Stephen Downes called Sue and I out today, accusing us of being on the take under the table.
Are Steve Dembo and Sue Waters getting paid to promote a commercial product? Was Dembo being paid when he started plugging it on his site back in early April? I don’t care if people want to make a little money, but let’s keep the advertising content in the edublogosphere clearly labeled as such, OK? Because, as it stands now, I can’t trust anything Sue Waters and Steve Dembo write – and that’s an unhappy state to be in.
First of all, I’m flattered that he seems to consider me a trustworthy source. It’s a backhanded compliment, but I’ll take it 
Seriously though, while I’ll let Sue speak for herself, I thought I’d just make things really clear right here.
No, I have never been paid by MyStudiyo in any way shape or form. They have not given me a dime, a premium account, heck they haven’t even offered to spring for a custom theme on the house! In fact, now that I think about it, maybe I’m getting ripped off here!
Quite simply, I’m a fan of their site. That’s why I created the EduBlogger Quiz. I thought they had a great formula that I wanted to test out myself and encourage other people to try. That’s all. After I posted that on the blog, the developers got a hold of me asked me if I had any suggestions for improving the site. I shared my ideas with them, some of which have actually been implemented. When they told me about the contest and asked me to judge, I agreed to do it because I thought it would help drive awareness of a site that I was a fan of.
That’s it! Nothing more insidious than that.
*whew* Feels good to get that off my chest 
In fact, so long as I’m at it, let’s clear the air about a few other things.
I’m also a big fan of PollEverywhere.com. I use them at conferences pretty often, I’ve given them a TON of feedback and ideas for how they could tweak their product to make it more pertinent to educators, and helped them organize an educational pilot program. In return, I have not received any money at all. They WERE kind enough to hook me up with an account with unlimited votes when they created their new account structure. I usually mention that at conferences, but so long as we’re on the subject of full disclosure, might as well mention it!
Hmmm… I guess there’s one more thing I could disclose. I do have a link to Bluehost in my sidebar and I occasionally mention them on the blog. Well, whenever I link to them, I do include my affiliate information. If somebody happens to sign up for an account through that link, I get a kickback of $65. However, I’m a big enough evangelist of them that I always wind up telling people about the kickback, and letting them know that they should sign up even if they DON’T use my link (previous link is without affiliate information)! As I’ve blogged about before, I couldn’t possibly be happier with my hosting company and recommend them every chance I get.
Well, that’s about it. However, if you ever unsure about whether there’s something shifty going on, don’t hesitate to ask. My life is an open book!
- I have unlimited love for Bluehost
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- Day 24: Disclose Yourself
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[...] today Stephen Downes called Steve Dembo and I out on this issue: How about a little disclosure here? Are Steve Dembo and Sue Waters getting [...]
Ian Grove-Stephensen
5/28/2008
Steve, if you want to really demonstrate even-handedness you will be very welcome to create some quizzes on http://yacapaca.com They have the benefit of returning detailed results analysis to you, as well as being a whole lot of fun to take.
Stephen knows that we at Yacapaca simply could not afford to go round bribing bloggers even if we wanted to, which we don’t.
Ian Grove-Stephensen’s most recent blog post.. Today…
vejraska
5/31/2008
We’re kidding here, right? Yes, let’s keep this up, and soon we will all be afraid to share anything. That will help.
vejraska’s most recent blog post.. Thinking about Twitter
Jeff O'Hara
6/3/2008
Steve has written about http://edmodo.com and talked about us. I have never given him any kick backs or special status. I let him look at our alpha and that is it. I let anybody that asks look at it too Steve is a trust worthy person, I believe what he says.
-Jeff
Co-Founder
http://edmodo.com
Day 24: Disclose Yourself - Teach42
11/24/2008
[...] may not think that you need a statement like that. I never did, until my integrity was called into question a few months ago. While I addressed that specific issue at the time, I have thought that I should [...]
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