
How online learning with LurnQ is more social and clutter-free - tarunmitra
http://www.zdnet.com/in/how-online-learning-with-lurnq-is-more-social-and-clutter-free-7000013593/
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vy8vWJlco
I understand that it's "social" for specific reasons (content discovery,
distributed authoring, re-using the communication platform for discussions,
etc) but the mandatory social login really is a high bar for people looking at
it for the first time who are unable or unwilling to log in to one of the big
ad^Wsocial networks. (There was a discussion on HN -
<https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5408735> \- about the effect, and about
alternative approaches, aptly named "Users don't like social login.")

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tarunmitra
here is a similar debate on Quora and Robert Scoble's answer
[http://www.quora.com/Startups/Why-are-the-logins-to-so-
many-...](http://www.quora.com/Startups/Why-are-the-logins-to-so-many-
startups-websites-tied-to-users-Facebook-accounts?srid=OQY&st=ns)

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vy8vWJlco
Thanks! Scoble is obviously very excited about social media ("we are heading
into an age of predictive services based on our identity"), which is fine - I
still see it as a trap and not an exciting future - but even if I, and others
like me, accepted social media I think LurnQ would see usage go up if the
sign-in were simply optional (ie, if they placed the login below the content).
(I also understand that that may seem like extra work if all the features are
"best" with the social parts... But by not doing so, the non-facebook crowd -
which includes the impatient and not-logged-in - simply press X.) Take Khan
Academy, for example: you can watch the videos and explore but login to get
the features that depend on tracking through time.

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tarunmitra
The core value proposition of Khan Academy is the content they produce which
is amazing stuff. LurnQ on the other hand is a consumer tool that aims to
simplify online learning. It helps you manage your learning in the open
learning ecosystem. It i somewhat like GitHub for learning and unless you
signup the experience can not be delivered.

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nnq
...damn, just when I started equating "social" with "cluttered" :)

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Garoof
Yeah. Was trying to read that as "more free from social and clutter"...

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drucken
Sounds like they generalized (weakly) the much older and popular language
learning site, LingQ (<http://www.lingq.com>)...

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pungoyal
naah .. too clunky! plus, no way to delete my account.

