August 11, 2008

More Shelves or Less Stuff?

Overloaded carSchools are inundated with paper and instructional materials at this time of year. Those of us who build education products and create marketing collateral should be cognizant of is how wasteful so much of this is.

In our personal lives many of us go through the "more shelves or less stuff" debate all the time, and all too often we end up at Ikea with another Sbrorg shelving unit strapped to the top of the car.

Please stop.

If you think you need to ship that much crap into schools to compete you need to look at your business model. They don't want it, don't need it, and won't use it. Somewhere someone in your organization has not made some choices about what to create. They punted and tossed it all in.

I recently had lunch in a restaurant that bragged that virtually everything they used was recycled or composted. The only things that go into the trash are coffee cup lids, salad dressing packets, and tea bags (metal staples). This is a fast food BURGER joint. Their prices were in line and as a consumer I appreciated that they had put that much thought into their processes. I'll be back - and not just because the burgers were great.

The thought and care you add to your products will come back to you, but sometimes it means taking a little more time to think things through and a couple of hard decisions about what is truly essential in your products/materials. You will have to push hard and hold firm for this to happen - the pressure and temptation to put more in will always be there.

"I did not have time to write you a short letter so I wrote you a long one instead." Mark Twain
Resolve to cut 20% out of all your marketing materials and something amazing will happen. You will save money and your message will be crisper.

In the end less stuff is the only sane way forward.

July 29, 2008

Summer Listening iMix & More Thoughts on iTunes for Education

939604 Band Silhouette 4My prior post on iTunes and Textbooks started with this iMix. As I mulled the educational implications over I realized that this was exactly how teachers should be sharing instructional materials.

As a musician and music aficionado I listen to a lot of new music. My tastes range across genres - what draws my interest is solid musicianship, great lyrics, and a good tune. Over 2-3 months I probably listen to 200-300 new songs inspired by recommendations from friends, recommendations from iTunes and Pandora, and stuff I hear randomly. Oddly, I find some of the best stuff on political blogs (Juan Luis Guerra below). I rank the songs using iTunes and from the short list of 5 star songs I create a mix to share. I also toss in a couple of old favorites that I haven't listened to in a while (like Cocker on this mix).

My musical adventures are not typical - but I hope that is why playlists like this are valuable to others. I've done the leg work of culling through a lot of new stuff to find the best (for my ears).

There are teachers and former teachers who do the same thing with lessons and lesson plans. Most teachers have other priorities - but those that do scan for new stuff should have a tool that allows them to take the best of the best (as they see it) and publish it easily for others to sample.

Ears up! In this mix you will find latin, rock, gospel, folk, jazz, and bluegrass. These are many of the tunes I listened to as I blog.

Sample the ones you like or download the whole mix. Let me know your favorites too.

Next up in this series - why a database in your pocket is the killer app for the age of social media.

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July 27, 2008

iTunes and Textbooks

Caveman in TunnelWhy can't teachers buy lessons like people buy songs off of iTunes? Are publishers at risk of irrelevance if they don't proactively solve this problem for their customers?

I have noticed that my music habits have changed dramatically over the past 5-6 years. With the advent of iTunes I was no longer bound to buying albums - I could sample and just buy the songs that sounded good to my ears. Most albums have 2-3 good songs, several so-so songs, and a couple of clunkers. I only want the good stuff thank you very much.

Musicians put a huge amount of energy into creating albums that presented a sweep of music in just the right thematic sequence. Decades of practice dictated that this was something that customers wanted. Only - once they had a real choice - they didn't. It was vanity not reality.

Are textbooks and other "comprehensive instructional materials" the same? Teachers have "lifted the best and ignored the rest" since the first textbook was published, so anecdotally they are very similar.

But publishers pride themselves on providing a "coherent" schema in their materials. They regard this as a huge part of the value they add to the process. Like musicians they can fool themselves because there are no affordable alternatives (in time or money) - yet.

Will textbooks suffer the kind of profitability collapse that the music industry has gone through as the business model shifted? I honestly don't know. One thing the textbook publishers have on their side is time - education moves more slowly than the consumer market. But that shouldn't lull publishers into thinking they can avoid the central question through the usual lobbying, legislation, and front list development. It just means they may have time to adapt before they become irrelevant.

