The basic idea of the Long Tail for mental midgets like me.
What are you talking about?
Bear with me for a moment. I am wondering why this huge market of "therapeutic boarding schools" has grown up, somewhat near in time to the enrollment decline of traditional boarding schools. There's huge admissions stress for private schools, typically at 6th and 9th grade (the transition points) -- why aren't there more schools? Yet the tribal tom-toms are saying --the TOTAL admissions pool for 6th grade was overall, smaller (but we don't know about the lower-cost parochial and proprietary schools, maybe a lot of parents are lurking there); -- STOP. Deep Breath.
At any rate, the "long tail" idea. it was first floated by Chris Anderson in Wired Magazine in December 2004. Chris says the Wikipedia explanation is clear and accurate.
The old idea of making a squillion dollars was megahits -- the blockbuster movie or book, the hugely popular software game, one unit sold millions of times. The new idea is having lots of niche products: a few buyers, but low production costs, and some slick and nifty ways for buyers to find the products they want, and get their hands on them.
And the more they find, the more they like. As they wander further from the beaten path, they discover their taste is not as mainstream as they thought (or as they had been led to believe by marketing, a lack of alternatives, and a hit-driven culture).
An analysis of the sales data and trends from these services and others like them shows that the emerging digital entertainment economy is going to be radically different from today's mass market. If the 20th- century entertainment industry was about hits, the 21st will be equally about misses.
See, I'm thinking about The Long Tail relative to school choice -- lots of micro schools, rather than one macro school. There are some problems with this idea -- like parents preferring local /neighborhood schools for the preK-3rd grade set (mostly) and having a slightly wider net, widening as the child ages; the problem of minimum class size for effective learning; overhead costs like learning specialists; but the big problem is matching school to family in a "frictionless" sort of ways.
All of them represent an essential element in realizing the potential of the Long Tail: providing recommendations to help others venture confidently down the Tail into what would otherwise be a bewildering array of choices. But as the trend towards even more abundance accelerates, who will be these new guides?
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