on campus calculous courses and changing the way we teach calculous. That sounds all well and good, and another great tool to teach people on campus or people who arent paying attention who want to learn about these things and have access to it. But in the end is it practical . I guess where do you take it . You mentioned that cosera courses dont give credit. At the risk of sounding cynical, people go to college to get credential and a job, most people dont go to learn. If someone guess on and takes a bunch of law courses and now i have legal knowledge but i cant an lawyer you havent really solved the problem not for a vast majority of people. There is a slice peopl of people who say im here to learn and go to mook. But there are a lot of problems. The completion rates are low. Unstructured, you lose the facetoface. Im not saying that Online Education will never have a place or wont be art of the future. There will be people who take it. But from where i come from, we focus on Silicon Valley and the start up ecosystem. The enthusiasm is out of control. It feels like 1999 where they said were going to put supermarkets out of business, and we know supermarkets didnt go out of business, web van went out of business. Are people getting groceries online . Yes, but supermarkets are still in business they havent gone anywhere. And i know, edward, you think the university of pennsylvania is not going to go anywhere. It will be a hundred years from now. The question of course is whether cosera and these other start ups will be around . Doesnt francisco have a point . You may have people who care about learning, but the end result is people want to go to a place like the university of pennsylvania not only to learn but to get that degree that will get them a job later on. How will these online courses, will they ever be able to fill that need . Well, were not putting them online to put anybody out of business. Franciscos point about completion rates is exactly right. College work is hard. Learning calculous on your own no matter how good the course is, learning it on your own in your bedroom is really hard. I think that the truly revolutionary potential for m mooks comes when there is partnerships between producers of high Quality Content like the university of pennsylvania, a and those who know how to teach their students. One of the things were doing is forming partnerships with we have a partnership going on now with high schools where were using our calculous to teachca calculous in the ap curriculum. I would like to do partnerships with the Community Colleges for this to change the world we need to get the delivery part down, the execution part. The Community Colleges know better than anybody else how to Teach Community College Students. Penn doesnt know how to Teach Community College Students. We know how to teach our students. Were doing a great job of doing that, but until the producers of content join forces with those who deliver content and figure out a way to improve the quality of content, it wont change. Will that result in lowering costs of Community Colleges, i have no idea but i think it will increase the quality of education were providing to kids all across the country. Great pr for penn and great for anyone who has access to p penns faculty through these mooks. Its hard to allow access to all of these other people. But francisco, just go back to that point. The user point, aside from the possibility of learning and there are other things that are at Different Levels like the conn academy used by younger kids, and ive used it a number of times in the past, great to have that out there, but in the end how will that help the user aside from the possibility of learning about something that he or she wants to learn about . Again, personal knowledge. I draw similarity to the library. No one can say the library is a bad thing. I read a lot of books and half of them i get from my local library. Im supportive of that. But the library didnt replace college. It didnt replace high school, it didnt replace rain school. Putting a library in a bad neighborhood or even a good neighborhood doesnt necessarily mean all the students or people who want to learn are going there. So much of the hype, isnt it around the possibility of some how making superior education cheaper, but again we go back to the degree issue, if youre not getting a degree from most of these online programs how does it end up giving that end user what they needing to on to a professional life . What does it say to an employer . I think the hype has been phenomenally helpful. In what which . It has helped start a conversation on our campus and the campuses around the country about how to use technology to improve teaching. It has gotten people who had never thought about using videotapes for lectures in their courses all of a sudden to think about recording lectures for their courses and then being able to share those lectures with anybody around the world. Were not going to solve singlehandedly the problem of graduating more people through the workforce. We will and we already are providing important training to people all over the world. Weve launched the Wharton Foundation series which is online, high quality free Business Education. We have over 300,000 people enrolled from around the world in these courses. There is a demand, its clear, for Business Education around the world whether or not it comes with a degree. It is the practical value of those courses thats attracting thousands