Here are some links for additional reading on this topic.

Links:

iTunes U is Apple's foray into this - but it is mostly at the lecture level for students - from what I can tell it is not optimized for teachers to collect, manage, and share - yet. Apple is probably the furthest along with this - which given their role in transforming the music industry should give all the publishers pause.

Hotchalk is taking a stab at this with their site.

McGraw-Hill has experimented with iTunes University.
MyScribe claims to be iTunes for textbooks - but you still have to buy the whole dang book.

Adaptive Curriculum (a client) is providing atomized content - they have hundreds of science and math activities that can stand on their own and be integrated easily with other materials. Their business model is to sell a subscription to the whole collection rather than the individual bits.

If you know of more projects in this area please let us all know in the comments.

(FYI comments are moderated to filter for spam - they will appear within 12 hours of posting.)

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July 17, 2008

Education Blog Round Up

Idea SpiderEducation technology bloggers have been a busy lot with NECC 08, end of school year, and lots of new products to play with. Here are just a smattering of some of my favorite posts from the past few weeks. Enjoy.

John Rice flagged an article showing that putting games in libraries increases reading. This jibes with a presentation I saw last week at Games Learning & Society - a public librarian started doing game nights and they saw their youth circulation double - for BOOKS. This is going to make several people in my house happy - Mrs. Education Business Blog is a middle school librarian and the EBB spawn are avid gamers and readers.

Danah Boyd shares some meaty insights on status and online behavior for teens. The money quote:

In his book "Geeks, Freaks and Cool Kids," Murray Milner Jr. suggests that teens' particular obsession with status is because "they have so little real economic or political power" (2004:4). He argues that hanging out, dating, and mobilizing tokens of popular culture all play a central role in the development and maintenance of peer status. Just as these activities take place in school, they also take place in networked environments.
In a Man Bites Dog article this piece highlights children's concerns about their parents web habits. Add video game obsessions to the long list of things parents do to ruin their kids lives. Clean the keyboard - yuck.

Continuing in the meme of bad marketing that I've been on lately David Armano names several bad habits marketers fall into. Funny and instructive at the same time. My personal favorite - shiny object syndrome. Let me know yours.

Want to have your pre-conceptions about school challenged? David Kirkpatrick compiles a list of provactive questions nobody dares to ask about education. I don't agree with everything on the list - but it it made me stop and think.

If you come across something interesting in your web perambulations pass them along!

July 10, 2008

Games Learning & Society 2008 - Day 1

 2008 Images Nav Header
Are you interested in how video games and simulations support teaching and learning? Then the 4th annual GLS is where you should be this week. For my money it is the lowest signal to noise event that I attend all year. Oh - and you get to play some really fun games.

Here are a few random observations from day one - by no means a comprehensive review of the event or the topics covered.

In the opening session Cory Ondrejka noted that all the interesting questions about games and learning are interdisciplinary. This is a real challenge because in the institutional structure of a university there is no political base to sustain research.

Katie Salen challenged the group to think bigger - she feels we are in danger of not working to implement the things we are finding out at scale. I'm not sure I agree completely with here given some projects that I'm aware of - but those may not be visible to the academic community.

Kurt Squire noted that we need to move beyond just games and look at the conditions they create. This is in sync with a conversation I had with Atsusi "2C" Hirumi the other day where he talked about focusing on the elements of "interactive media" rather than just "games." I think this is an excellent distinction and could also help address Katie's concerns.

David Shaffer presented some really interesting work on assessment - essentially a model for testing an evolving worldview (epistemic frame) not just discrete knowledge and skills. There is a lot of math - but this approach basically measures the relationship between several important criteria (values, skills, etc.) over time. It has some really intriguing implications for measuring 21st Century Skills. To Cory's point this is possible because David is bringing a cross disciplinary toolkit of psychological techniques together educational theory and interactive media.

There is a strong thread of using game design itself to teach 21st Century Skills. I worry that this is a bit of having a hammer so the world looks like a nail. In the end while many schools are giving lip service to 21st Century Skills they are getting measured and rewarded for improving reading and math scores. Until we can help them directly with that challenge we won't get permission to go deeper.


