Press Release: Dispute over Ownership of RateMyTeachers.com — Cloud over Sale
Ownership of RateMyTeachers.com, one of the internet’s most popular education destinations with over 70K visitors per day, and the legal effect of its purported recent sale to Patrick Nagle, is currently under dispute. RateMyTeachers was initially founded in August 2001 as a complement to RateMyProfessors.com (currently owned by Viacom) under Michael Hussey’s then “RateMy Network”. The site was restructured as a partnership in 2002 between MisterMessage LLC, John Swapceinski, and Michael Hussey. Since that time, it has grown significantly year-over-year.
Recently the partners agreed to terms according to which Message LLC would sell its partnership interest to Michael Hussey.
MisterMessage now claims to have “sold” RateMyTeachers to Patrick Nagle LLC, without consent of all the partners, for an unspecified amount of cash and a promise to participate in profits from any resale. Under California partnership law, no sale of the partnership can be effective absent the consent of all partners. Prior to the sale, Michael Hussey placed both MisterMessage LLC and Mr. Nagle on notice that he objected to any sale without his consent, and has reiterated that objection to all parties to the sale. Any prospective purchaser of RateMyTeachers should also be on notice of the dispute over ownership.
RateMyTeachers, Teacher Unions and the UK
Do not believe the excuses being put forward by the teacher unions — demanding internet censors protect teachers from cyber-bullying? RateMyTeachers is at the forefront of protecting teachers online and it promotes the best and most effective among them. Since our inception, RateMyTeachers has instituted rating rules that protect teachers from any such thing. Any rating that crosses these rules is removed without question. A moderating force of over 5000 individuals is constantly on the look-out for any ratings which do not meet standards. Every rating is reviewed before it is posted live on the website.
See for yourself: http://www.ratemyteachers.com/info.php?type=RateRules
A tyrant demands absolute control and is the first to censor that which threatens its power. Teacher unions recognize the threat websites like RateMyTeachers pose to their monopoly and use “cyber-bullying” as an excuse to enact censorship. The fact is, not all teachers are created equal and RateMyTeachers is making this plainly obvious to anyone with an interest in the system (parents, students, administrators, taxpayers). Despite any rhetoric to the contrary, teacher unions by their very nature view every teacher as a cog in a great big education machine. Teacher contracts are negotiated so that every teacher, good or bad, is treated the same. Teachers who opt out of paying union dues are punished even though they are required by law to accept the union negotiated contracts. Tenure tracks ensure that horrible teachers will waste students’ time and taxpayers’ money; and in some cases, a bad teacher can seriously harm the education and mental development of a child. Pointing out to the public which teachers are creating an environment for learning (as most teachers are successfully doing) and which teachers are failing in that mission (a small minority), leads people to question a system that restricts choices.
The point issue, which the press always ignores, is that any pressure to allow school or teacher choice threatens the teacher union’s power. For a tyrant, choice is something that must be avoided at all costs - and censorship is always on the table when losing power is at stake.
The United Kingdom stands at a cross-road. By allowing their citizens to access to websites and servers outside of their borders, they have unwittingly granted incredible new freedoms to their citizenry, the implications of which were not foreseen. This freedom threatens many of the institutions which prop up the State apparatus and rumblings like this are not at all surprising. The choice at hand is between protecting citizen’s rights to access information freely – or to look to China for inspiration in controlling its people and the information they may consume. Sadly, considering the recent rhetoric ringing through the highest levels of the UK government, I would not be shocked to see the UK look east for inspiration.
Life Online with Bob Parsons XM Radio Interview
Tonight, I was interviewed on the Life Online with Bob Parsons (of Godaddy.com) XM Radio business talk show. It was an interesting interview, centered around RateMyTeachers; but I got to talk about a lot of things I do not usually delve into and I really enjoyed it.
Listen to the interview here.
Getting under the skin of a few Brits
A beautifully biased piece of reporting from the British education website, teachers.tv. I enjoyed this one very much. By the way, we searched high and low for the negative comments the editors highlighted in this report, and all but a couple of them were never found. We’re not calling the reporters liars, but…..
New design for RateMyTeachers
Check out the new RateMyTeachers design.
Partnered with Bolt.com
I recently moved to New York City, as I have partnered RateMyTeachers with a teen media company called Bolt.com. Bolt is selling targeted advertising for us at significantly higher rates than we were capable of on our own. So far, so good. I have also partnered with Bolt on a new venture called classface.com. If you have heard of TheFaceBook.com for college students, classface is essentially the same thing, except for high school students (using RateMyTeachers and Bolts significant membership to promote it). TheFaceBook attracts well over a million daily users and billions of page views each month. We are hoping to attract a similar audience. We’ll see.
Update (11/28/05): No longer working with Bolt.com. Classface has been renamed StudyBreakers.com.
CNN Appearance
Today I was interviewed on CNN’s “In the Money” regarding RateMyTeachers.com. I was behind Wolf Blitzer in the makeup line. All I could muster was a weak “Hello” with a faint nod of the head. He looked really focused on getting to the news desk and I suppose I didn’t want to disturb him. He had a good, positive, disposition about him, though. All-in-all, an interesting experience, even though it felt like a radio interview (all I had was a ear piece to listen to the questions - I had no idea with whom I was speaking). Here is a recent USA Today article, as well. Overall, the press exposure has been great.
Video here: http://youtube.com/watch?v=vXVPPgHox80
NPR Interview - All Things Considered
I was recently interviewed for this NPR piece discussing RateMyTeachers.com. This was my third appearance on All Things Considered. It is amazing how much has happened since I first was interviewed by NPR regarding RateMyFace.com in December of 2000.
“Jennifer Wing of member station KPLU in Seattle, Wash., reports on a Web site for school children across the country — RateMyTeachers.com — that allows them to “grade” their teachers.”
NPR Day to Day - Giving Teachers an Internet Report Card
Alex Cohen reports on school children using the Internet to grade their teachers by creating a virtual “report card” on the Web site RateMyTeachers.com.
Launched RateMyTeachers.com Today
RateMyTeachers launched today, bringing the funcationality of RateMyProfessors to middle and high school students – created by ordinary people with a vision for a better way of doing something. This past year, the concept of “accountability†in education entered the public consciousness. Many of the original founders had an interest in education (two of them are teachers) and asked who is accountable to whom? Are schools accountable to the federal government? We concluded that students have a right to discuss the quality of their education and that teachers must be accountable to their students. We decided that a site like RateMyTeachers.com would be an effective tool to elevate the student voice into the public discourse on quality education.
RateMyTeachers aims to help facilitate a positive change in the way parents, students, and teachers alike look at the education system and therefore to encourage structural changes with regards to school and teacher choice. Secondly, it is a place for students to have their opinions validated.
Lastly, RateMyTeachers is a useful resource to the teacher who is open and self-assured enough to face the opinions of their customers, i.e. students. Every teacher wants to be respected by his or her students, and every teacher entered this profession in order to help students develop as individuals. By studying their ratings, the teacher can often adjust their methods, helping create that environment of mutual respect, whereby their knowledge will translate more effectively to the mind of the student.
Launched RateMyProfessors.com Today
Launched RateMyProfessors.com today in partnership with John Swapceinski (who created teacherratings.com). This is the best site for college students to find and share info on their college professors before they sign up for next semester’s classes.