of people to enroll. In doing that i think were doing enormous amount of valuable work, and we cant solve all the problems at once. I think the products were producing can now be used by all sorts of other situation institutions who know how to teach their students better than we do. Lets go to good will hunting. Its applicable to what were talking about now. You dropped 150 grand for an education you could have gotten for 150 in late charges and the public library. Yeah, but i will have a degree, and youll be serving my kids fries on our way to the ski trip. Funny but true in the context that were talking about . I think so in most industries. There are a few industries who care less about degree. If you know how to code and you live in san francisco, they dont care much about degrees. But if you try to get a job at general motors, fort, any main line company and you show up saying, im a great hacker, i learned code at home. Theyre not buying that, and they want to see a degree. Professional degrees, law, medicine, until industry recognizes and values knowledge, but they have no way, right . Of gauging. Right, you know, even our parents. If i went home and said, mom, dad, i got a penn education by watching mooks online. That might not work. Its not flying. Edward, final question, is the future a hybrid . Were seeing this with Something Like minerva, that bob cary is involved with, larry summers, who have some brick and mortar component but most of the education is online. Are those the hybrid of the furor even a hybrid of penn where you have some of the work online. Mooks is a new technology. S going t its going to be integrated with the infrastructure of education. Its clearly in hybrids. Its changing the way we teach on campus. In 20 years i think well an Residential University but students to be learning in a completely different way in the same way that were learning differently than people learned 50 years ago. Its all very interesting and its a good thing to have all those great lecture online and accessible to a lot of people. It will be an interesting discussion im sure for years to come. Edward rock, francisco dow. I appreciate you tak taking time to come tonight. How much is wikipedia worth . The most important money stories of the day might affect your savings, your job or your retirement. Whether its bailouts or bond rates this stuff get complicated. But dont worry. Im here to take the fear out of finance. Every night on my show i break down confusing financial speak and make it real. Re a d y fo r Al Jazeera America. Introduces. America tonight. A fresh take on the stories that connect to you. Grounded. Real. Unconventional. An escape from the expected. Todays data dive clicks on wikipedia. We know the online encyclopedia i whose entries are written by its users. Wikipedias actual value is hard to measure in part because it does not accept ads. It doesnt even have the staff to accurately track the number of people who read it. It last reported hits of 125,000 per second. Thatthe New York Times report takes 25 million a year to run it. The site has become a first stop for everyone from Grade School Kids to College Students to the media, although we do fact check because anyone can edit an entry. It is little doubt that it is an incredible resource. You can find information on almost everything. Search for kermit and you will find how kermit the frog got his name. Kermit washingtons nba career, and the fascinating but tragic life of kermit roosevelt, the son of teddy roosevelt. From that entry you can check on entries from mesopotamia which might let to you alexander the great and on and on. Its easy to be trapped in a wikipedia rabbit hole of information that never ends. My producer called it information eternity. Feminine touches tuesday marks the ada love lace day named for the first woman computer programmer. With all those editors you can read about events in record time. Wikipedia posts news almost as fast as the associated press. Coming up, banksy takes manhattan. Is it art or just a hyped type on techknow, our scientists bring you a sneakpeak of the future, and take you behind the scenes at our evolving world. Techknow ideas, invention, life. Thats all i have an real money. Victoria azarenko my names Nicole Deford and im is there a difference between a painting on a canvas or painting on the wall . Earlier graffiti was considered a city on decline. Bankscy has been shown on walls in the city of new york. Should we praise his work or ask for arrest. He is a culture ambassador for urban arts and joining us from chile, art critic for the village voice. Bankscy is known for work that has sold for over 1 million, yet he sold some of his work for 60 in central park this past weekend and now putting graffiti on walls. Of course what hes doing on those walls is illegal and he technically could be charged for criminal damage. Is this the eternal question about graffiti is it art or is it vandalism. People are been knocking down walls and putting them up for auction and doing quite well. The last one when that happened sold for 300,000 in los angeles. Obviously its art. At this point in the history of art were in a place where its very difficult to Say Something is not. And you know, its a mode of expression. But you know, on the other hand, carlos, graffiti is something that a lot of neighborhoods dont welcome. We spent 25 billion over the years cleaning a lot of this up. Where is the line . Well, theres a fine line has been blurred