321690_craps2A random observation - if you want to encourage groups of kids to work together your games need to work more like Craps and less like Blackjack. The whole table wins at Craps together so you get a lot of crosstalk. In Blackjack you can take my "pefect" card - we play against the dealer but we don't play together. It is a quieter game.

The game room is also great - Madison is alive with GTA, Wii Fitness Fanatics, Rock Star. and Portal. Lots of fun stuff to preview and test out. I'm embarrassed about my Wii Fitness score - my only excuse is I'm coming off a month of back problems. Sigh.

The Jason Project previewed Resilient Planet - which looks like a great game for teaching scientific thinking by recreating ground breaking experiments in the field with guidance from experts. Kudos to them for this work.

I did a preliminary release of the white paper I'm writing for the Software Information Industry Association on Best Practices for Implementing Games in the Classroom. It was well received and several practitioners validated the findings as consistent with their experience. I''ll post more on this separately.

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July 7, 2008

Bad Marketing - The Phony Voice

This video spoofs the phony voice of marketers and advertising. It is "office safe" so don't worry about the volume. Enjoy.

Does your marketing sound like this? You might have been able to get away with this 15 years ago but since social media has allowed people to opt out this kind of insincere over-dramatization you need to be careful.

For education publishers you also need to remember that many teachers teach critical thinking skills - if you are talking down to them they won't react well.

Just like those idiots in the Houston Airport I wrote about last week.

To drive home the point here is another video (props to Microsoft).

It is time to start building an on-line persona for your brand and company that is based on sincerity, honesty, and mutual respect. You can start with the copy on your brochure-ware site - but I strongly encourage you to wade into the world of blogs, Facebook, and We Are Teachers to build a true Socratic Marketing culture.

If you wouldn't say it to someone's face don't say it in your marketing materials.

Lee Wilson's Facebook profile

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July 2, 2008

NECC 2008 - The Vendor View

NECC08_logoISTE's NECC 2008 was a success by any measure. The sibilant susurration of schmoozing and selling suffused the show space. Attendance was high (12,250), sessions were well attended (over 924), and the show floor was constantly busy. Even the San Antonio weather cooperated by being a bit cooler than usual.

If you landed on the planet on Sunday and came straight to NECC you would have no sense of the pressure on education budgets that the economic downturn is creating.

Some of this is attributable to Texas, which as an oil producing state is having a milder downturn that many parts of the country. Typically 50% of attendees at national trade shows are from within in 200 miles (double that for Texas). But that doesn't explain all of it since according to the official numbers Texas attendees only made up 25% of the total.

Since budgets for instructional materials remain relatively static what is going on? Don't be fooled by the calm surface waters, there is turbulence down below in the niches that make up the total. Companies that are producing standards based education technology resources and tools are booming. Textbook publishers continue to commoditize and consolidate.

The evidence is piling up that education technology does work - even if it is just at the level of engaging today's digital natives more effectively than print. Given the costs of textbooks ($35-$75 a copy) it is getting easier to justify digital resources ($2-$10 a year). Good teachers know what works even without Scientifically Based Research (SBR) and they are voting with their interest for digital resources.

But some of the same old complaints were heard. No School Board asks the Instructional Materials folks to prove that textbooks are being used in the classroom, but they demand this all the time for education technology. It isn't an unreasonable request - but the standard should be applied equally. If teachers are only using 50% of a textbook that is a lot of useless atoms being shipped and schlepped around. As for SBR and skepticism about technology consider this - if the textbooks were working as claimed we wouldn't have failing schools....

exhibit_hallNECC remains the premiere education technology event of the year, the launch pad for the following school year, and the best place to do business with your customers and your partners.

Having said that I am increasingly skeptical that the amount of money spent on these shows is justified. Thee were at least a two companies that spent over $500,000 on this event. It showed in their presence on the floor and around town. But what could they have done with that amount of effort and cash on more plebeian but long lasting efforts like sales force training, new product innovation, or web 2.0 based marketing (which delivers new customers 365 days a year)? For half of what they spent they probably could have achieved the same result and been ahead in other parts of their business.

