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# Berkeley puts all courses onto Google Video
- URL: https://www.opendemocracy.net/en/18628/
- Published: 2006-09-28T22:09:35.000Z
- Updated: 2019-02-14T22:35:17.000Z
- Author: openDemocracy Supporters
- Tags: #en, #Migrated, #Import 2026-04-09 18:23

The Berkeley campus is what a campus should be. It mixes the ramshackleness of student life at the Southern end, with some wonderful places for quiet reflection to the North, with a creative middle ground where the two meet. When I was living in the Bay Area, I arranged to meet with Hal Varian, then dean of the School of Business. Hal had written [one of my favourite economics](http://www.amazon.com/Economic-Financial-Modeling-Mathematica-Varian/dp/3540978828?ref=opendemocracy.net) books and it was rumoured he was doing exciting auction-related things with Google. I walked to his office past [the well-commemorated spots of 1960s Cal protest](http://sunsite.berkeley.edu/calhistory/60s.html?ref=opendemocracy.net) with the banal thought of what a good institution the University is, the ease of the banality encouraged by the relentless well-being the Northern Californian climate and standard of living combine to procure. [Cal’s announcement today](http://www.siliconvalley.com/mld/siliconvalley/15629527.htm?ref=opendemocracy.net) that it was putting *all* its lectures [on Google video](http://video.google.com/ucberkeley.html?ref=opendemocracy.net), free to view, is the right extension of the spirit of the university: open access, as few barriers to learning as it can manage. As an example of [long-tail entertainment](http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/12.10/tail%5Fpr.html?ref=opendemocracy.net), it is also wonderful: [the lecture on Web advertising by Hal Varian](http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-7802405773501865176&q=owner%3Aucberkeley+is141&ref=opendemocracy.net) had me glued to my laptop as no amount of party conference would. He *was* doing exciting things with Google, it turns out.