because graffiti art is both a social reaction, a cultural reaction, but its alsoit really has become aspirational art that has blended in mainstream media, institutions, museums galleries across the world. When you were younger would you ever have thought that your work would end up in in a museum and take down walls and sell them for a Million Dollars . No, these guys are really standing on the shoulders of a history that has steadily grown to merge the street and the gallegallery and commercial spa. When you look at what carlos is saying, new york city has a famous graffiti landmark called the five points warehouse. Its walls are covered with graffiti from artists all over the world. I was in miami where you can find a series of walls painted with bright colors of some beautiful paintings. Again, artists all over the world. As i walked through the neighborhood people were everywhere taking pictures of these incredible walls. These were owners who legally allowed graffiti to happen there, galleries have sprung up, and its quite the scene. But is it only going to be an urban phenomenon . As carlos was saying its more of an phenomenon. Its basically been the stuff of gallery and Museum Exhibition for some three, four decades. Its been somewhat controversial with the Los Angeles Police department, that was put together there. I think the issue is with graffiti whose walls are there . If youre in the Museum Setting or gallery setting, youve been invited to go. If you havent, you damage a painting or a wall, the consequences are pretty clear. Youre going to be basically escorted out there have and sort of tucked in the back of a paddy waggen. And it happened yes, the last thing i would say about it is that you know, thats a different issue as to whether graffiti is an art form. Obviously graffiti is an art form. The question is what context provides how it changes that particular art form and how it changes its reception and production. Thats the question i wanted to ask. How now that graffiti is becoming more accepted as an art form and you have people who are selling this art work for enormous amounts of money. How does that change the concept of the art former form, and doet change it in a way that makes it less valid . One thing that people need to understand about graffiti especially for younger kids. Its a gateway to expression. You know, their own personal expression. First it starts with a signature. Then building on that signature then the art starts to creep into their lives. When you started did you see it as an act of rebellion or art . No, i saw it as art and saw that the signature could become a masterpiece and then sculpture and then eventually become interactive media, and eventually become an award design. You know, this is potential. This is what were talking about design, esthetic. The esteemed Great American critic was fascinated with graffiti in the context of the legality. Its art, its art thats done illegally but its a genuine true expression of young people, and it gets dismissed because of the legal issues. Now its becoming in many circumstances more legal. Were seeing winwood in miami, christian, so as it becomes mainstream, what does it do to the art form . Well, you know, one of the things it does the same way it douse fodoes is it takes power m thatthe way its used with a specific route. Thats undeniable. If Graffiti Earth is like any kind of art or artist, there is essentially the initial gen gentrification , its an expression than if someone is doing it on the under side of are a bridge in detroit or any other city in america. Consider your context. There is a guy in egypt who is wellknown for a very good reason. He essentially manages to make very important graffiti in a very scary way to do so. The media graffiti changes when it helps someone along the food change, a set of developers. Its interesting, graffiti, the culture has become a very lucrative business both for real estate, municipalities and artists themselves. There is a complete self sustaining system that writers have build for themselves making the cools for painting, creating art spaces, creating a marketplace for themselves, creating opportunities within the media space as creative directors and so on. Its out of the context of the street and legality of it, it matures and grows. Clearly being an artist sculptor, scholar and this is a great example of what art can do for you and what you do in turn for others. When people ask me, well, do you regret doing all that criminal mischief . Well, no, that was part of the passage i had to get to where i am as a whole person. Thats fascinating to see the development of graffiti and how it was seen in such negative light in the 1970s and how its seen today. Carlos, christian, i really thank you for your time tonight. And the show may be over but the conversation continues on our website www. Aljazeera. Com www. Aljazeera. Com consider this the debt ceiling deadline now less than 24 hours away, the senate is moving towards a possible deal, but all eyes are on the house, which could hold the dee to the first debt default in u. S. History. A not guilty plea from one of americas most wanted a terror sus and effect in court for the first time that face charges that he hemmed plan the African Embassy bombings over a decade on the ground. In geneva a second bay of did diplomacy talks are getting underway in six world powers aiming iran to scale back its nick lahr program. In italy, riots break out at a funeral for a nazi war