I'm advising my clients to dial back their investments in trade shows. To be clear - I'm not advocating abandoning trade shows - but I think they need to be relegated to a more junior position in the marketing budget given how much more effective other programs can be.

NECC 2009's Washington DC location drew a mixed review from the vendor community. It will be useful to be in the capital in what is shaping up to be a transitional year for educational policy. On the other hand DC is one of the most expensive places to do business in the country with hotel rooms even at third tier chains going for $250/night. It will also be the height of tourist season - plan for busy and expensive flights as well.

A Few Corrections

Yesterday in my impressions of NECC piece I made a couple of errors.

There were computer vendors on the floor including Dell, Gateway, and RM. While Apple was not exhibiting they were engaged behind the scenes in sponsoring events and providing equipment for registration and other activities (although it was amusing to see IBM monitors hooked to Macs in the reg area). But the overall computer vendor presence was subdued. Even Microsoft had a relatively small space.

I underestimated the number of people Promethean sent - it was over 100. Times are good in whiteboard land. With Nettrekker and Atomic Learning they threw a hell of a party for their customers last night (thanks!).

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June 30, 2008

Let's Get NECC'ed

Old Texas MapISTE's National Education Computing Conference (NECC) 2008 is in full swing in San Antonio.

The Education Technology maven's tribal gathering is bigger than ever. A sign over the entrance reads "The Worlds Largest Education Technology Exhibit." That's a Texas sized ambition.

Here are a few impressions from day one. I'll write a more detailed analysis after the show closes.

There is a huge amount of energy here. The show floor was thronged until closing and sessions are well attended. Even the Press Suites are jammed. Oddly, the scene on the Riverwalk tonight was a bit subdued (I don't know if that is because people were tired from a long day or if we just missed the big party).

The electronic whiteboard guys rule the roost. It appears that Promethean (who has the most prominent exhibit at the show) is spending well over $100k just to have staff here. Smart has a big presence as do RM and all of the players in that space.

Meanwhile the computer companies are largely AWOL. Apple doesn't even have a booth.

Who is making the smarter decision? Are the whiteboard companies making hay while the sun shines or are the computer guys moving all their spending to the web where they can reap the rewards year round rather than over 3 days?

There are still lots and lots of really interesting little companies springing up - ed tech is a lively sector. While education funding may be static or down slightly the ed tech niche is up considerably. This is based on both the number of attendees and the word from vendors.

Am I getting older or is the hall getting noisier? It seemed to me that the noise level is getting ratcheted up as more people do booth theaters with mic'ed presenters. Part of this is just the high level of activity on the show floor, but some of this is an escalating problem that will spell trouble in the long run. Vendors need to have consideration for each other and for their prospects. One large whiteboard vendor that had a huge staff presence (ahem) was making so much noise for most of the day that it was hard to conduct a conversation two aisles over. Ultimately this will drive people outside for some peace and quiet. Oh, and you kids stay off my lawn.

San Antonio's exhibit hall has a weird layout. It is so long and twisty that it takes forever to get from one end of the show to the other. This didn't seem to hurt booth traffic, but it did make finding people a real pain in the rear.

So far it is shaping up to be a great show. All Y'all come back and read more about it later.

June 25, 2008

Bad Marketing On Parade - Thanks A%%#@les

Bad marketing comes in two flavors. There is poorly executed marketing that no one notices. Then there is insincere, dishonest, and misleading marketing that everyone notices. The first kind is a waste of your money, the second kind gives marketers a bad name.

I've written elsewhere on finding a good target market, selecting a winning brand promise, and engaging in conversational Web 2.0 marketing. If you do those things well you can largely avoid execution error.

Today we focus on an example of the second kind that was so breathtakingly awful I had to backtrack and take a picture of it.


Bad Marketing

This idiocy was on display outside of a jewelry store in the Houston airport last week. I'm not going to name the store - it would only encourage them. Lets look at what is wrong with this.

First - they actually have a stunningly simple promise - and that is powerful. Everyone likes a deal and if you have been away from home for a week or two a little jewelry would help ease re-entry. Of course one's next thought is that they just jacked up the price on everything by 50% - so as promise it rings of insincerity. This is one step above the rug store in my old New York neighborhood that attracted tourists by "Going Out of Business" for the entire two years I lived there.

