Asymetric Competition and Learning

I was reading this blurb about the upcoming OSCON and in between fits of jealousy at not being able to go, I was struck by the title to this session " Open Source and the Future of Asymmetric Competition".  The session description defines asymmetric competition as "competing by playing a different game, with different rules." It dawned on me that this is an elegant way to describe to the emerging learning landscape...asymmetric. 

Asymmetric situations are those that involve capabilities on the competing sides that are significiantly dissimilar. Asymmetric warfare can actually allow one side to seriously exploit the weaknesses of the other. I wonder if this description, more so that something like the 'consumer effect'  - which talks to the fact that today's employees are actually consuming more sophisticated products at home than they are being exposed to at work.

I look at companies like Nuvvo and NanoLearning that are creating asymmetries in the learning marketplace. These asymmetries include price, customization, scaleability, ease of use and updates - really weaknesses that could be exploited to the serious detriment of established learning companies. And if you are one of those established learning companies and you haven't started thinking about these asymmetric threats to your business models then you need to do so since for the established side - the ability to fexl and morph to be able to respond to an asymmetric threat is almost never easy nor quick since it implies changing everything from production to revenue and sales models. Maybe in the following quote, we should substitute asymmetry for symmetry....

TIGER, tiger, burning bright In the forests of the night,
What immortal hand or eye Could frame thy fearful symmetry?

Comments

[moehlert]

Stephen,

I am using the asymmetrical argument in the same way that Clayton Christensen does in the Innovator's Dilemna/Solution. I think it is perfectly reasonable to look across the learning marketplace for possible mismatches that could result is whole series of new competitive vectors.

Of course asymmetric warfare - which I mention in the post - is probably the most prevalent use of asymmetries today. I don't think that it follows at all that anyone gets cast as a mass murdering terrorist - that assertion is just beyond the pale.

I'm also a bit unclear what you mean by the militarization of a society.

[Downes]

The 'asymetric competition' metaphor is of course drawn from the term 'asymetric warfare'. So once again we see a military metaphor - and all that entails - being used to describe things.

This should be done cautiously, if at all, especially at a time when these metaphors are loaded with meaning pumped up by wartime propaganda. If the metaphor holds, for example, then open source advocates play the same role as al-qaeda -- and isn't ad-qaeda evil or something?

My own preference is to stay away from military metaphors, and my observation is that their almost automatic use is an indication of a pervasive - and unnoticed - militarization of a society.