CSU moves Fall classes to virtual

The California State University system made the announcement yesterday the coming Fall 2020 semester will remain remote at all of its campuses. The news comes as a bit of a surprise: not in that classes will still be online in the Fall, but rather the powers at be at the CSU made the decision so relatively early. We are not even done with the Spring 2020 semester yet, and much like everyone else, we’re keenly waiting on what’s going to happen after this initial shelter-in-place order expires at the end of May. Instead of keeping those concerned in continued limbo, the CSU have made the choice and set the direction for the rest of the year.

Amongst the concerned includes me, who works at the San Francisco State campus. With this weirdest Spring semester ever winding down to a close, we’ve all been wondering what exactly is going to happen for Fall; will instruction continue to be virtual, or will the coronavirus situation abate enough for everyone to come back together on campus? Opinions are divided, for sure: some have really enjoyed the working-from-home experience, while others prefer the direct interaction and collaboration that only the physical workplace can provide. I’m firmly in both camps, paradoxically.

And I’m sure opinions will be split amongst students as well. A subset of whom will probably be griping about paying full-price tuition and only getting in a return a truncated college experience. That’s going to be a real problem at expensive private institutions, should they elect to keep their respective Fall semester online as well. At the CSU system, tuition - for students residing within California - is relatively cheap; coupled with grants and financial aid that many students are eligible for, the system remains in a good position. Furthermore, these student no longer have to pay for room and board, which here in San Francisco is far from cheap.

Nevertheless, with yesterday’s announcement our questions about Fall have been answered, and we now know the job that must be done in order to facilitate the continuation of remote learning for the rest of the year. Two months ago I’d never would have figured things will turn out like this, and in some ways, this CSU news is a confirmation the affects of COVID-19 will continue to remain with us for many more months to come.

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When can we do this again?

Disney launching it's own streaming service

Disney has announced that it will soon pull its library of films off Netflix and will start it’s own streaming service, ostensibly with a monthly free just like every other provider out there. 

It never occurred to me until I read the news, but it’s kind of amazing that Disney, the media juggernaut with vast amount of IPs from its own production house, Pixar, Marvel, Star Wars, and ESPN, doesn’t yet have its own online streaming platform. I've no doubts whatsoever the service Disney plans to put out would be a tremendous success. Wouldn’t you sign up if the only place to stream Pixar or MCU movies was on Disney’s own online property? ESPN’s entire 30 for 30 documentary collection?

Here’s the problem: it’s starting to get to be too many streaming platforms, compounded by the fact they all respectively have in-house original content. Therefore if you’re a TV and movie buff and want to stream a great majority of it, you’re looking at a potential monthly outlay similar to having a cable subscription, at which point isn’t the endgame of ‘cutting the cord’ completely lost? 

Of course, some tech-bro in the Bay Area will create an app that aggregates all the services together and sell it in an omnibus package priced from $70-$100. It’ll be christened as innovation while the Twitter hoard will lambast it for being a logically circular facsimile of the age old cable tv package. It’ll be like that whole ride-sharing app ‘bus’ episode a few months back all over again. 

As the online streaming fracture continues on, those of us without the financial means to subscribe to say more than two services at a time, the selecting process will be met with more scrutiny. With that I predict comes the battle for exclusives: ‘only on Neflix’ or ‘only on Hulu’ slogan in adverts will be a common thing. Console gaming has been like that for years: I’ve got a Playstation and not an XBOX because I value playing Gran Turismo, which is a Sony exclusive. 

It’ll be interesting to see how Neflix plans to fill that gaping void Disney will vacate in its library.