Second - they trumpet their insincerity with the "a few exclusions apply" small print at the bottom. They picked a promise they had no intention of actually delivering on - and they are open about that. This is a really bad idea.

Good marketers, sincere marketers, pick promises that the company can live up to. The goal is find something that you can organize the entire business around - even if it doesn't end up as your slogan or in your advertising. McDonalds does affordable family food really well. Wal Mart delivers low prices. Pearson has one of everything you might need in a classroom (or they will buy it soon).


960271_havin_an_excursionIf these weasels really wanted to deliver on this promise here are a couple of things they could do to live up to it.

1. Actually price things at roughly 50% of their competitors - and have display ads the show comparisons to prove it to you.
2. Get rid of the items they are excluding - that way they can eliminate the small print retraction.
3. Have a price guarantee - if you find it at another jewelry store at list price for more they will match whatever half of that is.

I would rewrite the add to say "Lets keep it simple, half off everything. We'll prove it and we guarantee it."

Barring these actions all we have here is the kind of sleazy marketing that gives all marketers a black eye. If they can't live up to this then they should keep looking for another promise that meets an urgent need of their target market. I guarantee there is something else they could do.

My guess is that the lie is so transparent that the campaign isn't even working very well for them. What a waste.

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June 18, 2008

Education and the Economy - Part 3

How are education publishers reacting to the economic downturn? Guest blogger and PR maven Charlene Blohm shares some concrete examples of steps companies are taking to trim expenses.

Part 1 - Education Spending & The Economy - Survey Results
Part 2 - Education Funding Market Dynamics - By Doug Stein

884071_budget_cutsBy Charlene Blohm, President C Blohm & Associates

District budgets are tight - many schools have already lost the music teacher, the art teacher, the band teacher, the librarian. Left with few other places to cut, two elementary schools near us will be sharing a principal next year. Districts seem to be delaying major purchases and upgrades, especially with administrative or support systems (those that aren't directly tied to student instruction).

How are companies reacting? More than one company has adjusted its sales forecasts down based on decreased spending. The major sales they were hoping to close yet this school year are being delayed, with the forecasted income moving to the next school year.

As a result here are some of the cost saving actions we are seeing across the market.

  • Booth sizes at trade shows are a tad smaller - I've seen some movement where last year's 80x80 became a 60x60 this year, or 40x40 became 20x20, etc.
  • Also, fewer staff are working trade show booths. Travel is down no matter how you look at it - flights are dang expensive, and often hard to find depending on where you need to go. And that applies to vendors as well as educators.
  • There has been an up-tick in direct mail - people weren't getting the results they wanted from what I bet they thought were going to be "free" email campaigns. Even with the postal rate increases, people are blending the two more now than they were a year ago.
  • People are stretching advertising dollars with more online purchasing. In fact, some folks are now online-only advertisers.
  • There seems to be less money being pumped into product development, and the time for a product to prove itself in the marketplace is getting shorter and shorter. That's been happening for awhile now, so this is not necessarily related to the current recession.
  • We're getting more phone calls from overseas prospects. I'm not sure if that's a function of our reputation (we've been doing that for years) or the economy - but I think it's safe to say that foreign companies aren't afraid to spend money on product development and marketing.
  • In recent weeks, it seems that people are finally starting to think Web 2.0. I've had more conversations about keywords in the past two months than in previous two years. That signals to me that people are keen to make sure their name is up in bright lights - meaning they need the leads and visibility in a way they didn't before; I don't think there's just a sudden interest in Web 2.0 on its own merits.
Charlene 4X4 360DpiCharlene Blohm is the President of C Blohm & Associates a full service Public Relations firm focused on the education market.
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June 15, 2008

Education Funding and Economic Downturn - Part 2

Today a look at education funding in the current economic crisis from guest blogger Doug Stein. Doug details how the market will react over the next two years and then lays out an interesting theory about how districts will bifurcate into factory and craftsman models on the rebound. Doug is one of the smartest thinkers in the business. His consulting company is Memespark.

Link to Part 1 - Education Spending and the Economy

618869_glass_ballBy Doug Stein

Education budgets will go through three phases in this business cycle.

