Illinios HS Kids Map Historical Markers; Create Podcasts

It’s students at Springfield High School who are tackling the project in partnership with the Illinois Historical Society.

Under a partnership with the Illinois State Historical Society, SHS students using $1,500 Geographic Information System software are plotting the society’s historical markers and then creating podcast readings of them. Maps marking the location of the markers created by the GIS programs will be put online, linked to the podcasts and automatically updated by RSS feeds ...

I post this so educators can copy it!

- State Journal Register

McDonald’s Trades Space for Time

MSNBC reports on McDonald’s move to have more of its stores open more hours to increase sales, rather than opening new locations.

For most of its history, growth meant one thing: more locations. And until the late 1990s it worked. Like a juggernaut, McDonald’s rolled over the competition and across the nation, opening hundreds of outlets each year and cranking out a run of hit products. Then the company reached a saturation point. While overall revenue kept climbing, the new sites stole customers from existing locations. Margins and same-store sales slid into 2002, reflecting diminishing returns on the $1.2 billion a year that the company was plowing into new restaurants during this period. By spending so much time on real estate, recalls James Skinner, a 35-year veteran who was promoted to chief executive in late 2004, “we had lost our focus. We had taken our eyes off the fries.”

Now, 40% of US stores are open 24/7 vs. just .5% in 2002. Could you argue that when you run out of, or chose not to play in space, you are forced into playing in time? Is that what Amazon and Netflix do?