The “Long Tail”
In October 2004, Chris Anderson of Wired magazine published an article outlining the long tail of business. The term “long tail” refers to a statistical concept of the very low part of a distribution where the population “tails off.” The long tail marketing idea is that the Internet is capable of reaching tiny markets, which were previously ignored by marketers because they were too expensive to reach. Online companies can use the Web to sell a vast range of products from mainstream popular items right down to the singularity of one unique unit
(Anderson, 2004). Statistically, the sum of the less popular items can outnumber the sum of the popular items. This “long tail” will also apply to learning. More resources—commercial, instructor- and user-created—are already increasingly available for learners who have, up to now, been somewhat marginalized. English as a second language, international learners, gifted, learning disabled, and physically challenged students, and people with behavioural disorders will all benefit. For example, a website that offers resources for learning disabled students is http://www.npin.org. An excellent site for gifted students is http://www.hoagiesgifted.org. In general, more user-created educational content becomes available every day. Of course, these usercreated resources will draw fewer learners than popular websites like Discovery School or the Exploratorium. However, the accumulated total of learners who use the less popular educational resources—the long tail—will outnumber the learners who visit the popular sites.