Phase 1 - In response to a rapid decline in local property taxes, K12 spending will pull back significantly. Everything outside of basic literacy (and possibly Math) will drop pretty hard for about 2 years. It's possible that "oil/energy" states will invest more, but those investments will depend on visionary leadership at the state level.

Phase 2 - The next administration will make significant changes (possibly even "scuttling/gutting") the NCLB regime. This will lead to a bifurcation of the market into two big pieces:

a) Districts dependent on Title I (mostly urban) which will revert-to-form and do what they had always done (use comprehensive basal textbooks to compensate for uneven teacher quality). Teachers will generally teach to the text/test. As always, there will be pockets of innovation, but for the most part, the faculty will hunker down and wait for retirement.

b) Districts that don't need Title I will be able to redirect their efforts away from Average Yearly Progress (AYP - which was a bit of a distraction for them). Many will leverage their investments in data-driven decisions and move to a "growth model" - trying to measure value-add for each student (because the parents and local taxpayers will demand proof that the investment is being well-spent).

In states where local taxing authority is restricted based on "equity" arguments, there will be major battles to keep K-12 funding from sagging. As the funding slips, so will the central state control of curriculum. (No pay, no play.)

Phase 3 - As funding returns (2010+), the schools and districts which have had some success will be empowered to try new curricula and new technologies. In particular, some companies are going to figure out how to apply social networking tools to enable the formation of "practice improvement networks". Some of these will be accredited professional development - usually a blended model. Some of these will be content creation focused - similar to a blog with an authorial voice and community participation.

Maybe someone will learn from what Flat World Knowledge is attempting in higher-ed (whether FWK succeeds or fails) and figure out how to build a profitable business where "tentpole authors" attract a community that develops and increases the value of new educational content - and where the community is truly a "community of best practice."

In short, I suspect that after a big dip in funding, we'll see market bifurcate into "factory" and "craftsman" models. Factory districts will look to big publishers and demand complete solutions (SIS + LMS + content); craftsman districts will look towards more "Web 2.0" horizontal collaboration with "just enough" data management to generate metrics that substantiate value-add. Content will come from the more innovative supplemental publishers (if they can adapt to a world of "users not units"); we'll also see a growth in user-generated content (with a revenue share model).

Why do I believe this?

I''ve seen clients serving the "must have" content areas growing quickly when they deliver a complete solution (content + data management + PD). Clients delivering "nice to have" or "innovative/unconventional" solutions are already seeing flattening sales.

In both cases, the sales cycles are growing longer and customers are having to cobble together money from more diverse sources. On the educator side, there have always been excellent craftsmen, but they are scattered across the US and have had a hard time receiving support from their peers (whom they couldn't find). They are starting to find each other.

Relevant Links:

COSL
Global Scholar
Wright Group

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June 6, 2008

The Great Education Debate - Obama vs. McCain at AEP

The Obama and McCain campaigns squared off at the Great American Education Forum sponsored by the Association of Education Publishers (AEP)* in Washington DC today. Educational policy experts from the campaigns addressed a wide range of positions the candidates are staking out from vouchers to the federal role in education.

Jeanne Century, Director of Science Education, University of Chicago represented the Obama campaign and Lisa Keegan, former Arizona Superintendent of Public Instruction represented Senator McCain. A panel of publishing industry experts** posed questions followed by a press conference. This is the first head to head discussion of education priorities between the two campaigns.


Great-Education-Forum-Aep

Given that Education is consistently rated as one of the top 2-3 issues (Pew May 29th) it is surprising that it hasn't been more visible in the campaign trail so far. The forum was valuable because differences in approach, philosophy, and policy emerged during the discussion.

On most of the issues the differences between the candidates positions are more matters of emphasis. Generally speaking the McCain position is that we already know what works, we just need to let the states sort that out and help them do more of it. Obama wants to take a more pro-active and comprehensive approach to addressing not just K12 but lifelong learning. Both camps support helping teachers be more professional and helping them follow best practices that help kids prepare for the 21st Century.

Follow below the fold for a detailed look at the positions of the campaigns. RSS readers click through for the full article.

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